Rubies and Rations never thought playing would be an ongoing occurrence.

Founded by Daniel Rife (alumnus ‘11), Rubies and Rations came together after Rife was put in charge of Exalt and needed a band.

“I grabbed some people I knew could play and sing and they liked it and we just kept going and going,” Rife said.

The seven-member band consists of Rife on accordion and vocals, Abby Nelson (sr) on keyboard, Josh Tuttle (sr) on banjo, Audrey Corliss (jr) on vocals, Maggie Hubbard (jr) on guitar, Emily Fussner (jr) on violin and Matt Heer (jr) on cajon.

“We did Exalt and at Exalt we just always do worship songs and one day we thought ‘What if we just did it folk?’” said Rife.

The members never expected to be in a band, let alone win Indiana Wesleyan University’s Battle of the Bands earlier this year.

“[Battle of the Bands] came and just asked us,” Rife said. “I didn’t feel the pressure that much.”

“And then we won,” Corliss laughed.

By winning Battle of the Bands, Rubies and Rations earned the privilege of playing at Friday Night Live, where a few members expressed being more nervous.

“We were coming up after Brave at Sea and I was like, ‘Oh no, I hope we can meet the standard.’” Corliss said.

Rife and Tuttle believe they did meet it.

“People seem to really like the sound,” Rife said, while Tuttle agreed FNL went well.

While many worship bands stick to electric guitar and drums, Rubies and Rations likes to be a little unconventional in instrument selection.They liken their sound to Mumford and Sons and Johnny Flynn with their folk-inspired take on music.

“Singing songs to a more folky melody is more interesting,” Corliss added. “We like it.”

They use instruments such as harmonica, mandolin, bass and melodica. The band members vary in what they are able to play.

“We’ll switch up instruments,” Corliss said. “Everyone is diverse in what they can play.”

“We have like a whole orchestra,” Nelson said.

Having the ability to play multiple instruments is only one element in their folk style. Good song choice is key to their sound as well. A favorite song of the band to play is “Depth of Mercy” by Charles Wesley. Memebers play the same lyrics but a “totally different melody.”

“People really like it,” Rife said about “Depth of Mercy.” “The lyrics are really good and the music has a good beat to it. It’s fun.”

Members of Rubies and Rations hope to continue with their unique sound and see what they can do with their talent, exploring things like mixing genres.

“I think we should do a rap song with the banjo,” Tuttle joked, but Rife agreed that the band does like to test their limits.

“We like to stretch things,” Rife said. “It’s a fun challenge. Why not?”

For Rubies and Rations, playing music used to be just a pastime.

“It was never a life pursuit, but it’s always been in the back of my mind,” Rife said about the possibility of playing in a band.

“I kind of gave that up freshman year,” Tuttle admitted.

Now, they don’t know where it will take them.

“People keep asking, we’ll keep playing,” Corliss said.

Desert Neighbor is an indie rock band from Marion, Ind. Lead guitarist Devin Hopwood (sr) and vocalist Tony Perez (sr) are both students at Indiana Wesleyan University. Drummer Jordan Overmyer attends IUPUI, but lives in Marion with bassist Logan White, a student at Indiana University.

Perez, Hopwood and Overmyer discussed the recording of their new EP due for release in early 2012.

You recently recorded music for a new EP.  Where and when did that happen?
Overmyer: We went to Ball State University in Muncie. That was [Oct.] 21 and 22. We recorded with two guys that go to school there, Steven Berghoff and Alex Dobbert, they are both students [at Ball State].
Perez: They are studying music technology.

How did you get paired up with them?
Hopwood: Steve and I have a mutual friend, and I guess Steve was talking to our mutual friend, Jacob Stansberry, about this project he has to do for his class. He has to present so many minutes of material he has recorded through the semester. He was asking Jacob if he knew any bands and Jacob thought of me and gave Steve my information.

How was recording this EP different than recording your first two EPs, “Nothing is Working” (2010) and “I Haven’t Always Been Like This” (2011)?
Perez: It was way better because we tracked everything live except for vocals.  So we were all in separate rooms, but still playing together when we tracked the songs. So it was shorter, it was faster, and it just felt more natural and real.
Overmyer: And it was at a university. It was a $1.1 million studio. They had good equipment.
Perez: Yeah, it was the best place we’ve been in.

