With Midwestern roots, a long history of time in the music industry, and a "dig deep" attitude, Jake Scherer (aka Jake Rose) has reignited a trend in music that has been missing; doing what you want, how you want to do it, with your own rules.
Starting in 2009, with road-blocks along the way, as well as a temporary hiatus, the band has returned with a new found resolve to fire up the industry. Scherer, along with band mates Dan Garland (guitar, vocals), Ryan Guanzon (drums, vocals) and Matt Brady (bass, vocals) have been burning up the charts as of late, releasing multiple songs with impressive streaming numbers. What makes this exciting and remarkable is how they are accomplishing this without the financial muscle of a major label or any industry leader; they are doing it completely independent.
While they did start off their career with a couple industry backed album releases, Schere found a overwhelming lack of control in the direction of their music that was not allowing them to be the artists they wanted to be. The decision was made to take a break after the release of their second album, resulting in a short hiatus, and letting them reposition for where they wanted to go in the future. With the choke hold that was stifling them lifted, you can hear the love for variety and variance in each and every one of their songs. There is no single genre they are beholden to now. New Medicine's music varies from styles of hard hitting rock with the likes of "Fire Up The Night," to softer mental health anthem in "Skin." Would you prefer more hip-hip/rap feel? Then blast "Rich Kids" through your speakers. Whatever you are feeling, they have found a way to bring it to you.
In the age of streaming and social media, you can find New Medicine on every major streaming service with over 2 million monthly listeners, and over 300 million across all platforms. Recent activity has started to bring major traction to their work both past and present, including collaborations with bands like Adelita's Way and Citizen Solider. They just finished a short stint of tours in the east, with more shows planned for the coming months. Between the future tour dates and the frequent release of new music, it is clear New Medicine is here to stay. "The sky's the limit for New Medicine," says Scherer, "and I think you'll see many more albums in the future."
If you are lucky enough to see their name on a card somewhere near you, get those tickets before they sell out. I can not stress this enough; get those tickets ahead of time. You will not be disappointed.
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