OLDSMAR -- As sweat trickled down his pale face and thin locks of his gelled blond hair stood straight up, Nik Sharp winced as he poured every bit of himself into the silver microphone.

"Boom, boom, I want to light up the room. I want to crash your party ..." he sang atop the stage's faded blue-gray, indoor-outdoor carpeting.

Twice a week, Sharp, 21, and his band mates, Peter Urso, 22, and Matt Dorian, 18, rehearse until 1 a.m. in a narrow blue-walled room at Apple Rehearsal Studio on Commerce Road. On Saturday they'll perform their biggest gig to date at the Dunedin Community Center.

They expect at least 500 fans to attend, some friends who regularly e-mail the band and some fans of Farmclub.com TV, a USA Network show. The New System has been ranked No. 2 on its charts, Sharp said.

Like thousands of others before them, the pop/rock hip-hop band is hoping to make it big one day. Maybe it will be a Grammy. A video on MTV. Recording a CD in Nashville.

Until they make it big, they pay $30 for two hours of studio time in Oldsmar. On this day, Sharp looked uncomfortable. The air was heavy, and he had an upper respiratory infection.

No matter. "You have to keep going," he said.

Members of the New System believe they have a very realistic shot at fortune. They only play original material. Sharp is the lyricist.

Where does Sharp get his inspiration?

"Lot's of broken dreams, lots of ex-girlfriends who dumped me," he said.

Their sound is fast-paced and high-energy. Their name represents what they want to achieve. "We wanted something new. We wanted to structurally bring together pop, rock and dance beats," Sharp said.

As lead singer, Sharp has stage presence; he's charismatic and bold.

The puka shells around his neck rose up and down just slightly when he jumped. His orange sunglasses stayed in place. The sound in the studio was deafening. And Sharp wasn't satisfied.

"This sounds awful without a drummer."

So he left to pick up studio drummer Eric Bice, a slight young man with several silver piercings in his lip and ears and a red shirt that said simply: Independent.

Even as Bice's rhythms filled out the band's sound, Sharp's singing voice was off because of the infection. Yet as sick as he was, he chain-smoked Marlboro Lights, sharing cigarettes occasionally with his band mate, Matt Dorian.

"You should stop smoking," said Peter Urso, the guitarist.

Sharp just laughed.

"Frank Sinatra smoked," he said.

If the guys in the New System do make it big, the band members will have lots of how-we-made-it stories to tell their grandchildren.

Like the one about a frantic all-night drive to Nashville to meet with the Spongebath record label owner who eventually signed them.

"We looked like hell, and stopped in at a McDonald's and put on our (hair) gel," said Dorian.

They rode to the label offices, and, after some pleading by the band -- the exec's secretary told him the band had driven all night to see him -- the owner reluctantly took them to lunch, where they got a little image boost from an unsuspecting waitress.

"We were trying to sell this guy and this chick came up and said, "You look like rock stars,' " Dorian said.

The executive laughed, but in December he signed them to a contract deal. Now the guys receive regular checks from the record company. They won't say how much, but the money supplements their incomes.

Dorian admits the rest comes from delivering pizzas. Band members won't divulge the address of the pizza company they work for. Fans would show up and disrupt their work, they say.

All three New System band members live in Palm Harbor with their parents, whom they describe as very supportive. As part of their preparation for fame, Sharp and Dorian created stage names. Nik's real last name is Panagopolous; Matt's last name is Kallenbach.

"I just liked Dorian," Kallenbach said. "It sounded cool."

He and Sharp attended Indian Rocks Christian School, and during P.E. class forged a friendship based on their hatred of juggling and love of music.

"In the eleventh grade if you had P.E. and you sat out, you lost five points off your grade," Sharp said. "They would teach you to juggle. We sat out daily. We sat in the bleachers and talked about starting a band."

Because of their Christian backgrounds -- Sharp is Presbyterian, Urso is non-denominational Christian and Dorian is Pentecostal -- the band doesn't use obscene words in their music.

But they don't think that will affect their appeal.

"We want to rule the world," said Dorian.

If you go

The New System will perform along with two other bands, Cling and Kid Lipid, at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Dunedin Community Center, 1141 Michigan Blvd. Tickets are $5 at the door. The band avoids obscene language. At 9 tonight, the band will be interviewed on WMTX-FM 95.7. The radio station also will air at least two of the band's songs.

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