Senior Andrew Llewellyn (left) of Imperial Ruins plays the guitar in front of a crowd of fans. The Striped Ties band members sophomores Shefali Vasudevan and Jacqueline Chu (middle) practice together. Junior Nick Darrington (right) performs for Lesser Faith.While the high school garage band seems like a nostalgic 90s throwback, these bands are far from dead. Several students at the school play in bands that share their creative capabilities and love of music with their peers.
The band The Lesser Faith is a collaboration between juniors Nick Darrington and Paul Madrid. The two have played at the Students for Justice Haiti fundraiser event at the Jungle.
“If you had to choose a genre … [for the band], pop punk would be the closest match,” Nick said.
While the band mostly plays acoustic style songs, Nick says they plan on playing louder, more electric music in a place they can “make noise and be obnoxious all day.”
“Right now we only have one song up [online] but we’re working on recording right now and hope to have about three to four up within the next month,” Nick said.
Senior Andrew Llewellyn plays guitar for the band Imperial Ruins, which used to be called Ocean Burial. They are currently on hiatus writing music while searching for a second guitarist. Drew describes the band’s music as “pretty cool, if you’re into heavy riffs and breakdowns.”
Influences include Chelsea Grin, Whitechapel and Despised Icon.
“The coolest thing we did was probably when we were still called Ocean Burial and we played this show in Gilroy with some really big bands like my favorites: Chelsea Grin, Attila and American Me. There were like 230 people there and it was pretty insane.”
The band is planning live gigs in June, and is writing for and planning a tour of California, Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Arizona in July.
Crossfire
Sophomore Jack Schonher and senior Emil Hultling are the guitarist and lead singer, respectively, of the band Crossfire. Originally a Metallica cover band, Emil says that Crossfire is expanding and planning to write its own music.
“Playing music is something I love,” Emil said. “There aren’t any boundaries.”
Like Lesser Faith, Crossfire played at the Jungle as part of the Students for Justice Haiti fundraiser concert and plans to continue playing for fans live.
The three members of sophomore band The Striped Ties met in an eighth grade talent show and have been playing together ever since. Shefali Vasudevan, Jacqueline Chu and Nikita Nagpal have invented their own brand of alternative/pop blend, but primarily write pop songs.
While the Striped Ties are not sure as to when or where their next performance will be, they did play at both the Battle of the Bands and the Talent Show last year hosted by the school.
