Pittsburgh local music spotlight: Stereo Scandal

When Stereo Scandal put together their first album in 2023, the band’s members were still getting used to each other and focused on coming up with enough material to start playing shows. Their new EP, “Dancing in the Ashes,” is the next step in their evolution.

“On this release, there was a lot more collaboration and time taken to hone each song until we all were happy with the final output,” said the band’s bassist, Chad. “We also made a conscious effort to stretch the limits of our sound and incorporate broader influences. It’s certainly more ‘rock’ than our previous release but keeps a lot of the danceable and new wave elements.”

The first single, “Book of Magic,” is what the band jokingly refers to vocalist Cassie’s lyric book.

“When we write a new song, she always seems to look into her book and magically find the melody and lyrics on the first run through of the song,” Chad said. “It never ceases to impress us.”

Stereo Scandal, which opened for A Flock of Seagulls in April, appreciates the audience reactions at live shows.

“We seem to get a lot of dancing and people that want to directly interact with the band,” Chad said. “We’ve had people start chants, shout along to the lyrics, and frequently ask for Dan’s sweat towels, which is gross but has become a ‘thing.’”

Chad filled in TribLive on what else you should know about Stereo Scandal:

Band: Stereo Sandal

Band members: Cassie (vocals/tambourine); Tammy (guitar/backing vocals); Dave (guitar); Chad (bass/backing vocals); Dan (drums)

Founding story: Our guitarist, Dave, placed an ad on Craigslist for musicians into bands like Swervedriver and Hum that I answered. Once we had written a song or two, we placed an ad for a singer, which is how we met Cassie. As soon as we heard Cassie’s voice, we decided to change the direction of the music to something more pop-oriented that would better feature her big vocal range. Once we had Cassie, I suggested asking my brother-in-law, Dan, to play drums. Dan added dynamics and upbeat, danceable rhythms to the music that really helped form our style. We were looking for a rhythm guitarist when Tammy posted on Facebook she was looking for a new project, so we snatched her up before anyone else could.

Origin of band’s name: We spent six months trying to agree on a band name with no luck. Our frustration caused us to come up with a crazy system. We each went through albums we liked and picked out words from song titles until we had over 300 different words. Then we took the list and started matching words until each of us had five or six possible names. We agreed no matter what, at least one of the pairs would be our name. We voted on each suggestion head to head until we had a winner. So, at least one of us likes an album with the word “Stereo” in a song title and the word “Scandal,” which gave us “Stereo Scandal.”

For fans of: Blondie, Talking Heads, Swervedriver, Kaiser Chiefs

Influences: Our influences are pretty broad. Honestly, we’ll steal from anything. Our new EP borrows from Motown eighth note drumbeats, downbeat reggae bass parts, ‘80s new wave and hair metal, and disco. We try to mash those influences together in the same parts to create something that sounds new.

Releases: “Two Feet on the Ground” album, 2023; “Dancing in the Ashes” EP, 2025

Next shows: July 11, “Dancing in the Ashes” release show at the Government Center with Inco Fido and Subarctic Beach Party; Sept. 24th, opening for Lita Ford at Jergel’s.

How to find them: Stereo Scandal can be found on Bandcamp, Facebook and Instagram

Three other Pittsburgh area bands to check out: Garage League, Inco Fido and The Sneaky Heat Missiles are all great bands and good friends of ours.

Favorite pizza shop: There’s a ton of great pizza places in Pittsburgh. These are probably divisive choices, but probably Pizzeria Davide or Iron Born in the Strip.

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