From small gigs to chart toppers: The 502s make their triumphant return to The Truman Aug. 19

The 502s Band Members: Eddie Isola, Matthew Tonner, Sean Froehlich, Joe Capati, Nick Melashenko, and Graci Philips. // Courtesy of Mick Management

The 502s are touring in Kansas City on Monday, August 19, at The Truman, performing their new self-titled album, The 502s. The band of six made a name for itself by simply being happy. In 2021, the group blew up on the social media platform TikTok for their song “Just a Little While,” which skyrocketed their success.

Band members Eddie Isola, Matthew Tonner, Sean Froehlich, Joe Capati, Nick Melashenko, and Graci Philips live in the Florida sunshine and bring that to life with their performances. They are a group of laid-back friends who are always looking for a good time. 

Lead vocalist Eddie Isola and keyboardist Matthew Tonner discussed with us the band’s evolution from self-booked tours to major festivals following the viral success of their song “Just a Little While.” They also share their excitement about experiencing Kansas City’s music scene and barbecue, as they swing through to play The Truman on August 19. Tickets and info on that are available here.

The Pitch: We’re excited to hear about the music, but first: are you excited for KC BBQ?

Eddie Isola: I am. I don’t think we’ve ever had Kansas City barbecue before, so it’ll be a new adventure.

When’s the last time you played KC?

Isola: Back when it was probably too underground for anyone locally to remember. 

Matthew Tonner: It would have been before the TikTok thing, for sure. I have very positive memories of Kansas City. It’s a great, underrated city.

Isola: I judge Kansas City by playing at Knuckleheads. We loved it. We played on a Sunday night years ago when we were booking our own stuff. They were having a massive biker rally. There were hundreds of motorcycles out front. We played their open mic, and more people stayed. Kansas City has always been fun with a crazy crowd. It’s definitely a good place.

Is it the Gen Z in me or was TikTok a major contributor to your success since 2021?

Isola: It definitely was the rocket fuel to what was going on. We had an album before that, and we were touring at places like Knuckleheads, Matt was doing all the booking, and we were driving ourselves around. When “Just a Little While” went viral, it changed a lot, to the point of having a tour bus, and doing bigger tours and festivals. It made it something we could do for a living, which is really cool.

Tonner: Yeah, I think it hit at a good time. When we started the band, it was still pretty Facebook heavy. We had some videos pop up there that helped us get on the road from our first album. Having TikTok come in when we already had a good website, various content, and live playing experience, was great. It was like the best case scenario because we could supercharge everything we were good at. 

Was it random that your music took off as a sound on Tik Tok, or was that your strategy to become big?

Isola: It was definitely random. We made the video for “Just a Little While” in front of the van. A year before that, we did one for “Magdalene,” and that went viral too, to a lesser extent. Both times, we had no clue what was going on until it was already viral. We just posted a video we thought was cool. We filmed it at my parents’ neighbor’s driveway, rented a van, pulled it in, filmed it, and put it out. A month after posting, it went viral. My wife saw the sound had 5000 videos, and within days it was up to 50-60,000, then over 100,000 uses. It was crazy. We had no clue what was going on, but it was fun.

Tonner: The timing was interesting, in 2020 and 2021, during the heat of COVID. We weren’t able to play live, so we made a ton of videos for our new songs. Our music is uplifting and happy, aiming for sounds of celebration and joy, which connected with people during that time.

The 502s. // Courtesy of Mick Management

Your music has been described repeatedly as “happy.” What secondary emotion do you hope listeners feel?

Isola: Connectivity, both to the people around them and to themselves. We’ve talked a lot about it as a band. It’s happy, but it’s really meant to be more in our eyes, it’s that kind of internal fulfillment and peace with who you are and where you are, and appreciating everything. Connectivity, appreciation, those are the two for me.

Tonner: I was going to say belonging which is along that same theme. We try to make people feel better about what’s going on. But that’s not just simply, hakuna matata, there’s a lot of real feelings in the lyrics and inspirations for the songs. So many people come up to us before and after our shows, who have gone through incredible life experiences. It’s very humbling to hear that our music is moving, and it’s connecting them to something that makes their life better. 

How has your writing and recording process evolved since 2016 EP? 

Isola: We used to be like, we make happy music, and now it’s kind of like we’re making music about belonging and fulfillment. I think that has been something that we’ve learned from doing the first album. As the band’s grown, it’s moved from us in a little room in Orlando to having more musicians and more sounds available to us, which has been really cool for the creative vision of the band. But the band’s still the band, the writing’s still the writing, and we intend to keep making the same type of music for this album and for future albums.

Tonner: I feel like we have kind of a sound that we’re known for. It’s not like we’re the biggest band in the world, but we have an identity that ties into Eddie’s lyrical vision and his terms of phrase, but also just the overall bigness of the sound that, to me, feels like it translates from very stripped down, acoustic-oriented songs to huge, marching band-style sounds.

What started as one song and changed into something completely different?

Isola: The biggest one, you know, “Just a Little While,” I didn’t think it would become a trend of people in college posting their recap videos when it went viral. That was definitely not the vision for that song but it was cool to see that become something. 

