All photos by Liz Winders
Thursday night was the 2024 Pledge Drive Battle of the Bands, a donation-based competition to see who will get to open next spring's Culture Shock. Karl and I snagged each of the bands who performed at this year's Battle of the Bands for a quick little interview. Check all these bands out below, and keep supporting our cause! Long live student radio!
Brylee: How long have you guys been playing together as a band?
Sarah Scherrer (They/Them): So we started playing 3 years ago, like, sophomore year. He [Zach] joined after, that's Skyler's brother.
Carson Hoberty (He/Him): Yeah. So he joined last year, like a year and half ago?
B: What’s your biggest musical inspiration?
SS: Grateful Dead, mostly. We like Big Thief, and like, The Beatles
Skyler Robinson (He/Him): Folky stuff as well, Bob Dylan
B: Describe your music style, your preference, your taste, whatever, in one word only. You get each get one word.
SR: Oh, I have mine. Live.
CH: Can I use like a hyphen? Like laid-back? That's one word.
Zach Robinson (He/Him): I’ll say rhythmic…
SS: Maybe, like, pocket. Okay. Sure. That encapsulates a lot of things.
B: Last question. What do you guys love about WIUX?
SS: That you guys are giving opportunities to bands like us then.
SR: And you all of you guys are so cute!
SS: Everybody's awesome. I really like the Instagram.
CH: Like, you give opportunities to local bands!
SS: Opportunities and being chill as hell.
ZR: What's not to love about local bands?
Brylee: When did you guys start the band?
Jaiden Casey (She/Her): I started this band in May of last year…
Salem Durham (They/Them): He [Charlie] joined like, 1 or 2 weeks ago? Yeah
Charlie Collier (He/Him): It's my second show ever! And no rehearsal!
B: What is your biggest inspiration for the music you guys make?
JC: We need to answer individually.
CC: Okay. I don't know, I'm thinking of, like, nineties emo, post hardcore and stuff. I really like Unwound, I'm wearing a t- shirt right now. So that's my inspiration.
JC: I love things like Sonic Youth and the MC, and Neutral Milk Hotel.
SD: I’m inspired by a lot of goth music like Bauhaus and Sex Gang Children. And, I'm also inspired by a lot of metal like Korn and Deftones, nu-metal I guess. Oh, and Type-O Negative.
Ryan Bednarcik (He/Him): I would have to say, it'd probably be a lot of emo rock, goth rock, and then probably Destroy Boys.
SD: Oh, I forgot My Bloody Valentine.
JC: Jesus and Mary Chain!
B: Describe your sound as in one word. You get one word.
JC: Abstract. Abstract?
SD: I like abstract.
B: What do you guys love about WIUX student radio?
CC: I got this one! have my own radio show. It's super fun and there's always, like, events happening. There's so much being put on by WIUX. It's like there's so many opportunities to talk to cool people about music and stuff.
Brylee: How long have you guys been playing together?
Jimmy Neely (He/Him): Shit.
Zach Gutzwiller (He/Him): Maybe 6 months. Me and Jimmy played together for probably a year. Maybe 9 months. And then probably 3 months in, we added Connor.
B: What are your biggest inspirations for your music style?
ZG: Guitar Fight From Fooly Cooly, math rock, epic-math-rock-hardcore-ish.
Connor Barcus (He/Him): Stuff like Merchant Ships, anything screamo, Morning Dew, that shit, all that.
JN: For Inward Heal specifically, I really like hardcore drumming. That's, like, the only thing I've really taken inspiration for I guess.I really just like the style. Like, the style of playing is literally so much fucking fun.
B: Describe your music in one word. You have one singular word...
ZG: Fast. Yeah.
JN: I was gonna say loud. Fast and loud.
CB: Fast emo...
B: What do you guys love about WIUX?
ZG: I love that it's student ran!
CB: I love how accepting WIUX is. When I was a freshman, they were, like, probably the most approachable organization, I would say.
JN: I like when they spotlight community music, like, music in the scene and stuff. Like that’s cool!
Brylee: How long have you guys been playing together? I think this was your first show, right?
Paolo Castillo (He/Him): I think 3 weeks tops. (This was in fact their first show! Crazy!)
B: What's your biggest musical influence or inspiration right now?
PC: I think right now, for the whole band, it's been Basement. Definitely been listening to a lot of Basement.
