By ZOE BERGER
Staff Writer
Wirebox, a group of University High School and Woodbridge High School students, consisting of Shiva Verma (vocals and guitar), Enad Abunimeh (drums) and Prithvi Jana (bass), began their friendship in kindergarten and eventually grew into a musically diverse band through the years. “We all went to kindergarten together, we all grew up together, we all hung out with each other in elementary school,” says Shiva Verma (Jr.), a student from UHS and the band’s vocalist and guitarist. They began Wirebox freshman year as they discovered their passion for music. “We just wanted to create music that we could all enjoy together. It’s fun and we have a good time pushing ourselves to become the best musicians we can be.” says Enad Abunimeh (Jr.), Wirebox’s drummer who attends WHS.
The members of Wirebox all have different music tastes, ranging from Cage the Elephant and The Strokes to heavier bands such as Rage Against the Machine. They don’t categorize themselves as producing a specific genre, but they said if they had to choose they’d describe their music as alternative rock: “We are constantly experimenting and we try not to limit ourselves with what we write… It’s about writing good music whether it’s blues, funk, indie, or even pop. There’s good music in every genre. We just write music that we like and it’s really up to the listeners to classify us into any sub genres that they would like,” says Abunimeh. “Personally, I’m very influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Zepplin, Pink Floyd, and Young the Giant.” Their other inspirations include the Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Black Keys.
Wirebox practices every weekend and manages their schedules so that they all have time to jam out together. Verma says, “It’s not a burden for us. We look forward to it the whole week. Instead of thinking about how to fit practicing into our schedule, we change our schedule to fit around jamming.’” The members of Wirebox consider practices one of their top priorities and adjust their schedules accordingly to make it work. They practice every day of the weekend and once or twice during the week when they have a show coming up.
They write their songs both separately and together and work on them during practices. “What usually happens is they’ll come in with an idea or I’ll come in with one and the person who has the idea has a visualization of how the song will turn out, so then we just bring it to the jam session and see where it goes,” says Verma.
Their plans for college differ, but they hope to stay together and make it work. “Prithvi and I are most likely going to go to community college for a couple of years and then hopefully transfer to a music school. We definitely want to keep pursuing music as a band even in college,” says Abunimeh. Although Verma isn’t interested in community college, he wants to go to college somewhere in California so they can keep making music. “We want to stay together. I hope to go to college somewhere in California so that I can still continue with them, but right now we’re just trying to make the most of what we have. The future is uncertain,” says Verma.
Wirebox’s whole perspective focuses on doing what they love for as long as they can, as put by Abunimeh: “The future is hard to say; you never know where a band can go. You see bands with almost no talent and they make it to the top, but then you see these inane musicians who write such amazing music struggle to make a dollar and be heard. All I know is we need to work hard and try our best and good things will happen. Personally I just want to write good music with my best friends, and if it so happens that the whole world likes our music too, that’s awesome. But again, the future is unpredictable.”
Wirebox played the Youth Action Team’s Battle of the Bands on February 13^th, which was extremely successful. They recently performed at Hogue Barmichaels and the Hope Festival at Bill Barber Park. In April they will play at Northwood High School and in May they will compete in the final round of YAT’s Battle of the Bands.