It takes many passionate musicians years before they are able to be recognized for their talent, let alone be able to play venues. Charlie McNulty is a freshmen at Metea Valley and is in a band with his friend Jeremy Donofrio (a freshmen at Naperville North). Both students have been passionate about making music for years, have released their own EP, and continue to play venues in the area. Their band has made it to the final round in a local Battle of the Bands competition and will be competing Wednesday, April 17 at 7 pm at Club Arcada.

When did you and Jeremy start playing together?

We both take lessons at School of Rock so we met through guitar and started playing together about a year ago.

How long have each of you been focusing on music?

We both started pretty young. I started playing guitar in second grade, and have been branching out to more instruments since.

What other instruments do you play?

I am learning drums right now, but I also play bass, harmonica, alto saxophone, and I sing.

Do you guys focus more on covers or originals?

Mostly originals but we still do a lot of covers. Whenever we play somewhere we will play covers because we know that crowds love to hear their favorite song.

How would you guys describe your music style/inspiration for your originals?

The best way to explain it is alternative with elements of jazz. I’m really into Tyler the Creator because he has a lot of jazz guitar, and so that got me incorporating more jazz.

So how does this Battle of the Bands competition work?

Around 12 bands compete at Club Arcada for the theatre’s battle of the bands. After we auditioned during the first round- which happened upstairs at their restaurant- one of the judges said that they had a slot for us for the finale which will be at their big stage.

So what happens if you guys win this final round?

The theatre has some well known regular bands that play there, so you get to choose which band you can open for. You also get ten free hours of recording time and a photoshoot.

So when’s this finale happening?

Wednesday, April 17, at 7 pm at Club Arcada in St. Charles and all ages are free.

For people that can’t make it to the show, where can they find your music?

Our EP is on Apple Music and also on Spotify.

Check out their music here: http://itunes.apple.com/album/id1450311078?ls=1&app=itunes