The smell of rotting piano filled the air as a man, bent like an accordion, leaned over the piano’s  remains, pressing its pearly ribs into a suspended melody. He pushed his long brown hair up into his knit beanie and looked out of the concrete-lined window over the city.

This man’s name is Joe Reinhart.

Since first picking up a guitar as a teenager Reinhart, guitarist of Hop Along, has been in love. Not with the fame of his trade, but with music.

“I get to come in here, do what I love for a living and go on tour doing what I love… It’s a lot of hard work, it’s not like you have a job where you leave and just forget about it and not ever think about it again until you go back. It’s constant, it’s always, but that’s what I like about it, and I’m very happy.” said Reinhart, now 33.

Although his first muses included Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, and Stone Temple Pilots, watching Green Day and Nirvana rock out, as a tween, inspired him to do so himself.

“When that stuff started happening I was like, ‘oh, that looks easy, I can do that,” said Reinhart.

Soon, inspired by the legendary punk bands of mohawks not-yet-passed, Reinhart and his friends had begun their own music group.

“It was like two or three of us. My friend, his sister had a karaoke machine, so we stole that, and started singing and writing songs with the guitars, and then I got a Talk Boy and we started recording with that…eventually we acquired drum sets and we just started being loud. All of the time. Always.”

Reinhart’s lorax-esque mustache curled up with a smile as he went on about the music of his youth. “I think it was 6th grade when I wrote my first song. Maybe, f—, I don’t know. We were listening to a lot of Rancid, so maybe it was about… like, a skateboarder that got all bloody skateboarding, and kept skateboarding- I didn’t even skateboard, I just thought that was cool to write about. I’ve gotta find that tape somewhere. I don’t think it still exists,”.

Now, Reinhart works full-time as sound engineer and producer at Headroom Studios, of which he is a partial owner, in addition to playing tours with Hop Along. Reinhart was also a member of bands Dogs on Acid and Algernon Cadwallader.

“My first job in the [music] industry was maybe recording bands, I think. 7th or 8th grade, whenever I got a 4 track I was recording bands… for, like, 30 bucks, or a case of beer, or a bag of weed, or something. Whatever it was. I did a lot for free, too, but I guess that still counts. Then I worked Pro Line [Music]… I just always tried to surround myself with things related to it,” said Reinhart.

Over a decade after Reinhart’s first gig with his friends in their hometown’s Fire House, in Yardley, PA, his band has reached top charts, being featured in the ‘Best Albums of 2015’ lists of magazines like Rolling Stone, Saddle Creek, and Pitchfork.

“It was obviously an honor to be recognized like that, and I think that’s really cool, but as with any other record I’ve ever made, it’s kinda like, I work my a– off and I do the best job I can do and then once I’m happy with it and I’m like ‘I like this, this is good’. If people hated it, I wouldn’t be bummed or surprised. Now that a lot of people seem to like it, I’m not bummed, or surprised, or even that excited because the excitement, for me, was making it,”.

“I’m super glad they liked it, I’m flattered, but it’s not why we do it, it’s not the end game, it’s not that important,” he said.

Joe’s dedication to his art, rather than his fame, has carried through into his touring.

“…the first time I went on tour I was like, if i never do anything else I can say I did this and I’ll feel good about it. First time I went to Europe, first time I played a sold out show, first time I headlined a sold out show, like first time we sold a thousand record. Every Time something like that happens, I’m like ‘this is awesome’. You know? ‘cause it’s another milestone, and I wouldn’t, right now, be bummed if I could never do anything again like in the music industry because I feel like I’ve done a lot. I mean, I felt that way when I hadn’t done a lot but the little I did I was like ‘this is cool’,” said Reinhart

Joe, known most on tour, not for his musical skills, but for his ability to lose shoes in all conditions, wears high, colorful socks at the studio, avoiding the temperature issues that come with losing his shoes.

“Sometimes my shoes get mailed back to me. Sometimes I get them the next time I’m in that town or place. Someone will show up at a show like ‘you left these at my house three years ago’  and I’m like ‘oh my god’. It happens often… Luckily, last time it happened I had my running shoes with me, so, I was walking all over L.A. looking for a pair of shoes in my running shoes. We had to leave like super early the morning before and I just was too tired to realize that I had no shoes on,” said Reinhart.

As far as playing on tour goes, Reinhart still holds a place in his heart for the small venues in which he first played in the basements of Philadelphia.

“I think maybe it’s a little more laid back [at basement shows]. There’s more interaction between the bands and the people there to see them, because you’re all in the same space doing the same thing- talking, smoking cigarettes outside, doing whatever- and I think that’s a good thing for the most part, better than the bigger places… I love playing basement shows. I’ll do it again, sooner rather than later,” he said, although he doesn’t miss the basement scene too much compared to bigger shows.

“I like it when there’s a green room when we’ve been traveling all day where we can sit there, have a beer, take a deep breathe, get on the internet, and then go walk around. I like having that place to chill even if it’s just for 15 minutes.” said Reinhart. “As far as little places, I’ve got a soft spot for The Fire,… It’s a nostalgia thing.”