It’s clear there’s no shortage of talent in high school. There are always gifted athletes, students and artists who devote their time and effort to perfecting their passions, and our school is no different. A group of gifted musicians took their love for the school band and came together to form their own punk rock band practicing out of a garage.
OCRAM started with Sam Hannig, Liam Dunkes and Nolan Gay, who shared a passion for music and decided they wanted to start a band of their own and met up with friends to practice in December 2022. The band started with six members but was later whittled down to three.
OCRAM performed their first-ever show over the summer behind the Intermediate school.
“We quickly realized that the only people who knew what they were doing on their instruments and would take it seriously was me and Liam on guitar, and Nolan on bass, so we decided to start our own band in Nolan’s garage,” guitarist Sam Hannig said.
Nonetheless, a vital element was still missing: a drummer. Hannig said they recruited “the legendary virtuoso Miles McDonald” to fill the gap and play the drums.
With the final piece of the puzzle in place, they were ready to embark on their musical journey. The four of them would meet in Nolan’s garage and play covers of Misfits and Black Sabbath songs, but they had yet to find a vocalist.
At that point, the band had yet to come up with a name, but as Hannig said, they would refer to themselves as “The Huncho Hoppers.”
Things would continue to change as their percussionist, Miles, had to leave for college. This would make Nolan the new drummer, and have Liam and Sam switching back and forth between bass and guitar. It was during this time the band finally landed on a vocalist when Owen Costa joined the band in June.
OCRAM’s most recent show comes to an end with vocalist Owen Costa, and guitarist Sam Hannig lying on the floor of the stage.
“This was when we finally decided on the name OCRAM and started locking in on playing gigs and writing originals,” Hannig said.
They held their first two shows outside over the summer, but recently, they had their first gig at Dirty Dungarees, a Columbus venue for up-and-coming local bands. Though the venue was small, the event was loud, lively and packed with friends and family excited to show support for the boys while they played a few covers and some original songs they’ve been working on.
On top of their involvement in countless extracurriculars including concert band, marching band, Blue Steel and our recent school play, they’ve been putting in countless hours of practice in preparation for this milestone.
OCRAM’s next performance is at Dirty Dungarees on Friday, March 21 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10, preferably cash.
