Blank Slate took Woodgrove High School by storm on November 30th, performing a setlist that had the crowd roaring. Phones, iPads, and Chromebooks alike were lifted high up in the air to capture footage, and students asked band members to autograph everything from white sneakers to foreheads.
The band is made up of seniors Bryson Brown on lead guitar, Evan Franzen on bass guitar, Aidan Gillis on drums, and Jared “Jimbo” Krogh on vocals, with sophomore William Ciolkosz on rhythm guitar. Blank Slate describes their music as “pop punk with punk rock, hard rock, garage rock, and grunge influences,” with their inspiration coming everywhere from bands like Green Day, Nirvana, and Operation Ivy to blues icons Albert, B.B., and Freddie King.
Blank Slate was founded in early 2023 by Krogh and Gillis. The duo made their first appearance on Woodgrove Idol in February 2023, where they won second place. Soon after, Franzen joined them as their bass player, but the three musicians struggled to find a place and time to work on music. Along came Punk Rock 101, a green club founded by Krogh to give the group at least 40 minutes to practice every other week if things got too busy. Through the club, the final two members, Brown and Ciolkosz, joined the band, and Blank Slate as you know it was born.
Each member of the band has a unique musical background. While Brown started taking guitar lessons in eighth grade, many of the other members only began to play their respective instruments recently. Franzen started playing bass in July 2023, and Ciolkosz and Gillis have both been playing for about a year. Gillis shared, “Even when we first performed for Woodgrove Idol, I was awful. I couldn’t keep time very well, but I made it work. After that performance, I started practicing every night, thanks to Jimbo. He loaned me about $250 to get a drum set.” Krogh has played piano for over a decade, but recently started tinkering on a used guitar he bought with money loaned to him by Franzen. Even the band’s technical supervisor, Charlie Swartz, has his fair share of experience in music as a percussionist, and is able to act as a “backup drummer” if there is ever the need.
Being in Blank Slate has allowed the members to improve their playing significantly. “It has given me the motivation to practice more. I would not be where I am skill wise without the band,” said Franzen. Their practices, which happen almost every weekend, are usually four to six hours long. During practices, they rehearse old songs, practice covers to play at upcoming shows, and write new music.
Creating quality music to perform on stage is a multi-step process. Krogh is the primary lyricist, and usually comes up with the ideas for the songs. He explained, “I’ve got the general concept, I’m just strumming, and I’ll find a good hook that I like. And then I’ll just take that hook with the rhyme scheme and find the words that will actually fit what I’m trying to say into the song structure. And then I’ll call Aidan at three in the morning and say, ‘Hey! Check this out.’” The late night calls between Krogh and Gillis have been important for Blank Slate’s creative process. The two original members of the band work together to put the structure of their songs together before the other members help improve and add to them. Brown said, “Jimbo definitely gets the lyrics written out, the forms written out, the chords…As a lead guitarist, I need to figure out ways to spice it up and add in versions to keep the music going so it’s not just the same four chords for each progression here and there.”
Despite the expected stage fright that comes before performances, the band members enjoy having the opportunity to be a part of a group like this. Before Ciolkosz met Krogh, he figured guitar would just be something he would work on at home. Finding someone who wanted to go up on stage and perform with him changed everything. He discussed, “It’s good to have somebody who wants to do that and that’s probably why this actually works.” Brown agreed, saying, “Prior to Jimbo asking me to join his band, I was kind of trying to find somebody that was willing to scream his head off in front of everybody and have fun doing it. There are not a lot of kids in this school that I know who are willing to go up and sing that well.”
Music is something special to each member of Blank Slate. It acts as a way for them to express their emotions and work through difficult times in their lives. Gillis explained, “Music is just poetry with notes, really. It’s the best form of expression, in my opinion, because you can express everything you want. Slow, fast, powerful, quiet, everything. You tell a life story through an album, if you do it the right way.” Krogh, who has experimented with several different art forms, joked, “[I’m] just always looking for some way to try and tell the world how I’m feeling without having to actually talk like a normal human being.”
While the band cannot confirm any upcoming performances, stay tuned to their social media for announcements. You can follow them on Instagram for updates @blankslateband01.
