Local band finding their groove
David Littleford
Issue date: 3/31/08 Section: The Scene
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The group recently won the Shoutfest battle of the bands held in Nashville by INO Records. As a result the band will be traveling the country this summer touring with some of the biggest bands in the Christian music industry.
Say You Will is also in an online battle of the bands contest for a spot on the Warped Tour and Crocs Next Step Campus Tour that you can participate in by visiting their Myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/sayyouwillband and voting. The band is also trying to get their Myspace friends' list larger quickly.
"We are trying to get to well over 10,000 friends on Myspace right now," said guitarist Martin Winters.
On top of this already packed summer schedule, they are also slated to be at the six-day Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, Ill., from June 30 to July 5.
Cornerstone is one of the biggest Christian music festivals in the country featuring more than 100 bands including Flyleaf, Skillet, Sixpence None The Richer, Family Force Five, Anberlin, The Almost, Flatfoot 56, As I Lay Dying, Brian "Head" Welch and Demon Hunter.
The band achieving all this success is composed of five energetic males. There are the 20-year-olds Jordy Whetsell who sings and plays rhythm guitar, drummer Brandon Keen and lead guitarist Martin Winters. There is also the 19 -year-old bassist Corey Vines; and the 22-year-old synth player and back-up vocalist Chris Vittetoe.
Jordy, Brandon and Corey have been friends since grade school and started the band about three years ago.
However, when the trio began as a pure punk band, they were called For The Cause. "The main reason we even chose that name in the beginning was because Brandon had just gotten some T-shirts for his old band that broke up right when the shirts came in," Whetsel said, "We already had the T-shirts so it just made sense to keep the name."
This group of fun-loving rockers find themselves thrilled by the possibilities developing so quickly. "We're really excited about it all," said ETSU sophomore Brandon Keen. "We're all just constantly running around getting things done. We're just really busy right now, which is great. We're getting closer to being a full-time band."