“We just want to play music”: South students jam outside of class in independent bands

Down the creaky stairs of the Riverview Café, through the labyrinth of a basement, music can be heard from a back room. The hall outside the room stores food and cleaning supplies but once you walk in it’s as if you’ve entered a world of punk rock. The walls are painted with band references, the floor is cluttered with guitar picks and chords, and the ceiling clearly displays the underside of the first floor.

Auguste Bernick and Gillian Rath are two south high freshman students that are in the process of forming a band. They meet up in this secret little room every Monday for about two hours. They improve their musical talents by feeding off each others knowledge. Sarah Minette is one of the teachers in South High’s music department. She states that forming a band would be referred to as “informal learning. Where there is a lot of experimentation and trying out different things and you don’t really have an “authority figure” telling you what to do.”

Bernick and Rath don’t always have strict practices though, they’ll stop and geek out every once and awhile to debate over band which band is better than the other. “How do you not like the Smashing Pumpkins?!” Rath exclaims with a bewildered look on her face. They enjoy rocking out to some of their favorite songs from famous bands such as Green Day and Nirvana.

Many other students that want to start a band all struggle with the first step, finding other band members. Gideon Cole is an electric guitarist that is in this position. He explains that it’s just difficult to find people to jam with. It’s hard to find people that are not only able to play well but that also enjoying playing the same genre of music. He’s currently finding people through his connections with other students. It’s definitely a process but once you’ve formed a band you need to put yourself out there.

Which is exactly what students Matthew Beachy, Ricky Kruse, Spencer Cannon, Sam Guindon, and Owen Guindon are members of a band named Cabin 10. They came together April 15th, 2015 at Washburn High School Battle of the Bands. “We kept playing after that because we had such good chemistry.” They’ve performed at Washburn and Southwest Battle of the Bands,  state fairs, county fairs, and block parties.

Owen Guindon is the drummer of the band and loves performing,“ We just want to play music and like have people enjoy it like it’s not even about being famous it’s just sort of playing shows that like everyone wants to come see that’s probably the best feeling in the world.”. The band has already published an extended play (ep). Cabin 10 is on iHeartRadio, Spotify, and iTunes. They explained how their ep was more of an experiment. Now that they have tested the waters they are working on their very first album. “This is going to be our first real like project. I’m really looking forward to see how this one plays out.”

These bands are on very different stages but they all share one thing in common. They all love music. “Everybody has their things that they can relate to. Like some people are really good at math, or some people are really good at reading, and things like that. And I just I like making music.” – Auguste Bernick