How Whitworth University musicians get out there
In an unfinished brick room of The Empyrean coffeehouse, a captivated audience sat amid a canopy of dim Christmas lights as the raw and mellow sounds of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful swirled throughout the space.
The lead singer, Tyson Motsenbocker, sings as if no one else is in the room. His eyes remain closed as he strums his guitar and he sings words of young love, broken hearts and fond memories, breaking the palpable silence.
This band, which appears to leave its audience members feeling as though they have peered through the heart of its musicians, is comprised of Whitworth students and graduates. These guys first started playing together in 2006 while living in Keola, once a 14-person Young Life-themed dorm.
Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful is one of a dozen or so at Whitworth that began after casual “jam” sessions among friends, which inspired them to take their musical aspirations to the next level. Now these musicians are making a name for themselves – not just on campus, but also throughout the Spokane area.
Word-of-mouth across the campus is the first tool used to spread awareness about these bands.
Members of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful do their best to advertise their shows, on-campus and off, but front man Motsenbocker says, “Some of our best shows are at Whitworth because a lot of people come.” Friends of band members invite their friends, who invite other Whitworth students, ensuing a domino effect.
Many of these on-campus shows are free performances. “We’ve done a ton of benefit shows, a ton,” Motsenbocker said.
Similarly, guitarist and lead singer of Caulfield (and his Magical Violin), Mikey Ferrario, enjoys playing on-campus for the audience Whitworth attracts.
“The crowd Whitworth draws is pretty good…it’s pretty diverse,” Ferrario said.
Though most students prefer walking to Mind & Hearth to see Whitworth bands play, a handful of devoted music junkies will drive or walk off-campus in support of their peers’ musical endeavors.
A common venue for Whitworth bands, such as Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful and the harmonious female duo Olive Green, is The Empyrean coffee shop.
In its unfinished back room, rustic beams strung with lights give the perfect backdrop for the “rootsie” or folk-inspired sounds these bands create.
“For me, it’s all about the mood lighting,” AJ Hanenberg, the bass player for Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, said. “I feel less self-conscious. I can lose myself in [the music].”
The band has done close to 200 shows, Motsenbocker estimates, many of which were performed under the harsh fluorescent lights of the HUB multipurpose room – a space with tall ceilings, large windows and bareness that takes away from the intimacy of their performances. Compared to the cold atmospheres often supplied by Whitworth’s brightly-lit facilities, The Empyrean is, “by far out most comfortable place to play,” Motsenbocker said.
For Ferrario and the other members of Caulfield (and his Magical Violin), playing off-campus is preferred to playing at Whitworth.
“We like to play house shows the most,” Ferrario said.
It gives their friends a chance to relax and socialize in a more intimate setting, he explained. Though many of their fans are over 21, people of all age groups are welcome to watch.
“We do not play any shows that are not all ages. We love all ages,” Ferrario said.
Though the bands agree some of their most laid back shows are those where the audience is heavy with Whitworth students, Motsenbocker said, “Atmosphere is number one,” when it comes to the makings of a good show.
In an effort to balance the two elements, members of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful vigorously market their off-campus shows to Whitworth students through such mediums as their music MySpace as well as their Facebook page, utilizing “event invites” to encourage their peers to attend.
Members of Caulfield (and his Magical Violin) use more traditional marketing tools to promote their shows, “sometimes we tell people we know to come. Or we put up posters,” Ferrario said.
Publications like Warren Hall’s Stall Street Journal and Spokane’s Inlander alert students and the general public about upcoming shows. One of these publicized shows was held on March 6, at which Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful played alongside acoustic soloist Kevin Long and Portland’s up-in-coming indie group Blind Pilot, a band whose fan-base is nationwide.
Blind Pilot is playing in this year’s Sasquatch, an annual music festival that showcases some of the best folk, experimental, indie and alternative bands in the world. Thousands flock to this festival, marking it as a milestone in any participating musician’s musical career. When asked what it was like playing at The Empyrean the same night as Blind Pilot, Motsenbocker seemed hypnotized.
“[It was] super amazing! …It was great. Blind Pilot is going places,” Motsenbocker said.
Like Blind Pilot, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful made its start playing small shows in Spokane and is slowly making a name for itself as a band worth taking seriously. The members plan to continue their musical career together after the remaining students involved graduate. The tour they anticipate to complete post-graduation will include cities on the west side such as Seattle, Bellingham and Anacortes, Wash.
However, performing isn’t everything; bands have to establish trust and friendship.
“Performing has sort of been on the back-burner lately,” Ferrario said. “That is a whole other experience in itself. Right now, we mostly just play and experience things together.”
Ferrario anticipates the intimate moments they have spent together will work to improve the band’s performing dynamic.
By entering the music scene while attending Whitworth, Motsenbocker and Hanenberg have learned valuable lessons with which they hope to pass on to their musically ambitious peers.
“Don’t play before you’re ready, but don’t be afraid to play shows,” Motsenbocker said.
Ferrario said fellow students can give valuable feedback. “There are a lot of amazing musicians around here that push each other to make better music,” Ferrario said. Expect to work for your seasoned sound and sturdy fan-base, he said.
“We played like 40 shows for free,” Hanenberg says, before they made enough money at one show to distribute a mere $10 to each band member.
Ambitious musicians across University campus' can likely encounter an eager and supportive audience, provided they are willing to work hard to keep improving their music and maybe tape up a few posters now and again.
Photo from The Blue Ribbon Tea Co. MySpace page
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