In a basement recording studio, heavy guitar riffs, relentless drumming, intricate bass harmonies, and powerful vocals resonate. This is Griffin The Band, a heavy metal group consisting of senior and guitarist Daniel Fonck, senior and bassist Keira Timlin, senior and vocalist Asha Ghai, and junior and drummer Maddox Chartier. This time, the band is not just practicing to create another song, but to prepare for their senior capstone project: creating a new album and performing a concert.
Griffin The Band gave a concert as part of their capstone project on Wednesday, May 20 at 3 p.m. in the Westford Academy Performing Arts Center (PAC). It was a culmination of weeks of writing and recording new music as the band worked on their newest album Grifficide, as well as modifying previous songs to make it more school-friendly.
Admission was $5 per person, and the group raised around $200 for the WA Music Department.
“We wanted it to be accessible for a lot of people in the school because a lot of people can’t come to our shows, [as] we often go far away, so we wanted it to be for the community,” Timlin said.
The concert setlist consisted of 11 songs in total, where seven songs were original and four songs were covers. The group started the concert with a cover of the Family Guy theme song, a theme they follow for the entirety of their performance. The original songs were “Anger”, “Brazen”, “Brian”, “Bargaining”, “Depression”, “Acceptance”, and “Creep.” The covers, in addition to the Family Guy theme song, were “679”, “Twist”, and “Spit.”
Grifficide is a continuation of their previous album, The 5 Stages of Griff. The 5 Stages of Griff follows Family Guy character Lois Griffin as she goes through the five stages of grief. Griffin goes on a violent rampage after experiencing her grief, focusing on deeper emotions like anger.
The group recorded most of their music at Chartier’s house, since he had a recording studio and his father has experience in audio engineering.
“It was a lot of planning and writing and recording, and just going through the process of making music,” Ghai said.
According to Timlin, the group knew that they wanted to work on a new album and give a concert in school for their capstone project to showcase the music that they have learned and worked on.
According to Ghai, it was a unique take on the capstone, as they all chose to pursue something that they were passionate about and that they would enjoy doing.
“And I feel like I have just gotten better at the songwriting process, like a lot of the newer songs I’ve been writing [are] a lot more original [and] more complex and they have just better forms throughout,” Fonck said.
Some upcoming projects for Griffin The Band include finishing their new album Grifficide, as well as finishing the shows that they have planned for the summer at locations in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maine. The group had a performance on Friday, May 22 in Rhode Island, and they have performed in various other locations such as Manchester, New Hampshire; Storrs, Connecticut; Holyoke, Massachusetts; Lowell, Massachusetts; and Pepperell, Massachusetts.
Timlin will be attending University of Massachusetts (UMass) Lowell and majoring in Mechanical Engineering and Spanish. Ghai will be attending UMass Boston and majoring in Communications and Psychology. Fonck will also be attending UMass Lowell and majoring in Criminal Justice. Timlin, Ghai, and Fonck will return next year to help Chartier with his capstone if he plans to do another concert.
“If Maddox ever wanted to do this for his capstone again, we would all come back for him because he helped us [with] ours. That’s what we do. He’s our friend,” Ghai said.