Although Lightweight Champion is billed as a Seattle-based band, its lead singer and songwriter, Aaron Spieldenner, has since moved to Port Townsend, where he performs regularly.

This week the band is coming to Spieldenner. Lightweight Champion will be playing at the Rainshadow Recording Studio at Fort Worden on Saturday, May 24.

While Spieldenner told The Leader he’d lived in and around Seattle for most of his life, he moved to Port Townsend in February of last year after assimilating how the pandemic had affected a number of aspects of
city living.

He stayed in Chimacum for a few months before moving to Port Townsend. Spieldenner said he soon came to realize how little he knew about the community before moving there, in spite of having heard scattered accounts from friends and fellow musicians. He concluded he’d chosen wisely in spite of himself and said he has been impressed by the musical and artistic scenes of Port Townsend and East Jefferson County.

“I was struck by how all ages, young and old alike, are actively engaged in sharing their art here,” Spieldenner said. “They’re also very strongly in touch with what they want to say.”

Spieldenner touted area venues as far south as the Quilcene Lantern as providing outlets for musicians who find “genuine ways to communicate,” and draw an equally fervent response from local audiences.

“The community here really rolls out for musical performances, which generates a great feedback loop,” said Spieldenner. It is a level of engagement he enjoys with his own performances throughout the county.

When asked to describe what attendees of Lightweight Champion’s May 24 concert at the Rainshadow Recording Studio can expect, he noted that it’s a more secluded venue than someplace like the Uptown Pub in Port Townsend, where the band has played before, and where Spieldenner himself is a regular performer, during open mic nights
on Tuesdays.

“The Uptown Pub is fun because it’s bustling and spontaneous,” Spieldenner said “Our concert at Rainshadow will be a live in-studio recording, so I love that people can be part of such a cool, intimate environment. It lets people see the other side of our craft.”

Spieldenner likewise touted the “seasoned skills” of his three Seattle-based bandmates.

Late 2021 brought the group together in its initial form, with Spieldenner joined by Massachusetts-raised singer-songwriter Gabriel Delayne on piano and Vermont native Cam Hancock on drums, after they’d played with the Seattle-based bands The Whags and Coral Grief.

In particular, Spieldenner cited Delayne, a longtime friend, as a prominent influence on his own songwriting.

In October of 2022, New Jersey-raised Tom Moskal joined the group on bass, after playing with Seattle acts Coach Phillips and La Fille, and Lightweight Champion’s current roster debuted at the Conor Byrne Pub in Ballard.

In terms of genre, Spieldenner described Lightweight Champion as straddling the alternative, indie and punk subgenres, with “a twang of country” in the mix. What matters to him, however, is not just how carefully crafted and arranged the songs are, but how collaborative the band’s music is, as four already experienced musicians have learned to play even more effectively together.

Spieldenner described the band’s live arrangements as infectious, with “tight” vocal harmonies between himself and Delayne “propped up by deliberate, often dancey rhythmic interplay” between Hancock and Moskal.

Spieldenner characterized his own lead guitar work as “a rough and emotive ingredient” to contrast the focused arrangements of the group, while Delayne’s “deliberate and lyrical piano style rounds it all out.”

What to know:

The May 24 concert starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Rainshadow Recording Studio, which  is located in Building 315 on 200 Battery Way at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend.

Tickets for this and other Rainshadow Concerts are available at
rainshadowtickets.com.