Fire Track Premiere: The Kyle Sowashes – “Song For Joey Kramer”
Premiere: Today | Single out everywhere tomorrow, August 8 | New album out October 3
The Kyle Sowashes have long been Columbus, Ohio’s loudest champions of slack, sincerity, and crunchy guitar hooks. Led by Kyle Sowash (yes, he’s a real person), the band has been delivering heartfelt, fuzz-forward indie rock for well over a decade—somewhere between GBV grit, Superchunk drive, and Midwest energy in crisis. Think punk heart with a soft spot for frozen pizza and Cleveland sports.
Their latest single, “Song For Joey Kramer,” might be the most unexpectedly touching track about Aerosmith’s drummer you’ll hear all year – probably ever!
It arrives ahead of the new album Start Making Sense, due out October 3, 2025 on Anyway Records. The song is as poignant as it is punchy—a fuzzed-out, riff-kissed rock anthem for the guy behind the kit who never got his due. The inspiration? A very specific—and very Sowash—moment of empathy:
“A few years ago, I was reading this book Walk This Way by Geoff Edgers. It talks a lot about how Run-DMC and Aerosmith’s iconic collaboration on that song came to be. One of the most interesting parts of the book was when the author told the story of Aerosmith’s early days of success. Joey Kramer was so excited to be part of the gang, and Steven Tyler and Joe Perry wouldn’t even give him the time of day.
At the time I was reading the book, it was probably early 2020—and that’s around when Aerosmith wouldn’t let Joey Kramer play the Grammys with them. So we wrote this song for Joey, because I felt bad for him dealing with all their shit for 50 years. To this day, to my knowledge, it’s the only song we’ve ever written from the perspective of Aerosmith’s drummer.”
That’s classic Sowashes—dig through the footnotes of rock history, find the guy no one else is writing songs for, and fire off a blast of fuzz, feels, and solidarity. The track swings hard, shouts louder, and still manages to sneak in a smirk. There’s real love behind the punchlines.
Full album Start Making Sense lands October 3 on Anyway Records which you can pre-order HERE.
A lifelong fan of new music—spent the '90s working in a record store and producing alternative video shows. In the 2000s, that passion shifted online with blogging, diving headfirst into the indie scene and always on the lookout for the next great release. Still here, still listening, and still sharing the best of what’s new.
- Christopher Anthonyhttps://thefirenote.com/author/canthony/
- Christopher Anthonyhttps://thefirenote.com/author/canthony/
- Christopher Anthonyhttps://thefirenote.com/author/canthony/
- Christopher Anthonyhttps://thefirenote.com/author/canthony/
