Sweet Pickles

Sweet Pickles is an alternative rock power trio specializing in up-tempo danceable grooves. Sweet Pickles creates punk rock anthems that begin immediately and remain urgent until each song's conclusion. Hailing from the mid-Atlantic USA and South America Sweet Pickles are currently merging their talents in Washington DC. Self-described as funky punk, Sweet Pickles plays all-original music, constructed by lead singer and principle song writer, Derrick Hensley. Crossover TV described the band’s sound thusly, “if the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fun Lovin’ Criminals had a baby, these guys are it”.

Sweet Pickles is the product of a confluence of musical geography undergirded by Joaquin Vallejo’s Latin American-style drumming, Robert Lee’s soulful bass guitar vetted through the DC R&B and punk rock scenes, and Derrick Hensley’s guitar work which has been influenced by the music of the Appalachian mountain region from where he originates.  Derrick, Joaquin, and Rob are lifelong students of music and have devoted themselves to the craft. Each member contributes to the band in an ineffable way making Sweet Pickles greater than the sum of its parts.

Through mutual friends and acquaintances Derrick, Joaquin, and Rob began their musical journey together at a local watering hole in  the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington D.C., located auspiciously atop a Shake Shack burger joint. Since formation in November 2018, Sweet Pickles have played many high-intensity three hour gigs and have opened for such headliners as Sponge and The Nixons of late 90’s and early 2000’s notoriety. Sweet Pickles have identified up-and-coming talent and regularly collaborate with the areas hot new acts making talent identification and incorporation an organizational standard of operation.

Shortly after forming Sweet Pickles, over 30 all-original songs were generated through rehearsal and of those, 9 songs were ultimately selected for the debut LP, “HIGHER IDILLS,” - slated for release September 3, 2021. “HIGHER IDILLS” was recorded at the legendary Inner Ear Studios with Don Zientara as its co-producer and mastered by industry veteran, TJ Lipple. The first single off the debut album,  “Don’t Funk With Me” has been featured on radio outlets, such as WERA, alongside the likes of Fugazi, Bad Brains and Gogol Bordello.

While celebrating fresh artists and new music, Sweet Pickles draws from the annals of rock n’ roll moving the genre of Alternative Rock forward by fusing the refined elements of blues and jazz with the raw energy of funk and punk rock. Sweet Pickles endeavors to contribute to the continuing story of music and revel together, ecstatically, with its audience in the divine spirit of Rock ‘n’ Roll.