Aspen Hourglass is a Colorado-based progressive alternative band consisting of Grayson Erhard, John Napier, and Sean Hanson.
We started in February of 2012 inside of Hanson’s garage playing music for fun. After a while the jamming turned into songwriting and the band “Sovereign Sounds” was formed. At first, there were various instruments we tried to incorporate into the band that weren’t fitting the vibe we had envisioned. We settled on a basic three-piece sound: guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. The band’s main intent was to grow as organically as possible-through live performances. The first performance was at a local music festival called “Mountain Extravaganza” that led to several more smaller, local shows. After the first time we played Hodi’s Half Note, we felt that the band name “Sovereign Sounds” didn’t suit our vision, message, environment, and ambiguity of genre. In result, we switched to “Aspen Hourglass” as we wanted to illustrate change in time, color in our music and geography (we are all Colorado natives). A new band name and several more live performances allowed us to meet many important contacts in the local scene that resulted in bigger opportunities. With new contacts we changed our strategy to perform primarily in the club and theater market. At our first Aggie Theatre performance, we achieved the eighth highest-grossing free headlining show. This was a direct result of our changed strategy. We are now in the process of writing a 5-song EP and exploring other ways to get our music to the masses.
The group is managed, produced and developed by four-time Grammy award-winning, one Emmy award-winning, and 31 Grammy-nominated production company, Bendiksen Productions. Bendiksen Productions’ collective executive credits include: U2, Sting, The Fray, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lenny Kravitz, Kiss, Sarah McLachlan, Def Leppard, John Cougar Mellancamp, Fred Greene and Bon Jovi.
Aspen Hourglass is on regular rotation in Fort Collins at KCSU 90.5 FM, KRFC 88.9 FM; in Denver at KTCL 93.3 FM, MileHighUnderground.com radio, Callywood Radio; in Grand Junction at KAFM 88.1; and the Australian online radio station – Butterfly Radio.
We were chosen by PopVulture Magazine in March 2013 to become a Headline Artist in their physical and online magazine. We have also been featured on the cover of Colorado Music Buzz’s October 2013 issue and selected as an “Artist to Watch” in 2014, chosen as the “Artist of the Month” by Callywood Radio in December 2013, and had a full feature written about us in Fort Collins’ most prominent entertainment magazine, Scene Magazine.
We have opened for many national acts including: The Flobots, Matthew Santos, This Must be the Band, and Darling Parade.
Our plans in 2014 are to expand nationally.