Indie Inspiration
Sometimes you don't need to live in Brooklyn or Portland to start an indie rock band that takes off. Just ask Nick Petricca '09, the frontman for Walk the Moon—founded in Gambier, Ohio.
Esquire magazine recently listed the group's song "Anna Sun," named after a Kenyon professor, as one of the "30 Summer Songs that Every Man Should Listen To." The band appeared at Bonnaroo earlier this month and is slated to play the Lollapalooza festival later in the summer. In July, the foursome begins recording a full-length album.
Petricca, 24, is trying to take it all in stride. "It's really important to stay grounded," says Petricca, whose band is now based in Cincinnati. "No piece of success is a promise for more success. You just have to keep on working at it."
The work began in 2008 at Kenyon, where Petricca majored in music. The group has played at least twenty shows on campus, including a performance at Orientation in 2010. Originally, all of the band members were Kenyon students; now, Petricca is the only Kenyonite.
"I always loved that the school was out in the middle of nowhere, yet there was so much going on and there was so much culture there," Petricca says. "Kenyon is such a good place to go and see indie bands. There's a great scene there."
"Anna Sun," a catchy single whose music video has already tallied 275,000 views on YouTube, is named for a professor of sociology and Asian studies. "The song is really about a lot of the memories I had at Kenyon," says Petricca. "There is a lot of imagery from college and childhood in the song. We have some other songs that are influenced by my experiences at Kenyon. But none are as specific as 'Anna Sun'."