Martyred Whitmans

In 2011, after 5 years of perfecting their craft, and inspired by tall tales of the northwest, Sean Lewis, Yehuda McKay, Jesse Bearce, and Tyler Steele, joined together to make solid, slushy, soothing, and provocative psychedelic music, built on the riffing intricacies established by front man, Sean Lewis.
A sixth generation Oregon native, Lewis is a sappy history geek, that pours his superstitious tendencies, and cyclical thinking into his steady and winding guitar riffs, melodramatic lyrics, and vocal melodies. Heavily influenced by Soundgarden, Type O Negative, and Pink Floyd, Sean takes a very serious look at himself and his world, simultaneously, through the music he writes.
The band started in 2006 with Sean writing songs on his own, in the hopes of connecting with other musicians, and idea he titled, Auburn. The first to graft in were Mark Wallace, and David Rossing, of the group StillSpeaks. Wallace played drums, Rossing played guitar, and bass alternated between Kaleb McKay, Ryan Meyers, and Jeff Reid. In March of 2006, with Mark Wallace out of play for a few months, Jesse Bearce, long time friend of David Rossing, stepped in to fill the position on the drums. From that moment, Jesse has been a solid force to the band, contributing a fierce sense of continuity and virtue.
As David Rossing felt a stronger pull in other directions, he left the band, and Tyler Steele picked up his position on the guitar for a short while.
In 2007, Yehuda McKay (younger brother of Kaleb McKay) and his wife, each had a dream that Yehuda should join Auburn. At the time, Yehuda was in a band with his brother, Kaleb, Price Of Blood, and had only been playing bass for a short while. After discussing the dream with Sean, Yehuda joined the group, forming the third pillar in what later became the Martyred Whitmans. Yehuda had a very cerebral approach to his playing, and became an unstoppable fortress to the sound of the band, which in later reviews, would prove critical to their success.
The first show with the trio was in 2008 at the Tonic Lodge in Portland. beginning a long dirge of several shows throughout the next year. The band would become very weighed down by the heavy efforts, with very little return, which forced a very sober perspective on the music industry. What they had each grown up loving, and looking forward to had now become a giant monster hovering over them to eat them alive, and the name of that monster, was the modern music culture.
In the midst of recording their first EP, Manic and Self Medicated: The Plague, Auburn found that they weren't the only Auburn in the country, but in fact there was another on the east coast. So in order to avoid a conflict, Sean changed their name (the other Auburn already had some legal attachment involved with their name, having already been signed to a record label), and they became the Masonic Weird, and as such, they released their EP in July of 2011
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The monster of the modern music culture would not dwindle in any regard, and so the band was forced to take a good long look in the mirror and confront this challenge. This resulted in a monumental restructuring of how the group would operate.
No longer would the group focus their attention on the patterns of the rest of the market, but would instead focus on recording songs, one at a time, and releasing them one at a time. Having not filmed any videos until that point, now their single focus is videos, and not touring. With more people looking to their media devices for entertainment, and not to the local music club, the band is bringing the experience to the digital realm and embracing it's loneliness as a strength to their art form.
You can expect the band to be performing less live, and performing more for the camera, with release after release on digital distributors, and online retailers. In order to keep up with their progress, you can watch their website at martyredwhitmans.com.
The philosophy of the Martyred Whitmans, since 2006, has been to exalt friendships above all, and to put forth the most effort to respect others in order to all the music to speak for itself, which has made the group renowned for their integrity in the Portland area. It is this creed that Sean, Yehuda, and Jesse bring into the future with their obscure, moody and intimate music, in love and in truth.