By Danielle Smith

[email protected]

Student by day and musician by night, MHS alumnus Daniel Lyons took his passion for music further than just the classroom by creating a band with three other members in 2013 with the intention of spreading their love of music. “The Fresh Preps” is an indie rock band with all of its members hailing from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. For Lyons, the band has led him to many opportunities and has allowed him to take steps higher in his music career since graduating high school.

“I’ve always had a strong passion for music. I grew up in a musical family, as my dad played guitar and sings and my mom and my sisters all played (instruments), so I’ve always grown up around music and I’ve always been interested in it. But there were a lot of other things that really set my foundation for music,” said Lyons.

Initially, Lyons formed the band “Speed Ticket” as the guitarist in his sophomore year of high school, which lasted a mere six months. Since then, Lyons has reached to aim higher than a small high school band. “I went to college looking to get into the music industry. I was actually originally planning to go into audio engineering, which is like recording music or mixing sounds or anything to do with audio. But everything just fell into place and in the right time, and we just decided that it was the perfect time to work together and create this band,” Lyons said.

Since developing the band, Lyons has met many other local artists and aspiring musicians, such as Crimson Apple, Amanda Frazier and the Ron Artis Family Band. Each met through various musical events like the Battle of the Bands competition and from watching bands’ performances; Lyons has learned much from each encounter. “What we saw in bands like Crimson Apple was real work ethic. They took it seriously, they didn’t view it as a hobby. They did view it as something fun and something they had a passion for but they knew it required discipline and devotion and hard work. That kind of inspired us to have that same kind of discipline and hard work as well,” Lyons said. “Another band who is a good friend of ours is ‘Streetlight Kings’ and we love how approachable they are. They are one of the friendliest bands we’ve ever met.”

Going on to their third year since forming the band, members have had to work together to overcome many challenges that came their way through the years. Drummer Joseph Stephens said, “One obstacle we faced was our lead guitarist leaving the band in late October. For about two months we had to perform gigs with just the three of us before we started auditions for a pay to play musician.” From this, Lyons was given a better taste of what it means to work efficiently and as a team. “Anytime you have more than one person in your band, that means you have to collaborate and have a little bit of give and take. It means that you have to try other people’s ideas and what’s really great about this band is that all of our music taste is very similar,” Lyons explained.

With lyrics ranging from funny and light to deep and meaningful, the music produced by the band gives listeners a chance to perceive it in a way unique to them. “I get a really fun vibe and it makes me want to get out and do things. Their music kind of makes me not want to stay inside and I get pumped up to go outside and have fun and actually live,” said Junior Jonathan Lowrie, an active follower and friend of the band.

From overcoming obstacles to new experiences and people, “The Fresh Preps” has grown tremendously, both musically and individually, since their days performing at open mic nights in a coffee shop. “The band has grown in many ways. I’ve seen them progress a lot in their song writing, editing, sound and on stage performance. They’ve written more songs, they do multiple gigs every week and they are even on the radio more often,” Lowrie expressed. Stephens added, “We are better friends now compared to before the band and we are better performers.”

“The Fresh Preps” holds a stable showing every Friday at the Hard Rock Cafe in Waikiki. The band continues to work hard together to make their band a success, hoping to tour on the mainland and complete an album by the end of the year.