According to lead singer and manager Alan Hatch ’25, the formation of campus band Blue Moose was not without obstacles. After kicking off discussions to start a band in the spring of 2023, Hatch and other initial members — including keys player Elliot Alberts ’25 — realized they had “different ideas and visions for the band,” Hatch explained. The new group soon decided to part ways.
“It fell apart before it even started,” Hatch said.
For Hatch and Alberts, however, the dream of starting a band was not dead. In a follow-up statement to The Dartmouth, Hatch wrote that he and Alberts “went back to the drawing board” at the end of the spring. A new group of musicians then met at the beginning of summer 2023. After its first hiccup, Blue Moose was officially born.
According to Hatch, since the band’s initiation it has developed a “bluesier, classic rock sound,” covering artists from The Grateful Dead and Blue Oyster Cult to Tom Petty and Mt. Joy, he said.
The group’s membership has evolved with its sound. Guitarist and tenor saxophonist Eliza Gould ’27, drummer Ben Shirmeier ’27 and lead and rhythm guitarist Christian Smith ’27 have joined the group since its creation. Shirmeier started drumming for Blue Moose in fall 2023, while Gould and Smith played their first show in winter 2024, Hatch wrote.
According to Hatch, the group added the two guitarists due to shake ups caused by members’ D-Plans and study abroad programs.
Although the current members of Blue Moose did not all know each other prior to joining the band, Hatch explained that their shared passion for making music ultimately helped solidify “close bond[s]” between them.
“We are super comfortable with each other, and I think this is reflected in our stage presence,” Gould said.
Hatch said the band has ultimately been a valuable source of friendship. While the members are “so different” from each other, shared performance has allowed them to “create friendships that extend way beyond the music space,” Hatch said. For example, a team of mostly Blue Moose musicians completed the Dartmouth Outing Club Fifty — a Dartmouth tradition where students hike 50 miles straight — together this fall, Hatch said. The group wore moose antlers throughout the hike, he added.
“We also do things like canoeing together, skiing together [and] running a half marathon with bandmates,” Hatch said. “And I think that the level of connection we have gives us our strength when we play together.”
The band members also seek to connect with their audience by making audience members “feel like they are part of the music,” Gould said. For example, Hatch often encourages the audience to sing lines of “popular songs,” while Shirmeier “gets up and runs circles around the drum set” to “hype the audience up,” according to Gould. Sometimes — “when the energy is really high” — Smith and Gould will play “back to back” in the stage’s center, she added.
“We really play music with each other because we enjoy each other’s company, and our shows are the most fun when we know all the faces in the crowd,” Gould said.
A notable trait of Blue Moose is that each member has a unique musical background. Gould, who was inspired by her father to learn an instrument, said she started taking guitar lessons at age seven and later picked up saxophone in middle school. Smith, on the other hand, grew up playing tenor saxophone before “falling in love” with guitar during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
“I practiced religiously, like eight hours a day, and grew more obsessed with the blues,” Smith said.
Hatch’s musical journey, meanwhile, began with his love for singing.
“I’ve always been involved with music via choir and musical theater,” Hatch said. “I realized pretty quickly that if I were to continue the arts in college, I didn’t want it to be through acting. So, I shifted my focus to a cappella and now this.”
While Blue Moose currently plays cover songs, such as “Kilby Girl” by The Backseat Lovers, some members have dreams for original music. Smith said he hopes the group will explore songwriting as a band in the future.
“Right now, we play other people’s songs in original ways, but I’d love to start writing as a group,” Smith said. “I write music almost every day and want to blend those worlds.”
According to Hatch, Blue Moose has not yet discussed original music as a group, but the band members have talked about “recording” their own covers of songs. Hatch said he hopes to expand the band’s musical reach beyond campus before the end of spring 2025.
“Getting professional studio recordings of songs we’ve made our own, like our ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World x Reptilia’ mashup, would be so special,” Hatch said. “I’d love to have something to carry with me after college.”
With the founding seniors set to graduate in June, Gould said she hopes the band will continue with the Class of 2027.
“We are hoping the band will continue with the [Class of 2027 by] having people take over the spots for the [Class of 2025], so ideally it becomes a band that grows with whoever is in it, not something we transplant with us after college,” she said.
