snmag.com

"Pushing the Shine"

Listening to lead singer Michael Shepard’s raw, drawn out voice fluctuate ever so slightly over the tracks of the band’s latest album, Everything Starts Where It Ends, is frustrating. The band’s sound defies genres, caught somewhere between old-school Radiohead and modern day Coheed and Cambria, and Shepard’s indie vibe sometimes shifts to sound like Maroon 5’s Adam Levine – a mishmash of noise that dares listeners to tackle it and slap a label on its squirming form. With dramatic, otherworldly harmonies – “Salt of the Earth” sounds like something from a horror flick – Lovedrug is like the external manifestation of the human psyche, hooking fans on its intense melodies and emotion-driven lyrics.


Shepard said he and Adam Lad, one of his best friends from his home in Canton, Ohio, found more than a passion for music when they decided to start Lovedrug: We both went through a period of our lives where we both just wanted to get away from music. But then we decided that music wasn’t something we could escape from. That’s where the name “Love Drug” came from. It’s the idea that your passion for something—whether it’s music, art, or whatever it is—it’s not something you can run from. So your love for that drags you back whether you want to go back or not.

If he weren’t a rockstar, Shepard said he’d still want to reach the masses with his visions: I’d probably be doing something with film. One of the most powerful mediums in terms of having people understand where you’re coming from is the visual stimulation coupled with oral stimulation. You’ve got music with a picture; it’s like there isn’t really anything more powerful than that.