If you live or casually walk through the Village at Oswego State, it may seem like a
quintessential little neighborhood with all of the brand new houses and its happy little
suburban feel. But just like every neighborhood, there are noisy neighbors.
“It’s mostly things we’ve heard from other people. They’ll be like: I keep hearing this
band play in the Village. What’s up with that?” says Eric Griswold.
Well collegiettes™, I’ll tell you what’s up.
The band is called Burning Bridge Street, made up of Singer Eric Griswold, guitarists
Ian McIntyre and Corey Sutter, Bryan “Myrar” Henschel on bass, and Jon Zella on
drums. Henschel and McIntyre live in the Village that houses the band’s practices. The
name comes from the obvious, Bridge Street, which is the section of route 104 that runs
through the city of Oswego. The name was chosen because that is what brings the band
together. The band members come from all over the state, except for Griswold who hails
from Miami, Florida. They came together this year to sing cover songs, but as they’ve
grown, they’ve found their true voice.
If you haven’t heard of Burning Bridge Street yet, they’re a punk band that adds a lot
of humor to their songs, including tracks like “If I had a voice like Morgan Freeman,”
sung by Griswold on acoustic guitar. The band agrees that their sound is similar to that
of Taking Back Sunday, a punk rock band that is good for partying and maybe even a
little mosh-pit action. However, despite their similar sound, each member of the band
has incredibly different influences from one another, which they say helps their creative
process.
“It just starts with a small idea and then everything grows from there,” says
McIntyre. “We’ll each take a little from our influences and we all add something.”
“Then after 10 minutes of it, we try to figure out where want it to go,” adds Zella. “It
depends on the energy we get from it.”
The instrumentalists from the group often start playing a song and then with suggestions
from the band, Griswold will think of the lyrics. Most times, they’ll play the song over
and over again so he can get the feel of the energy and the rhythm, and then start writing
the song while the band plays.
Burning Bridge Street has hosted a few shows, mostly in their cozy village home, but
they’ve also played one night at Hurricanes, a local bar downtown. The crowd wasn’t
as big as they had hoped, but they still have dreams of a successful future. Next on their
calendar is the Battle of the Bands competition on March 11. If they come out on top,
the band will play outside of the campus center before the spring concert on April 9,
featuring J. Cole and Sam Adams.
The band is also recording a new demo CD and thinking about their plans for next year.
Unfortunately, Henschel is graduating in June and without a bass player, the band is
unsure of their distant future.
“He’s going to learn to play so I can come back whenever I want,” says Henschel,
motioning to Griswold, who occasionally plays acoustic guitar. The band agrees that even
with Henschel’s departure, they’re pretty certain they do not want to try and find a new
bass player.
If you haven’t heard the band yet, you can hear them on Pure Volume. The songs are
from their first recording, which they’ve dubbed “the basement demo.”
“It’s our basement child. You know, that child you keep in the basement after you have
other children that are better,” says Griswold. “Right now, we’re in a trailer. Once we
upgrade to a house, we’ll put them in the basement.”
There’s more to come from Burning Bridge Street, so be sure to listen for them in the
Village near you.
From upper left to bottom right:
Ian McIntyre, Brian “Myrar”
Henschel, Eric Griswold, Corey
Sutter, and Jon Zell.
Photo by Keith Edelman