Arya Lakshman (He/Him): We covered a Basement song, Whole.
PC: Oh, also Hum is very big for us.
Maylee Cardinal (They/Them): I also say Title Fight.
PC: Title Fight and I’d end it off with Sonic Youth. Yeah.
B: You get one singular word describing music style. You get one word. Hyphenating is okay, but you get one word.
Charlie Ballard (He/Him): I wanna say, like, yeah, like, manic.
AL: Ridonkulous?
PC: Manic hyphen ridonkulous.
CB: Ordered chaos.
B: What do you guys love about WIUX?
CB I love WIUX!
MC: I love how it’s free to any students!
PC: Like Culture shock! Culture shock’s the best!
AL: And they love the local music community!
MC: It's true. It's true. Very supportive!
Karl: How long have y'all been a band?
Thom Kitchel (He/They): So we have been a band, I wanna say since September 2023, but we didn't really start, like, locking in on writing songs till November 2023, and we didn't start playing shows till February 2024. So I feel like the truest answer is like…
Cameron Parker (He/Him): 9 months?
TK: Someone did the math...
K: What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
TK: I would say probably my biggest inspiration would be Sonic Youth. I feel like Sonic Youth really influences, like, not only how I play, like, I use a lot of Sonic Youth tunings, but I also, you know, I go pretty pretty ham with the noise. And you do have to quote me on that ‘ham with the noise.’
Anna Prager (She/They): Favorite, or I guess influence that's kind of an overarching with everything, Car Seat Headrest, but recently, They Are Gutting A Body Of Water for sure.
CP: Probably Seventh Cloud from Fort Wayne is my biggest biggest influence because after seeing them, I started, like, taking it seriously.
Nova Hardie (He/They): Probably biggest influence is Joy Division, or The Cure or The Birthday Party or recently, it's been Skinny Puppy.
Alex Cappelli (She/Her): I guess for this project, I'll go off of Thom. I'll say, Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth. It's very badass, very awesome.
K: Describe your music in one word. You get one word.
CP: Spacey.
TK: Bonkers.
NH: Flabbergasting.
AC: Loud!
AP: Can I do a sound? Auuaahhh! Ahh? aaAAAUUHH?!?!
K: What do you love about WIUX?
CP: My favorite thing about WIUX is all the events that they put on and, like, ways I can interact with WIUX without being in the club. So, like, this event or Culture Shock or, the stuff that goes on during Pledge Drive too is super fun. That's, like, the part that is most fun for me because I get to interact with it as a person who's not even in the club.
NH: I mean, the style of music we're playing would not be a thing without college radio because, like, that's what popularized it pretty much. So it's like, yeah! College radio!
AP: I love people to share all of my friends on the airwaves talking about the music that they love, and this town is, like, such a music town, so it's just very wholesome and amazing. Yay!
*Members Gibson James and Leigha Trusty not present during time of interview
Karl: How long have y’all been a band?
Camille Brinson (She/Her): A little over six months…Nine months?Sarah: We played our first show in April.
K: What's your biggest inspiration musically?
CB: I would say some early Mitski, some, like, The Cranberries and stuff. Like, oh, Smashing Pumpkins!
Sarah Simcox (She/Her): Yeah. And then, like, early 2000s, like, pop punk.
CB: You can figure that out though. We don't need to tell you that.
K: Any specific bands from that era?
CB: MCR, Gibson loves, like, every other emo band ever.
K: Describe your music in one word. You get one word!
Lilly Luse (She/They): Fun!
SS: Theatrical..
CB: Intelligent. Music for nerds!
K: What do you love about WIUX?
CB: I love everything! My dad did student radio when he was in college. And so I, like, when I grew up, I was like, that sounds so awesome! And I didn't really think that I could just do that, and I can because WIUX makes it so easy, and they're very inclusive. Everyone can do it, so I think it's really awesome.
SS: Yeah. I love the way that it gets people involved in media in, like, a really fun way that you can make it your own. Like, we've [Sarah and Camille] been DJs, we have a show together. We've been DJs for, like, 4 semesters now. It's, like, the highlight of our week.
LL: I love that it just provides, like, a really creative space for students to kind of get involved in music in all sorts of ways. Like, there's the radio shows. I've done it for 4 semesters and it’s just a really great community builder. And, yeah, it's really great to have such a thriving, like, established music scene through WIUX.