Were the studios for your first EPs of poor quality?
Overmyer: No. [“I Haven’t Always Been Like This”] was done in Lafayette at Grey House. It was good considering it was in the bottom of a coffeehouse and it’s just run by a couple guys who are in a band together. But you can’t really compare that to a university’s music building.

Why have you done three EPs instead of one full-length album?
Hopwood: I feel like each EP is a different stage of the band.  Because the first EP is like, with any band, something to get out of the way.  We play two of the songs from it, but they are different versions of [the songs]. And our second EP is a little more refined, but I think this EP is where we want to go and where we want to be, if that makes sense.

And are you OK with saying that in another six months when you’re doing another EP?
Overmyer: (Laughs)
Hopwood: We’ll see. You never know, but I think that right now this EP that we’re about to put out is the sound that we’ve been searching for.
Overmyer: We’ve talked about full-lengths and when we do it, we want it to be good.  We haven’t been a band that long.  It’s only been a year-and-a-half so we’re still evolving and changing our sound.
Perez: Yeah, I was going to say full-lengths take a lot of time and a lot of money. That’s what we don’t have.
Hopwood: Mostly money.
Perez: Yeah. And we want our songs to be perfect when our full-length comes out.  So I think right now, EPs are good because we are putting out more music.
Overmyer: And releasing EPs, like two a year, helps to build a fan base and keep a fan base because they are sticking around and staying interested. If you wait two years to do another full-length, because we’re not that big of a band we can’t really wait that long, people would just forget about us.

What songs are going to be featured on the new EP?
Perez: There’s going to be four songs on the EP. If you’ve seen us live, we play a song called “Old Bones” and another song called “There is No Use.” Those songs will be on there and we have two new songs.  They’re called “Loud House” and “The River is Alive in Us.”

Is there a tentative title for the EP?
Perez: We’re still thinking about it, but I just thought about it last night. It will be something along the lines of, “This House is Yours.”

“Old Bones” and “There is No Use” focus more on varying dynamics and have more off-the-cuff song structures than your previous material.  Was that a conscious decision made in the songwriting process?
Perez: I don’t think so. When we were writing together, everything just kind of flowed into whatever was happening next, so it just kind of happened that way.
Tony, many of your lyrics seem to be self-reflective, but the lyrics of “Old Bones” are about a male role model. Are they about your father?
Perez: Yeah, I was writing about my dad at first.  I’m growing up and getting older and getting more mature, hopefully.  I’m beginning to realize a lot more things.  One of them a year ago was how much my dad has worked for me and my whole family so I wanted to show him appreciation by writing him a song.  That was what the song was mainly about when I first started writing it. As I kept going I started to realize it was more about when I was thinking about the band as a whole and how [the other members] could relate, it started to turn into how much God has been helping us in this band and how much God has been helping us work for our own things.  So it’s kind of about my dad and about our Dad.

What other inspirations do you draw from for your lyrics?
Perez: I guess for this EP, growing up or realizing that I need to grow up, God and realizing how awesome He is. It always starts out as a different idea and then comes in with God behind it.  One of the songs called “Loud House” is about house shows. I went to go see [Husband & Wife] at the beginning of the year and it was cool because all of these old friends and people I hadn’t seen in a long time were there. And it was cool that this band brought together all these people that I love to see and talk to. I was writing [the song] based on that, but after a while, I started thinking about how God does the same thing with church and how all these different people come into one building for one person.

So how soon will fans be able to hear the new EP?
Perez: I think we want to release it in January 2012.  We’re going to be posting little sneak-peeks of songs online, so fans that follow us online will be able to hear something.
Overmyer: We tried to take a lot of video and pictures of things when we were there so we have stuff to space-out and [put out] building up to the release.
Fans interested in seeing Desert Neighbor live or hearing previews of the band’s new EP can visit their Facebook page, follow them on Twitter (@desertneighbor) or visit their Bandcamp page at www.desertneighbor.bandcamp.com.

Crema is a term used for espresso.

“It’s when you pull your shot of espresso, that caramely cream color that’s on the top of the shot is called the crema,” said Julie Voss, former manager of McConn Coffee Company.

But at Indiana Wesleyan University, Crema is known as the weekly musical showcase for students and up and coming artist.

“Coffee shops and music go hand in hand,” said Voss.

