Music’s coming along; band name’s in the air

By John Benson

The acoustic rock band has been billed with some hard rock acts.

A band in search of a name.

That’s how singer-guitarist-pianist Jordan DePaul describes his group — DePaul, Michael Cleland (guitar), Michael McGiffin (bass) and Ryan Daley (percussion) — currently playing out under his name.

“We don’t have a band name yet because we just basically pieced it together since last March,” said Poland High School senior DePaul. “We’re just now figuring out what kind of music we are. So we’re now thinking of a band name.”

However, he said this outfit is anything but a one-man show, which means you can forget about the quartet becoming the Jordan DePaul Band, the Jordan DePaul Experience or the Jordan DePaul Project.

“Our band got together a little bit over a year ago,” DePaul said. “It started out with Michael [Cleland] and myself. Then I taught myself piano when Daley decided he wanted to play music with us. So we went from two acoustic guitars and piano to bongos and then late last year added McGiffin and started playing full band shows.”

Musically, DePaul said the foursome is mostly acoustic-based and is influenced by the likes of John Mayer, Coldplay, Guster and Marc Broussard. Having played roughly 30 local live shows over the past year, the band has learned that it does somewhat stand out in the area.

“Youngstown is mostly I would say hard rock,” DePaul said. “We’re definitely different from most acts because we’re acoustic rock, even though I guess you could say that the style is coming back. So in the past year we’ve been on a bunch of bills with hard rock bands.”

Despite the stylistic difference, DePaul said audiences have mostly been receptive to his group’s music. The next step for the Poland outfit is recording its debut effort. Studio time is planned for next month with the band members excited about new tracks such as the piano-driven “Talk of the Town” and the up-tempo “Where I Stand.”

Fans attending the Friday’s Jordan DePaul show at The Cellar can expect to hear the aforementioned songs, as well as a cover of Toto’s “Africa” performed solo by DePaul.

While graduation for DePaul is on the horizon — his bandmates have already graduated from Poland High School — the 18-year-old is optimistic about his musical future.

“I’m going to go to Youngstown State University to study vocal performance and do the band thing,” DePaul said. “I’m going to try to make it work, no matter what. Music has been a big part of my life. I’ve been singing since I was 2 years old and it’s something I love. So I’ll be playing music my entire life.”