KAYSVILLE—Sky View students played their way through the regional PTSA Battle of the Bands to move up to state. Poor Ophelia who won the Sky View battle in December have come far since Benton Wood and friends started the band.

Who is Poor Ophelia?

Benton Wood is a 17-year-old senior who is their lead vocalist and guitarist. Colton Anderson is also a 17-year-old senior and plays bass. Percussionist Gavin Howe is a 17-year-old junior and keyboardist McKay Anhder is the youngest member as a 16-year-old junior.

I spoke with Benton Wood about the band and the Battle of the Band competition sponsored by the PTSA.

Who started the band?

Benton Wood: Me and Colton did. Gavin was there, too. We got together in September of ‘09. We started with Drew Allen who decided he didn’t have enough time for it. So we added McKay Anhder (keyboards) and another McKay on guitars who later quit. We first thought we wanted to have two guitars but ended up staying with one.

How would you describe the music you play?

We like to play, well, we dabble in different genres. There’s blues and a little bit of jazz, there’s definitely rock. Some of our songs have an experimental element. Like using weird technic and unusual tabbing techniques.

What’s your most popular song?

Julian is our most popular song.

Where do you guys play?

Gavin’s basement, we play in his bedroom. We try to do it twice a week, more if there’s a show like the Battle of the Bands.

So where do you perform?

Why Sound on Federal Avenue. We play and record songs there. I like the guys down there. Their good guys and treat us good. We play there and up on campus in the Independent Music Club, whenever they can get a room.

What do you like most about playing in the band?

Playing with friends outside of school. Playing music is really nice. Being friends outside of school improves the chemistry of the band and it’s nice to have a hobby.

Is there anything you don’t like?

I really don’t like hauling the gear around.

When was the regional Battle of the Band?

It was Tuesday, the 9th in Kaysville at Davis High. We won here and get to move to state on March 20 at West Jordon Middle School.

What happened on the day of regionals?

The night before we put the gear in the van. They don’t have any real PA equipment so we have to bring our own. We drove down right after school so we could stop by Guitar Center on the way down. We got their later in the day which meant we had a later sound check. They put the order together kind of funny. If you have a late sound check, they want you to play first so all the equipment doesn’t have to be moved as much. We played second which wasn’t our favorite time to play.

Were there a lot of other bands?

There were 8 or 9. One from Fast Forward (a charter school in Logan). Me and Colton used to be in that band. Two bands were from Davis High. One from Layton. Mostly bands from everywhere north of Davis.

There were definitely great bands there, definitely talent there. They choose the top three bands to go to state.

Where can our readers listen to your music?

Go to our Myspace page: myspace.com/PoorOpheliaBand

Or come to our shows. We are playing at the Lundstrom Student Center on March 6, at Why Sound on March 19 at 8 p.m., and at the state Battle of the Bands on March 20.