The Buzzkills: From side project to crowd favorite

Inspired by many types of music, Bloomington-based band The Buzzkills started as a side project that eventually grew into something more. The band consists of five members: Jonathan Barnett (bass), Kyle Gilpin (guitar), Matt Schory (drums), Patrick Ward (guitar) and John Weston (guitar). All members contribute vocally. The band has been playing together for about a year and a half, but Gilpin and Weston just joined the band in the fall.\nWhile the band considers a wide range of music to be its inspiration, a lot of its music is influenced by classic rock and the band classified its earlier sound as “Led Zeppelin-esque.”\n“We all grew up on classic rock. We’re all children of Zeppelin,” Schory said. Yet the band members were also influenced by the music they began listening to at a young age, such as ’90s alternative – Weezer, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine and even Korn.\n“A good chunk of us all started out as metal heads,” Schory added. The band explained they currently have a sound that is more The Beatles mixed with the Foo Fighters.\nTired of the bands that play the same exact set everywhere they go, The Buzzkills like to make every show a little \nbit different. \n“I feel like we’re finally finding a good way to meld, doing the crowd pleasers, but also doing our artistically-pleasing originals,” Schory said. \n“Awww Honey” is one of the bands original songs that gets a great reaction from the crowd.\nThe band likes to focus on original songs but also likes to play covers, letting each member of the band pick a song to cover and then rotate. “Probably the biggest argument in the band is which Zeppelin tune to cover,” Weston said. \nWhile the band explains that they have gotten a lot of grief for playing covers in the past, they say it has definitely paid off for them to be able to play in venues such as The Bluebird. \nThey consider The Bluebird to be a “home base” and their favorite place to play. “There’s a lot less to worry about when you play here. If something goes wrong you know it’s going to be taken care of,” Ward said. “If we get bigger and we start playing bigger venues, I’m sure we’ll still make tribute and come back here no matter what.”\nCurrently, the band is busy trying to get exposure locally and in nearby states with weekend tours, and it will also be entering the studio, starting Feb. 14, to record its first album. The band will be recording locally at Attic Recording, which was started by their good friend Eric Day.\n“We talked about doing it in a place like Echo Park,” Schory said. “We have the money to do it if we wanted. I’d rather work with someone who actually genuinely cares about what we’re actually doing. I grew up with the kid and he’s a wonderful engineer, really knows what he’s doing.”\nSong-wise the band is thinking of the album as a big EP with about seven to 10 songs that really focus on their best material. \n“I feel like seven to eight songs is a really good number for a small band in a local community to do rather than a full length, 15-song album,” Schory said. \nWhen they have finished recording, the band says they plan to do an album release show at none other than The Bluebird.\nAfter working on recording, the band hopes it can widen its appeal by playing at clubs similar to The Bluebird across the Midwest. \n“We’ve been playing somewhere on a really consistent basis,” Schory said. “The name is getting some exposure. So we’ve just got to start from scratch in other markets now.”