There are many cool things here at RB, including Cat Dead; Details Later, a new student-run band consisting of Riverside Brookfield High School seniors Charles Rodis and Madeline Domanowski, as well as junior Riley Woyner. The group meets to share their love of music and experiment with what is possible through their artistic talents.
The group of students all met during a rock band meeting after being paired together. The name of the band is a tribute to Woyner’s favorite 80s horror movie. After sharing the idea with the rest of the band, they decided it was a perfect fit as their title.
“Our singer got it from this old movie that he likes called ‘Reanimator 2,’” Rodis said. “It’s just a quote from the movie, and he thought it sounded cool, and we think so too.”
The three of them play after school in the guitarist’s garage, a go-to spot for many high school student bands. They thought it was a good fit for their needs, so they made it their meetup spot since there was already a lot of supplies from the dad being in a band himself.
“We practice for a couple of hours and we would go eat food afterwards,” Woyner said.
The band doesn’t have a set practicing schedule, which means they join up whenever they feel like making music. Just like any other form of art, ideas come and go naturally, which is the idea behind their non-structured schedule.
“It’s random,” Woyner said. “We’re like, ‘Hey, let’s do this,” and they’re like, ‘Okay.’”
Domanowski likes being in the band because she thought it was nice that she could be with her friend and do something unique that not many people do.
“I really just like hanging out with my friends,” Domanowski said. “It’s kind of a unique way to spend time with somebody else to practice songs and write them, so it’s a lot of fun.”
The three of them have a few works completed already, including a few original songs along with covers. However, they ultimately decided original songs weren’t a good fit for them.
“I say we have a couple of covers out, and we’ve had around five-ish original songs,” Rodis said. “But [during] one of our practices a little bit ago, we kind of came together and put all the ideas we had together and were like, ‘Okay, what do we want to keep and what do we want to scrap?’ Because me personally, I want to get to the point where we can get a five-demo EP out.”
This band is a passion project, not necessarily something that would go public or viral, as Woyner didn’t want to get onto social media for it. While they are still in the beginning stages of their journey, the future is undoubtedly bright for these young artists.
“I think this is more of a learning experience kind of thing, but you never know what you could end up doing,” Woyner said. “It’s unpredictable.”
