Paul Emerson is, honestly, all about the music. The lead singer of pop-rock group Mayday! Mayday! decided to start a band of his own after he saw a live performance by Australian rockers The Living End. They’ve since toured as much as they can, including playing a show with the band that inspired them. Despite all this, Emerson has remained down to earth, as Mayday! Mayday! still has a long way to go.
Yet being realistic about one’s situation doesn’t mean giving up on making it big.
Emerson and his crew are scheduled to compete in Pi Kappa Phi fraternity and the Community Service Commission’s Battle of the Bands 2007 tonight at 8 p.m. in Ackerman Grand Ballroom, where they’ll face off against three other groups.
AUDIO Click here to listen to songs from bands playing at the event.
“First off, all of the bands are awesome, so it should be an interesting night,” Emerson said. “We’re just going to bring everything we have. We’re big into crowd participation, we’re big into everybody getting involved with the show, from the guy in the back to the people in the pit so that everybody has a full experience. That’s one of our strong points and one thing that we really enjoy doing.”
UCLA’s first Battle of the Bands was held in 2004 in order to raise money for Push America, a philanthropic organization created by Pi Kappa Phi in 1977. The original idea was to make playgrounds more accessible for people with wheelchairs; however, today the organization remains dedicated to promoting awareness and understanding for those who have disabilities. The concert also raises money for the Community Service Commission, which helps with creating a network for community outreach on campus. This year’s event includes, besides Mayday! Mayday!, competing bands Never Heard of It, A Heartwell Ending, and Westview, with popular Southern California group Sugarcult headlining.
“David (Garcia, the event’s director,) asked us to jump in the show via MySpace,” Emerson said. “I talked to the guys over at the fraternity, and they’re mostly involved with charities, so I thought that was pretty awesome that they’re out there to do good.”
Sugarcult agreed to play the concert as soon as they were asked. The pop-punk band has penned well-known songs such as “Bouncing Off The Walls,” “Memory” and “Do It Alone.”
“It was really simple,” lead singer Tim Pagnotta said. “We’re like the cheap date: We’re the one-night stand of rock ’n’ roll bands. All they had to do was just ask.”
The members of Sugarcult enjoy checking out upcoming bands in order to see what’s new, not to mention to keep the 7-year-old band grounded.
“I’m a real music fan, and I like checking out new ideas and fresh blood,” said lead guitarist Marko 72. “The most interesting time in a band’s life is on their way up; they haven’t been deflowered yet. They haven’t been put through the washer and dryer of the music industry. They’re still full of fresh hopes and dreams.”
However, another exciting aspect of playing the UCLA concert was the fact that it would allow some members of the band to return to their college stomping grounds.
“Our bass player Airin went to UCLA, and I went to UCSB, so we definitely have some kind of connection to UC schools,” Marko 72 said.
Pagnotta joked that Airin should use playing at UCLA as an opportunity to take care of some unfinished business.
“He’s one quarter shy of getting his degree,” Pagnotta said. “I told him he should just screw getting his degree, he should get an honorary doctorate.”
The lessons that the band learned in college serve as life lessons, not only for the rest of the bands competing in the concert, but for students everywhere.
“You learn how to pull off the impossible, which is especially important if you want to go into the music world,” Marko 72 said. “It’s like if you try to get a class, and it’s closed. You try to crash it, and the professor is telling you there’s no way you’re getting in, the waiting list is too long. But you keep showing up because you need that class or want that class. And, eventually, if you are annoying enough, you’ll get it.”