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Robin Canfield Barometer Staff Local band Enterleave will be participating in the 3rd Annual MUPC Battle of the Bands. [Click to enlarge]

With just two weeks together as a band before playing in auditions, Enterleave comes in as the newest local band to make it into the MUPC Battle of the Bands. Most of the members had admittedly played together in other bands before -- their musical family tree is rather convoluted -- but two weeks is still an impressive feat, considering how few practices the group had.

"Four, maybe five, tops," said guitarist Brian Hunter. "It wasn't much at all."

Hunter, a junior in business here at Oregon State University, had already been in a band with Enterleave bassist Noah Stroup, a junior in psychology, and with Enterleave drummer Chris Harver, a senior in microbiology.

"A band that never happened," Hunter added.

Harver is also in another local act, Maryspeak, as is Enterleave guitarist Chris Baron, who recently joined that band. Baron, a senior in communications, was also once in the local band One Fry Short. One Fry Short used to play a lot of shows with the local band Tricky Dick, so it should be no surprise to hear that Enterleave singer Kris Farm, a business major with a minor in computer science, was once the lead singer for Tricky Dick.

If all that was too confusing, Chris put it a lot simpler (Chris Harver, the drummer, not Chris Baron the guitarist or Kris Farm the singer):

"I started playing in Maryspeak, then Chris played in Maryspeak, then Noah called about the Battle of the Bands and we put this band together, and Kris was available to sing."

Once the band had formed (and randomly chosen a name), the group prepared two songs for the Battle of the Bands audition.

"That was in one day to write the original," Baron said. "Then we did two covers for the battle."

Enterleave came to the auditions prepared to play "Gleam," an original, and "Aeroplane," a Red Hot Chili Peppers cover. Preparing two songs and playing three doesn't quite add up, though, but Farm can explain.

"We only came in there to play Aeroplane and Gleam. We did those two and they said 'You've got time for a third,' and we said 'Well, you guys know "Killing in the Name Of," right?'" Farm said. "We kind of pulled that out of our ass, though."

These days the band has five originals that it lays claim to, and the members are thinking of more than just the Battle of the Bands.

"We originally formed to play for the Battle of the Bands, and now we're doing it as a project to complete a full record," Farm said.

To further the project, the band has been doing a good bit of practicing and has been trying to book shows.

"We practice once during the week and once on the weekend normally," Stroup said.

One of the shows that Enterleave had in the works was a gig at AJ's opening for Maryspeak.

"Ben C. of Maryspeak got sick, so he couldn't do a full show so we did an acoustic Maryspeak show on stage," Harver said. "That kind of nixed out the purpose of having Enterleave there."

With other shows and recording still yet to occur, the band has been focusing on writing music and preparing for the Battle of the Bands.

"Most of our songs last almost six minutes; there are a lot of changes and variations," Farm said.

"Everybody adds input; somebody would have a riff and then we would just jam on it for a while," Harver said.

All of the band members cite Incubus as an influence on their music, but beyond that it is easier to get them to agree on genres.

"We're influenced by rock, metal, and extreme metal," Baron said.

"I'd say we're funk metal/ hard rock, just because of the groove," Harver said.

"The only thing that's funk about it is the groove," Stroup said

A friend and roommate of some of the members put it quite simply:

"Rock on the verge of metal," Luther Metke said.

The band members were quite open about their style, their influences, their goals, and just about every detail except one about the Battle of the Bands.

The guys made clear that they will play four original songs with 'The' cover.

All the guys would say is that 'The' must be capitalized.

Enterleave formed as a band just to play at the Battle, so it should come as no surprise that the members focus a lot of their time on preparation. After that though, Enterleave will stay a band.

"The more shows we can play, the better," Farm said.

"A lot of us just like playing; that's the point of it."

Robin Canfield is a Diversions writer for The Daily Barometer. He can be reached at canfielr@onid.orst.edu.

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