Comprised of Zachary Garren (guitar), best known as a member of Dance Gavin Dance; Ben Rossett (drums) and Ian Jennings (bass), the Salinas, CA-based instrumental, prog rock/experimental rock act Strawberry Girls‘ sound developed from a desire to jam, practice and play as much as possible without as possible, without being restricted by the schedules of many different band members, as Garren explained in press notes. And although the trio have collaborated with vocalists — especially on their French Ghetto album, which featured guest appearances by A Lot Like Birds‘ and Dance Gavin Dance’s Kurt Travis, Gatsby’s American Dream‘s Nic Newsham, Shane Smit, Kathleen Mae and Gavin Mulkey — the band has steadfastly remained an instrumental act.
With the release of their 2015 release American Graffiti, the California-based instrumental trio received a growing national profile as the effort landed at #22 on Billboard‘s New Artist charts, and they followed that with a busy live show schedule that included touring with Dance Gavin Dance and CHON. Adding to a busy schedule, the members of the band managed to begin work on their forthcoming effort Italian Ghosts, which is slated for a February 17, 2017 release. And as the band’s Ben Rossett says in press notes “Italian Ghosts is a testament to how much we’ve grown as a band, and what we believe is our best sounding experience as of yet.” The album’s first single “Vanilla Rainforest,” as the band’s Zac Garren explains “pulls from lots of different influences, like dub reggae, hip hop, electronic and progressive rock;” and while being an arena rock friendly, headbanger, the song also possesses a jazz fusion-like sense of improvisation, as the song feels as though it captures three musicians in complete simpatico jamming as hard as possible.