What better way to have fun and share your passion than to start a band with your best friends? Back in high school, that’s exactly what these guys did, and their love of music and their name has only gotten bigger as the years have gone by.

Hunter and Dylan Meyer are brothers from Underwood, Minn who, years ago, looked outside the box for ways to spend their free time. Hunter had always enjoyed playing the drums, while Dylan was learning how to master the bass.

One of their best friends, Cody Montgomery loved to play electric guitar. They would get together often to hang out and play around with their instruments together. This eventually turned into what is known today as Revelsound.

Through a few different band members and many name changes, those three have stuck together throughout the years and are all currently attending the University of North Dakota. Their fourth member who is their most recent addition, Nick Thompson, is their guitarist, and lead singer.

While searching for a lead singer, Dylan’s coworker mentioned Thompson to him.

“He never gave me a last name or anything, so I literally creeped through my co-workers Facebook friends to find Nick, and messaged him out of the blue,” Dylan said. “We met him a couple days later, and we’ve been best friends and a band ever since.”

Thompson attends NDSU and even though he didn’t grow up with the other three, the way they all click together makes him the perfect finishing touch to the band.

Although it can be a lot of fun, the rock band life isn’t always everything it is made out to be. From finding time to practice, traveling to shows, being full-time college students and having jobs and activities, their lives can get a little hectic. Although the time can be a struggle, the guys agree, it is completely worth it.

“The time commitment is serious and it’s tough to find or make time,” Thompson said. “The creative differences can be a struggle too. I know I have trouble accepting the fact that I’m not always right and that my opinion is not the only one that matters. That’s something that I’m always working on though.”

Trying to get four different guys to agree upon a song has been difficult for them. To try and incorporate all of their ideas equally, the members of Revelsound don’t just rely on one person to come up with the songs, but all four of them write the songs they perform.

“We all do the writing and bring the ideas to each other to work on it,” Montgomery said. “It’s really a team effort to make a song go from good to great. Our genre is alt rock. We sort of have our own sound that I have a hard time describing.”

Recently, the band ran into a speed bump that greatly affected them. Revelsound is a very new name for the band. They were previously called Thin Ice, but they found out there was another band by that name. As a group, they decided it would be best to change their name to something completely original.

“We wanted something all our own,” Hunter said. “When brainstorming names I put forth the name “Revellion” because I liked the idea of the word “revel” incorporated into our name and image. It means “to enjoy oneself in a lively way, especially with drinking and dancing.” Perfect for us. We came up with a few other names with revel in them and landed on Revelsound.”

Between balancing homework, jobs, travel and even cheer practice, these four guys are brave enough to work hard and share what they are passionate about with anyone who is willing to listen.

“Music, to me, is one of the purest forms of expression, and the one I’m best at,” Hunter said. “Playing drums is an absolute blast and writing songs that people end up enjoying is just extremely gratifying.”

All four of them are passionate about music and find time to incorporate music into their lives beyond the band. Thompson is a member of the Statesmen Choir at NDSU. Montgomery is looking forward to working with music for the rest of his life, as he is a music education major.

“A band is a team effort,” Thompson said. “Especially when the members are as close as we are. The four of us are a family; we’re seriously brothers.”

The band is currently working on many new projects including booking more live performances and recording more of their songs that they will be releasing digitally for listeners to enjoy. If you would like to hear Revelsound, you could catch them performing live in Grand Forks on April 11ᵗh at Ojata Records, or check them out on Soundcloud or Bandcamp. Like or follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more updates.

Emily Gibbens is the opinion editor for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected]