Thomas Tedesco and Connor Best, the founders of the band Tedesco Knows Best, have been friends for a little over 10 years since elementary school.

“From being friends, we discovered our mutual love for rock music,” Tedesco said.

Their very first performance together as a duo was in 2017 at Sal Maglie Stadium in Niagara Falls as a part of the annual Summer Fest at the Sal event.

Tedesco Knows Best recently expanded with two additional members: Cam Lord on drums and Collin Lacki on keyboard and back-up vocals.

“All Around Us,” their new four-song EP that was released last April, was recorded, engineered and produced last Fall at Arkwright Loft Studio by Lord, who they were first introduced to by Lacki.

“We pride ourselves in original material, but it was a matter of finding the right time, the right place to record these songs and get them into the way that we envisioned them,” Tedesco said.

The original recording of their music was just the two of them until they expanded with more sound elements.

After a few months of recording, “All Around Us” was born.

Their first single, “Starry Eyes,” a fan favorite, came out last January.

Their music was aired right here at Buffalo State College’s very own 91.3 WBNY-FM; Akron, Ohio’s 91.3 The Summit-FM and Rock Hill, South Carolina’s 98.5 WYTX-LP-FM.

“Most of the ones that we hear on the radio is just [‘Starry Eyes.’] We sent them the full EP and we’re still waiting to hear if they wanted to play some of the other songs from that,” Best said.

“We believe strongly for these songs, so we find a value in the hope that all four songs can reach an extended audience,” Tedesco said.

Some of their inspirations come from artists like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Bryan Adams, but they aim for originality.

“It’s important not to chase trends because in that way you can sound very dated,” Tedesco said. “That’s the thing with some of those biggest songs from the artists we love, you play them and they sound still as good as they did when they came out. We don’t want to be stuck to any one particular scene [or] genre, we just focus on writing those good songs.”

How do two besties manage that balance between friendship and business?

“For people who want to start a business or start a band with their friend or significant other, just go downstairs into the basement and suck at music for some time because no matter how much you suck at it, you’re still gonna get better, [you’ll] progress a little bit longer in that and it will pay off very well,” Best said.

Tedesco said that their long-time friendship has definitely benefited their music business together in the long-run.

“I know his moves and he knows my moves, so there’s a lot of things that we don’t even have to say to each other because we know how each other would react to certain things, but of course, sometimes you have your fair share of disagreements,” he said. “It’s like in any relationship, but you find out how you work together, and we’re both trying to achieve the same goal, so we both have something in mind that we want to accomplish.”

They plan on releasing a full-length record next year with new music.

“We want to build up the home crowd in the western New York area, but really, our market is the world,” Tedesco said.

“All Around Us” is now streaming on all platforms.

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