Every heart in the crowd pounds in an anxious rhythm. The lights begin to dim and fans gawk at the stage with large, twinkling eyes. Three musicians glide onto the broad stage, their presence overwhelming the atmosphere. Guitarist Myles Novak, drummer and vocalist, Jesse Delgadillo and bass player Andrew Zentay. These three seniors are Dynamicus.
The band started four years ago and has evolved with its in-and-out members into a progressive rock band.
“How we started is pretty simple,” Novak said. “I knew the guys and we just jammed a couple times and hit it off really well. We’re just friends who like the same music and play instruments. We talked about changing the name but our original name, Swiss Cheese, crumbled before it really mattered.”
But ‘simple’ has not always been the word to describe the band. Delgadillo said there has been more drama than he cares to remember, consisting of power struggles, fights, excuses, unmotivated members, disrespect, scarce time, giving the unforgiving boot multiple times and conflicting stress levels. Novak considers the drama normal and believes it will never be able to stump them too terribly.
“We’re more like a band of brothers, so the drama doesn’t bother me,” he said. “It’s something all bands have because everyone has different opinions on something they’re passionate about.”
According to Delgadillo, the band got more serious after the dramatic name change and he is proud that there has not been serious drama since.
“We decided it was best to change the name and I can’t emphasize enough how big of a turning point changing the name to Dynamicus was,” he said. “Everything just changed; we got serious and really cared.”
Although they are not able to look back on every struggle they have had as a group with a positive attitude, Zentay said that looking back on their first show, no matter how disastrous it seemed then, always provides a good laugh now, as it cannot compare to their current performances.
“I remember being so nervous,” he said. “The place didn’t have enough power to support all of our instruments and the power started going out. It was honestly just a really bad experience, everything went wrong. Over time, we got more accustomed to playing with each other and any choreography has become so much smoother, and our nerves have calmed a great deal. We have a lot more fun on stage now.”
Even though playing for big, screaming crowds serves as one of their favorite parts of being in the band, Delgadillo said he does not care about the number of people jumping up and down for them. Performing resides in his soul.
“We really just take what we can get when it comes to gigs to get our name out there, but the gigs are getting bigger” he said. “With each gig comes new experience and it doesn’t matter if there’s one person in the audience, when we’re up there having fun and playing music it’s a great feeling to have. You get a similar feeling during a good jam session as when performing but there’s just something about an audience that really gets you going.”
Every member has school and extracurricular activities on their plate and the members agree that being in a band is stressful and time-consuming. Practice time tends to be savored, with each member on task and ready to work hard for the success of the band as a whole, at shows and during recording sessions.
“We try to practice at least once a week,” Zentay said. “But even that is really hard to fit in with all of our differing schedules, with football games and school. We usually perform Thursday nights in the Woodlands and sometimes that gets put off too. The whole process, especially recording can be really stressful because everyone is really on edge and tense.”
Buddy Novak, Myles Novak’s dad, said he supports the band in any way that he can and has seen them grow from a three piece band that can barely play a song to one that can play or write anything they want and execute it with ease.
“My initial reaction when Myles wanted to join a band was ‘it’s for fun, so have fun, work hard and be the best that you can be.’” he said. “My only request for my son was to play music that is positive.”
The members agree that continuing after this year will be a long-shot and depends solely on college admissions, hoping that even if they can’t be official they can still get together during the summer and play music just for fun.
“It’s realistic to say that we could be making a name for ourselves over the next five years,” Delgadillo said. “As far as the best-case scenario, every band’s dream is to get lucky with a talent scout and rise up to stardom. We’re no different. I think we’re good enough for the best-case scenario, but it’s all about luck as far as that’s concerned.”
