 "Photo:")
Editor's note: Life & Arts will begin running a series of features on UTD Bands. A "UTD Band" has at least one member who is a current student or an alumni. To submit a band fitting this criteria, email cxk034000@utdallas.edu
Everything, he remembers, began in a small room with really loud music.
On a cold evening last January, Rich Williams, psychology senior, and his friend and former Blue Hotel bandmate Jonny Mack readied themselves for a trip to Denton.
They loaded the bass guitar, two bass cabinets, an amp and a full drumset - about 500 pounds of equipment - into Mack's Honda Civic and drove off. Forty minutes later, Mack and Williams parked the car, sagging from its heavy load, in front of an ordinary house on McCormack Street. Kevin Thornton and Alex Hastings were waiting inside with a full-sized piano and guitars.
Mack assembled his drum set, and Williams tuned his bass. In a cramped, smoke-filled room littered with beer bottles, a space heater and an ashtray full of cigarette butts, The Wishlist was born.
"It was like love at first sight," Mack recalled.
On a warm summer night this past summer, The Wishlist packed up its gear again. This time, the road led the piano rockers to UTD.
Williams, the 25-year-old manager of the Student Union's Info Depot, had learned of UTD's first Summer Concert Series, in a battle-of-the-bands format. After playing and winning two rounds during the course of a month, they made it to the final showdown.
"We didn't win, 'cause we didn't bring our grandparents," Williams dismissively jokes of series winner Don't Wake Aislin. "But we got 40 precent of the vote and we didn't really know anyone there."
Getting second place wasn't a lost effort, Williams said, who goes by 'Filthy Rich.'
"We were disappointed, but we made out like bandits, still," he says of their $350 prize money. The exposure led to more fans, and another show in a Tyler, Texas club.
Williams also got a tiny taste of fame at UTD. Smiling, he paused to count change behind the Info Depot desk, shuffling a few checks and receipts.
"It's been really cool for people walk up since the battle of the bands to call me Filthy Rich and ask me when I'm playing next," he said.
The approximately eight-month-old band features Thornton, who goes by "Kevin layne," on lead vocals and piano, Hastings on guitar, Williams on bass and Mack on drums. They compare their music to that of mainstream groups Coldplay and Keane.
However, The Wishlist also emphasizes their departure from the usual singer-songwriter-on-the-piano setup, such as Ben Folds or Elton John.
The band tours with an antique 300-pound electric grand piano that detaches into two pieces, the same used by U2.
"We hated the idea that so few bands had latched onto the idea of the piano being the main instrument and not just the accessory to a pretty song," Williams said.
"We do like to keep the rock 'n' roll aspect of it," Hasting added. "It's not just all pretty stuff."
Though Hastings and Thornton played together previously and usually initiate the songwriting process, the band members say they work as a whole, from centerpiece piano to the background drums.
"It's not like a food triangle where Kevin's at the top and everything trickles down and I'm at the end," Mack said. "It's more like the Knights of the Round Table, we're all equal."
The band members, who are all in their early to late 20s, juggle both jobs and The Wishlist.
"The nice thing about being this age is that it's not a question of how to get the money, it's how we'll divide it up," Mack said.
Financing the $4,000 for their six-track demo, "Life's Design of the Mind," scheduled for release in September, wasn't necessarily a cakewalk, Thornton said, quashing rumors of a roommate-turned-wealthy-benefactor.
"Yeah, I'm broke," the former Guitar Center manager said, adding he paid for most of his piano gear himself.
The Wishlist recorded their demo with Bowling for Soup producer Casey Di'Orio. When the money ran out for Thornton, he had to get creative.
One day, Di'Orio's refrigerator broke. So Thornton offered to trade him his old Kenmore for half a day of studio time.
"That was probably like, two vocal lines or something," Hastings said, laughing.
Though the band itself is still young, they say there's a sense of urgency in making it successful.
"Once you get over 30, you're too old to rock 'n' roll," Mack, 26, said.
Williams asserts their age is an asset in experience and maturity.
"Jon and I are super committed to trying to look cool, which is hard when you're this old," he laughed, a silver wedding band gleaming on his finger. "I'll buy something dorky and not realize it until the light's turned on."
But all in all, Williams said he embraces his multiple roles.
"I wear a lot of hats here," he concluded. "It's cool to have three different functions - as a student, staff member and bass player."
Ambition sets The Wishlist apart, he added.
"When Kevin has an idea for how wants something to sound, he doesn't just a get a new patch for a keyboard like other guys would do, he gets a piano." Williams said. "We started dreaming big right away."
