Bonneville
WHERE: Blind Bob’s, 430 E. Fifth St., Dayton
WHEN: 9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 4
COST: $5
MORE INFO: (937) 938-6405 or www.blindbobs.com
WHERE: Alter Fest, 940 E. David Road, Kettering
WHEN: 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 5
COST: Free
MORE INFO: www.alterfest.com
ARTIST INFO: www.myspace.com/bonneville
For most musicians, a junior high rock band is nothing more than a youthful folly. That’s not true for Ryan Pitts (guitar, keyboard, vocals), David Miklos (guitar, vocals), Nick Frye (drums, percussion, vocals) and Kevin Sanders (bass, vocals) of Dayton-based pop-rock outfit Bonneville.
The band took a backseat when Miklos was first attending Ohio University and the other three were at Ohio State University, but the band members, now in their early 20s, are fully devoted to the group they formed in 1999.
“We didn’t really do anything the first few years of college,” Pitts said. “It wasn’t until the middle of junior year, like a year-and-a-half ago, that we really started picking up again. We did a few preliminary demo recordings and then we actually started recording the new album last November.
“Kevin and I are living in Columbus now and David and Nick live here in Dayton,” Pitts continued. “It’s been tough, but we realized we all want this to happen so we started making plans.”
The group’s latest CD, “Drawing Maps,” was released last month and it’s a delectable collection of melodic, mature, modern rock heightened by strong vocal harmonies and indelible arrangements. It’s even more impressive considering the four Fairmont High School graduates wrote, arranged and recorded everything themselves.
“I was an audio production major at Ohio University,” Miklos said. “I ended up getting ProTools and some recording gear. The whole album was recorded at various places. We did the drums in a church cathedral. We did a two-day thing and that was really fun. We recorded the bass in Kevin’s basement, we did guitars at my parent’s house and the vocals were recorded at multiple houses.”
Although it was more work, the Bonneville boys enjoyed the freedom and creativity of taking the DIY approach.
“We used to write songs and just fly through them,” Frye said. “Now every time we write a song all four of us sit down together and really focus on details like vocal melodies and harmonies. We like to change things up and have things you wouldn’t expect. Since we did it ourselves we had time to have extra little sounds and manipulate them to make it really interesting.”
“It took a little more time doing it ourselves,” Pitts said. “It’s obviously harder because we don’t live down the street anymore, but we make time for it. When you have to plan like that to get together it makes you more focused and it’s that much more rewarding.”
Contact contributing arts and music writer Don Thrasher at donaldthrasher8@aol.com.
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