An LZ band, StarGazer, first met in 2000. Thirteen years later, they are band and have won LZHS’s and St. Matthews Battle of the Bands as well as opened up for the LZHS’s talent show.  

         StarGazer describes themselves on their Facebook page as “Some dudes from the Chicago land area playing some music.” The band is an alternative genre inspired to form a band after listening to Nirvana.

         “Me and [Alex Zelasko] have known each other since 2000 New Year’s Eve. In fifth grade I learned about Nirvana and I was like, ‘Al, we are going to be a band now.’ So we learned how to play instruments and then we kept playing,” Thomas Witte, junior, said. “And then in high school I met Matt [O’Connor] and Eric [Breden] and they play guitar and drums, and just for fun we got together and we played at some shows at Offbeat and we didn’t take it too seriously. And then after Battle of the Bands we were like, ‘people kind of dig us’, so I mean we might as well keep going.”

         The band is made up of juniors Breden on drums; O’Connor playing guitar and singing vocals; Witte singing vocals and guitar; and  sophomore Zelasko playing bass and backup vocals. Although they decided from an early age they were going to be a band, they are struggling to come up with a name for themselves.

         “[The band name] was a last second thing; we actually don’t like it at all.  We are trying to change it. Hopefully by the next Battle of the Bands we’ll have a new name,” Witte said. “It sounded cool at the time, and the next day we had second thoughts.”

         Along with choosing a name, the band also has different ideas on what songs they should play at shows.

        “Agreeing on music and getting together to practice is tough. We are all pretty different; everybody in the band has a different favorite band,” Witte said. “[We choose songs by] picking a couple that we like, and then we all tell each other and we converse and decide all together what songs are the best.”

       Along with covering songs such as “Ho, Hey” by the Lumineers, they also write their own songs, like “Allison.”

      “We have a couple of originals. Me and Matt write stuff, but we are mostly just covers right now,” Witte said. “For me personally, I just play guitar every day, so if I come up with something that sounds cool, I am like, ‘alright I’ll just keep working on this’ and see if that becomes a song.”

       Along with writing songs, the band also plays at concerts in different towns around the Chicago area. 

        “[My favorite part is] playing in a show, all the energy and the people getting into your music,” Zelasko said.

         Even though they enjoy concerts, practices are harder to schedule and affect how their music sounds.

         “We don’t practice as often as we should. We just played at the talent show, opening up for it, and we were just so bad. We didn’t practice at all,” Witte said. “But some shows people are getting into your music and they’re bobbing their heads or something and it is pretty cool.”

         Although the band is performing, starting to make their own music, and has almost 300 likes on Facebook, after high school the future of the band remains unclear.

          “I don’t know what is going to happen after high school. I am not sure what everyone’s plans are, but if everything works out, we will still be a band,” Witte said. “We want to go anywhere that involves making music.”