“[Our song] ‘Europa’ is going to be on‘Rock Band’ in the next month or so,” says lead singer/guitarist Tom Casper,who describes the track as a spacey love song.
Casperis joined by friends Seth Dougherty on drums, Justin Harris on lead guitar andIan Pierson on bass.
As the saying goes, it’s important whoyou know, and Arkady happened to be friends with a game designer who workedclosely with “Rock Band.” Though the young band didn’t have a lot of material,their friend liked what he heard and asked if he could use their music for someof the beta tests for the new system.
The popular “Rock Band” game recentlybegan offering select bands the chance to offer their songs as paid,downloadable extras.
“That’s huge, being able to put it outthere as content for the gamers and hopefully pull in some to buy our album ormerchandise and most importantly come out and see our show,” Casper says.
In the meantime, when they’re not sendingmaterial back and forth to their friend, Arkady is recording new material for apossible four-song EP or full album for next year. They’re also planning to getsome live experience in Milwaukee and theMidwest, and possibly go as far as New Yorkand Canada.
Most of all, they want to provide the Milwaukee music scenesomething different with a sound that they describe on their site as “blendinghard-driven rock with an alternative, indie sound.”
While the Mad Planet show is their firstas Arkady, this isn’t everyone’s first time live. Casper,Dougherty and Pierson have known each other since high school and workedtogether in bands such as the West Bend group Elements of Style.
When that group disbanded a few yearsago, Casper andDougherty decided they had too good of a musical vibe going to stop, so theycontinued playing in their free time while attending MATC. Their music attractedHarris, who eventually became a permanent part of the group. Later, after somepersuasion, they convinced their old band mate Pierson to join the group.
“We had a lot of trial and error,” Casper says. “Once we gotIan [Pierson] in the band it added an element of writing different from when itwas just the three of us, and then we wrote stuff with bass that soundedbetter.”
With each practice, and showtime at MadPlanet moving closer, the band continues to gel and feed off each other’splaying styles, even though they haven’t yet played for an audience.
“The thing about it is that we’re evenhigh-energy in practice,” Dougherty says. “We play these songs tons of times,but it’s always fun for us. I don’t like to sit behind my drum set and justplay it back straight; I get into it as much as Justin [Harris] would runningaround on stage.”
Arkadyplays a 9 p.m. show with Skybox and Modern Skirts at Mad Planet on Thursday,Nov. 19.
