On Friday, February 21st, Northwest Academy is hosting its first ever Battle of the Bands competition.
Hadley Pack, the High School Activities Coordinator, had been brainstorming this idea for a long time, and first pitched it to the school a few months ago. She was inspired by the school’s annual block party and saw an opportunity to showcase student bands.
“We had a student band play at the block party, and it was so cool,” Pack said. “It seemed like families were really into it and that the musicians were excited, and I had other student musicians approach me, wondering if they could play at the block party, too.”
In this competition, five student bands will be playing, some pre-existing, long term groups while others have formed specifically for this performance.
Hesitant
Jake Chisholm, Cesar Garcia, Sami Hibbard and Joey Kilberg are all members of Hesitant. They refer to themselves as a hardcore groove-metal band, and will be playing three songs, including their composition “Demagogue” as well as “For Whom The Bell Tolls” by Metallica and “Amazonia” by Gojira.
These longtime friends attended School of Rock together. They say they joined the Battle of the Bands to garner a larger audience and because it was an interesting opportunity.
“We try to practice once a week but we are all friends outside of the band so we see eachother often,” said Chisholm, who plays drums. “It’s fun to have a group that shares your music interests.”
Chisholm is also designing the poster for Battle of the Bands, and says excited to work with other student-led bands and engage with the musical community at NWA.
Next Tuesday At Four
Juniors Adelena Paternoster and Clara Kornelis are a musical duo who play bass and guitar, respectively. They are performing a few original songs and a cover of a song by Xiu Xiu at the Battle of the Bands.
They formed in freshman year and have collaborated with many other musicians since. Ezra Curry Vietze, now a sophomore at NWA, helped produce and record their music and alum Gideon Perlitz drummed for them over the summer.
“We mostly play stuff I write,” said Kornelis. “I like playing music because it’s such a community based thing.”
They try to meet a couple times a month, usually playing at Kornelis’ house or in the school’s band room. They are currently searching for opportunities to play, and recently performed at Max Wallsmith, a member of another student-led band’s, birthday party. They are actively looking for a drummer.
The Junebugs
The Junebugs, composed of June Kirts, Teagan Groves and Roya Manchester, are a cover band. For the Battle of the Bands, they will be covering “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane.
“We’ll try to come up with originals,” Groves said. “But mainly just [play] pop songs, but on acoustic guitar.”
Although the band is new, all three members have been in guitar classes together since seventh grade, and all three will be performing vocals.
Block 9
Uzi Thompson, Signe Miner, Ezra Vietze, Clara Gooley and Zeke Bailly are all members of the band Block 9. The band plays many different genres, though lately, it has a more punk rock style.
“We don’t really have a genre yet,” said Thompson. “We’re trying to not, you know, cast ourselves too much in any specific direction.”
The band is brand new, and still trying to find their identity, both in the genre of music they play and how serious they are about playing.
Caboose
Max Wallsmith and Nico Calvanese are a band who perform rock, jazz and blues songs. They write original songs, though the band mostly plays covers.
“I think hopefully [we’ll play] probably a couple songs,” said Wallsmith. “But like extended jams, because that’s kind of just what we do when we just play together.”
The band typically gets together at Wallsmith’s house or in the school band room, playing wherever they have time.
The NWA Battle of the Bands will be held in the Blue Box Theatre from 2 to 4 p.m.
Reporting by Augusta Gindling and Jonas Honeyman-Colvin
