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The Return of Roswell

A brief history and the triumphant return of one of Tacoma's finest local bands

ROSWELL: The band makes its return Friday night at The Space in downtown Tacoma. Photo credit: Drew Shapiro/Thunderbird Photo

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Kind readers of the Weekly Volcano lend me your ears and allow me to describe to you a tragic scene in the Pacific Northwest. With the coming of winter and the departure of many fine local groups comes an ill point in the year in which great indie shows are few and far between. This can lead to long depressing droughts in which very little live music can be seen or heard, and these, at their worst, can last well into the summer. This drought leads many fans and local music lovers to slowly die of boredom and an overwhelming desire to mosh and crowd surf. However, it seems the prayers for rain have been answered in the form of the return of rising local stars Roswell who come to alleviate our boredom and burn our skies.

Roswell originated as a two-piece duo comprised of Joe Bakke and Nick Vargish, two Tacoma School of The Arts (SOTA) graduates and long time friends. The duo met during their sophomore year at SOTA and bonded over a shared love of music, and shared percussion and songwriting classes. As a songwriting assignment the two collaborated and created the first ever Roswell song, which would later become known as "Winter Face."  Both were only 15 years old at the time. The two would remain close throughout high school, but their band materialized in their junior year when they worked in Pacific Studios for a recording assignment. Bakke and Vargish recorded as a duo, with Vargish taking up duty on the drums and Bakke on guitar and vocals. They had strong chemistry and were able to write songs with an effortless ease. Yet neither considered being a serious band until Bakke was asked by fellow local rockers Roman Holiday to be the opening act for the band's upcoming show. Although skeptical, Bakke decided that he and Vargish should play the show, and after a quick debate, the two decided on the name, Roswell. The show was a success and Bakke and Vargish - now known as Roswell - decided to continue the band as a pair. In my recent conversation with Bakke, he said that at the time, he had thought of expanding the band to a traditional four piece set up, however decided against it "because it wasn't broken, so why fix it?"

Later that year, the duo turned heads with its performance of Roswell's greatest composition "Bells" - a song finished half an hour before performing it. After the performance, the band was suddenly overwhelmed with hype and became the base for a number of soon to be devoted fans.

Roswell was able to release two singles in the forms of "Sun Comes" and a reprise of "Bells." The singles proved the duo's talents and announced its status as a band to watch.  Following the success of the singles, Roswell recorded a full length LP comprised of 11 tracks and 40 minutes of music - a well-produced self-titled indie rock record. Recording spanned the duo's senior year and was almost entirely self-produced with help coming from engineer and future band member, Alex Hart and Pacific Studios owner, Mark Simmons. During the recording, the band doubled its size with the addition of Colin Reynolds on bass and the aforementioned Hart on guitar. Reynolds only participated in the recording and various live shows.

The album was completed and released in the spring. In the wake of this lofty achievement, the band played a number of local shows before parting ways for college. For a while, it seemed that we had seen the end of Tacoma's most interesting rising talent. However, just one week ago from the time of this writing, Bakke and Vargish announced their plans to reunite over Christmas break and play a number of shows, including Friday's show with Humble Cub at The Space in downtown Tacoma.

To gather all of the overwhelming detail that you have just traversed through, I sat down with three of the four members of the band and had a conversation regarding the band, its upcoming shows and perhaps an entirely new album. Sitting across from me at Bluebeard Coffee on Tacoma's Sixth Avenue were Bakke, Vargish and Hart. Through some intrepid journalistic poking and prodding I was able to gleam some details regarding the band's upcoming sophomore LP. The band has booked time in a new studio, which they believe would lead to a darker and grittier sound for the group. Although the LP has yet to be named, the band claims to have it already written, and through the coming week, they have intentions to release an entirely new single by the name of "Fingers and Bones."

"This time away has been good," Bakke says referring to the band's brief four-month hiatus. "When we were together, we were so focused on playing shows together and being away from that has allowed us more to write and think about the direction we want to go in."

When asked about the band's future, Joe says, "I think the future will be interesting just to see how much we can cram in with our time together. Ideally we would release a new album every year, and continue to evolve and grow as a band and push ourselves in whatever direction we could go.

"We were always a band about doing what we felt we wanted to do. We were never preoccupied with what other people thought about us. But we are a band and we are devoted to that idea completely. I have seen other groups around us fall apart under other projects and dram, but we want to build something that will last. I think that into the New Year, we will be around just trying to make a bigger local name for ourselves, and Roswell is it. This is simply what we want to do and what we will do."

THE SPACE, W/ ROSWELL, FRIDAY, DEC. 28, 7:30 P.M., ALL AGES, $5, 729 COURT C, TACOMA

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