Having a high school band is the epitome of coolness. Every movie on Disney channel that high schoolers watched as kids, Lemonade Mouth, Lizzie McGuire, Wizards of Waverly Place, and so many more bring back those Disney rock days. Well Tompkins has their own featuring and upcoming band, Bullet Brain. Bullet Brain was founded from fate, as some of the members would say. Junior Megan Lataczewski, band member, had been playing and wanting to cover music with a band since the first year, though it was not until she met the future guitarist, junior Kennedy Schmidt in her first and sophomore years. From there they formed a small band, playing with some friends and covering songs. Though fate happens to be, they ended up randomly meeting the other band members, senior Sofia Vik and junior Kyle Rodriguez, at a party, where they ended up playing together and clicking. Bullet Brain’s was formed.
“We’re sitting at my house, and we started naming random words that we think sound cool. Something weird, but not that weird. And then at first, we had ‘Bullet Head’, but then that has already taken. So then Megan said, ‘Bullet Brain.’ We thought it was a very cool name,” said Vik.
While the name is an extremely important key factor into the making of the band, starting a band is something much more difficult, how to even produce the idea of starting a band, and gathering enough members to start one is a huge accomplishment on its own.
“It started because Megan, Kennedy and Kyle all came to my Halloween party. I did not really know them before, but then Megan and Kennedy came up to me and were like ‘Hey do you want to drum for our band? And I was like sure. And then we got Kyle in on it because we needed a lead guitarist,” said Vik.
Lataczewski describes the fate and randomness of the night that led to Bullet Brains. While every band has a cool story about forming a band, Lataczewski dives deeper into the night that led them all together.
“I have been playing bass for over a year now and wanted to join a band to make my own music as well as play cool covers. I met Kennedy Schmidt our rhythmic guitarist as a freshman and in our sophomore year we both decided to pick up our instruments. Later we got together with friends and were able to play some, but we met Sofia Vik and Kyle Rodriguez at a party while getting to know each other and asked them to play with us. We all got along well. We play rock music and try to capture how rock and roll was,” said Lataczewski. “We just play random segments of songs because we try to make our own stuff. We have a full song. Kennedy made like a guitar riff and then I put the drums in it. I mean, it is still very rough,” said Vik.
Bullet Brain does not have a lead singer and in fact asks for anyone interested to reach out, as they are looking for one. Though during the times they have spent without a lead singer it has created limitations and can be difficult for the band. While they are looking for a lead singer, to create and expand Bullet Brains, the talent of the guitarist speaks for themselves.
“I feel like sometimes it feels like it is limiting us, but then sometimes it is not. We have separate ways of making music. Just purely a singer is what we need because we have two guitarists already,” said Vik.
While Bullet Brain does not have a lead singer, they have tried reaching into their own sources and have band members now take on that role. Though, they are still searching for a new member. Vik describes the ideal of very metal like music, and expressing their band maybe leaning towards a heavier type of singing that matches their vibe and feel as a band.
Bullet Brain has a very heavy-set friendship dynamic, seeing as many of them were friends separately or mutually before creating this band. Being friends and working together can be a difficult and hard thing to balance. They all have big dreams and truly work hard to accomplish and meet these goals as a team. They are able to set the arguments aside to really fall in love with what they started the band for, music.
“We just realized that we all want to be in a band and we all like music. We all listen to music, so we just got to like it. Let it out and work it out. We do not want our joy of music to be ruined because of stupid things,” said Vik.
Bullet Brain is a completely self-made band from former connections, friends and circumstance. The talent and strive of this band speak great measures about their work ethic, passion for music and creativity to continue to grow and expand as a band together. Bullet Brain continues to expand and grow bigger, as they search for a new singer to complete their four-person band.
“If you are a singer, please hit us up on one of our Instagram accounts we need a singer,” said Vik.
If you are interested in singing for the band you can reach them on any of the band members Instagram accounts: @s0fivav1k, @cranberryjuiceishot, @meg.czewski and @kylerodriguez
