Morning Wars has only released one song, “Cannibal,” but with the astonishing response the group received from it — 7,403 listens on SoundCloud — the band is eager to get back into the scene. With the semester coming to an end, Trevor Chesler, Marc Ramos and Noah Mintz have found the time to prep for their upcoming releases.

Chesler, an economics major, Ramos, a film major, and Mintz, a television, radio and film major all come from different backgrounds and have different musical tastes. But together, their music blends effortlessly into a one-of-a-kind sound.

They’re definitely passionate about making music, but they also love goofing around with each other. They admit that initially, it started as nothing serious — they never expected their music to go anywhere. Mintz even said he doesn’t really even consider himself a musician, describing it as just a hobby.

So the idea for an entire album came the same way the group was formed: by chance.

This is a normal writing routine for Chesler, as most of his creativity comes at night. He jokes about humming into his phone while his roommate tries to sleep. His roommate is used to it though, as the friends practice in Chesler’s room.

Chesler, a vocalist and the bassist for the band, came to Ramos, a vocalist, keyboardist and producer, with an idea for a song early this year. Chesler first started playing piano, but ended up ditching the instrument because he enjoyed playing rock music more.

A big Pete Wentz fan at the time, Chesler decided to try playing bass. After performing in a few hard rock bands in high school, he decided to put his focus somewhere away from music. Chesler took a break to play hockey. It was not until recently, when Chesler’s hockey equipment was stolen out of his car, that his music came off the back burner and became priority again.

For Ramos, on the other hand, music has been a part of his life since childhood. He began his music career in musical theater. That experience then led him to other choirs and ensembles, and he played tuba for around eight years. Though he was the only musically-inclined person in his family, he began recording covers of songs and putting them online at an early age.

“(Chesler) texted me like, ‘Hey you’re a good producer, I have a couple lyrics and stuff and I want you to make an album for me,’” Ramos said. “So, we were like bouncing ideas off each other over the summer and we came here after summer break and we were just chilling upstairs in his room and were just like, ‘Hey, what if we record a single tonight.’”

But the two friends needed a guitar player, so they brought in Mintz, a friend who conveniently lived in the same fraternity house as them.

Mintz also came from a family with a musical background. A Los Angeles native, Mintz’s dad still tours around the area with his band playing drums. Mintz picked up guitar lessons when he was 10 years old.

“It was perfect for me because I had already had something written but it didn’t have lyrics. So we just kind of took the lyrics that Trevor had written over the summer and put it over what I had written for the guitar and bad-a-bing, bad-a-boom, we got a song,” Mintz said.

That song was “Cannibal.”

The three friends’ different musical tastes can be heard in “Cannibal.” Ramos is into jazz and classical, but he also has pop, hip-hop and R&B roots. Chesler’s favorite group is The Killers, and in general he loves alternative rock. Mintz enjoys the psychedelic side of alternative rock, while also being a big fan of classic rock.

“The three of us kind of converge into a healthy medium and that’s kind of where you get the sound of ‘Cannibal.’ You get the rock background and the poppy foreground and the alt melody on top of it, and it creates a pretty interesting song,” said Mintz.

In “Cannibal,” Ramos sings the verses and Chesler sings the chorus, and they agree that they will both be singing for equal amounts of time.

Although they only have one song, the band cannot wait to begin performing.

Once they release their second song, which they project will come out before winter break, they hope to begin booking performances. Starting off, the performances will be mostly covers, with a few of their originals. But as they begin producing more music, they’ll eventually plan to weed the covers out.

Besides booking Syracuse venues, they also have connections in New York City and Memphis and hope to perform there as well as in their hometowns, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

But the main success of Morning Wars, Ramos said, is that where one band member may be weak in something, another is strong.

Said Ramos: “I, myself, am not very good at coming up with ideas. I’m the kind of person where if someone has an idea in their head, I can make it come to life, whether it be film or music, or something like that. So essentially Trev just makes everything up, I lay it out, and we just all play.”

Published on December 6, 2016 at 8:33 pm

Contact: lmeyers@syr.edu