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Juvenescent Beat!


Band: Juvenescent Beat!

Members: Mathew Aldinger, bass; Dick Miller, lead vocals and guitar; Zach Myers, drums; John Woodland, guitar

Who we talked to: Myers

How did you get together? Basically, it started out as kind of a pet project of our lead singer Dick Miller. He was in bands for years around our town Hanover. By the end of 2005, he pretty much had a full band set. I wasn't in the band until the next summer, which is when we officially formed. I had known (the other guys) through mutual friends.

Where did the name come from? Dick looked up the word Juvenescent in the dictionary. He was basically looking up a bunch of names he thought would sound good. According to the dictionary, (Juvenescent) means "of youth."

Describe your sound. We represent kind of an . . . older sound. Mid-'80s proto-emo I guess you could call it. Today, it's referred to as emo/post-hardcore/punk-rock. Our influences are usually stuff like Rites of Spring, Black Flag, Fugazi, Braid (and) Hot Water Music. A lot of the themes for our music come from our lead singer, Dick. He's inspired by . . . a lot of existential themes. He reads a lot of . . . political literature and philosophical literature. We have a lot of built-in angst. The town we live in is a kind of a boring, small town. That inspires our sound, I guess.

Are you into any bands on the radio? Not really. A lot of bands today we feel are kind of manufactured successes. My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy . . . were almost kind of built from the ground up. They're almost like a Cinderella-type story. We're not making any future plans like that. We're taking it one step at a time and having fun with it.

How long have you been playing drums? I started playing when I was 8 years old. I'll be turning 19 (Tuesday). So (I've been playing for) about 10-and-a-half years. I've definitely taken drummers' styles. Anything from Bill Stevenson of the Descendents or Black Flag to David Grohl of the Foo Fighters (and) Nirvana.

Do you play out a lot? We've been making a lot of rounds in Maryland, especially the Baltimore area because we have a lot of friends down there. We also have friends in the Lancaster scene.

What's your take on the York music scene? For a local band, you have to have a style. A lot of the styles that a lot of the bands around York County choose to play . . . have been overplayed and over-saturated. We kind of have to have a unique twist. Even then, it's hard to gain a following that will stay with you long-term.

Like any other local groups? We have been networking and playing with and hanging out with . . . bands like Sadaharu and 1994 in Lancaster. There are a lot of bands in the Carroll County, Md., and Baltimore scenes we've also networking with . . . like Another Reason to Hate Machines and Army of Kashyyyk. (Baltimore) has a very diverse underground punk-rock scene where all different kinds of bands are playing all different kinds of clubs.

Do you have a best memory? Most of our best memories . . . were the ones where we played in really dank, dark basements with anywhere from 10 to 30 people. It was very sweaty, but they get into the music.

- ERIN McCRACKEN, FLIPSIDE STAFF