Balancing act

For some reason" the term ""student band"" comes with a dirty connotation.

Most hear it and immediately think ""sub-par"" but really, it's much more of a commentary on the age of the members than their skill level. And with that first word — student"" — comes the added responsibilities that go with being full time scholars"" all while being pulled by the desire to succeed as musicians.

As Sam Logan of The Huguenots said in an interview earlier this year: ""We do it when we can. Writing and performing — not school work.""

Lake Inferior formed more than a year ago" and in those 12 months" members Dax Beaton and Bo Beard said the band has shifted from simply a weekend passion into what has become basically a full time job.

""There is definitely pressure on us" Beard said.

We've had you know the talk and we've decided that music is what we want to do so we've been taking it more seriously and practicing and writing more" also playing a lot more shows.""

Add that to Beard's two jobs and status as a full-time student and it's a wonder the four-piece band has any time to get together for practice.

""Four of us are taking classes and one even commutes from (N.C.) State"" so we'll be having practice and someone will have a paper or a midterm the next day and be really stressed out the whole time. We've all sort of lost it at least one time.""

But they do it through strict scheduling"" making it easier for everyone to work around practice schedules and upcoming concerts because they know well in advance when they will use their nights to practice and write new songs and when they will use their evenings to write papers and study.

""We practice on Wednesday and Friday nights" Beaton said.

That schedule is so important so that people can commit to those days and know that those nights" that's what we're doing.""

For Andrew Rooney" who raps under the name Apollo though" scheduling is something that he finds difficult due to the basic nature of creativity.

""I can't say" I have free time Tuesday from 3-6 so I need to write this song because the inspiration may not be there Rooney said.

 And then I may be writing a paper the night before it is due and out of nowhere I get this great idea" and I'd have to put the paper on hold.""

Liz Ross of the band Lafcadio said that the social environment of campus is particularly conducive to making music.

""I just have this great community of friends"" she said. And luckily that community really facilitates making music.""

Rooney agreed"" saying his position as a student puts him in the position to expose people to his music through the captive audiences provided by on-campus music events.

""A lot of the dorms have music events and then there's stuff like SpringFest where you can play and there's always a lot of people there who will be getting the chance to hear your music.""

Beaton from Lake Inferior said that his band didn't want to play those sorts of events before this year"" when it signed to the student-run label Vinyl Records.

""We really weren't involved with UNC stuff before this year" he said.

We didn't want to be known as just a UNC band" we wanted the music to speak for itself.""

To ensure that the music does that"" the group has been concentrating more on music and ""skipping a few more classes to jam and write during the day.""

""We've got two shows coming up and" you know people have school stuff to do but we're concentrating more on writing and recording Beaton said.

And maybe people have to rush to practice or shows after classes are over or have longer nights" but that's a choice we've all made and I don't think I'd really want to be doing anything else.""



Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.