Weeks before AGHS’ homecoming dance, John Fairweather, Devon Denneen, Tom Taylor, and Evan Nichols formed a band and signed up to play. 

“I wanted to play with some guys because I had been in a band a couple years ago but that band broke up, so I wanted to get back into it, especially with all of us being back in school,” rhythm guitarist Fairweather said. “I found these guys because they all sounded pretty good and they all played instruments that we needed for a band.”

“I think it was me and John, then I got Tom, and then Tom got Evan,” lead guitarist Deneen added.

“Evan and I played a few times over the summer with another friend and then Devon, Evan, and I are all in the AGHS band,” drummer Taylor said.

Unlike many high school bands, the ages of the members vary greatly, with Deneen being a senior, Fairweather a junior, and Taylor and Nichols being sophomores. The members also differ in their personal music tastes.

“I think we have a lot of different inspirations. The fun thing about it is that we all come from similar but different music backgrounds. Like we have some connections but there are so many different branches and I think that’s what makes us unique,” Deneen said.

“It all generally kind of converges into a sort of indie or garage rock sound,” Taylor said.

Although the band has been playing together since last October, they’re still searching for a name.

“We don’t have a name yet,” Fairweather said.

The band has a few ideas but nothing has stuck yet. Taylor has an existential list of ideas, including “Mirrorball”, “Munday”, and many more. 

“I was thinking ‘Unfairweather’ because John’s last name is Fairweather,” Deneen said.

Part of the reason the band has refrained from naming themselves for so long is so they can remain less fixed while they figure out their identity.

“We wanted to keep it a little bit more casual. It didn’t come up,” Fairweather said.

For that same reason, the band has only played school-related shows so far.

“We want to practice a little bit more, get our sound going and get our originals going and then we’ll get out into the community and play some shows,” Fairweather said.

Although the band has mostly played covers, they have experimented with writing original songs.

“We’ve played covers kinda just to elongate our setlist. But also the audience likes covers. They like to hear songs that they know of and they like,” Fairweather said. “I’ve written some originals. I haven’t put lyrics on them so they’ve kinda just stayed as jams. Basically, I play a riff or some kind of progression and they’d all come and we’d coordinate it and there’d be different solos for different sections, mostly for lead guitar, and also for drums and sometimes bass.”

The band plans to write more cohesive songs soon.

“I think it will expand as we write more,” Deneen said. “We all do songwriting to some extent so it could be kind of a collaborative effort.”

“It would be really great to record something as well, like an EP,” Taylor said.