By Kalena Reynolds | Staff Writer
“Unlearning apathy.”
The phrase softly echoed from student band “Medalist” lead singer Xander Gentzel at 7 p.m. on a dark winter evening in the back of Common Grounds. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled the building. As Gentzel sipped his coffee, he explained his inspiration for his band and their upcoming debut EP release.
“I prefer to write a little more conceptually and focus on meanings and metaphors and like weird stuff like that,” Gentzel said. “So a lot of these songs kind of feel like overarching themes for my time in school so far — just like growing up — and they all speak to even childhood, on figuring adulthood out.”
While Gentzel is the vocalist and writer in the group, the band also consists of two Baylor alumni: Brando Lezzana on guitar and Phillip Whaley on drums; and three current students: Beaumont junior Luke Garza on guitar, Houston senior Pierce Donalson on bass and, of course, Gentzel.
The band will release their debut single, “Golden,” on Feb. 14. This will be followed by an EP titled “Extended Play,” which will be released on Feb. 28th and include three songs plus their singles titled “Bloom,” “Home” and “Stereochemical.”
Both the single and the EP will be released on every major streaming platform.
“I wrote about this group of friends I had a sophomore year, a really eclectic group of people still very centered around this kind of music culture we had,” Gentzel said, referencing his inspiration for single. “It was kind of written about what ended up being our Last Supper, so to speak like we were all just at a friend’s house and she cooked pasta, she made mulled wine and all that. And it was a really sweet time, eight or nine people. And sort of over the course of the next couple months, people move, people graduate.”
Gentzel said that even though nothing particular about the dinner stood out to him, it ultimately became a vivid and poetic memory that helped him craft “Golden.”
“I think that I didn’t understand it was a really special thing,” Gentzel said. “I didn’t consciously understand that … in a little way, you should be paying attention. And so it’s not so much a love song. It’s really about just those very, very special people and those very, very special moments that you probably don’t grasp for that special until it gets recontextualized by the rest of your life.”
The band’s EP is emotional, vulnerable and sensitive, Gentzel said. It was inspired by a diverse range of artists such as Jeff Buckley, Hum and The Toadies, who helped craft the “90s-inspired alt-rock, sleazy” sound the group set out to achieve.
“I think that these songs speak to unfortunate emotions or unpleasant ones, but not necessarily unhappy ones,” Gentzel said. “But definitely getting over cynicism and apathy.”
Garza, who is an artist himself and goes by the name “Little Cat,” said that each song on the EP holds a special place within the confines of every member’s identity. Even though Gentzel spearheaded the writing process, the songs are still incredibly personal.
“It’s like every song is, even for me as someone who is not the one sitting down experiencing these emotions, about very meaningful things,” Garza said. “There’s just so much thinking about the memories and just the feelings attached to these songs. It’s like they’re not just a collection of words that sound good together, but they’re songs about people that we care about a lot — songs about ideas that mean a lot to us, rather than just being a collection of words about a topic.”
While the band writes, records and produces all of its music on their own, they plan to continue creating and releasing projects in the future as well.
“I love these guys, and working on these songs has been unbelievably fulfilling,” Gentzel said. “And I think that what is in front of us right now is writing a few more, recording a few more, and playing them. And then I think we’ll kind of do that till we get sick of it, which so far does not seem to be soon.”
Click here to pre-save “Golden.”
