The DRIVE Issue: One Step Closer
WORDS BY EASTON PARKS, PHOTOS BY ELLIOT NOVAK
Following the “Turnstile boom” in 2021, hardcore has reached new heights with a fresh sense of ultra-inclusivity and growth. One of the rising leaders in this melodic hardcore uprising is One Step Closer who hails from Wilkes-Barre, Pa. a city that boils over with musical talent. With bands such as Title Fight and Breaking Benjamin cemented as part of Wilkes-Barre's history, a new generation of musicians look to this success with the most prominent being One Step Closer.
“I just want to be in, like, top three bands that come to mind. I think that's like a cool thing, where when people talk about Wilkes Barre, it's always like, Title Fight stuff like that. I would love for it to be Title Fight, One Step Closer, etc.,” explains vocalist Ryan Savitski.
Fronted by vocalist Ryan Savitski, One Step Closer is completed by guitarists Ross Thompson and Colman O’Brien, as well as drummer Connor McAuliffe. Combining aspects of hardcore, emo and shoegaze without an inkling of arrogance, the band is unapologetically themselves. Wearing straight edge on their sleeves openly since inception, the band takes joy in this fact and how fundamental it is to their existence.
“It's something that I feel has really like, I wouldn't say saved my life, but it's really helped my life and improved everything in such a positive way. And yeah, it's been the backbone of this band since we were since we started it, and I don't see that changing,” said Savitski.
Perfectly executing my first stage dive, I caught One Step Closer at their X-Ray Arcade Milwaukee show on March 12th. With energy quintessential to a hardcore show, the band slammed the venue with deafening noise while still checking up on the crowd’s wellbeing. While hardcore may be presented with a tough outer shell, when peeling back the band’s skin they are compassionate and humble.
The show I attended at the X-Ray is part of their 22-date triple headliner tour across America with good friends and contemporaries Anxious and Koyo.
“We're all kind of on the same level of growth and fan base and stuff like that so we were like, let's just do like a cool trio tour, where everyone's swapping headliner every night, and we could just rock and have fun, you know, play to our fans and play to people that just care and just make it the coolest thing ever,” said Savitski
After some member turnover in 2022, the band released the EP Songs for the Willow showing a shift towards more melodic and slightly slower songs. Now in 2024, they have released their lead single “Leap Years” for their upcoming album All You Embrace..
“I think losing the members, like it sucked and everything, but I think the band itself is at such a healthier place now and everyone is really stoked. I think we have people that really add a lot to the band and recording this record showed how much we've all progressed as musicians and really put in some work to make this record the coolest thing we possibly could do,” said Savitski.
“The reaction to the new single has been incredible I think. I could tell because we put it out the first day of tour and that night, first show, people already knew the lyrics, and it was out for like, 12 hours,” said Savitski.
Ryan’s lyrics typically reflect on internal struggles and being away from home while the place you love changes. While previous lyrics focus on these traumatic experiences and trapped feelings, All You Embrace pivots to welcome change and learn how to live with it.
“Man, I think when we were writing this record the overall theme of the record is kind of like change. And just like how you kind of cope with life changes, environment changes, and even career changes and stuff like that,” said Savitski
One Step Closer is driven to be the next anointed prince of the genre. Following their Wilkes-Barre heritage and the release of All You Embrace on the horizon, the band is set up for lead-foot acceleration.
Leaving off with this sense of growth from the band Savitski explains, “Because everyone's so used to more aggressive vocal, it's scary for me to even put myself out there in that same way. But I'm really proud of how much I've grown and how much everybody else has grown as musicians and I think we really pushed it to the limit on this one, which is cool,” said Savitski.