Over the last four years, seniors James Do, Greg Enenstein, Avery Halfon, Sam Julian and Salik Syed–drummer, bassist, guitarist, vocals and lead guitarist, respectively, for the rock band The Offbeats–have become very familiar with eviction notices.

“We’ve gotten kicked out of so many practice spaces,” Julian recalled with a hint of pride.

During freshman year–when drummer James Do ’10 still used an electric drum kit–their home base was Junipero. When Do upgraded to the real deal, they moved to the unventilated basement. Through their sophomore year, The Offbeats serenaded their less-than-enthusiastic neighbors in Toyon Hall. Their brief stint in the sun-drenched third-floor quad in Synergy was their favorite, until neighbor complaints forced them underground, literally, to Synergy’s basement.

But the moves worked for them. The Offbeats’ four-year history is sprinkled with episodes of brilliance: playing “Semi-Charmed Life” at the freshman talent show, facing enthusiastic, if not inebriated, crowds at shows and recording in a stuffed panda-lined, warehouse garage (found online, of course). But then there have also been the lows: the frustration of Stanford-packed schedules, having to rehearse with earplugs in cramped basements, angry complaints and chatlist griping from unappreciative residents.

With graduation in sight, the veteran members of The Offbeats have come to accept that this just comes with the territory when you perform at Stanford.

Each year, inspired students take up guitars and microphones to form bands on campus. Some of these bands will never make it past dorm room jam sessions, while others will be cut short when members go abroad or graduate. A rare few will push the dream to its fullest, pursuing record deals and world tours. In any given year, between three and six bands will regularly perform at frat parties, student events and campus gatherings, creating the closest thing to a music scene at Stanford.

Breaking into the frat party circuit, however, takes more than just ambition. The bands with longevity, such as the two four-year rock bands, The Offbeats and Ampersand, have practiced on average once a week, with increases during gigging season.

“When you’re running your band, you have to be your own policeman in terms of coming to practices,” Julian said. “Not everyone is as determined to do it…You have to keep it fun.”

Making the band

In many respects, starting a band at Stanford is similar to what you would expect anywhere else–finding members, honing a unique sound, scheduling time to practice–but the bubble brings its own challenges to the teenage pipe dream.

“Why would you spend time in a band, which really Stanford doesn’t give you much of an advantage for doing, when you can do the CS department and make $100,000 upon graduation?” said David Kettler ’11, the bassist and lone junior in the self-described “indie erotica slash socially conscious disco” band, The Sea People.

“So much of starting a band is making an investment that you know isn’t going to be returned for five plus years,” Kettler added. “Every band has to go through this phase where they’re playing most gigs for free, mostly playing to their friends.”

The investment is both financial and personal.

No one may be better equipped than The Sea People, started this year by four freshmen and junior Kettler, to understand the enormity of the commitment. Jumping into a rigorous practice schedule–eight hours of practice a week, rehearsing Monday and Wednesday and weekends–and an equally demanding show calendar, The Sea People consider their band the equivalent of a five-unit class. One that requires field trips, heavy lifting and disappearing acts on friends.

They are the type of band that is excited and slightly incredulous at the prospect of having a week and a half off from practicing. Following a mellow and chilly set outside of Sigma Nu on a Wednesday night, the band members looked ready to be college students again.

“We have nine days off. Nine days,” Kettler said, only half sarcastically. “It’s actually really funny how much I’ve been looking forward to this weekend.”

The Sea People have played three to four shows a week spring quarter, anything from Late Nite to frat parties to off-campus gigs. In the past month alone, the band has represented Stanford at the Bay Area Battle of the Bands, placing third, opened for Yeasayer to the unconventional backdrop of the Tresidder Oak Room and lent their brand of funk to a stage at Sunsplash.

Ampersand, The Offbeats, Finding Jupiter and The Sea People agreed that after the first few shows, the offers for other gigs came readily. The real challenge was in booking that first show.

“From zero gigs to one gig is definitely the hardest,” said Ampersand’s Andrew Hung ‘10, likening the process to beginning a start-up. “But I think there are a lot of good opportunities on campus that are low pressure and low barrier to entry.”

Being tenacious at blind e-mails helps. So does being well-connected.

