Cedars, December 2018

December 2018 15 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Urbania: Spiritual Significance by Lauren McGuire U rbania, an alternative rock band created by a few of Cedarville’s own students and alumni, is a blend of rock riffs, indie hooks and alt-rock melodies for a unique sound. The band consists of Alek O’Connor, Trent Staats and Eric Trent along with the newest addition to the band as of this month, Gabe Apke. Although most of the members of the band are current Cedar- ville students, O’Connor graduated from Cedarville in May and works in Columbus, playing bass and singing for the band. Sta- ats is a junior accounting major who plays guitar, Trent is a sophomore marketing major who plays the drums and Apke is a sophomore marketing major who plays rhythm electric and also sings backup. When the band started, O’Connor and Staats were the only members. They first met on class council at Cedarville during the 2017-2018 school year. After getting to know one another more, they found out that they only lived 20 minutes away from each other. They established a group to perform at the annual Battle of the Bands, when Trent joined the band. When it came to creating a name for the band, the name Urbania was quite simple. It was taken from the inverse of “suburban,” or from “Suburbia.” Trent said the band didn’t put much thought put into the name, but the idea of the creation of music in the suburbs was the real inspiration behind it. The creation of music for the band usu- ally starts with Trent and O’Connor working together to create the music without lyrics. They first write the chords and then base everything else off of that, since generally speaking, most of them are “mediocre” at writing the lyrics themselves. “It takes 17 hours to try and come up with some lyrics that have some sort of un- derlying spiritual significance,” Staats said. “But sometimes it’s just something that we think sounds cool.” While a lot of their songs contain spir- itual themes, they also tackle other subjects such as things that are going on in their own lives and relationships. “Wildfires,” their second album, was released Oct. 12 on Spotify, an indie style album composed of six songs. Preceding this album was “Black Ice,” an album with four songs. The process for creating “Wildfires” took a lot longer than they originally thought, especially because the process of getting the content to the distributor re- quires the music to be done a week before the actual release date. The original release date was supposed to be in July, but it was pushed back several months. By the time the content for the album was done, they strug- gled to find a place to record live drums. For almost the entire month of September, they looked for a place to record and eventual- ly the indie style album was done right on campus in the Apple building with a couple of audio engineering major students. The rest of the album was recorded at Staats’ house. “This was a huge step up from the first album because it was all written, produced and recorded in Trent’s [Staats] dorm,” Trent said. Although they aren’t currently devel- oping any new music, they are working on booking shows in order to promote the album along with creating a music video to create momentum after their recent re- lease of “Wildfires.” Most recently, Urba- nia performed on campus at Stingers at Thursday Night Live. A lot of their shows are held in Columbus, one of their target audiences, especially because O’Connor has connections to venues in the area. They’ve played several times at Rumba Cafe in Columbus, once a couple of months after the release of their first album, follow- ing up with another performance during the summer. One of their most recent shows was at a church in Beavercreek. Although their shows are sporadic, they enjoy what they do. Hanging out with the other band mem- bers and having their friends come out to support their band is one of the best parts of the experience for both Staats and Trent. “I think for most of us doing this is just for fun, but we would really like to one day, if Lord willing it goes somewhere, to con- tinue to do this even past graduating from the university, it would be awesome,” Trent said. “All in all, we just want to keep making music and hang out.” Lauren McGuire is a sophomore profes- sional writing and information design ma- jor and writer for Cedars. She loves birth- day cake ice cream, watching “The Office” and late-night runs. Photo courtesy of Urbania Urbania was started by Alek O’Connor, Trent Staats, and Eric Trent (from left to right above), as an Alternative/Indie rock band. Photo courtesy of Urbania Urbania blends a variety of musical styles, bringing their own unique vibe to the table.