With New Record on the Way, Nate Drop Says Best Is Yet to Come

It's been a tough year to be a musician. But these resilient rising stars studied, composed, recorded and live-streamed their way through it, honing their gifts and sharing them with a city in isolation, ready to be rapt. Now, amid the search for something like normal, they are eager, at long last, to take the stage. Photos by Ashkan Roayaee, styling by Todd Ramos, hair and makeup by Edward Sanchez for Edward Sanchez Cosmetics, shot on location at the Silos at Sawyer Yards.

"IT'S LIKE 2012, but times 20," muses a masked Tyler Price, 30, citing the apocalyptic film as he describes the year he and his bandmates, guitarist and vocalist Jose Sanchez, 32, and drummer Allen Edwards, 25, have had. Price provides additional vocals and plays bass guitar and keys in their indie-rock group The Soft Wear. The trio has gathered (six feet apart) on the grounds of the Menil.

In December, the band, which coalesced in 2018 after a series of fruitful jam sessions before playing its first show at an anniversary party for Montrose dive bar Poison Girl, released its self-titled debut album. The nine-track record, mixed and produced by Poison Moon Records' Kirk Campbell, has a feeling that makes one nostalgic for the foregone days of live shows. "The music I wanted us to make was music that feels like you're playing in a basement or at a show," says Sanchez, noting the band used to perform regular live shows at venues like Shoeshine Charlie's Big Top Lounge and Continental Club.