Saint Rich learns to adapt

Delicate Steve isn't gone, but Saint Rich has emerged from it.

"To us, it doesn't really feel like starting a new project and pushing it out to sea. We're just experimenting with something different." Christian Peslak was talking about his band Saint Rich, but his insight is applicable to today's music scene. Peslak and bandmate Steve Marion first toured together under Marion's project Delicate Steve, planting Saint Rich's rock 'n' roll seed during a fated weekend stuck inside. The desire to branch out seems more common among modern musicians, with the Internet making it easier for a moderately successful artist to start a new project people will actually care about. The sensitive indie rocker makes a bluegrass rock album. The angsty rocker goes electronic. Sometimes the side project is a bust, and sometimes it gets bigger than anyone could've imagined.

Saint Rich isn't huge yet, but it's already gaining on its sire, bringing the young act to The Circle Bar on Monday.

The group started touring after only one show, Peslak says, so Saint Rich had to adapt fast. For him, that meant dropping the guitar he wielded with Delicate Steve and picking up a mic. "It's a different medium," he says. "I'm just up there with a microphone and a body." Peslak isn't a stranger to performing and singing, playing solo shows before Delicate Steve's inception — he's simply more comfortable with a guitar in front. Removing that shield made him vulnerable, he says, but he doesn't mind skipping the setup before a show, and his experience onstage is less technical.

That ease shows on Saint Rich's debut Beyond the Drone, a no frills, southern-tinged rock record that flows effortlessly from track to track. If Peslak was ever nervous taking on vocals, it doesn't show. The songwriting is heavy on catchy melodies, and Peslak delivers with traces of swagger that hint at a vocal style ripe for development. Marion's turn on guitar is also promising, relying on southern licks as well as slow, simmering riffs. Delicacy sticks with Peslak and Marion on Beyond the Drone, as the duo allows the later half of the record to reduce speed. It's an impressive debut, especially in its restraint.

Peslak and Marion will build on that debut for now, with the record and a tour already spreading the duo's names faster than Delicate Steve. "Sometimes, I'll take a step back and think, "Holy shit, this is all happening really fast.'" But the transition was mostly smooth for Saint Rich's cofounders. Delicate Steve's fanbase isn't huge, Peslak admits, so people seemed open to the Saint Rich route. "A lot of people came up to me and said, "Oh, I didn't know you could do that.'" But Saint Rich is still figuring out its "vibe," Peslak says, though he feels everything is falling into place as the band's scope grows. Delicate Steve isn't dead, but Peslak and Marion are chasing what works, and for now, that's Saint Rich.