Moonlight Towers will be “putting on the ritz” Friday night by holding a record release party at West Point’s The Ritz Theater and Conference Center.
The quartet, based out of the Austin, Texas, music scene will in a sense be returning home.
The band boasts two members who are West Point natives in singer, songwriter and guitarist James Stevens and drummer Richard Galloway.
“We’re really happy to be able to celebrate this release at the Ritz,” Stevens said. “It’s my roots, it’s where I grew up. It’s where I started playing music when I was eight. I’ve always wanted to play there.”
Although growing up and getting his start with music in West Point, Stevens said he needed to move beyond the point of teenage bands and early success.
So to add to his experience, he moved to Austin and formed Moonlight Towers in 2001.
“There was a point where I just needed to try new things,” Stevens said. “I just needed to move on. But I got a lot of my musical culture and spirit from there.”
And he said the city was a necessary destination to learn new things in the musical world.
“It shapes you entirely,” Stevens said. “When I moved [to Austin], I saw things I’d never seen before. Playing and living here, I was just exposed to so many different things. There’s so many bands here, too many to mention.
Other members of the band include bassist Jason Daniels and Jacob Schulze, who serves as a guitarist and keyboardist.
Moonight Towers claim to be loaded with rock and roll songs and pop melodies in a similar vein to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
The early 2000s saw the band release two albums of radio-friendly guitar rock and Stevens’ gruff-styled vocals.
Friday’s record release party will celebrate the band’s third album, Day is the New Night.
Stevens explained that he wrote these songs at a certain point in his life; he was forced to shift his focus in to a more family-oriented approach after the birth of his daughter.
“I was coming out of some doldrums that can bring you down,” Stevens said. “There were just a lot of life changes since that last album. I was more a ‘night person,’ and I’ve had to give up on some things.”
The album will be on sale at the release party in the form of digital download cards, while the nationwide release will be several months later.
The doors will open at 8 p.m. at The Ritz Theater and Conference Center. Columbus band The Motions will kick things off at 9 p.m. with the Moonlight Towers following.
The Ritz has changed quite a bit since Stevens’s high school days. In May 2009, it finished its renovations that had transformed the abandoned theater into a state-of-the-art destination for a variety of formal events. Elizabeth Dichiara, Manager and Events Coordinator of The Ritz, said she is glad to have the band come play.
“This will actually be the first concert that we’ve had,” she said. “We’ve had music for other events, but nothing like this. I’ve always been a fan of James Michael’s band. We’ve tried to get them in to play here for a while now, so we’re just really excited and know a lot of people will show up and it’ll be a great night.”
Stevens said he looks forward to playing in his hometown theatre where he used to watch old movies.
“I remember seeing ‘Star Wars’ there when I was about six years old,” Stevens said. “When I saw the renovations in December and was just blown away. I’ve always wanted to play there and I think old theaters make a great venue for music.”
Tickets will cost $20 and doors open at 8 p.m.