Since its beginnings, rock 'n' roll has always stuck it to the man, but alternative rock band Turning Pages is trying to work with him.
When living in the dorms, the band always had angry neighbors telling them to quiet down and stop playing.
OU isn't the greatest because they promote all this creativity but you can't play in the dorms
said guitarist Nick La Torre. I talked to (Vice President of Student Affairs) Kent Smith and asked him about it and they let us use the South Pole a room underneath Nelson.
Now practicing in a basement room in MacKinnon Hall, the band is trying to diversify their sound with different covers and original material. Michael La Torre, lead vocalist, Nick Wyen, bassist, Colin Blankinship, drums and Michael Schenk, guitarist along with Nick La Torre, are all very different musicians that bring together a sound that goes from John Mellencamp to AFI to Nickelback. However, one of their biggest influences on their music and their name is Jimmy Page, lead guitarist of Led Zeppelin.
It just kind of popped into my head because the only reason I play guitar is Jimmy Page Nick La Torre said. Plus we're all college students so we are assumed to study and read at some point in college
so it is a play on that.
Turning Pages' first album The Journey took three months to write and many more to record and master. After the band released The Journey, the digital record label Zoo Moozik contacted them about signing to their label.
It's just an online distribution deal
kind of like an iTunes thing where the company and the band split the profits
and there will be ringtones of our songs coming from that soon
Schenk said. But it's just easier to get shows when you say you're on a label.
Another unique aspect of their music comes from Michael La Torre's Buddhist beliefs, which he discovered when first recording with the band.
When we were recording our demo these people invited us to their house and gave us some food and they had this book in their bathroom on the Dalai Lama and I looked at it and it really spoke to me G? a couple of our songs I have gotten either in a dream or meditation
he said
Two of their songs that have come from a dream or meditation were Blue Eyes
Ocean Tides and Above Dukha within Kensho.
While the band's most well known covers include Black by Pearl Jam and Iris by Goo Goo Dolls, the band let fans vote via their MySpace for their next cover, premiering tonight. The winning song was Basket Case by Green Day.
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