During the day, the members of Mars or the Moon teach guitar lessons, style hair and work for the Star Press, but when they come home from their day jobs, they switch their focus to their top priority: music.
On Sunday, Mars or the Moon, which tours the Midwest and regularly records, will play a show at the Fickle Peach in downtown Muncie, as they continue with their cycle of balancing their day jobs with their musical aspirations.
With shows coming up in Chicago, Indianapolis, Muncie and Ohio, the band will feature different looks, depending on which members can make it to the shows because of their jobs. For example, their Chicago set will only feature guitarist Joe Hart and lead vocalist and additional guitarist Lani Williams.
"All of us have had to have conversations with our employers saying, ‘Look we're good workers, but music is our life and we're going to be taking time off. If that's going to be a problem, after we demonstrate a good work ethic, then you might as well not hire us,'" Hart said.
Williams, who works at a Whole Foods store in Broad Ripple, Ind., agreed that a day job that adapts with her schedule was key to her pursuit of music.
"I have a great job," she said. "It's very flexible, and that is kind of key. If it wasn't flexible, it'd be really, really hard."
Because music can not always be a guaranteed career choice, Williams said their band, like many, took a while to develop.
"It takes a long time to find a group of people because in the music industry, things don't pay very well," she said. "Sometimes they do, but most of the times they don't. We finally found a bass player and drummer that we mesh with, and it's pretty awesome."
Williams met Hart while taking guitar lessons from him.
"When Lani came in, she had already written a few songs and I could tell that she could sing really well and I was like, ‘I'm going to help you make your next record,'" Hart said.
"Through the course of a year of guitar lessons, we started playing shows together, and then all of a sudden we kind of fell in love and it threw a monkey wrench in the whole thing."
As the relationship grew, the two slowly came back to music, eventually beginning to play gigs at local venues.
"When we started dating, we took things real slow at that point," Hart said. "We'd both played music with our previous spouses, and when a relationship goes south, music usually does, too. So, we took a slow build approach to this band."
The two acquired conga player Lenen Nicola, but didn't find a drummer and bassist in time for their first album, "Price of Love." Instead, the trio turned to good friend Jon E. Gee, bassist in John Mellencamp's band, as well as Mellencamp's drummer Dane Clark.
"Dane didn't want to hear any songs before he got to the studio. He only wanted to hear a song right before we were ready to record it," Williams said. "He was amazing. For a drummer, he has a really comprehensive understanding of music."
Williams and Hart remembered hearing fun "rock star stories" from Gee and Clark about their latest recording experience with Donovan, a 1960s Brit Pop legend who had interaction with the Beatles.
Most recently, Mars or the Moon traveled to Austin, Texas, to play in a showcase at SXSW. San Francisco singer/songwriter Megan Slankard also played the showcase and will be joining them at the Fickle Peach on Sunday. With much compliments for Mars or the Moon, Slankard appreciates the band's brand of rock.
"I think it's great because it's intelligent," she said. "A lot of commercial music nowadays thinks for you, where more entertaining music like Mars or the Moon lets you imagine."
As for the band's next record, Hart expects a more organic process, dating back to the older methods of recording.
"We'll rehearse everything, go in and cut everything as live as possible, so the music breathes a little bit more," he said. "It's actually going to be more old-school because when they first made records, they didn't have overdubs."
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
