Band name inspirations come from everywhere.
Take Switches.
“I came up with the name Switches actually at 3 in the morning when I was in my room asleep and my lights were still on and I did not want to get up and flip the switch to turn it off,” says bass player Gavin Richards, 17.
“A lot of people think it has some really deep meaning when it doesn’t at all.”
Switches, a punk/grunge band that also includes guitarist/lead singer John Pera, 18; guitarist Brennan Williams, 17; and drummer Joey Eddins, 17, formed March 5th. The group played its first big-name club, Hi Tone, July 1st.
Like older bands, Switches members are writing, rehearsing, thinking about recording, and dealing with nervousness on stage. But Switches is fresh. It’s hungry.
“I didn’t start singing until this year,” Pera says. “We were all like, ‘Who’s going to do it?’ I was like, ‘I guess I can.’ I’d never done it before. I usually play guitar and stuff.
“It was kind of hard, but you kind of get used to it. I’d go in my car and yell a lot so it wouldn’t hurt as much. Singing along to the radio. At first, I would almost cough up a lung after trying to get through it. It was like I was about to pass out. I still do that a little bit, but only at the end of the show.”
Richards got his first guitar five years ago. “YouTube videos were my teacher,” he says.
He and Williams got into Green Day at 13. “They sounded so different from what was on the radio. Powerful. Just a different sound.”
They watched Green Day’s 1992 videos.“They were pretty young. Like 16 and 17. And we were like, ‘We could do that. We could be just like them, play shows like them.’”
Richards got serious about music and wanted to play shows. But, he says, everybody except Eddins, who joined after they formed Switches, is from Germantown. “In Germantown, there are not really any music venues to play at.
“We didn’t know how to get our sound out there, to get us playing music to any crowd of some sort.”
That changed after he began driving and discovered “there’s stuff to do everywhere” in Memphis. “Especially for young people like us.
“I could go pretty much where I felt like going. A lot of local shows. I started seeing a lot of the music scenes there, and that changed the game entirely.”
After discovering Hi Tone and Lamplighter Lounge, Richards thought, “We can play here.”
“Memphis was the place to go. That’s where you have an audience no matter where you go. Memphis has a bunch of different scenes for a bunch of different music.
“When I saw kids my age playing in bands to pretty decent-sized crowds and a lot of my friends were going to them, I really wanted to start playing shows like this.”
Richards began writing songs as a freshman. “Everything changes going from middle school to high school. It brings a lot of things and emotions on you and you need an expressive outlet for it.
“I was first dipping my toes into water as a songwriter, but I kind of didn’t know where to go with it. Ideas would come up and I would write them down and nothing would ever come from it.”
They now have six originals. Richards wrote music and lyrics to “Castle,” their most popular song. “This girl gave me a Silly Bandz in the shape of a castle. I pretty much made it about that.”
Asked what sets Switches apart, Williams says, “I think it’s our energy. For sure. We’re all friends. And we got chemistry with each other. And we cooperate really well.”
“I love that it’s raw punk and it’s so fun to play,” Eddins says.
The big picture for Switches? “We’re just kind of playing it by ear right now,” Richards says. “Playing shows. Having fun around Memphis. Maybe some trips to Nashville or something like that. So, nothing too crazy — world domination or something like that.”
