Bike Routes

Bike Routes is David Lawrence Osterhout. Deeply intimate, earnest, and heartfelt expressions of anxiety, heartbreak, and acceptance lie within deceptively sugary melodies and hooks. David’s acoustic guitar is the anchor, inviting listeners into a notebook full of emotion and authenticity.

The Garden State gave the world Bruce Springsteen, The Misfits, Lifetime, and The Gaslight Anthem. There’s perhaps a bit of the essence of each of those trailblazers within the Bike Routes sound. While the South Jersey singer/songwriter conjures the spirit of the iconic troubadours of indie rock, and postmodern pop-punk, he distinctively carves a singularly unique identity all his own.

Songs like “You Want It You Got It,” “World Apart,” and “Airplane” are modern ready-made anthems. Bike Routes performances of stripped-down versions of Tigers Jaw, As Cities Burn, Death Cab For Cutie, and Springsteen songs stretch back to before his first EP, Just Let It Go (2020), arrived. His debut album, Love is an Action (2022), was written and recorded, at first, as an acoustic record. However, producer Zach Tuch (Touché Amoré, Silverstein, Movements) helped expand the sound.

The Rush of Energy EP, the first Bike Routes release via Blue Grape Music, crackles with urgency and energy without losing the intimate feel of the earlier work. “You Want It, You Got It” and “World Apart” are ready-made anthems for audiences who share Osterhout’s diverse tastes and passions.

Bike Routes excels in the live environment, as evidenced on a Spring 2024 tour with Hawthorne Heights. “Reading books is my hobby,” David says. “And I’ve always loved writing. Learning how to say what I want exactly the right way throughout the years has been a joy. Playing shows is the payoff. Performing these songs that I feel fully connected to and connecting with the crowd.”