Rocking Beta brothers seek to break the mold

Students looking for local music don’t have to travel any further than Left On Franklin.

The band, which consists of 6 Beta Theta Pi fraternity members and students, began playing in spring of 2015. This year, they’re hoping to take their rock sound to the next level.

“There was one day where we all happened to have our gear lying around in similar spots so we all went out to this back house we have on the Beta property, and we played and jammed on some covers, and that was the first time we’d played together, and that was just kind of a fun thing where we saw that our musical tastes kind of aligned,” said Patrick McKinley, Left on Franklin’s rhythm guitar player.

This seemingly low-key jam session caught the attention of the fraternity, and led to their first official gig.

“Some of our fraternity brothers in Beta asked us if we wanted to play a weekend party, and that was when we sort of decided, depending on how well this goes, maybe we can keep doing this a little more full time,” McKinley said.

The Beta gig ended up being a hit, and began a new passion for the fraternity brothers.

“The first gig we played was pretty magical for me — I had on and off jammed with friends in high school, but had never consistently played with a band or played for anybody besides some friends and family members,” McKinley said.

While they said their early shows — which simply consisted of playing classic rock covers — felt like a success, Left On Franklin’s members were seeking more.

“I think we’ve always had the drive to do something different — we didn’t want to be a typical cover band that would be hired at parties to play all the songs that everybody already knows,” said Jere Freeman, Left on Franklin’s lead guitar player. “I think a lot of us are really creative and we’ve always wanted to do our own thing and make our own name.”

The band’s drummer Ward Snyder said a major goal of theirs has been to take their sound outside of fraternity court.

“Yes, we are all in the same fraternity, but we want to be more than that. We want to be an actual band that people can take seriously outside the conventional fraternity scene,” he said.

Juggling the responsibilities of being full-time students at UNC with having obligations to the band may sound like a lot to handle, but Left On Franklin’s members said they have been fully committed to managing both to the best of their abilities.

“A lot of it has to do with being really good with scheduling — we have been pretty good about trying to schedule everything around classes, so we’ll have a couple regular practice times that we’ll try and do the best we can to stick to and hold everybody accountable for being there on time,” said Chris Burrus, the band’s lead singer.

Left On Franklin will be releasing a four track EP on August 1 titled “From the Rafters.” The band hopes their release will help spread their music and propel them beyond what they call the “conventional fraternity scene.”

“We just recently got back our fully mastered, completely finished, studio produced EP we’d been working on, and just hearing the quality of it and realizing ‘Wow this sounds kind of good’ it’s pretty reassuring I think,” said Ward.

Although any post-college plans for the band aren’t yet concrete, the members feel confident in their ability to continue pursuing their passion.

“I think we have that drive and passion to keep playing and I think if we keep doing our thing and taking every opportunity that’s given to us I feel pretty confident we can go pretty far with it,” Freeman said.

“We just gotta work hard, stay together, and keep our mind right.”

arts@dailytarheel.com