Voss started Crema in 2002. Along with her student managers, Voss wanted to provide a venue outside church for students to perform their music, and McConn seemed like the perfect place.

Originally, the music event was going to be called “The Brew,” but Voss and her managers decided to use the coffee term “Crema” because they wanted something more sophisticated.

When the event started, McConn’s marketing managers were in charge of organizing the weekly performances. Now, Crema requires its own director.

Tony Perez (sr) has been the Crema director for the past two years and is responsible for first bringing in outside bands to play at the event. Perez has kept the tradition of Crema being an outlet for IWU musicians, but has also managed to bring bands of notable success to Crema.

One of those bands is Farewell Flight, with members who’ve played Crema multiple times and are good friends with Perez.

“They played [one] Wednesday night, and Thursday they told me they were in the process of signing with Mono vs. Stereo Records, which is run by the guys from Relient K,” said Perez.

Luke Foley, lead singer and songwriter of Farewell Flight, said that playing on college campuses is always a bit of a gamble.

“Sometimes [college shows] pay really well because they have the budget for it, but when it comes to kids wanting to come out, they just don’t come,” said Foley.  “We didn’t have that the times that we played at [IWU]. People came out and were enthusiastic to see the show … that’s pretty rare for a college to have students that are that enthusiastic about art and about music.”

Members of Farewell Flight just wrapped up their 28th tour, played around 700 shows and sold 5,000 copies of their records.

Last semester, Husband & Wife of Bloomington, Ind., came to Crema.

“They actually run their own record label, it’s called Crossroads of America,” said Perez. “They just signed a contract with a distribution company to get all of their releases in different record stores around the United States.”

Also on the label is Rodeo Ruby Love, will play Crema Nov. 2.

“They actually just went on tour this whole summer with Street Light Manifesto,” said Perez.  “Before they went on the tour they had 700 fans on Facebook, and now after the tour they have about 2,000.”

After 10 years, Crema has done nothing but grow. Voss said there have been very few times when the event has been canceled. “Even when there’s been snow storms and school has been canceled, we still did Crema.”

And as long as students keep showing up, the bands will keep playing.

Music can recall more vivid memories of a period of time. There is something magical about hearing a song or album from an earlier time, and suddenly being filled with nostalgia of that specific season.

The music students listened to on their iPods, in their cars, or the concerts they attended may forever take them to the summer of 2011.

So, what were students of Indiana Wesleyan University listening to this summer?

College students were predicted to rave over chart-topping indie albums: Bon Iver’s self-titled album, Adele’s “21,” and Death Cab For Cutie’s “Codes and Keys.”

Undoubtedly some students did listen to these albums, but there was a much broader variety of music enjoyed by students this summer.

Daniel Maloy (so) said, “I painted a house by myself so I listened to a lot of music. A lot of Boston and a lot of Styx. I’m an oldies guy.”

Caas Carby (jr) took a similar retro route. He listened to The Velvet Underground’s 1970 release “Loaded” as well as local bands Glostik Willy and Desert Neighbor.

Alli Krupp (jr) said, “I enjoyed listening to Mosquito Fleet and Brooke Fraser. [And] there was a local band in Wisconsin called Loftland that I really enjoyed.” Krupp explained she found herself listening to those bands most often because they are “chill, but still upbeat … fun to listen to in the car and fun to sing to.”

Kendra Kinnan (jr) said Norah Jones, Pandora and techno music made up her summer playlist.t

Summer 2011 wasn’t short of top-notch touring acts, either. Stadium-filling U2 toured the U.S. on the extravagant U2 360° tour. The Decemberists and aforementioned Bon Iver also had notable success touring the country.

Among IWU students, Hillsong United was the popular band to see live.

Maloy and Kinnan were just two of the many IWU students who saw the popular Christian band.

“It was so awesome. It wasn’t only worshipful, but it was entertaining, like ta concert should be,” said Kinnan.

Looking ahead to fall album releases and concerts, Devin Hopwood (sr) stated he’s looking forward to AA Bondy’s new album, “Believers.” While Kinnan and Krupp both voiced interest in seeing The Civil Wars in concert.

Other popular artists coming out with new music this fall are St. Vincent, Coldplay, Wilco, Feist, and Brian Wilson. Touring bands stopping in Indiana in the next few months include Arctic Monkeys, Foster The People, The Avett Brothers, and The Civil Wars.