Stump to open concert series

Cranbury Recreation Department’s free Summer Concert Series starts tonight (Friday) in Village Park

By: Lacey Korevec
   Even after what they felt was a successful performance, members of the band Stump were stunned to hear that they’d won this year’s Battle of the Bands, held at the Cranbury School on June 15 and sponsored by the Cranbury Recreation Department and the Municipal Alliance.
   The band, made up of Princeton High School seniors, includes Cranbury residents Luke Brunskill, bass and vocals, and Kyle Walsh, guitar and vocals, and Princeton native and drummer Andrew Yedlin. Stump was given the same title at last year’s competition and Luke said the group wasn’t expecting to win twice.
   "We didn’t think we were gonna win because we thought another band should have won," he said. "But when it came down to it, we thought we played well, so we were surprised but we were pleased as well."
   But it’s not about winning for Stump, Luke said. The group is much more concerned with creating music, performing for friends and just having a good time.
   Formed two years ago, Stump has performed at a number of Cranbury concerts, including last year’s Arts Council Candlelight Concert, and High School Band Night, sponsored by the Municipal Alliance.
   "We haven’t really been playing seriously for that long, but we’ve been around each other playing off and on for two years," Luke said. "In the beginning we were fooling around more often and just kind of feeling it out and as time went on we started writing more songs and we just jelled."
   As part of its prize for winning Battle of the Bands, Stump will kick off the Cranbury Recreation Department’s free Summer Concert Series tonight (Friday) in Village Park, when it opens for local band The Acoustaholics. But since Alex is in Africa for the month, Luke said the band will likely have a substitute drummer.
   "What we’re thinking about doing is getting together with one of our friends who can play drums for us and just having a free for all out there," he said. "We’ll do something, but we’ll have to use someone else as a drummer. So it’s not actually Stump that would be there."
   Stump goes on at 6:30 p.m. The band opened for the same show after winning last year’s competition as well.
   Aside from receiving a trophy, the band was also given a $100 cash prize for winning. The sum was made up of required entry fees that each of the participating bands had to pay prior to the show.
   "We did this last year after we won too," Luke said. "We took all of the money we won and just gave every band back their $20. All of the bands had agreed to do that before we even played the show."
   The band describes itself as an alternative grunge group, Luke said. Though the members get together often to go over music, the emphasis always remains on having a good time, he added.
   "We have a lot of fun when we get together and practice," she said. "We don’t even call it practice. We just get together and jam and write songs that way. We just all work together and the chemistry is really strong because we kind of are positive with each other. It’s an open band and not serious at all, so we just kind of have fun."
   Lately, Stump has been working on some new, original songs that the members are pretty excited about, Luke said.
   For now, the band hopes to practice a lot throughout August and plans to record some songs in the fall at a nearby recording studio, Luke said. From there, the possibilities are endless.
   "We want to play shows all through our senior year and as long as we can, even into college if that’s possible," he said.