“It gets easier as you get older, and you know people who are social managers and in groups,” said Offbeats guitarist Avery Halfon ‘10. “People are looking for bands a lot.”

Bands may receive some publicity through the Stanford Soundtrack, which the Student Organizing Committee for the Arts (SOCA) compiles every spring. SOCA selects tracks that represent the Stanford music community and then distributes 3,000 free copies of the Soundtrack to students at the festival An Art Affair.

“I think [the Soundtrack is] really to bring more awareness and put on a showcase of the vibrant music community that people don’t hear from usually,” said senior Nick Trutanic, music director of SOCA and executive producer of the Soundtrack.

But the Soundtrack, only available in hard copy and via iTunes U, is more exhibition than marketing tool. For bands looking to woo record labels, EPs and albums are a must.

That’s where Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA, pronounced “karma”) comes in. A multi-disciplinary facility for computer-based technology research, CCRMA, the “salvation of Stanford’s musical soul,” according to Sea People’s Kettler, also offers classes in audio recording and technology. Not to mention its cutting-edge recording studio.

Recording time is free, and bands like Ampersand, Finding Jupiter, The Sea People and many others on the Stanford Soundtrack have graced the studio’s halls.

The catch? You have to have taken Music 192A and 192B, required for the music major’s Music, Science & Technology specialization and often booked solid, to have access. Students may enroll in a one to two unit continuing class after the core, where people end up working on their own personal projects. Students are limited to eight hours in the studio a week.

“The studio is only for classroom use,” said CCRMA audio engineer Jay Kadis, who has taught the recording classes for over a decade. Although Kadis says some graduate students also use the studio, it is typically only available to students who are enrolled in the class.

Rocking Stanford

Outside of recordings, however, Stanford has been a less helpful incubator for growing bands. Rehearsal space and venues, such as Dinkelspiel Auditorium and Frost Amphitheater, are closed to student bands, and students have to pay to use practice rooms in Braun Music Hall, which are too small to fit more than one person and are geared toward jazz and classical music.

“The school pretty much condemns rock,” said Sea People drummer Dan Bardenstein ‘13. “If you use the practice set and you’re in a room and you’re playing rock music with whatever group, people will come by and get mad at you.”

The Sea People are lucky–keyboardist Beachy’s parents work at the Medical Center, and they practice at his home–but other bands must resort to straight-up begging for practice space. Off campus, some bands have tried renting out storage space.

“Honestly, Stanford doesn’t really have space available to groups,” said Dean Schaffer ’10, who does lead guitar and vocals for year-old rock band, Finding Jupiter. The band has rotated through the band shack, Terra and French House, using their residences and connections to hunt down practice space.

Storage of the instruments and equipment presents another problem. When you’re trying to shove amps in an already-cluttered one-room double, space becomes a valuable commodity.

“I’m really good at Tetris,” said Finding Jupiter’s singer Sarah Masimore ’11. She fits the band’s sound system, drums set and guitars under her unlofted bed, and still manages to fit a couch and a futon.

But cramped quarters and dodgy practice rooms are all worth it for bands looking to “make it big.” Finding Jupiter, which graduates seniors Schaffer and drummer Luke Georgette this year, will finish their album by the end of the quarter and look to promote it over the summer.

“Basically, our goal right now is to have a product, to pitch that product,” Masimore said. “The goal is to push it as hard as we can and just do what we love and make it something we can live on.”

The Sea People have the long-term goal of getting signed to an indie label and possibly playing at festivals like Coachella. Short term, they are looking to book more gigs off campus.

In aiming for the big leagues, Finding Jupiter and the Sea People can look to the last Stanford band to break out and gain recognition: Young the Giant, formerly The Jakes.

Then a 19-year-old Stanford sophomore, Young the Giant’s lead vocalist Sameer Gadhia took an academic hiatus last December to be a musician full-time. The band has since been signed to Roadrunner Records and is currently on tour opening for indie rock band, Minus the Bear.

Masimore, who has one year left at Stanford, was unsure if she would make the same leap that Gadhia made.

“If it was like, tour the world or stay one more year…” she trailed off.

But Schaffer had no hesitations.

“Let’s f—ing tour the world,” he said.