Freight is an up and coming band from Dayton, Ohio, that you will not want to miss! There are five band members: Matt Huntington (vocals, keyboard), Tim Schroeder (guitar, vocals), Ethan Steinmetz (guitar), Adam Knox (bass, producer), and Matthew Stevenson (drums). These five University of Dayton students are all seniors and study a range of subjects, from music therapy to engineering.

They started playing together their freshman year and officially started rehearsing as a band at the end of the 2017 school year. They are now gearing up for the release of their new album, "Start the Night off Easy." I recently sat down with Matthew Stevenson to talk about their new album and the story behind their band.

Freight is a rock band that also incorporates funk and jazz styles into their music. They came up with their band name in the early stages of rehearsing together. As they were trying to find a place to meet up, one group member mistakenly believed that they would have to find a way to get their instruments up to a high floor in Fitz hall, and tried to use an elevator that said: "for freight only."

They joked about how they should call themselves "Freight" so that they could use the elevator. Even though this particular idea didn't work, the name of the elevator stuck, and Freight was born.

The name of their new album, "Start the Night off Easy," comes from lyrics in one of the many songs you will be able to hear, called "12 Bar Crawl." This particular song, which has already been released as a single, pays tribute to the many bars in the Dayton area, so UD students will definitely appreciate all of the references to many classic Dayton spots. All of the songs on the album are original and were written by Tim, Ethan and Matthew.

The songwriting process involves a lot of trial and error, with a lot of improvisation as well. Typically, one of the band members will come in with ideas for both lyrics and a melody, and then everyone else builds their part from that idea.

The use of improv gives their music a jazzy feel, and they spend a good amount of time trying out new ideas before setting each part. Adam was the main producer and Matthew was the co-producer on this album, and they recorded each piece at 14 Chambers Studios. They started recording in September, and just recently finished.

The album is going to be released on many music streaming services, including iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play. You will be able to listen to the album for yourself within the next week, and will get to listen to great songs such as "12 Bar Crawl" and "Needle's Eye." You can follow this group and learn more about their music on their Facebook and Instagram at UDFreight. Check it out!