Though the Polytechnic campus has been building rock bands for years in a performance class, one group has taken their music outside the classroom, and its members hope to invite others to follow in suit.
Agent 355 — made up of two faculty members, one student and a residential hall coordinator — performed with three other student bands Friday night at the first ASU Polytechnic Community Rock Concert Series.
Jonathan Feit, residence hall coordinator and lead singer, heard about the rock ensemble class and brought some original songs he had written. He began working with secondary education junior Brent Dow, nutrition assistant professor Christopher Wharton and James Thomas, instructor of MSC 394, Modern Rock Ensemble.
“The coolest thing about playing in a band with so many different types of people is that we can come together and let the music connect us,” Feit said. “Each member’s ability to play the music and love the music is the best part.”
Wharton said the Polytechnic campus emphasizes applying skills into hands-on projects.
“With the [application] model for the campus, a band like Agent 355 is an applied project where everybody gets involved,” Wharton said. “It was kind of the natural thing to do.”
The band optimizes their efforts in promoting music at the Polytechnic campus because of their diversity, Dow said.
For example, Dow has gotten third-party donations because he is the student leader of an ASU organization. As a residence hall coordinator, Feit advertises for the band in the residence halls.
“Dynamically, it’s great because when the faculty member’s hands get tied by the school, we have two non-faculty members to do what needs to be done,” Dow said.
The band has also started performing off campus at bars in Mesa and Tempe.
After two semesters of being in the modern rock ensemble, Dow said he realized that there were a lot of musicians at the Polytechnic campus.
The rock ensemble course has brought so many musicians out that Thomas and Dow have recently submitted the paperwork to form an official ASU music club on the Polytechnic campus. Thomas will be the adviser and Dow is planning to serve as the first president once the club is ratified.
Thomas and Dow say they hope the music club will turn into a musical co-op, where people can come together to make music using shared equipment. The club would also give musicians the opportunity to play in a group without having to pay tuition to be in an official course, Thomas said.
“I want to get word out, invite people that want to perform, give people the opportunity. If they don’t have all the instruments or need a drummer or a guitar player, come to us. We’ll find musicians,” Dow said. “If they want to hear how they sound onstage, we’ll do that too.”
Reach the reporter at afleisha@asu.edu
