Campus Band Profile: The Euphemisms
Not only do the The Euphemisms put on a killer live show, they’re also pretty damn fun to talk to. I sat down to chat with three of the group’s members — Carl Neisser ’15, Benjamin Meyer ’15 and Dan Calano ’15 — and assured them it wouldn’t take long, but I found myself rather bummed when we called it a day so Meyer could get to his trumpet lesson.
From the moment we started chatting, the three got on each other’s cases.
The dynamic, Meyer said, is typical. “This is how many of our rehearsals go,” he said, and the others laughed in agreement.
All jokes aside however, The Euphemisms are in the middle of an incredible term of playing together. Neisser noted an increase in the amount of shows they’ve done on campus.
Last fall, he noted, they had six gigs for the term. This spring, they’ve played four —including Collis After Dark’s Battle of the Bands and Thetaroo, Epsilon Kappa Theta’s live music party — and Neisser said they have four more to come.
The current lineup has Calano on vocals, Neisser on guitar, Zach Wooster ’15 on bass, Moises Silva ’16 on drums, Hannah O’Flynn ’15 on saxophone and Meyer playing keyboard and trumpet. Leif Harder ’15 also plays with the group, but he is currently on the music foreign study program in London.
While the band officially came together last summer, it has been in the works for much longer. Neisser and Calano discussed their vision for the band while on two different continents over their sophomore spring. Meyer can trace the start of his idea for the band all the way back to freshman fall. On Dartmouth Outing Club first-year trips, Meyer met O’Flynn on the bus. She played sax, he played trumpet, and the two talked about jamming.
After a few membership adjustments, the group formed its current sextet and began figuring out The Euphamisms’ musical style.
“Our niche when we started out was ‘songs that were really good in 2006,’” Neisser said.
The band noted the importance of choosing songs that are both fun to play and for the audience to hear.
“When you’re playing as a college band, you have to sort of petition the crowd,” Meyer said.
“If it’s not gonna slay faces, we’re not gonna do it,” Calano added.
The band also only chooses songs that are unanimously accepted by the group, which can be difficult due to their various preferences.
“We have six different members and six different music tastes,” Meyer said.
However challenging the process, they agreed that doing song selection this way means that everyone in the band is excited about every song.
The group also noted what they view as a recent increase in the quantity of live music on campus.
“Something that’s been really special about the way that we’ve been able to perform recently is that there’s so much more of an interest than I think there was our freshman year,” Calano said.
Meyer agreed, saying that being a part of the group has shaped his experiences here on campus.
“It’s a really great feeling to be doing something that you love to do but then also being asked to do it for other people too,” Calano said.
And if the energy of their shows is any indication, they seem to be loving it.
Luckily for us, The Euphemisms are likely to be putting on shows for the foreseeable future (read: time doesn’t exist post 15S). All but one current member of the band is a ’15, and The Euphemisms plan on playing through senior year.
“We have a whole year more of music making, which is really cool,” Meyer said.
To stay informed about upcoming shows, like the group’s Facebook page here.