After spending time apart from each other, the members of Sweet Afton have finally found home sweet home right here in Ames.

Bassist Seth Hoveland, junior in pre-business, and guitarist Wes Fuhrman started playing music together in high school jazz band. They stayed together and played in various bands. One of the most notable bands was Drive, based out of their hometown, Webster City.

“Seth is almost my brother,” Fuhrman says. “He basically lived at my house when he broke his leg. I nursed him back to health.”

Hoveland and Fuhrman were soon joined by drummer Mike Jessen, senior in liberal studies and vocalist James Brinker, senior in music.

Despite time spent together in other projects, the band had quite a bit of debate about its current name.

“Sweet Afton [was chosen] because it was the only one nobody hated,” Fuhrman says.

The band took it as confirmation when booking agent Justin Means approached the band after a show at the Boheme Bistro, 2900 West St., and told them he was from the town of Afton.

After Fuhrman spent some time at Berklee College of Music in Boston, the four members of Sweet Afton have finally converged in Ames. They look forward to building momentum as a band this year.

Hoping to play as much as possible in the Ames area and do some recording throughout the fall, the band members will have to balance school and extracurricular activities with their music. Brinker is the trombone section leader for the ISU Marching Band.

“Playing trombone actually helps James as a vocalist,” Fuhrman says. “He learns how to move a lot of air, and that really helps with his range when he sings.”

Brinker and Fuhrman write most of Sweet Afton’s material, and the band plays mostly original songs in concert.

Fuhrman describes the band’s sound as “somewhere in the vein of indie emo rock.”

Their influences include the Get Up Kids and Thursday, but Hoveland’s comparison of one of their songs as similar to Tool and Brinker’s love for Queen discourage any attempts to pigeonhole them.

As for lyrical content, the band deals heavily in imagery and dealing with loss.

“Damien’s Eulogy” is named after Fuhrman’s pet fish who allegedly committed suicide. Fuhrman returned home one day to find Damien lying on the floor near his fishbowl. Fuhrman assumes Damien jumped from the fishbowl but would appreciate any leads concerning the matter.

In actuality, the comical story of the song’s title has little to do with the actual content of the song.

“Wes was just looking around his room and naming songs after whatever came to mind,” Hoveland says.

The song was written before the “Damien Incident” and is much more poignant and serious than the story of the title would lead one to believe: “I turn around and see your picture like ice/ To see the contours of a memory/ Now and then it’s all our time/ I turn around to see you leaving and I die.”

Hoveland describes the band’s fan base as very inclusive.

“[There is] everyone from nerds to jocks to moms,” he says.

Hoveland says Sweet Afton and its members will continue to play music no matter what because, to put it simply, that is what they do and have always done.

“[If it] appeals to the masses, that’s great too,” he says.