News Reporter
On Friday, May 12, 2006, “mem” premiered with their first ever concert following the release of their debut CD, “a peek at heaven through square binoculars.” The band itself is made up of a group of senior boys, whom fellow class member Shriya Paliwal describes as “a talented group.” These five seniors include Mike Morill ‘06 on drums, Sam Greenfield ‘06 with the bass, Alex Kveton ‘06 playing the guitar and singing, Jonathon Koh ‘06 on guitar, and Grayson Sanders ‘06 on vocals as well as on the piano. Their CD, which is still available consists of ten tracks, including songs such as, “touching down,” and “my own demons,” which were all written by the band members themselves.
Definitely a worthwhile addition to your play list the music created by “mem” is the type one could play in any situation. They play soft rock, with truly creative lyrics. In fact, they were all written by Gray Sanders over last spring and summer. Besides its originality the band sounds very professional, and can easily be mistaken for a mainstream band.
As for selling to the mainstream, this seems to be the goal for “mem.” They plan on continuing to produce music in the future since most membersß of the band will be attending New York University in the fall. Despite the obvious disadvantages of losing Morill to a different college and Koh to Singapore where he will serve two years in the military as is the requirement of the country, music will still be a huge part of all of their lives. Koh works on a label at home in addition to “mem,” while Sanders will enter NYU to major in Jazz Performance, and plans to someday go all the way to film composition in graduate school. Kveton admits working with music in this way is a dream for him, stating, “Who wouldn’t want to be paid to do something fun?” While Sanders adds, “Music has always been and will always be my greatest passion.”
As to fun and games, the band has been much more than that, proving to be a lot of hard work and dedication since it was created, which was during the member’s sophomore year, under the name of “Bridge.” Back then, according to Sanders, they “were really bad.” Obviously much has changed since 2004, as the band is a huge hit with Choate’s freshmen population, and at least respected for its talent by the other forms. Says senior Becky Leven of the group, “I thought they were really good.” And Janell Boone ’09 adds that “mem” “rocks and will hopefully go far.”
They agree that their performance wouldn’t have been possible without the strong support of their screaming fans. Sanders explains, “I want to thank everybody so much for supporting us this past weekend at our last show at Choate. It was a night we are sure never to forget, and the audience made it what it was.” The bond between the members also made their story what it is; Koh sentimentally adds, “thanks to the boys for standing by me and getting me through the last three years and for everything we’ve shared.”
