If you were in any way plugged into the local emo and pop-punk scene of the early 2000s, you surely remember The Higher.
The onetime Las Vegas band, originally comprised of Tom Oakes (guitar), Jason Centeno (bass), James Mattison (guitar), Pat Harter (drums) and Seth Trotter (vocals), signed with LA indie label Fiddler Records in 2002. Trotter, then 17, had to have his mom sign him out of high school just to embark on the band’s first tour.
The Higher released three albums and hit the road with Panic! At the Disco, Motion City Soundtrack, Taking Back Sunday and others over the years. They sold out shows. They toured Japan. And after releasing an album, It’s Only Natural, in 2009, they went on indefinite hiatus.
“Eight or nine years into touring the same stuff and playing to the same age demographic of kids, it got to a point where we were all a little burnt out, and we took some time off,” says Trotter, adding that the band also took notice of how the pop-punk genre was faring. “Those kinds of bands weren’t really touring at the time. So we were like, I think we’re just gonna all do our own thing.”
Oakes left for Hollywood to pursue a career in stop motion animation. Centeno moved to New York. Robert “Reggie” Ragan (who replaced Mattison on guitar) went to Seattle. Trotter stayed in Las Vegas and started a cover band.
During the pandemic, he kept in touch with his bandmates and found that many had begun revisiting music. “We had been talking about how we’d all been writing some songs,” he says. “And Tom had sent some demos he had written for his band and was like, ‘These would be great for The Higher. Maybe we should collaborate.’”
The band joined Oakes in a California studio with producer Rafa Alvarez, and they recorded what Trotter says he thought would just be a “fun project” to cure their boredom. Before they knew it, they had reignited The Higher.
The band—minus Oakes and Harter—tested the waters, playing a few shows that eventually “stemmed into us saying, let’s get back out there and see if the kids still enjoy the misty old music and want to hear some of the new stuff,” Trotter says.
After years of using MySpace and Facebook, the band hopped on other social media platforms to promote new singles “Free Ride” and “Elvis in Wonderland,” the latter also the title of a new EP arriving October 14.
“On Spotify, now each of those singles have over 100,000 views. ‘Free Ride’ is almost on the 200,000 mark,” Trotter says. “It’s crazy. For us being gone for eight to 10 years, not making any new music and not staying active with the old fans, it was shocking.”
Longtime listeners waxing nostalgic will hear early-aughts Higher on “Free Ride.” It’s a bright re-entry into the pop-punk genre, with snappy drum work and a memorable hook. Meanwhile, “‘Elvis in Wonderland’ is more of the newer sound,” Trotter says. “Funnily enough, even though we’re all a lot more R&B driven these days, it’s one of the more rock songs The Higher has ever released.”
It’s a debaucherous single, similar to 2007’s “Insurance,” about going way too hard in Vegas. In the music video, a roguish Elvis—whom the band found on Craigslist—stumbles along Fremont East with a tall boy beer and takes photos with tourists. By the end of the song, he’s slumped against the wall, drunk. “‘Elvis in Wonderland’ really signifies what Vegas is,” Trotter says. “It’s the glitz and the glam in a wonderland you can easily get lost in.”
And Trotter recognizes The Higher has had its time in Wonderland, too. But these days, “We’re humbled.”
THE HIGHER With Alesana, Vampires Everywhere & more. October 21, 5 p.m., $25. Rockstar Bar, seetickets.us.
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