I’ve been going back through our earlier posts about The Districts to put together the intro to this interview. It really almost feels like yesterday when I came into the old HotBox Studios to check out our first collaboration together with Lushlife for our Choice/Cuts video series. Matt Smith was excited to show me footage of an in-studio session that they did with a high school band from Central Pennsylvania. Obviously, we now know that they were The Districts, and the video was their performance of “Funeral Beds,” which eventually went viral two separate times on Reddit. Soon after, they were victorious in our bi-monthly Featured Artist(s) Poll. The band also won the hearts of our Deli editors in other cities in the Open Submissions round of our Year End Emerging Artists Poll 2012. In 2013, they spent a lot of their time winning over the Philly music community with each fiery live performance, and then came the big news that the group had signed to well-respected indie label Fat Possum Records. Since then, the floodgates have opened with offers to open for their hometown heroes Dr. Dog at the Electric Factory and tour with Austin rockers White Denim, who they are currently on the road with right now. So it wasn’t really a surprise to us, here at The Deli, when the votes came in, and The Districts unanimously became our Philly Emerging Artist of 2013. We had a chance to chat with frontman Rob Grote, before he left on tour, about the amazing experience that they had last year since moving to Philly, what’s next, and more, which you can check out HERE!
