This post was updated Nov. 30 at 7:47 p.m.
A new UCLA student-led alternative band is soon to showcase its budding creativity in Westwood.
Consisting of five band members – guitarist Max Chaplin, lead singer Misha Ovcharenko, guitarist Luke Naphat, drummer Brady Quinn and bassist Aidan Levy – the band originated this fall quarter. Chaplin, a first-year music industry student, took on the task of reaching out first, he said. Chaplin scoured the “I got in” Instagram page for musicians with the intention of finding other musicians who mirrored his passionate interests in seriously pursuing a band, eventually connecting with Ovcharenko, Chaplin explained.
“We were both (Chaplin and Ovcharenko) interested in playing some heavier shoegaze stuff,” Chaplin said. “There were a lot of bands that I had never heard of, but he showed me, and then I was like, ‘Wait, I would totally love to play stuff like this.'”
Though Chaplin just started at UCLA, he was able to establish music connections through on-campus organizations, he said. Chaplin said Music Club at UCLA is a great resource for students – this being where Chaplin met the majority of the band members.
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Chaplin said there was an immediate interconnectedness of the band, commenting that it has been motivating to be in a collaborative and encouraging environment that consistently inspires him.
“I really just want people to have a good time,” Chaplin said. “I want – when our band comes on – for people to be able to jump around and just have so much fun … It’s my favorite thing in the world to do.”
Lead singer of the band, Misha Ovcharenko, a first-year business economics student, said like Chaplin, he had also been in a band previously and wanted to form a band during his beginnings at UCLA. He and Chaplin attended the Music Club together and assembled a band from there. Since then, the band has already gained traction, though it has not had an official solo show yet.
The band has posted two performance videos to their Instagram with about 7,000 views each, with one of them being a performance of the alternative classic, “Scotty Doesn’t Know.” Ovcharenko said this song is his favorite cover to perform with the band so far, explaining that he brought songs he enjoyed playing with his former band Hi Def. Ovcharenko is no stranger to the alternative scene, so when it came to choosing the band name, he said he took on the task alongside his bandmates.
“Emo-adjacent artists … have a backdrop, right? But a lot of them have these big banners, right? If you can imagine the name behind you, and it doesn’t look stupid, I think that’s the way to go,” he said.
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Guitarist Luke Naphat, a first-year film and television student, is the rhythm backup guitarist for afterthought but swaps with Chaplin as lead guitarist and does backup vocals. He said he joined the band after Chaplin and Ovcharenko collaborated, bringing an individual musical theater and pop background to the mix. Ovcharenko explained that branching out from the known into the unknown has been very rewarding thus far.
Naphat said besides fulfilling his wish of being part of a band, afterthought has helped him and the rest of the members feel a sense of belonging in college. The band first performed Nov. 21 in the Kerckhoff Grand Salon at 6:30 p.m. with Music Club at UCLA.
“I was eager to be part of something, and everyone was also eager,” Naphat said. “It lets me in on the fact that everyone just wants to find their own space here as well, which is obviously what you hear all the time being a first year.”
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