Four Zionsville students seek stardom

By Emily Atwood/Times Sentinel writer CNHI

Zionsville resident Neal Anderson, singer for Specific Oceans, looked every bit a musician. He had on tight jean shorts down to his knees and blue earrings in both ears. Stick a microphone in his hand and he’d be right at home.

In a green Flogging Molly T-shirt, Stephen Carlsgaard of Zionsville, and the band’s bass player, wasn’t far behind. His outfit was complete with a yellow and green strap in his hair.

Mark Edlin and Will Clapp, both of Zionsville, make up the rest of the band, which has been together since junior high.

Their sound is an electronica, alternative and post rock mix. But getting to those three terms seemed especially difficult for them. They squabbled back and forth for a while deciding just which adjectives they should use to describe who they are.

Finally, Carlsgaard came through with what Edlin thought was a great answer.

“Our sound is less focused on more popular sounding elements and more on our own individual musical tastes,” Carlsgaard said.

The crew’s favorite bands range from some well-known bands like Radiohead, to more of the cult following types like Thrice or Pavement.

With that inspiration in mind, the band just completed shooting its second music video. Derek Cox, a Ball State alumus, directed their first tape and was awarded a David Letterman scholarship for it.

The first video, featuring their song, “Peter and the Wolf,” took place in a wooded setting for the most part.

But the newest video is different.

“It’s a lot more production than the last one,” Edlin said.

The song, named “The Dance Song,” is split between a couple of settings. Two of the most notable are Coventry Ridge and the Zionsville Community High School parking lot. 

But it all actually starts out with them in a bed — think Cindy Lou Who style from The Grinch. They are all tucked in tightly with their hands holding onto the top of the covers. Except these guys aren’t holding candy canes like that Who down in Whoville. 

Carlsgaard starts the movement by waking up and leaving the house on his push scooter.

As he makes his way to the ZCHS parking lot, he is chased by people following him, also on scooters.

As far as a significant relationship between what is happening in the video and what is being said in the song, the band says there is very little. 

“It was very much made to be fun,” Carlsgaard said.

Even most of their song titles don’t have much to do with what the song means.

That’s the case in Anderson’s solo album too. He has a song on there named “The National Anthem of Antartica.”

The title may not have much to do with the theme of the song, but it did get a guy from Quebec to buy his cd on iTunes.

An enthusiast and collector of music about Antartica, the customer bought it hoping that Anderson would have a defined answer of what the song really meant in terms of the continent.

Actually, it was metaphorically speaking and has little to do with the frozen south, Anderson said.

Their band name is the same way.

“We went through a long list of names and this one just seemed to fit,” Edlin said.

When the band first started, they were known as the Aquatones, but they eventually had to change it.

 In the 1950s, there existed a doo-wop group with the same name. From one Aquatones to the next, the Zionsville group was threatened to change their name by e-mail.

They eventually got around to it, Anderson said.

But it was quite the procedure.

They would go to the wine section in Marsh and around town writing down any interesting names they could find.

Finally Specific Oceans was chosen. They liked how it stayed with the aquatic theme of before.

But as for the meaning, there really isn’t one.

Yet this name is what seems to hold the four of them together. Anderson and Carlsgaard are off to Indiana University in the fall to begin their freshman year. The two will be roommates, which they say will make practicing even easier.

Despite the distance, the band seems optimistic. They hope that IU will offer more opportunities with gigs and a wider audience.

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