MOURNING STAR POST-WIN INTERVIEW
Brylee: How are you feeling after knowing that you are now gonna open Culture Shock next year?
Cameron Parker (He/Him): Psyched. Psyched!
Thom Kitchel (He/They): It's very surreal. I would say surreal.
Nova Hardie (He/They): After seeing TAGABOW this year, I'm like, holy shit! We're gonna play on the same stage as TAGABOW.
Anna Prager (She/They): I'm so scared. I'm so scared!
B: Talk about, like, the process of picking what you played tonight, how you guys got ready for tonight, what are your feelings!
CP: So, originally, we were kind of out in trouble picking songs, especially just narrowing it down to, like, a small amount of songs. So we just put together our favorite songs, plus one of our favorite covers we've done by Slowdive, and just fucking cranked the amps!
TK: So I was originally under the impression that you had to do 2 original songs and a cover. So I was like, okay, we'll just we'll do Souvlaki because, I mean, that one's just fun to play. In terms of picking the originals, it was really difficult because like we use a lot of tunings so it was like, okay we also have to figure out not only can we fit X amount of songs in 15 minutes, can we fit like tuning breaks for some of those songs. But I think tonight's set was finalized, like, a few hours ago, and we were kind of arguing about, like, what we would play and what we wouldn't play. But I think it was a great set. I had a lot of fun playing it!
B: How are you guys feeling about the way that it came together, the crowd, everything?
CP: It was one of the most fun sets we played. Was it, like, our technically most proficient set in the world? No. I dropped a drumstick twice in the same song. I threw it, Tom. We had a ridiculous amount of fun playing that show. It was like, the crowd was super into it. Everyone was having fun, and it was I don't know. It was great. It was really great.
TK: I was shitting bricks before we played. I was so nervous. I was so terrified and I was scared, but I think, like, sometimes, like, when you're the most nervous, that's when you play your best because, like, you eventually, are like, alright, if I am focused so much on, like, possible mistakes, then I'm gonna go insane. So you're kind of just, like, okay. You know? It's a SpongeBob quote that I think Nova brought up today that's like, well, if we play loud enough, they'll think we're good. And honestly, I'm very proud of it. I'm proud of my my solo on the last song because I was practicing that all day and I was like, I'm fucking it up a billion times. I'm not getting this shit. And I got it!
B: What are you most proud of? What are you most proud of from today's set? And what are you most excited for regarding Culture Shock?
TK: I guess just, like, the scale of it, you know? Just the scale of it and, like, the fact that, you know, it's kind of a pretty big deal in terms of, like, IU. So I guess it's just cool. It's cool that, like, people in Bloomington, like, value us enough to vote for us to play. I think that's really cool.
NH: I'm just really proud of all of us because it seems like, you know, over the months, we've just gotten so comfortable playing in front of people. And I'm just really excited to, you know, be playing in front of a larger crowd at Culture Shock with a really good band.
CP: I thought what I did best was not, freaking out when I dropped the drumstick. Just kept playing. I gotta start bringing spare drumsticks. What I'm most excited for is just, like, it was the same as when me and Anna played Burning Couch. Just kinda like seeing your name on a poster and like, seeing that poster, like, around town or, like, post it on Instagram. It's kinda like a moment of, like, man. Like, this is, like, for real. This is, like, serious. Like, we're actually, you know, we're actually playing this, it's kinda awesome.
AP: I think, like, we all get in our heads a lot, and we're like, man. Like, when you're up there, it's really hard to tell how people feel about you sometimes. So it's nice to, I guess, have, like, a little bit of validation that people actually like our music, and people are just so nice. And I'm really looking forward to, like, just, I don't know, getting to play with a lot of other bands.
Alex Cappelli (She/Her): I don't think I did anything crazy tonight, but I've gotten better at playing with a pick. So now it's like I don't even have to, like, think about it, which I used to have to think about it. I don't know if I'll be at the Culture Shock show. I hope I can make it if I'm still, like, around here, but I don't know. I'm super excited for all of them, and I'm really excited to, like, have been a part of this tonight. And, yeah, it went really well!
Thank you to all the great bands who came out to play our Pledge Drive 2024 Battle of the Bands event last night! Keep an eye out for more performances by these artists and check out their social media pages for more info.
