Denver Band Losing Ground Celebrates One Year of Shredding Metal

Joe Vandeven is a bit of an adrenaline junkie. The former bike racer always enjoys trying new things and challenging himself, so after he hung up his helmet, he reacquainted himself with an old friend that had been waiting patiently under his bed: a Les Paul guitar.

Using the unexpected downtime of the pandemic, Vandeven started taking lessons and eventually put some song demos together in hopes of finding fellow musicians who would be interested in starting a new metal band, a pursuit he called a “childhood dream.” Through the connectivity of the internet, Losing Ground was officially born exactly one year ago this month.

“I had just been winding down a career hobby of bike racing that I’d done for five years. I anticipated that the whole pandemic lockdown thing was going to last a really long time. I get pretty self-destructive when I’m bored, so I knew if I was going to be trapped inside, I needed something fun to do,” Vandeven explains. “I always wanted to be a rhythm guitarist in a metal band. I figured if I’m done racing bikes, might as well do something else pretty cool.”

Dedicating more and more time to his newfound craft, Vandeven “decided it was time to reach out and meet people” after his guitar playing had been going "pretty well." He recalls, "I put together a shitty two-song demo and threw it on Craigslist and asked for a writing partner."

Guitarist Daryl Buschmann, who had played in bands before but none since moving to Denver in 2016, responded to Vandeven’s Craigslist post. “I kind of waited a few years before deciding I really liked being in a band. I liked playing live, and I really missed playing music,” Buschmann says, adding that he “scoured” similar calls for players before linking up with his future bandmate.

The two of them started writing more Losing Ground riffs while constructing a more complete demo, which Vandeven recorded and produced in his basement. “That was kind of funny, because I had been playing guitar for like a year at that point, and as mediocre as it comes — still am. Daryl’s been playing for like fifteen years, and he’s not mediocre,” Vandeven says. “I was very surprised that he wanted to hang out with me after the first time. I think what I brought to the table is that I knew how to record and make albums.”

But the duo still needed a vocalist, drummer and bassist at that point to be considered a legit band, and again turned to Craigslist to find do-it-all vocalist Tyler Zandstra.

“We interviewed some weirdos — literally, someone who had killed someone. That wasn’t a deal-breaker for us," Vandeven remembers with a laugh. "But then Tyler recorded over one of our things, and it was like, ‘That’s the guy.'"

Zandstra, who had already been doing some vocal and producing work, lent his voice to those initial demos before the newly formed three-piece recorded another early Losing Ground sampling. “I was able to put professional vocals together somewhat in my home studio,” Zandstra says. “We put together a three-song demo. These two [Vandeven and Buschmann] laid down the foundations of the three songs that we’re going to be releasing soon. We all felt that we just had fire. Then it came over into finding a drummer and bassist.”

After switching from Craigslist to Facebook to find those final two pieces, the band lineup was rounded out by recent transplants Gerard Calderone, a wiry punk drummer from New Jersey, and Joe Rojas, who was simply driving from Los Angeles to Denver and looking to start a band of his own.

“I was still getting my bearings, figuring out what I was going to do out in Colorado, but I was not part of a band,” Calderone recalls. “I started joining a bunch of Facebook groups looking for musicians, fill-ins, literally anything. I remember a few weeks after joining one of them, I came across Losing Ground posting that they were looking for a drummer. They had a three-song demo out. I clicked the link, and the second ‘When We Burn’ started, I was typing out my message. I was like, ‘I need to join this band.’ I’m so glad I did. It’s been really cool joining as their drummer. They just put out something that was absolute fire, and it made me want to be a part of it.”

Rojas, who had previously been a regularly gigging guitarist in stoner and doom-metal bands, was equally impressed by Losing Ground’s chops and knew it was something he wanted to contribute to.

“It just looked interesting, so I decided to check out the songs and see what the deal was, and they were actually really good. I was wondering, like, ‘What is going on here? Where did these guys record this material?’ They told me that they did it themselves,” Rojas says. “I messaged them when I was actually driving to Colorado. It was beyond what I was expecting. I’ve been playing for quite a bit. … From the get-go, I knew I was getting into something serious with good, quality musicians. That’s when I decided to stay, like, ‘This is the band that I want to play with.’”

Since then, Losing Ground has played a handful of shows, including a sold-out concert at Lost Lake in January, and officially released one single, “Without Me.” The band is also preparing to put out a six-song debut album later this year. The next opportunity to catch Losing Ground will be on Saturday, April 15, at Moe’s Original BBQ, with Owls & Aliens, Thousand Frames, Years Down and Truly Fine Citizens.

Pulling from influences in the new wave of American heavy metal (Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage) and Swedish melodic death metal (Soilwork, In Flames), Losing Ground’s sound churns out everything from intricate guitar work to headbanging breakdowns.

“We do have these beautiful melodies throughout songs; more downtime, soft-spoken moments. I think that’s one of those things that is going to stand out,” Zandstra says of the yet-to-be-released material. “We have our fast riffs and blasting, absolutely heavy destructiveness, but then there are breaks when you hear those melodic guitars just strumming away.”

Calderone, who is back behind the kit after recovering from a broken leg he suffered in October of last year, likes to tell a story about how an early version of a Losing Ground song with “really fast” drumming came to be included on the album, which, he says, “touches every corner.”

“There’s some slower stuff. There’s some sludgier stuff. There’s some really fast stuff,” he notes. “There’s a song on there that when I first joined, Joe actually reached out to me and was like, ‘We’re going to send you a demo to this song. It’s really fast — we’re probably not going to play it live.’ I took one listen to it and was like, ‘We’re going to play this live.’ He was like, ‘You can do that?’ I was like, ‘No, but we’re going to learn, and we’re going to get this.’

"Along with the variety that’s already going into this album, we are all actively trying to push ourselves and put out the best material that we can. It’s only going to get better," Calderone adds. "This is what we’re coming out swinging with, and we’re going to keep swinging.”

His bandmates nod their heads in agreement. As far as Losing Ground has come over the past twelve months — a time frame that Zandstra says “feels longer” given everything the five of them have accomplished — it’s clear that the band has bigger aspirations than just playing and putting out music locally. Vandeven explains that the plan is to continue to be a fully DIY outfit — recording and producing everything from his still-growing home base and studio — while getting in front of fans live whenever they can.

“We’re really putting 100 percent into this band on two fronts here. We want to go out there and put on an energetic, engaging show, and then trying to get our music done,” Buschmann adds. “Every month and every year that goes by, we’re going to sound even better. We’re only going to perfect our craft going forward. If you like the sound of our first album, if you think that sounds pretty good, it’s only going to get better.”

Losing Ground, 7 p.m. Saturday, April 15, Moe's Original BBQ, 3295 South Broadway. Tickets are $12-$18.