Luminaire Divided
Band: Luminaire Divided
Members: Mike McGuinness, lead vocals and guitar; Rob Sheffer, lead guitar and vocals; Dan Starceski, bass and vocals; Dave Grey, percussion; Sam Emory, keyboard
Who we talked to: Sheffer
Where did the name come from? We spent a couple months arguing about names. One day at a practice, our lead singer . . . came in and he said, "Wow. My brother was playing a video game the other day and he had this awesome move called Luminaire, so I thought, how about Luminaire Divided because it just sounds cool?" So, we all agreed on it, and now it's our name.
When did you guys start playing together? We started playing about a year and a half ago. We decided a little bit before then that we wanted to form a band. It took us about a two months to organize everything. Then, we started practicing. We wrote our own songs. We do pretty much all original stuff. There are five people - four of us are juniors and one of us is a sophomore. We all attend York Catholic High School.
Can you describe your sound and style? We really sound like a lot of classic rock stuff and hard rock, but we all take different routes. I, for one, was really into Van Halen. Our keyboardist was trained in classical music originally. We do a lot of concert kind of instruments as well. We take all of our backgrounds, and we try to apply it to the music we really like. It's something really different . . . from the regular alternative scene. We really try to stick to our rock routes.
What are some of your influences? Stone Temple Pilots, Van Halen, Dream Theater, . . . Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guns N' Roses, Queen and AC/DC. That style of music really inspired us, and . . . we tried to form it together and make our own thing.
Do you ever throw in a cover? We occasionally do covers. At the moment, we play "Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against The Machine. Right before the last number in our show, I usually play "Eruption" by Van Halen.
How did you guys get to play at the Best of the Bands? We heard about it last year, and we sent in an audition tape. They have a board of people from usually the ages of about 13 to 18 to just listen to (the tapes) and . . . pick the band that they like best. The four most popular bands get selected to play. We didn't get selected last year, but we auditioned again this year with better recording and some new songs. We were really . . . happy to find out we got accepted. Our performance at the Battle of the Bands was exactly one year . . . from our very first performance. We decided that we wanted to play on New Year's Eve (last year), and we couldn't find a gig at the last minute. So on Dec. 31 at about 2 in the afternoon, we decided to call all of our friends to see who would be up for going to a party at our keyboardist's house.
What is coming up for you guys in the future? We're actually working on an album right now. We have a little bit of a problem with recording equipment because none of us (has) been trained. We try to figure it out as we go along. We're trying to get a good sound out of it. At the moment, we have about two or three good recordings. We hope to have our first album out at least by this summer. We just want to keep playing because it's fun for all of us, and it's a good sense of musical expression. One of our goals is to just bring . . . in a new sounds and at the same time try to revive some of the old classic rock.
- ERIN McCRACKEN, FLIPSIDE STAFF