The Professors of Sweet, Sweet Music (THE POSSM), Talk New Songs, Hartbeat Fest, and Manifesting a Scene

The thing that’s most striking about The Professors of Sweet, Sweet Music (The POSSM) isn’t just the six-piece, Hartford, Connecticut, band’s ability to churn out infectious grooves on the regular. 

It’s their chemistry onstage that’s truly something special.

This is a band that’s clearly comfortable together, whether they’re rocking a big stage or playing a cozy brewery (while snapping hilarious family-style photos with fake mustaches).  Their vocal harmonies — vocalist/guitarist Earl Henrichon’s gravely outpourings and lead vocalist Alisa Velasquez’s honeyed, pop-kissed pipes — are gorgeously textured. Their jam-band rock grooves — courtesy of lead guitarist Craig Huntington’s 90s-inspired guitar riffs and Phish-worthy solos, plus steady support from bassist Byron Verdone, synth/keys player David Counterman, and drummer Ben Paden — evoke feelings of happiness akin to those felt by kids on the last day of school. 

(It’s an appropriate comparison, too, given that Henrichon and Huntington are full-time schoolteachers). 

But while the The POSSM may make generating good musical vibes look easy, staying the course hasn’t been without challenges.

The POSSM’s members — parents, teachers, and workhorses in the music industry — have weathered a global pandemic, lineup changes (Velasquez joined in 2024, after the departure of founding guitarist/vocalist Jeremy Haddad), and the demands of parenting. 

Yet every heartache or canceled gig has inevitably made The POSSM stronger. 

In just a couple of weeks, The POSSM will play the festival that Henrichon and the band’s former members cofounded in 2018 — the Hartbeat Music Fest in Hartford, on Saturday, June 14— for thousands of fans, with 20 other (mostly) Connecticut-based acts. There are also several indoor and outdoor events in the Hartford vicinity leading up to Hartbeat, showcasing some of the best talent the state has to offer. What’s truly wild is what started eight years ago as “POSSM and friends” shows at The Republic in Hartford, with a gathering of just a few dozen, has become a huge, multi-stage event sponsored by Riverfront Recapture and its partners that eclipses its founders’ wildest dreams.

“It went from three acts to, like, 30 acts in the first year,” says Henrichon, whose superpower, according to his bandmates, is his ability to manifest things. “I think the reason it works so well is that we have been around for a little while and playing a lot of shows. I think they felt like we were in this because we just wanted to have everybody have a good time. I think it felt genuine.”

We recently caught up with Henrichon, Huntington, and Velasquez to learn more about the band’s forthcoming album, summer gigs, and what’s next.

Rockmommy: So before we get to how you met, we’d love to learn more about who you are. Who are your musical influences? 

Craig Huntington: The first band that I loved was REM. The first concert I ever saw was Radiohead opening for [a few of my favorites]. I’m kind of all over the place. Especially now that I’m older, when I find something that I like, I like [diving into it]. Like, if I discover a band that has been around for a while, and I find out that they have super-deep catalog, I just listen to that for weeks. Over the pandemic, a band I had known about, but I never really got into before, was the band Pavement. So that’s kind of my obsessive listening. But big ones are Radiohead, REM, and Phish.

Alisa Velasquez: My whole family is very musical. I grew up listening to a lot of music. My mom taught me how to sing when I was very young. I love The Beatles. I grew up listening to Bob Marley. I remember Celine Dion, I loved her so much when I was little. Nelly Furtado, Mariah Carey … mimicking these artists kind of taught me how to sing, pretty much. They kind of were the ones who gave me voice lessons, in a sense.

I also love rock, like I grew up listening to, Tool, A Perfect Circle, Evanescence. I love the grunge, I love the grit, I love the music … really just all types of music, but definitely rock, like I’m a rocker.

Rockmommy: We were just talking about musical influences, Earl. 

Earl Henrichon: I wasn’t even really into music when I grew up that much … I was really into, like, sports, being stupid little boy, and so when I got older, I picked up guitar in my 30s … 

Rockmommy: That blows my mind, because I’ve been playing guitar since I was 18. You make it look so easy. Did you just practice constantly? Were you, like, obsessed? 

Earl Henrichon: What it comes down to is when I’m interested in something, I guess I just don’t really [care] what other people are doing. And so I think that attitude has served me well, because, you know, I’m not worried about other people’s judgment. I do what’s gonna be fun. And sometimes that turns into some really fun experiences. This is one of those things. Starting a band wasn’t really anything other than, like, ‘it’d be cool if this was a new experience to have. ‘ You know what I mean? 

Rockmommy: That’s really cool, it sounds very ‘flow of the moment.’ You’ve told me that sometimes less is more, like waiting for the right wave to come, it’s kind of like the vibe you have about surfing. I’d love to talk about how The POSSM first formed, the Cliff Notes version.

Earl Henrichon: The Cliff Notes [version] is that I got really into Jack Johnson because I was surfing, and he was a surfer playing music. And I was like, “oh shit, that’d be cool.” And a former student of mine, David Keplesky, taught me when he was a senior in high school how to play the guitar. So he would come into my office and he would teach me chords, and we played, like, a school function, and that was a pretty fun thing. 

