Squawk Talk: The Teen Musicians Behind Roseville Battle of The Bands

Five local teen-age bands will compete in Central Park in Roseville tonight for the chance to play at the state fair and win a recording package from the Institute of Production and Recording (IPR).

It’s the 13th year that Battle of the Bands is being held in Roseville and more than 500 teens and community members are expected to attend, said Roxann Maxey, the parks department’s youth recreation program supervisor.

Bands auditioned in the spring, and five bands were chosen to perform: Forgiven Drifter, Hound Harbor, Crysist, Moronic State and December Night.

Five judges from Ramsey County Library, Best Buy and the IPR will decide the winner.

The event is community funded, paid for by local business sponsorships and organized by the city parks department’s unpaid intern, Abby Jackson.

The competition runs from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Frank Rog Amphitheatre and is open to the public.

In advance of the competition, Patch talked music with several of the competing bands.

December Night

Cody Hartley and Graham Seignious’s previous band, The Summer Night, took third place at last year’s Battle of the Bands. Now, the duo have replaced their guitarist with Ben Rhee, a friend from Parkview Middle School, and reformed as December Night.

Hartley, a junior at Concordia Academy, plays bass, while his neighbor Graham Seignious, a sophomore at Roseville Area High School, plays drums. Roseville Patch talked to Hartley about AC/DC, song lyrics and drinking bleach.

Roseville Patch: What are your musical influences?

Cody Hartley: Nirvana, Rush, AC/DC, Steve Vai. We’re hard rock.

How did the name arise?

We wanted to do something other than the hard rock stuff--the touching, slow melodies. I thought of something that meant a lot to me: sitting by the fire on a December night with the snow coming down, sitting under a blanket, drinking hot chocolate. You’re safe and sound in the comfort of your own home.

What’s your favorite place you’ve played?

We played the State Fair last summer. It was a small crowd, small stage--like 20 feet wide, a foot-and-a-half off the ground. There were 40 or so people there, it was pouring rain. It was our first perfomance in front of a real audience of people who came to hear us play.

Who’s your biggest fan?

The people at Grace Church Roseville. They came out to the Battle of the Bands last year, and they came out to the State Fair. They’re just really awesome people.

How did your band form?

I liked bands like AC/DC and Rush. Everyone wants to play the guitar and be Van Halen. But I started playing bass, trying to do my own thing. Then we just started hanging out the three of us. Two years ago we started to make a band, The Summer Night.

Do you have a favorite band story?

We were practicing near the washer machine. I had a bottle of bleach, and I told our old drummer, “Here, Johnnie, drink this.” And he lifted it up, pretending to drink it, but the cap was open so it came down all over his face and shirt. I think a little got in his mouth, but he’s still alive.

What is a favorite lyric from one of your songs?

Been here, / tried to take a peek, / After coming back from Korea last week, / he got as far as the double doors, / and when he woke up he was on the floor

Crysist

Crysist formed about four months ago when bassist Stefan Herzog introduced Chris Ebensperger, a friend from Roseville High School, to Eric Abraham and Destiny Coleman, whom Herzog met at church. Abraham, a junior at Concordia Academy, is the band’s drummer, and Coleman, a homeschooled senior, sings vocals. Herzog is a senior at Roseville and Esbensperger, the band’s guitarist, is a recent graduate. Patch spoke with the band about Jimi Hendrix, emo music and a folksy hero named Johnny Slaughter.

Roseville Patch: What are your musical influences?

Crysist: System of a Down, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Skillet and Tool. We are still kind of putting together a folk band. We’re alternative rock and also hard rock.

How did the band’s name arise?

There were a couple different names earlier. We went through Four Year Flicker, and then we went to Setbacks at Service, and then we switched to Dreams of the Hopeless, which sounded too emo. We finally went with Crysis because the whole band agreed on it, except for one person and that person left. It’s a combination of “in Christ” and “in crisis.”

Who’s your biggest fan?

The biggest fan is Zach Anderson, he gave us a car to transport all our stuff to the tryouts, and carried our equipment for us and rescheduled us for try outs and is asking how the band is doing and wants to know if he can do anything to help us out.

What are the group dynamics in the band?

Stefan and Chris are major song writers. We all put our influences in, too. We all have equal say. We have a past member of the band who tried to control everything, and it just didn’t work out, and we let him go.

What’s your favorite place you’ve played?

This will be our first big gig. But we’re going to be looking for venues once we get enough songs written down and practiced. The drummer’s played his own gigs in the past.

What is your favorite lyric from one of your songs?

The generals, they call me / the people, they fear me / and the soldiers, they love me / I’m Johnny Slaughter

Hound Harbor

Scott Rosemeyer and Tommy Saunders splintered off their previous band, A Strange Terrain, to form Hound Harbor. The duo, 2011 graduates of St. Anthony Village High School, have been friends for four years. Rosemeyer plays guitar, writes lyrics and sings. He’s starting college at University of Minnesota Duluth in the fall. Saunders, the group’s drummer, is enrolling at the U of M.  Roseville Patch talked to Rosemeyer about Hound Harbor’s history, influences and fandom.

Roseville Patch: How would you describe your band?

Scott Rosemeyer: Indie, alternative rock with a slight hint of grunge.

What are your musical influences?

Queens of the Stone Age, The Black Keys, Dr. Dog, Trampled By Turtles, The Dead Weather and Grizzly Bear.

What are the group dynamics in the band?

The first time we ever played, I showed up, and he pretty much followed and was right there with me, and that’s how we’re jamming today. When we were in a band with another singer, we were called A Strange Terrain. Recently we decided to just be us two and goof around.

What’s your favorite place you’ve played?

Battle of the Bands will really be the first place we’ve played, just us two. A Strange Terrain played at Johnstock on Johnson Street. There were people walking around, everyone could hear us and our friends overheard people talking about the songs we were playing. It was pretty cool.

Who’s your biggest fan?

My cousin, John Rosemeyer. He’s always there, you know. He’s always watching us. He likes the music we play a lot.

How did the name arise?

We kind of had it as a last resort to enter Battle of the Bands, but I wrote a song about hound harbor that’s about a bunch of dogs hanging out in the lake going to the water.

Do you have a favorite band story?

We were jamming at Tommy’s garage and Zach, our lead singer at the time, was playing an ugly, ugly riff. But we found a cord progression for it--just made something up--and it ended up being our biggest song. It was called Space Invaders. We didn’t really have lyrics for it at the time, but it sounded like space.