Spring Fling will arrive on campus the weekend of April 12, opening the stage to a group of University of Arizona students called Space Force, who are set to perform Sunday, April 14.
Space Force is composed of lead guitarist Martin Niemiec, Ryan Zenhausem on drums, Alex Siegel on bass, singer Faiz Rafique and guitarist Matt Olenski.
The band met during their freshman year at the UA when they were all living together in the same hallway of a dorms.
“We’ve been meaning to play together for a while, but we didn’t actually come together as a band until about a year ago,” Zenhausem said.
The name Space Force came about when the group was simply joking about a space-themed band, and the name stuck, Niemic said.
The members said they agreed they consider themselves a pop-rock band, but the style of music they play can alternate.
“It varies, we have some punk rock going on, a little bit of Indy alternative, but all sort of within the framework of rock,” Niemic said.
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Spring Fling will also be Space Force’s first time performing with each other in concert and with a live audience.
“It’s kind of nerve-wrecking, but we’re overall excited,” Niemic said.
He also said they’ve been trying to perform at parties for a while, but haven’t found physical venue to play at until now.
“I feel we have a lot of passion for [making music], but I think coming together is important, because we all have a sort of different music taste. And then blending that together makes a somewhat unique sound,” Zenhausem said.
He said starting off as a group of friends before becoming a band has helped the process of coming together. He also said he finds their group dynamic pretty interesting.
“I don’t know what kind of preconceptions people have about dudes that are in rock bands,” Niemic said. “We have engineers and other types of scientists, and we just come together and play some good music. It’s kind of cool that way.”
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According to Zenhausem, since the members are all students who aren’t music majors, it can cause some communication problems, and at times everyone has their own vision of what the music is to be like.
“We’re not even disagreeing, it’s just hard to convey what you’re thinking,” Niemic said. “If you have a musical idea, you can’t beam it into someone else’s head. Everyone might have a different idea of what you mean.”
Zenhausem said they have had many moments where they clashed, but always came back together from it.
“We take a step back, and we’ll just play for five minutes and get it out of our systems, or we’ll go to focus on something else and come back to it,” Zenhausem said.
Space Force will be playing a total of five songs on April 14: three originals and two cover songs.
“I think it can be kind of inspiring for some people, because we’re not all musicians. We come from different backgrounds, and we take time out of our busy schedules,” Niemic said. “If we can do it, anyone else can.”
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