So the first iteration of the band, formed in 2013, involved Dave and his friend Jeremy [Haddad] and a substitute teacher at the school named Big Tyler, who was a Division One football player. We played some shows together. And I still love all these guys. And then Craig came into the mix when one of my students, a couple of my students, kept telling me that ‘there’s this middle school teacher we have … you guys have a similar vibe.’ And so I emailed Craig … and so we started playing shows together. 

Rockmommy: It’s so cool. Now, are you all parents? 

Earl Henrichon: Three of us are. My daughter’s 12 years old.

Craig Huntington: I have two daughters. One is the same age as Earl’s. The other one’s a little younger, 9 and 12.

Alisa Velasquez:  My daughter is 15. She goes to the same school that Earl teaches at. 

Earl Henrichon: She pops in my office all the time asking, like, to borrow stuff! Today, she was like, ‘will you print out a picture of me and my friend?’

Rockmommy: Did any of your parents have bands? 

Alisa Velasquez: My mom was a singer. It wasn’t like, super professional.

Earl Henrichon: So my mom and dad are both ministers. My mom sang in church, but she cannot stand our band; she does not understand why people want to see us!

Rockmommy: So Alisa, how did you find these, these dudes? Earl, I vaguely remember The POSSM had a previous member who did vocal harmonies? 

Earl Henrichon: Our former [vocalist and guitarist] Jeremy Haddad and I played music together for about a decade, essentially all I’ve ever known is singing harmonies with Jeremy. And the reason I really wanted a band to begin with was that I’m a sports guy growing up, and I really liked the idea of a team. And I really like vocal harmonies, especially in rock. I grew up listening to The Beatles and, like, all the stuff in the 80s and 90s. Jeremy’s playing 9 million solo shows and all that stuff, so eventually, he was like, ‘I need to go [go solo full time].” After he left, we didn’t really know what we were going to do.

We had played a show with Alisa three or four years ago, when she sang at a CT Rocks event. That had always stayed in our head and she has a great voice. When you hear it, you remember it. And for some reason, a Facebook post of hers came across my screen when we were just sort of in the depths of [thinking], ‘I guess we’re just going to be a five-person band.’ 

But I happened to send Alisa a message, and it just think it was just the right timing, where she was like, ‘I’m interested.’ And I threw some songs her way, and she showed up at the [band rehearsal] house. We sang a couple songs together, and she left, and I was like, ‘let’s go!’

Rockmommy: Alisa, what did you think of these guys?

Alisa Velasquez: It was so fun. I had obviously met them at CT Rocks Fest, and then I had talked to Earl a little bit at the Hartbeat Fest that I had performed at, I think it was the second one. I thought that they were awesome. The music is one thing, but I’ll say I knew they were cool when I saw Craig’s face in the awkward family photos.

Craig Huntington: A couple years ago we had an opportunity to record a video. And we we actually did it at the Cheney Mills mansion in Manchester [Conn.] … and we just did this whole, like, awkward family photo shoot —  I was decked out. I had a nice big old mustache, and I best way I can describe it is almost like a character you would see in a Wes Anderson movie. It’s slightly retro, slightly hipster. It looks like they spent a lot of time putting it together. And we all had these weird outfits.

We were playing a lot at this brewery in Portland, Connecticut, called Concentric. The guy who ran the brewery really liked the song, liked the video, and … ended up making a beer called ‘Awkward Family Photo’ and took one of our pictures from that video and put it on the can.

Rockmommy: How did you guys start the Hartbeat Fest?

Craig Huntington: One of Earl’s strengths is he has this ability to rally others around a cause, to support it. Because he’s got a strong vision, and he’s passionate about it. And so, you know, people are willing to hop on board, because he’s not only passionate about what he does, but he’s, like, passionate about what everybody else does.

Rockmommy: So you manifested it, Earl?

Earl Henrichon: Yeah, it wasn’t as selfless as Craig is making it out to be. I’m like, ‘I want to play here.’ We had a bass player in our band, Tony Koos, who now lives in Indonesia, a surfing buddy of mine, who, when we played a show at the Riverfront in Hartford, basically said to the organizers [Riverfront Recapture, a nonprofit], ‘you have this downstairs area by the river that’s amazing. Seems like it’s being not used as much as it should be.’ And so they thought about it. At the time, we were doing this monthly show at the Republic called ‘POSSM and friends’ and we were bringing all these different musical acts into play shows with us. So we’re making a lot of connections, a lot of awesome musicians. 

And so the Riverfront staff brought us in, and they were like, ‘What do you think about doing, like, a two- or three-band show down there?’ And so we chewed on it a little bit. I came back to them, and I was like, ‘What do you guys think about two stages of music?’ And they were like, ‘Okay.’ And then I was like, ‘What do you think about three stages? We’ll run the sound on the third stage.’ 