Tonner: There’s a relatively recent song, “Summer Wind,” which is on the EP we put out before this album. It was intended to be almost a fully acoustic song, but once we got into the studio and started laying it down, it turned into this almost orchestral thing. We started putting horns on it and big drums. By the end, it’s this huge, thunderous, beautiful piece. That, in turn, changed the direction of some other songs on that “Pure Serotonin” EP. 

Your KC venue, The Truman, often produces street-interview-style videos of audiences waiting in line for artists before a show to highlight the creative clothing and styles they’re wearing. For yourself as a band, how would you describe your style?

Isola: I would say my personal style is very lax. We are from Florida. I’m always wearing some kind of shorts, T-shirts, hats, pretty much what I’m wearing right now. That’s my style, and that’s kind of flowed into the band. It’s pretty much everyone’s style within the band. 

Tonner: It’s kind of funny. When we first started out, we were way more typical of an Americana band, like lots of denim and button-down shirts, lots of long sleeves, very different from where we are now. That goes along with finding our identity and our people. I’m interested to see how people might style themselves for a gig at the Truman.

How do you survive on the road spending all day everyday with one another?

Isola: The people here now were in the band before any virality or visibility. When people would join the band, it was always like, do you fit musically? But there was also a heavy aspect of, do we like you? Do you like us? Do we get along? Those friendships, you probably hear through the music and see on social media, are legitimate. We all genuinely like each other. I’m sure we get on each other’s nerves sometimes, but it feels more like a sibling relationship, a close bunch of close-knit siblings. 

Tonner: We’re also very focused on having a good time off the stage. When you’re literally living on top of each other for weeks and months, it’s easy to get tired of it. But the benefit of rolling into a new city almost every day is that there’s always something new to discover. Not only do we get to play these great shows, but we’re going to have a really good time everywhere we go.

Isola: The fact that we are even playing shows to more than five people is something we genuinely love. The people you’re with, the fans, are fantastic. Like Matt’s talking about, you get to go play music. You really can’t complain too much.

What are some of your future goals for the band?

Isola: I think we would love to see the shows continue to grow as we go to cities, just seeing them get bigger. But at the same time, the band has always been growing. It’s a really cool thing. I’ve heard the Avett Brothers talk about that, where they’re like, “We never really had an overnight thing, but we’ve always grown.” They’re continuing to play into their 40s, 50s, whatever. It’s really a dream come true, and it’s fun to get to do this. Obviously, we want everything to grow, but maintaining and continuing to do this has become my priority.

Tonner: Going back to when we were playing at a brewery to maybe five people who weren’t even really paying attention to us, we always focused on doing a great job regardless. We’ve never lost that. We’re lucky because it continues to be validated every passing year. If you had asked me that question three years ago, I probably would have said, “Man, Bonnaroo is my dream,” or “Lollapalooza is my dream.” We did both of those now. 

Isola: We’ve achieved a lot of things that we thought were not achievable. Lollapalooza was unreal. That same week, we flew up to New York City and played a riverside concert at Hudson Yards and half of New York showed up, just this amazing experience. The next day, we flew to Chicago, played a late-night venue set, and then the following day played at Lollapalooza. In the span of three days, we played in two of the biggest cities, on huge stages. One of the most surreal experiences of my life.

How did you develop a band chemistry when performing?

Tonner: Have you ever driven across Wyoming? I mean, the same four people shoulder to shoulder. 

Isola: Everybody joined incrementally, very closely together. Sean, Joe, and Nick on drums, sax, and bass came in. They would come, we would play. It’s a whole spider’s web of how we knew each other from middle school, high school, and college. People weren’t just coming in as total randos. A lot of time spent in sweaty garages, practicing and messing around. I think that was probably the biggest thing.

Tonner: Never losing the sense of fun. I know a lot of very hardworking musicians that I feel for because everything they do has an agenda. We’ve been focused on this, but also lucky to be in positions where we can still focus on staying positive and having something to look forward to. Just have fun being a crew. Being on tour with a group of people exponentially increases not just the strength of the relationship but also the age of it. This is almost literally a family at this point because we’ve been around each other so much and know each other so well. We’re lucky to have this great crew around us for sure.

Is there anything specific you’re looking forward to about Kansas City?

Isola: Well, you sold us on the barbecue. Knuckleheads is kind of outside of town, so this will be our first time actually experiencing Kansas City and not the outskirts.

Tonner: Between the two Knucklehead shows and the Record Bar show, I always remember them being super energetic and really there for it. I almost feel remiss that we haven’t been back in two years. It always seems like great people excited for it.

Isola: The last time we were there was the day after the Chiefs won the Super Bowl. We went and we watched them win the Super Bowl, and then we just happened to be by one of the shops that opened up immediately after the game. And so we went in and bought a couple $100 worth of hats and shirts and flags and stuff. And then we went out the next night, played for the encore. We threw all the stuff out of the crowd, all the Super Bowl gear. Kansas City was pretty cool last time we were there.

Tonner: Really riding high on that Mahomes, Kelsey wave.

For tickets and more information about The 502s performing at The Truman, find it on their website.