Four Word Cause

(Pop/Rock)

See them: At Bali Satay House, 2424 Lincoln Way, at 5 p.m. on Saturday, with Better Off Tomorrow, Thru the Static, Wide Eyed Kid and Cities Never Sleep.

Hear them: www.myspace.com/fourwordcause

The local music scene in Ames has a great new addition that has been making the rounds and gaining fans everywhere it plays.

Made up of five ISU students, Four Word Cause has been making strides with its career. From being a contender to play at the Vans Warped Tour this summer to seeing their music available on iTunes, they’ve come a long way from where they started.

“All of us have known each other for about seven months now – pretty much when we started the band,” said Jayson Peterson, senior in management, marketing and the band’s guitarist.

“I met Tyler and Steve in July of 2007. We went on to look for a drummer and found Matt around August. After that, Matt said he knew a sweet vocalist, who we met in September, and that was Austin.”

They describe their music as “pop/rock with an emphasis on the rock” and list their influences as Something Corporate, Motion City Soundtrack, New Found Glory and The Starting Line, along with artists from other genres of music.

The members of Four Word Cause each attribute the band’s success to various reasons.

“Collectively, music is our main passion in life and, upon forming Four Word Cause, we brought many different influences to the table,” said Austin Rader, sophomore in marketing and the band’s vocalist.

“I think we’re all at a very creative point in our lives, and being brought together with these four guys – I get inspired more every day.”

Hard work has obviously been a huge factor in their success. Tyler Higdon, sophomore in management and vocalist for the band, said that during rehearsals they usually warm up with songs they’ll be playing at their next performance and then they’ll move on to writing new material and working on their on-stage performance.

“We practice four afternoons a week for about three hours. Sometimes our performance schedule limits that,” said Steve Williams, senior in community and regional planning and the band’s bass player.

“Practice to us is more like going to work with our friends: When we are in our studio it’s all business. But we still have fun.”

Fans of Four Word Cause can hear a different show each time the band plays as they mix up their set list and add new material.

“We have an idea of what we want our set list to be, but we change it up frequently,” Peterson said.

While they do play covers, most of their performance is based on music they write themselves.

Peterson said the process usually consists of someone bringing in an idea and they play through it and fix it until they are satisfied. After that, they play it until it’s ready to be performed.

“We try to keep our music as positive as possible, but as we say in our song ‘Sing Your Heart Out,’ all good songs require good inspiration,” said Matt Dery, junior in marketing and the band’s drummer.

“Our lyrics always reflect our most relevant experiences in life.”

The next step for most bands would be bagging a record contract, but that isn’t necessarily the foremost goal for the members of Four Word Cause. They have seen some interest from record label representatives, but Peterson said that there is a lot of speculation in the media that a record label isn’t the way to go. On the other hand, if they got the right offer, he said they’d take it.

“At the end of the day, we, as Four Word Cause, would love to be able to write/record/perform our music every day, without any other worries, other than what city we’re heading to next,” Rader said.

“If a proposal is brought to us from a label or management group – the Ames Wells Fargo Bank, or whoever – we would love to hear them out.”

For now, the band has a busy summer schedule to look forward to. Their tour schedule lists over 30 performances, and they are adding more every day.

Four Word Cause also gives thanks to their fans, for their support. “It’s much easier to stay inspired during the hard times when you know you get to play a show in front of hundreds of cheering fans,” Rader said.

See their last local show of the school year at the Bali Satay House, 2424 Lincoln Way, at 5 p.m. on Saturday.