Band grateful for chance to perform

By Patricia Ho

A high school physics teacher during the day, vocalist Simon Bell has offered his students extra credit points if they show up to support his band, Seven Secrets, at Battle of the Bands on Wednesday.

Taking place at 9 p.m. in The Bronco, the competition is sponsored by Housing and Residence Life. Six on- and off-campus bands will compete for gift certificates to music stores.

The competition features an impressive line-up: Backporch Majority (formerly The Recipe), Moulder's Lounge, Electric Campfire, RMT and The Betting Fraternity in addition to Seven Secrets. Santa Clara students hopefully will not need academic goading to attend.

"We hope to offer students a good time on-campus where they can enjoy the music and performance of on- and off-campus bands," said senior Jenna Doot, an assistant resident director and organizer of the event. "We hope to help promote and support these bands in their efforts to make it in such a demanding entertainment industry."

Doot, who coordinated the event last year, was impressed by the response from both audience and band members to the competition.

"The crowd last year was really into the show," she said. "Most of them stayed to watch all of the bands and were supportive not just of their friends, but of all the performers."

Doot had initially planned for only five bands to compete, but because bands responded so fast, slots were increased to six.

Bands like Seven Secrets are grateful for the opportunity to play.

"The Bay Area is a difficult place to play, especially for a rock band," said Bell, an ex-Santa Clara graduate student. "If we sounded like Dave Matthews, it wouldn't be a problem, but we don't."

Instead, the band describes themselves as a "heavy, melodic rock band," as one Santa Clara critic has commented.

"We're old-fashioned, we like guitars, " Bell said, "We use two of them at the same time and they play different things!"

Jim Macdonald, a Santa Clara graduate and guitarist in this five-piece outfit, elaborates.

"It's just good rock music. We're not really trendy. It's just straight up rock and roll. It's all about the song. Not the image or the hype."

The band also consists of bassist Kevin Matthews, guitarist Bryan Matthews and drummer Conor Dickinson. The members formed a band about one and a half years ago and have discovered how difficult breaking into the industry can be.

"There's a lot of really unprofessional people out there," said Bell. "It's difficult to deal with them when they won't call you back, or if they say they'll do this and you never hear from them again. It's a lot harder than anyone will ever tell you. When we hear musicians complaining about how hard their life is, we don't laugh anymore."

Seven Secrets, however, push on undismayed and have an eight-track Extended Play scheduled for release in a week or so.

"I believe our final goal can be summed up in two words: world domination," Bell laughs. "But the interim goal is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We really would be happy just to play our music, write our music, not do anything else and not starve to death. That's the ultimate goal."