New Bands on the Block

Coronavirus couldn’t stop ZCHS students from playing music; quarantine brought on the creation of two student bands, Remember June and The Papercuts.

By Elizabeth Rexing, Staff REMEMBER JUNE

“One day I was just sitting in my room band in June?’” “We do a lot of and I just called Frances and I was like, ‘Fran ces we’re going to start a band!’” junior Elia Page said. The group harmony songs Makinson said. “It was just going to be one has had one that tend to be performance.” Working at The Scoop and inspired by gig which took place at The more upbeat but past bands who had performed there, junior Scoop on July we’ll do slower Frances Stemme agreed and enlisted the help of Emma Page and Lainey Seitz, both juniors. 18 and drew a large crowd. songs, too. It’s The group performed together in Choralaires Around 40 kind of a mix of and the new Songwriting class the year prior. “We didn’t really decide we were going people came to watch the everything.” to be a band until a couple weeks before we performance, - Emma Page, 11 performed,” Seitz said. “We were like, ‘Let’s mostly friends be a band!’” and family. What started as a one-time only perfor “It was really, really fun and I was blown mance, spiraled into the creation of the band, away by the amount of people that came Remember June, with Stemme and Makinout,” Stemme said. “People were so nice. It son playing guitar, Page playing ukulele and was kind of mind blowing.” piano, Seitz playing guitar and piano, and all They sang a variety of songs ranging from four singing. pop to Indie. “We used the word “June” because June “We do a lot of harmony songs that tend was the month we started the band in and we to be more upbeat but we’ll do slower songs, just thought, ‘Remember when we started the too,” Page said. “It’s kind of a mix of everything.” Some of their favorites to perform are “Adore You” by Harry Styles, “Still Intø Yøu” by Paramore, and much to the group’s surprise, “She’s So Gone,” sung by Naomi Scott in Disney’s Lemonade Mouth. “We started playing that song a week, or maybe two weeks, before our performance,” Stemme said. “Someone suggested it and we started playing it and we loved it.” Remember June band members pose together on Zionsville’s Main Street. photo provided by Emma Page While the group rehearsed rigorously before their first performance, they marveled at the songs they threw together spontaneously. “The ones we add last minute, turn out to be the best,” Seitz said. The group gathers twice a week to rehearse and plan for future gigs. “At our last performance, we didn’t really know what we wanted to perform yet, we just threw out songs that we liked,” Stemme said. “For our next gig, we’re wanting to move into songs with drums and other instruments.” On top of trying out new genres of music, the group is planning on singing originals in the future. “Since we were all in Songwriting together, we all have writing back“Since we were grounds,” Page all in Songwritsaid. “We’ve done ing together, we some origiall have writing nals and we’re working on some backgrounds. more originals We’ve done for later gigs.” They hope to some originals perform again at and we’re workThe Scoop and at other locations ing on some like Cobblestone more originals Grill, Books and Brews, and Clay for later gigs.” Terrace. - Emma Page, 11 “I feel like we’re a friend group now,” Seitz said laughing. “We were friends, but not super close, so [in the beginning] I was like ‘What the heck? Why are they asking me to do this?’ But now we’re all close.”

Grégoire (left) and Kiekbusch (right) perform with the rest of The Papercuts Band at Brickstreet in July. photo provided by The Papercuts.

THE PAPERCUTS

What started as a way to fill time during quarantine, grew into a successful band that has performed over five gigs since May. The Papercuts was formed by juniors Ben Larsen, Peter Jalaie, Ronin Kiekbusch, Roméo Grégoire and senior Evan Emsley, all of whom have a variety of musical talents. “Basically, we all sing and play back up instruments,” Kiekbusch said. Grégoire acts as main vocalist, while the rest act as back up singers and play instruments; Larson as pianist, Kiekbusch and Emsley with the guitar, and Jalaie on the drums. “We’ve been a band, basically since quarantine started,” Grégoire said. “It all started with Mr. Jalaie, Peter’s dad. He invited Peter to play at one of the gigs he usually plays.” From first performing with Bob Jalaie, the group moved on to form their own band and named themselves “The Papercuts.” “It’s just a fun, little, catchy, high school band name,” Larsen said. Their first gig took place in the backyard of the Larsens. From there, they booked and played multiple gigs throughout the summer including a graduation party, a restaurant on Main Street, and they even had a “failed” performance at The Scoop. “We played about three songs before it

started pouring rain all over us,” Kiekbusch said. “We had the entire set that we had just made about 30 minutes earlier, and had to pack it The Papercuts perform on their stage at Azionaqua. photo provided by The Papercuts. into a bunch of cars.” Their next performance was on July 23 for Zionsville’s Night on the Bricks. The group agrees that this gig was one of their best. “We had a little set up on the sidewalk and a lot of people came and watched, Kiekbusch said. “We got a lot of new fans, I think, from that gig.” Some of their new fans were singers from the band Remember June. “I think we’ve all gone to multiple of the Papercuts’ gigs because they’re so good,” Frances Stemme said. “I can’t say enough good things about them; they’re amazing.” Support for the group grew when they performed at Azionaqua on July 30. “That was probably our biggest gig, in terms of people that showed up to see us,” Kiekbusch said. “Probably around 400 people came.” They even sang songs that they had written themselves. “We’ve done five originals in total,” Kiekbusch said. “Everybody here writes so we have some songs and we decide, ‘We all really like that song that you wrote, so let’s do that.’” While much of the Papercuts’ success can be accredited to their musical talent, the members can’t thank Bob Jalaie, Peter’s dad, enough for his support. “He’s basically the CEO,” Kiekbusch said, laughing. Even though Emsley will be graduating in the spring, the Papercuts hope to stay a band for as long as they can. “My hope and dream is that Evan has to take a Super-Senior year while we’re all in our senior years so we can remain a band,” Kiekbusch said. At their Azionaqua performance, The Follow them on Instagram: Papercuts played music ranging from classic Remember June: @rememberjunee rock, like The Beatles, to more recent artists, The Papercuts: @thepapercutsband like John Mayer and Rex Orange County. feature 9