College Station band “Odd Folks” prides itself on being different.
Self-described as a mix of punk, indie and post-hardcore rock, the band aims to differentiate itself from the crowd with its intimate shows and unique sound.
Beginning on campus, the band members met in a small ensemble music class, and have been playing music together ever since.
Michael Martin, drummer and English junior, said the wide range of musical influences among bandmates contribute to the music-making process.
“We all come from different musical backgrounds and it all becomes this strange musical conglomerate of music that shouldn’t work but does,” Martin said.
The songwriting process starts with the lead singer Marco Pisterzi, who comes in with lyrics to share with the band. He said his biggest songwriting inspirations come from life experiences, relationships and weird dreams.
“My three biggest influences are Brand New, The 1975 and Manchester Orchestra,” Pisterzi said.
After recording some songs, the band made it a point not to fall into any particular style, said bassist Nic Shields.
“We try to dress kind of weird when we play and have weird stage banter when we play,” Shields said. “We try to pull weird stunts and have a weird social media presence. So not only do we try to write music that other bands aren’t doing, but we try to make ourselves appear different just so we can stick out a little bit more and kind of have that appeal to someone who might not listen to the music but could appreciate what we’re trying to do.”
“Odd Folks” has played at the biggest venues in Bryan-College Station, including The Grand Stafford, Revolution Cafe, Schotzi’s and at Relay For Life.
Martin said his favorite place to play is Revolution Cafe because of the small crowd close to the stage.
“It’s very small,” Martin said. “It gets hot. There’s a lot of sweating going on. There’s just people getting rowdy and singing words to our songs, which I could never even thought was something people would do until you got ultrafamous or something.”
Another thing that distinguishes “Odd Folks” from their College Station counterparts are their amusing live shows, Shields said.
“It’s just a lot of the stage banter like making fun of each other when we’re tuning and stuff,” Shields said. “All of the string instrument players will dress in all black and then the drummer will dress in a Hawaiian T-shirts and gym shorts and look completely out of place. We will also make weird noise while we play. So what it probably looks like is that we don’t take our music seriously, but we do, we just try to have a lot of fun with it.”
Performing on stage involves having fun with the crowd as well as with each other, Martin said.
“The entire time we’re playing on stage, we’re cracking up and laughing at each other and making little inside jokes,” Martin said.
Martin said a recurring inside joke among the band is a fictional nation called “Marcoton,” where they worship their leader Marco.
When it comes to the band gaining popularity, Shields said he credits the open-mindedness of the B-CS music scene.
“Aggies are very good at supporting things and being a family and it very much shows in something as small as a band we started a year and a half ago,” Shields said.