Chat With Willie & The Cigs

Willie & The Cigs join Emily to chat about their debut full-length, Loaded WIth Hits. They chat about the group's success in the Cincinnati, OH music scene, playing shows, dedicated practice schedules, plans for a new album, and how the inner workings of the band's relations are exactly like Fleetwood Mac (kinda). 

Be sure to support the group by buying their record on Bandcamp and enjoy the show.

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Willie & the Cigs is a western garage band based in Cincinnati, OH. Inspired to recontextualize the exciting sounds of early rock artists like Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and The Velvet Underground, the band is driven to make music that invigorates and shocks the ears of the 21st-century listener. 

Formed in 2019 by longtime friends Will Ross (guitar), Patrick Zopff (guitar), and Megan Denham (bass), they started performing live in 2021 and soon after published their first record, Loaded With Hits. Revival is not the word for it, The Cigs are making everything new again. The group quickly gathered momentum in Cincinnati’s budding music scene and enlisted Dana Schriever (keys), Owen Kenney (pedal steel), and Chase Leonard (drums) before they started traveling and performing regionally as a six-piece rock n’ roll force of nature. Every show is a tumult of nostalgia and frenzy, memorable and intoxicating all at once. 

Megan and Will met in high school and have been playing music together for about 5 years. Owen and Will met at School of Rock in 2013, a program for youth musicians. Everyone met Patrick, Chase, and Dana through the Clifton community of artists and musicians. Everyone’s been playing for quite a few years, Will and Owen probably the longest. The group has been traveling out of town a lot playing shows in Milwaukee WI, Chicago IL, Muncie IN, Lansing MI, Columbus OH, and Ft Wayne IN, and plan on putting out their second album by the end of the year.

insta: @willieandthecigs