Employed at a record label, the Los Angeles school district and in health administration, UCLA alumni Matt Frankel, Michael Garner and Dan Chang have successfully transitioned from college students to real-world employees.
But they’re not ready to stretch out in leather recliners just yet.
The trio, who make up Lady Danville, want to take on something else a bit more seriously first: music.
“Music is the top priority even though at my job I really downplay it. As long as it’s fun, there’s no reason for us not to do it,” said vocalist/pianist Michael Garner. “None of us are in a huge rush to grow up, but still we have other interests.”
The acoustic pop collective will be playing the Temple Bar tonight at 10 p.m., in support of John West. Though they will be arriving to the show after long days at work, they hope their music channels simpler times, from childhood to their days at UCLA.
Musicians skilled in storytelling and harmonies, like Rufus Wainwright, Simon and Garfunkel, Ben Folds and Guster, are the band’s main musical influences, but UCLA has everything to do with the band’s actual existence.
Despite each member’s reluctance to label themselves as vocalists, the three met through UCLA’s Awaken A Cappella. Frankel was already the campus group’s beatboxer when Chang (vocalist/guitarist) and Garner, both skeptical of their chances of getting into the prestigious group, auditioned.
“Dan and I were like hey, if we don’t make this we should hang out. We ended up making it,” said Garner. “But it was a year that a bunch of people made it.”
Their experience in Awaken can be heard in the band’s catchy and compeling vocals.
“We want to create a really vocal aesthetic,” said cajonist/vocalist Matt Frankel.
“A Cappella is all about different harmonies and creating a full sound out of voices,” said Garner. “We are a small acoustic group but we do produce a bigger sound than is expected.”
While Awaken’s influence on the band is notable, the boys became a band thanks to other UCLA traditions ““ procrastination and Spring Sing.
“Dan and I were poli sci majors at the time, and we had a class together and Dan would come over and write papers with me and we would just never write papers,” Garner said. “I had a keyboard in my room, and we would jam a bit. We decided let’s enter Spring Sing, it will be fun.”
The two Danville, California natives had only one song to their name ““ Mikey G and Dan from Danville ““ for their first Spring Sing performance in 2005. The ensuing good response provoked more writing and more band performances.
The next year, Mikey G and Dan from Danville won Spring Sing’s Best Duet and Best Overall Entry and continued to expand.
“One day after graduation, Matty and I were hanging out in my apartment. I was messing around on the keyboard in my room and Matty picked up my drum kit and started playing,” Garner said. “I thought he just beatboxed. He had never mentioned (he played drums) that entire time, which I thought was a little bit rude.”
After this revelation, Frankel began playing shows with Mikey G and Dan from Danville. Once Frankel replaced the electric drum kit with a cajon, a Latin American drum with a much more acoustic sound, the three decided to change their name.
“We’re very much a three person band. It’s very egalitarian. We figured a name specifically isolating two members of the group was not the best for that image,” said Garner. “Dan seems to write things that are a little a bit cheesier, and I write things that are a bit incomprehensible. He grounds me. Matty is extremely good at (figuring out) what is good and what is bad.”
After changing its name, the band entered the Annual 98.7 Star Lounge Competition with its newly recorded song “Tired Musician.”
Entering and subsequently winning the radio contest paid for the band’s self-titled five song EP and gave the relatively unknown band a place on Star’s compilation with artists such as John Mayer and former Spring Sing winner Maroon 5.
The trio also started to realize the place of the band in their own lives, promoting it from a side hobby.
“We not only rented a rehearsal space, but we made a rehearsal schedule,” Frankel said. “We weren’t just meeting when we felt the urge to write music, which was usually always.”
However, getting more serious about music did not mean getting more serious.
“All three of us come from a place where music is fun and enjoyable. None of us have intense technical backgrounds. This keeps us excited and happy to play together,” Garner said.
“From the get-go, we all like music and we like to play. We’re growing a lot as musicians by being in a band together, so (playing is) always for the right reason.”
Though they have sold out a number of Los Angeles venues ““ such as the El Rey and the Hotel Café ““ Lady Danville will continue playing UCLA events for good causes. The group recently played at OCHC’s Mock Rock and have played for Relay for Life.
“As long as we are a band, we will always play Dance Marathon,” Frankel said.
Innocent and fun to sophisticated and serious, the band’s music offers something appealing to a wide scope of listeners.
“We’ve also had people come to us who are 40 to 50 years old from Virginia on MySpace and tell us how much our music has affected them,” Frankel said. “It may be reflected in the lyrics to a certain extent, but the music is extremely universal in its appeal to all different age groups.”