Each of the finalists were vying for the grand prize: an EP recording session from sponsor Dayton Sound Studios and a paid performance at Levitt Pavilion Dayton during the 2025 summer concert series, among other perks.
Empire Pool, a recently realized Dayton band, won it all.
The band’s lineup has been in action since October, but guitarist Isaac Lucas and keyboardist Garrison Spatz started Empire Pool as a two-piece R&B and jazz project, with Lucas initially on drums. When Noah Layton joined the band as the official drummer, Lucas swapped his sticks for a pick.
Troy Abele joined the band as auxiliary percussionist around the turn of the year, and bassist Matthew Correll, currently an unofficial member, played with Empire Pool at Battle of the Bands. He will also be a part of the Levitt Pavilion summer concert and upcoming EP recording at Dayton Sound Studios.
Lucas’ affinity for ’60s rock, in tandem with Spatz’s love for R&B and gospel, contributes to Empire Pool’s genre-fluid sound. There is an indie-rock element as well as a jazz influence. You can sense the jazz aesthetic manifesting more in the band’s approach and attitude toward the music rather than the sound itself — through improvisation, under the tentpole direction of de facto bandleader, Lucas.
“There’s definitely sort of an improv element to what we do,” Abele said. “We’re never going to play a song the same way twice. It’s definitely about trying to figure out how the song develops live and in front of an audience.”
“Sometimes we’ll go into a breakdown and I’ll just start doing something, and we just kind of go with the flow,” Lucas said.
On stage, it’s an unspoken communication: feeling it out, nodding one another on, reacting along with the audience and giving them something new every show.
Isaac Lucas released the first single under the Empire Pool banner in 2023, before any of the band’s current members were involved. The single, an instrumental called “High Class, Wine Glass,” features ripping guitar riffs and sultry saxophones.
Its most recent release, “Falling Leaves,” brings Lucas’ vocals to the band’s fledgling catalog, leaning more into the indie label, R&B à la Coconut Records.
Moving forward, because of the current ratio of instrumental to traditional lyrical songs, Empire Pool plans on maintaining the fifty-fifty split — singles being instrument-heavy and full-length projects adding more depth.
Originally, Empire Pool didn’t plan to enter the Dayton Battle of the Bands. But a friend who believed in the band “voluntold” the group otherwise.
Placed in the Funk / Jam / Reggae / Ska genre category — seemingly a mismatch — Empire Pool progressed in the final preliminary round, and won the whole thing the next week.
“I’ve always wanted to be in a band since I was a kid,” Lucas said. “Just to see something that me and Garrison and everyone’s created, to see we actually did something with it… when I heard Empire Pool won, it was just like, Yeah, we did that.”
“All of a sudden, it just legitimized the effort we’ve been putting in,” Spatz said. “Seeing how we went from just a two-man thing to something that’s actually really big sounding, it’s kind of surreal.”
Empire Pool plans on heading into the studio soon to record the new EP. The band is also excited to take the stage at the Levitt later this summer.
“No matter what happens in the future, this is definitely something that can’t be taken away from us now,” Abele said. “We earned it. It happened. I’ll be riding this high for a little bit.”
Brandon Berry writes about the Dayton and Southwest Ohio music and art scene. Have a story idea for him? Email branberry100@gmail.com.
More info: Empire Pool’s latest release, “Falling Leaves,” is digitally streaming now.
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