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Not just playing to win
By LOGAN NEILL © St. Petersburg Times, published February 8, 2001 Today's pop music is filled with success stories of young musicians whose talents suddenly found them fame and fortune. Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys and N' Sync are platinum-selling artists whose fans number in the millions. The three teenage members of Brooksville rock band Altered Fate wouldn't mind finding that caliber of successs someday. However, the past few weeks have been spent preparing for a more important event: their first gig. At the Brooksville home of 13-year-old drummer Mark Donato, the walls throb as the boys rehearse the 30-minute set they delivered at the 5th Annual Rock-Off contest in Clearwater on Sunday. "Working on the music has been fun because the whole reason we're here is we like playing together," said 16-year-old guitarist Seth Kleisinger. "The contest is important, but just getting together to play our music is really what we're about." The band, which also includes Seth's classmate at Hernando High, bassist Charlie Allen,High, is one of nine regional high school rock bands competing for the title of Best Young Band in Tampa Bay. The winner, which will be announced after this weekend's final round at Clearwater's Gasoline Alley, will take home the $1,000 top prize. But for the members of Altered Fate, the winner's stake seemed secondary to their goal of being able to perform their original music in front of a live audience, an opportunity they say is difficult for a teen band in Hernando County. "The only place bands can play around here are bars, and you have to play stuff that people know," Charlie said. "We'd rather play for people who really want to hear us play our own music." One of the aimsof the Florida Rock-Off is to showcase a band's ability to play as well as create its own sound. Sponsored by Reindeer Records, an independent label based in Portland, Maine, the competition drew 25 contestants from throughout the region. Like other competitors, Altered Fate had to submit a two-song demo cassette of original songs, develop its own publicity material, and sell tickets for the event. "The idea was to make you take some responsibility beyond just playing," Mark said. "They want you to think professionally. So you have to do things to get some attention and make people aware of what you do." Though the group has been together a little more than a month, members say they had plenty of common ground when they formed it. Seth and Charlie, who had played together in a previous band, had listened to Mark (a Parrott Middle School eighth-grader who lives across the street from Charlie) practice his drums and decided he would make a good addition to the new band. Altered Fate's music style lies somewhere between the guitar-based hard rock of Metallica and newer bands such as Sevendust, Korn and Limp Bizkit. Seth, who writes most of the band's original songs, describes the sound as energetic and driving but admits the band doesn't really try to convey any particular message to its listeners. "People take it for how it is," he says of the band's songs, many of which grind out a dark, edgy melody. "Some of the songs talk about being in a good mood and others are kind of depressed or frustrated; it all depends on the song." The band is impressed with how far it has come in a short time. Although winning the Florida Rock-Off, they say, would be a big boost to their confidence, they plan to further develop their sound in hopes of landing some work, perhaps in Tampa. "We're really dedicated to this," Charlie said. "Some kids spend all their spare time doing things like playing basketball and baseball. That's the reason we come to practice every day. This is our sport."
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From today's Hernando Times |
