Hammond band seeking connections

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Seth Guerra and Nathaniel Bauerle perform during “Hot August Night.” Guerra and Bauerle belong to the band Kevin.

Zachary Araki, A&E Editor

Four musicians build connections with each other and the audience in the band Kevin.

The band consists of Nathaniel Bauerle, a senior music major, on guitar and voice, Dominique Roubique, a senior music major, on guitar and voice, Tyler Pertuit, a senior music major, on percussion, and Seth Guerra, a senior music theory major at Louisiana State University, on piano.

Two years ago, Bauerle started doing street performances with Guerra at events like “Hot August Night” and “Starry November Night.” When Bauerle got a gig performing at Mariner’s Inn, he invited Guerra and Roubique to join him, forming which was then called Through the Mirror band. After that, the band got other gigs, performing covers of popular songs from the ‘50s to modern.

Bauerle said, “When you do solo acts by yourself without anybody else’s input, you get this tunnel vision where you want it your way, and you also kind of have to be a perfectionist because it’s just you up there too, and it can also be a lot scarier when it’s just you up there. It’s a lot healthier mentally to do it with a bunch of other people, at least when you start.”

The band changed its name to Kevin as a joke that stuck. Someone named Kevin would hang out in the university band room when the band performed, and the members would joke that he was the leader of their group.

Bauerle enjoys connecting with the audience during his performances.

“If they’re digging it, then I’m digging it even more,” said Bauerle. “I’m already digging it being up there, but if they like it, then it just makes the experience fully worth it.”

Roubique shared what she enjoyed about being in the band. 

“The connection between all of us and making the music and just making other people happy is just cool,” said Roubique.

For practice, Bauerle will compile a list of songs taken from his and other members’ suggestions for the band to perform. The band will then play them through once or twice before tweaking as needed.

“The only thing we have to work on really is structure like when are we going to play this piece, when are we going to play this section, if we want to change anything,” said Bauerle. “We play the song how we hear it with what instruments we have because all the technology we have, there’re 20 instruments in one song. We only have four people. We try to figure out how to recreate with just four people.”

Kevin can be found on Facebook and Instagram @kevinandsound.

Though the band is taking a break to focus on school, the band members are working on original pieces in the meantime.

“We’re not spending time on practicing for gigs doing restaurants or other venues, but we are working on writing our own songs because that is a smaller scale,” said Bauerle. “We can collab without having to be in the same place at the same time all the time.”