It went from three acts [in 2018] to, like, 30 acts in the first year, and everybody got paid, like, 50 bucks the first year around, and we weren’t sure if anyone was going to show up, and we had, like, 2,500 people there Year One. And then Year Two, we got some grant funding, and we had a really nice day. 

Rockmommy: It just goes to show what we can accomplish if we put our minds to it.

Earl Henrichon: At the risk of giving us too much credit, I think the reason it works so well is that we have been around for a little while and playing a lot of shows. I think they felt like we were in this because we just wanted to have everybody have a good time. I think it felt genuine. 

Rockmommy: I want to talk about the new album and the music and how you came together to write these songs — and with Alisa, who gets to put her stamp on it! 

Craig Huntington:  We have our own process, how we approach songwriting. I guess I know for me, I have to have kind of the whole version, to a certain extent, done for the most part, before I even bring to the band. 

I’m like, ‘well, I want to know what this sounds like with three guitar parts, a drum track, a bass and this end and the keyboard,’ so I would just demo all that on my laptop. I have hours and hours and hours of music just like that. And then lyrics are always the hard part for me, they always came last. 

One of the two singles we released between the last album, this one called “Her” — benefited, really, from arrangement ideas that came from the band. Talk about Alisa putting a stamp on it! I had this piece of music that I actually, like, initially came up with … I must have sat on it for almost a year, and then one day, Alisa and I were talking, and I was like, “can I just throw you some music?” And I did, and my results are pretty mind blowing.

Alisa Velasquez: He sent me the song, and it was just beautiful, and I immediately connected to it, and it immediately took me to a place … the theme of what it was going to be about, immediately just came to me, and I was so excited, and I recorded a demo, and I wrote the lyrics down, and I sent it to Craig.

Craig Huntington: One the things that we’re finding With this song is that people are … there’s been positive reactions from people when we play, which has been really good. And we would never have had that without, you know, what Alisa is bringing.

Rockmommy: It can be frustrating when not everybody 100% agrees.

Earl Henrichon: I will say, I think that we are pretty good about taking in suggestions from the rest of the band. We don’t have egos in our own way. I’m really excited for this new album. I think it’s by far our best music, and it’s not even close. I’m excited!

We have this one song song, “Come Back Home” that Alisa and Craig did together that is an absolute home run. With “Come Back Home,” I feel the same way I felt when we initially put out “Tidal Wave” and people were responding to it in a way that I was not prepared for. And that one won, like, a bunch of awards and all the stuff started to happen. I I feel the same way about some of these songs. I think people are going to really like them. And there’s a wide range.

Rockmommy: How do you guys find time to record? 

Craig Huntington: I mean, you know, we’re six people that, like you said, have jobs and other commitments and things like that, going a lot of different directions. So even sometimes just the time to practice is a challenge. 

For recording, we’re trying to just get those moments when we can do what we got to do, like when Alisa and Earl put in some time to, you know, re-record some of their vocals, and our drummer Ben and I, we go to the studio after and listen to some mixes, and give some feedback. And we make it happen.

Alisa Velasquez: For me, for balancing the band and being a mother, that was one of the reasons why I decided to do music full time. Because the full-time job, the band, being a good parent … being present was too difficult, and something, something had to give. At some point, it just wasn’t livable. I’m able to have more of control of my schedule doing music. You know, my daughter can come to most of these events. She can come to rehearsal. I’m home more. I’m there for things that that need to happen. I’m not tied to a specific schedule. 

So for me, balancing the band and being a mom was the easiest part of it all, I think. In terms of everybody else, I think it’s important to remember that everybody does have a lot going on, and they come in, and somebody may have stress on their shoulders, and it may start to be a little tense. It’s about giving people grace and understanding. 

Earl Henrichon: I agree! That’s well said! Craig and I talk about it all the time, that just the idea of being able to go do this fun thing, you know — we’re the old men with families, and we get to go, like, live like rock stars for a couple minutes here or there. 

Craig Huntington: We, as teachers, have our intense moments. But also, you know, we have a lot of flexibility. And unfortunately, my wife is also a teacher, so all four of us here in my house are pretty much on the same schedule, so we get a lot of family time in the off times. But, you also, my wife’s super supportive, so we’re we’re able to kind of make things happen. She realizes how much this aspect of my life is important, playing music. 

If music is that important to you, too, and you have the support of people around you, you carve out time to do that.

Earl Henrichon: So I think … every version of the band has been very much like a family. You know, we have our ups and downs.

Like what Craig said, I would be remiss to not bring my family into this. My wife is just an incredibly supportive human. It makes all of these things happen for me. You know, to go do whatever. I’m an incredibly active guy. I have lots of groups of people I like to do stuff with — music is just one of them. She sort of knows what makes me tick. The time I’m not doing those things, I’m going to be here with my family.

Craig Huntington: His wife’s sort of, like, the secret band manager.

Earl Henrichon: Oh yeah, that too, yeah. That’s pretty great. So yeah, I think we’ve got the support of the people around us, and that’s how it happens, right? That’s what it is. You don’t do this without balancing this correctly and having supportive people around you.