Ciara Benham
Staff Writer
cbenham@murraystate.edu
Murray State alumni have taken their nu metalcore band, Cohen, to the next level after signing with Modern Empire record label two weeks ago.
With Modern Empire, band member Trever Williams and former Murray State students Nick Erickson, Zachary Orr, Gage Girten and Kenton Smith are set to release a new EP “Suffer” on Friday, Nov 20.
The band, who has had five members for about a year and a half, began much smaller in 2015. Primary vocalist Nick Erickson began attending Murray State in 2014, majoring in journalism and minoring in English. Erickson said Murray State taught life skills that would help him later with his music career.
“It forced me to get some more independence and a sense of freedom,” Erickson said. “It was the first time I had more time to focus on studies, and being here I had more time to do things I was passionate about.”
Erickson was also in Racer Band and worked as features editor for The News. Erickson met his best friend and bandmate Williams when they were 16 and 15, respectively. They hit it off, talking about music and knew they wanted to play in a band.
“We tried to put in effort and make it a serious thing and find musicians that wanted to play the same kind of stuff as us, and that’s not easy to do when there’s not a whole lot of metal bands in western Kentucky,” Erickson said.
Williams has dreamed of being a rock star for as long as he can remember, with a particular interest in metal.
“I was born around music, every genre you can think of from R&B, blues, outlaw country to brutal death metal,” Williams said. “But I’ve been head banging since the car seat, so I’ve just been into it since the beginning of time I guess.”
During Erickson’s sophomore year at Murray State, they began looking around campus for bandmates. After a few different members coming in and out and many trials of discovering their band sound, Erickson and Williams finally found the sound they were looking for.
The following September, the band went to a studio in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to record their first official song as Cohen. This song would be a turning point in the band’s career.
“I’ll never forget when Nick said ‘the moment we release this song, it’s bigger than us now,’” Williams said. “It’s not just Nick, me, whoever—it’s Cohen. It’s not one person. It’s Cohen. We realized we needed to do this for real and push.”
About two months after the first song was released, the band recorded a second single. At that point they were planning their first show in Puryear, Tennessee, at a nightclub. The show was Cohen’s first time performing in front of a live audience, headlining their first performance.
In what Williams called a surreal experience, Cohen performed to an audience of 150-200 people.
“You’re not going to be perfect the first time you step on stage, but I felt like we were pretty close, it just felt good.” Williams said.
Williams said they always make the joke “From basement to Bridgestone” as in Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, since they began Williams’ grandma’s basement and hope to reach their goal of playing stadium shows.
Cohen has performed in Murray’s Terrapin Station, as well as frequently in Louisville, Kentucky, St. Louis, Missouri, Chicago, Illinois and Nashville, Tennessee.
While the band is not the typical soundtrack for the south, they remain determined to succeed. Signing with Modern Empire, rebranded from Stay Sick Records, is another huge step to making their dreams a reality.
“Stranger things have happened,” Erickson said. “Bands that sound like us have gotten to that point and we want to achieve that as well. Really, I just want people to listen to our music and get something out of it, resonate with it.”
The growing success of Cohen didn’t happen overnight. The band works tirelessly to create work they are proud of and while it hasn’t always been easy, Erickson said the key is his bandmates.
“Surround yourself with people who have a similar goal as you because I definitely don’t think I would have been able to do it without Trever’s help or anybody else in my band,” Erickson said. “But if you have like minded individuals with the same goal as you, it’s going to be a lot easier to obtain it.”
The band hopes to begin touring once COVID-19 is over. For now the band alternates between two places to practice, a furniture store in Murray and a member’s home in Owensboro.
To learn more about the band, visit their social media or Spotify.