Rock Off winners Eclyptic return

By John Benson

Well Youngstown, you get only one shot at first impressions.

However, it’s the second impression that still dominates the memory of Cleveland-area band Eclyptic, which returns to the area Friday for a show at Mojo’s Pub & Grill in Austintown.

“We’ve been playing at Barley’s every once in a while, whenever we can get in,” said bassist Danny Kolliner, currently studying economics, history and math at Oberlin College. “And the first time we played there we were second on the bill, and that was awesome. It was the second time when we played first at 8:30 p.m., and there were four people at the bar. You know the people who get to a bar too early and end up being way too trashed when we get there? Those are the people I’m talking about.

“But they liked it. I think two of them ended up buying CDs. It worked out pretty well and they all seemed to enjoy it, but they also seemed pretty drunk at the time so I can’t be 100 percent sure if they loved it.”

Affirmation is nothing new to Eclyptic, which as a high school freshman band did the seemingly impossible by winning the 2005 High School Rock Off. Now that the band members are in college, the act is taking its music more seriously by not only playing out regularly but also releasing its sophomore album, currently untitled, later this year.

New songs being played live include the upbeat “Cheers to the Sound” and the bluesy number “Tramping on My Heart Blue.”

“I’d say a lot of the songwriting on our new album is a lot more mature,” Kolliner said. “We’ve always been accomplished on our instruments and pretty good musicians, but I think it takes some time for writing to come and for songs to come. When we were in the Rock Off and all through high school, we were trying to go for radio-friendly pop rock. I think now we’ve stepped back from that and now we’re using classic rock to infuse new ideas, but not necessarily copying old classic-rock songs.”

He added, “It’s like Beatles stuff, with harmonies, because we have two lead singers. That’s what I mean about classic rock.

So our first album was kind of like their early stuff and more poppy and felt very produced, and then the new stuff would be more ‘The White Album,’ which is more exploratory.”

As serious as Kolliner is about the band and its music, he stressed that Eclyptic does have a playful side.

“The band was started by three people who play guitars and are best friends,” Kolliner said. “And it started even before that when we said, ‘We’re losers, let’s start a band to get girls and money.’ So that’s kind of what happened, and I think everyone is dating an older girl, which is kind of cool. We’re all 19, and the girls all in their 20s. So that’s the rock star life with older women.

“But when it gets to the point when we’re 25, we’ll have to go to younger women and stop with older women when they’re not cool anymore. So we’ll start switching then to 23- to 25-year olds.”

Hmm, does the band put as much analysis into its music as apparently it does into its dating habits?

“We don’t put much thought into dating; it’s just kind of what happens, and then you think about it after it happens,” Kolliner said. “So, yeah, we probably put more thought into the music.”