First Floor South records in Nashville, Tenn.

Home Culture First Floor South records in Nashville, Tenn.
First Floor South records in Nashville, Tenn.

Sophomores Corey Voorman and Michael Pope met in Simpson Residence Hall their freshman year, and, finding they shared a passion for music, created their aptly titled band: First Floor South.

“It was kind of just like it happened,” Pope said. “We were roommates and we just started playing and writing music together and it just kind of formed and we came up with the name at the end of the first semester.”

The band has a range of influences from Relient K to Dave Matthews. Pope and Voorman, along with band members sophomore Alex Eaton and Spring Arbor student Dylan Sanders, stay diverse as they strive to expand their fan base.

“Hopefully we will be playing some acoustic shows this semester and definitely next semester we will be way more active.” Voorman said. “There will hopefully be big stuff and I am really excited.”

First Floor South released their demo “Storms Will Come” after recording during the summer in RCA Studio B, a studio Elvis Presley used.

“It was pretty cool because we got to record at a very historic studio and we got to look around and mess around with stuff,” Pope said. “It hasn’t been updated since Elvis was there, but it was cool to use the gear Elvis used to record.”

Although “Storms Will Come” is a serious song about a relationship, First Floor South seeks to broaden their messages from philosophy to comedy.

“I see a lot of the songs today that are hollow and they don’t really say anything,” Pope said. “It is the same three things over and over again.”

Pope says he tries to write about real-world ideas and to relate to people beyond the basic level. He says he writes about the world –– what people experience and what they find.

“We have a few funny songs,” he said. “We wrote a song about Hillsdating and thought it was funny.  We go ahead and write it and then try to get a big idea out of it. We want it to mean something to everyone.”

Balancing out Hillsdale academics along with the band is just one struggle the members face, but they say they will continue to persevere because they have a passion for music.

“It is great that we can find a way to create music that defines us,” Voorman said. “We enjoy that.”

Voorman said First Floor South hasn’t done much promoting as of yet –– they don’t have enough product accessible to the average listener –– but he says as soon as the band records they are going to work hard to get their name out on the music scene.

“Just be ready,” he said. “We are going to be putting out some stuff soon and it is good to have a really good fan base at your school. We would love to have that. You can’t rush things like this. If its going to be the dream team you have got to work slowly.”

 

                         lreyes@hillsdale.edu