Coming from different musical backgrounds, Paul Brazell, Jeremy Davis, Christian Sawyer and Patrick Mitchell combined their talents to form The Awake in October 2010.

Before The Awake formed, the members had each been involved in other musical endeavors.

Mitchell was playing bass in Brazell’s band before meeting Davis and Sawyer who were in the White Sable.

“Patrick is stuck in the 90s, Christian is stuck being in his classical rock band and I’m stuck listening to them both talk about World of Warcraft-nerds. But in all seriousness, I guess what I’m trying to say is we all musically come from different backgrounds. Jeremy did jazz drumming for a while and I was in acoustic/pop before this. It’s interesting how all that came to be The Awake,” Brazell says.

Brazell is the singer/songwriter for the Awake. Davis is the drummer, Sawyer plays bass and Mitchell is the lead guitarist. The music has an Indie/pop vibe.

“A lot of the songs are raw emotion but I’ve been starting to write from different perspectives, creating stories and experimenting with my writing,” Brazell explains.

Starting out is difficult because of the challenge of getting noticed. The Indie scene has hundreds, if not thousands, of artists and standing out can be challenging.

“I’m not hoping for anything so I don’t have the chance of getting disappointed. The reality is we’re not doing this to achieve a goal but to have fun. Sure it would be great to have 200 plus people at a show and sell 500 CDs,” Brazell says about his hopes for the band, “I’m happy with fans growing as we grow.”

There is also the issue of being young while in a band. Being a musician requires a fulltime commitment from its members. The band members have to put a lot of time into practices, shows and perfecting their music in general. For Brazell, it is difficult to balance the band with his studies at Midlands Tech.

“I focus on my music sometimes more than school,” Brazell admits.

Whenever groups of people get together there are going to be some disagreements, it is the same for band members.

“Any group of individuals is going to have disagreements. I wouldn’t call that a negative thing; it’s good to have those. I’d rather people disagree with me for the betterment of the sound,” says Brazell.

However, The Awake has come a long way in the short time that they have been together. Although there are negatives to being in a band, there are also many positives like meeting new people and creating friendships through music.

“I just like the atmosphere. We’re all good friends doing what we love to do. I guess the best part is playing live shows. There’s nothing like being loud under lights. It’s awesome to hear all of our hard work in practices come to life on stage,” Brazell says.

Musically, The Awake performs all over the area. Locally, they have played at the New Brookland Tavern, the White Mule, the Watershed and Bey’s.

“We’ve been related to Dashboard, Snow Patrol, CherryCase and Marry a Thief. I’m stuck listening to local music so it’s hard to describe a band we’re like,” Brazell states.

The band loves to see new faces at their shows; they are in the process of booking more shows, the schedule will be available to anyone interested on their facebook page.

Brazell says, “Don’t ever give up on what you love, no matter the cost.”