By Caleb Ludrick
Contributor

After the audience flocked to the stage during its performance, the band Honest Men was awarded First Place, the People’s Choice award and the opportunity to perform at Diadeloso – and no one would have guessed it was their first show after only one practice.

Honest Men will perform at Diadeloso, on the main stage in Fountain Mall, which was awarded based on their standout performance and victory at Baylor’s Battle of the Bands in March.

The event is hosted by Baylor each year for bands comprised of Baylor students to compete against each other. Each band is required to play two original songs and one cover. The competing bands ranged from an acoustic trio to a heavy metal band.

Student Union assistant director Jordy Dickey, who coordinated the Battle of the Bands, said Honest Men won awards for crowd response, vocal and musical and the quality of their original material.

“Honest Men also had a fresh sound that really captured the attention of the audience,” Dickey said.

Honest Men consists of Waco freshman Seth Findley; Longview senior Brooks Whitehurst; Waterford, Va., junior Zach Solomon; and Kildeer, Ill., senior Moses Chun.

The band’s sound has been compared to Coldplay, Colony House and Mutemath.

The band stemmed from the previous musical endeavors of Findley, who released his own album in the fall of 2014. Findley, the band’s lead singer and songwriter, said his real desire was to be in an actual band, leading him to recruit the other members.

“That’s where the idea of Honest Men came in; a group of guys that love God, love each other, and make really good music that can be played live and eventually recorded,” Findley said.

While not an explicitly Christian band, faith plays a large role in Honest Men’s songwriting and goals, Findley said. All of the members have experience performing in worship bands, and hope to glorify God by being as creative as possible with their music.

“We try to stretch our musical and lyrical creativity with each song we write. Our songs all have themes of hope and in some way point back to God,” Findley said. “They’re about stories of old. They’re about friends. They’re about happy times. They’re about hard times. They’re about current struggles. They’re about good and they’re about evil. In the end, all our songs give a clear message of hope.”

Being a new band has provided some challenge for the members, primarily with songwriting, said Whitehurst, the band’s lead guitarist.

“I think we’re still figuring out how song writing is going to work for us,” Whitehurst said. “All of us write songs, but so far the core of most of our songs are written by Seth since the band is kind of his own brainchild, and only about a month old.”

Findley said most of the songwriting comes about pretty quick once he has an idea for a song.

“Those ideas come to me at the most random times, like when I walk to class or am writing a paper, or am driving in my car, or am using the restroom,” Findley said. “I’ll take my phone out and record the melody or beat that’s in my head, then grab a guitar, dish out the chords, refine the melody, and add lyrics.”

Findley said he looks forward to the opportunity they have to perform these songs at Dia.

“We will be rehearsing as often as we can for Dia in the coming days, learning and rehearsing new songs that are sure to entertain and inspire,” Findley said.

Findley said with Dia being their first full-length show, the chance to perform is both exciting and intimidating, and they are making sure to practice as much as possible.

Whitehurst said he agrees.

“I’m really excited for Dia,” Whitehurst said. “We’re working out little fingers to the bone rehearsing.”