Local band to open for Spring Concert

Country and rock are set to collide onstage at the 2016 spring concert with the second opening band, Nine Miles to Nowhere.

The country trio is an all male group located right here in St. Joseph, with all three members being current students here at Missouri Western.

Lead guitarist and political science major, Garrett Shuck, says the band formed after their drummer, William Bryant, and he moved into Scanlon Hall and met their then RA and now lead vocalist, Drew Miller.

Miller explains he had asked Shuck to play guitar for him on one of his shows, and after convincing Bryant that country music wasn’t all bad, recruited him for drums.

The band played their first show late last March, and Shuck says their sound is country with some rock roots to it.

“We don’t really sound like anybody else, so I guess we are a little more edgy-country,” Shuck said.

The group is influenced by country artists like Randy Houser and Brantley Gilbert, but Miller says they have also been inspired by rock musicians such as Blink-182’s drummer Travis Barker and American rock band Van Halen.

“I’ve got a plethora of different stuff that has molded me to what I am,” Miller said. “Randy Houser is a big one for country, and as kind of a writing style that I go with, I’d have to say a little bit of Skillet, which sounds a little weird, but I like their style.”

Shuck says the mashing of genres stemmed from their love of hard rock and heavy metal before college and forming the band.

“It was kind of weird, you know, I listened to country a little bit, but [Will] absolutely despised country,” Shuck said. “Drew sang Christian rock and stuff like that, but started doing country before we got here.”

They decided to head down the country music lane mainly due to Miller’s voice and background.

“My vocals are straight country and it took a lot of convincing, more with Will then Garrett, but I was like there’s a way we can capture the rock guitar sound and kind of get that with country vocals unlike anybody else does,” Miller said. “So we just kind of went for something different.”

According to Shuck, the band has been described as the ‘white Nickelback of country music’.

“Our producer has done a pretty good job of really capturing the influences that we all drew off of different genres, and it comes out to be really edgy, so it’s southern rock country,” Shuck said.

Currently, the band does not have a single out, but headed to Springfield, MO over the weekend to finish recording their first EP. The EP does not have a release date, but should be available around the time of the spring concert.

The concert is set to be one of the biggest shows the band has played to date, and Bryant explains their excitement at being one of the openers for headliners Maddie and Tae.

“I’d have to say playing in front of a ton of people,” Bryant said. “We usually get a good crowd, but probably not as big of a crowd as we’ll have there.”

The concert is an opportunity for the band to expand their number of listeners to a wider audience. Bryant explains what he sees happening for the future of the band.

“Living the dream,” Bryant said. “Living the dream and playing music.”

To see the band perform at the spring concert, be sure to arrive at the St. Joseph Civic Event Center around 6:30 p.m. on April 16.

Also, be sure to follow Nine Miles to Nowhere on Facebook for future events, upcoming shows and the release of their EP.