While getting its start in college, playing mostly tailgates and house parties, rock band Edgehill’s initial following was unsurprisingly comprised of teenagers and 20-somethings. But this year, lead vocalist Chris Kelly has noticed an uptick of older faces in the crowd. “I remember the first time I saw someone with gray hair in our audience, and I was like, ‘Did you find us on the radio?’ ” he recalls with a laugh.
His hunch was well-founded: As Edgehill — consisting of Kelly, 23, guitarist/vocalist Jake Zimmerman, 26, and drummer Aidan Cunningham, 26 — prepares for its first headlining tour this fall, it will hit the road with a pair of bona fide radio hits in hand. The grunge-influenced “Doubletake” scored the band its first Billboard chart entry, climbing up Alternative Airplay before reaching No. 1 in April. Now, Edgehill’s alternative pop follow-up, “Love to Go,” is ascending the same list.
For Kelly, growing up in Charlottesville, Va. with a mom who worked as a music teacher and flutist and a dad who was a singer-songwriter outside of his day job meant that a career in the industry was always in the cards. “My mom had me matching pitch when I was a baby, essentially getting me to coo to a pitch,” Kelly says. “There was never a time when there wasn’t music going on in the house.”
