About Us
In the summer of 2014 the band Out of the Pine was formed by two original founding members. Sean Parker and Chris Brooks from Columbus, Ohio. Both musicians were former members of the folk rock group Far Away Strays which played several sold out shows in the Columbus area with big names such as The Weeks who wrapped up their European Tour with Kings of Leon that same year, along with Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats during Far Away Strays performance at the UMS festival in Denver, Colorado. Out of the Pine also opened for the national touring act Honey, Honey in 2016 who've appeared on the Joe Rogan Podcast throughout several episodes. In the late winter of 2020, Out of the Pine released the song "Two Warm Hands" which was also featured on Christopher Ryan's Tangentially Speaking Podcast shortly after that. Christopher Ryan is known as the New York Times best selling author of "Sex at Dawn" and "Civilized to Death" who's appeared on Rogan's Podcast as well.
The following year two new members joined Out of the Pine to officially make the group a 4 piece band. Kyle Sage on drums and Trudi Kurtz on backup vocals. The band went on to play many successful events throughout Ohio as well as the Madden Road Festival in 2018 before Kurtz eventually parted ways to finish out her undergrad program and begin her new career in the medical industry. Sage graduated with a civil engineering degree from OSU that year and had left the group to fully purse engineering not long before that. Bryan Rupejko then became the drummer for Out of the Pine in the fall of 2018.
The band remained a 3 piece for quite some time and spent the following years playing shows while recording their first full length album entitled the Origami Bird. The album was tracked at Vaughan Music Studios by Mark Abrams and Matt Hagberg then later mixed by Jay Alton who had worked on Saint Seneca, Mojo Flow, and Doc Robinson albums. Afterwards, their album was mastered by Doug Van Sloun who's worked on albums for Zoey Deschanel's project She & Him, as well as Bright Eyes, Cursive, and Tokyo Police Club. Doug Von Slain has most notably mastered albums for a Grammy winning artist several years ago.
After the record was completed, the band performed their sold out album release show at Natalie's Music Hall's main stage in the summer of 2023. Chris Brooks left the band shortly after to focus more on fatherhood after his son was born earlier that year while he began a new career. Bryan Rupejko eventually parted ways after the album was released to pursue other creative endeavors as well. Not long after that, Sean turned to two life-long friends & musicians he played with in high
school and while in college. Bryce Stewart on bass guitar and Michael Williamson on drums. The 3 members played Space Bar in Columbus this past summer where they met Cecily Wendling who recently joined in July of 2025 as the band's new female vocalist. The future looks promising for the band with shows on the calendar for December and January of next year. Keep an eye out for new material and more events soon to come.