From practice rooms to stages and lights, a group of students who all share a love for music decided to create a band. The Gentlemen are proving that a simple idea -and a lot of rehearsing- can turn into a crowd-pleasing performance.
Back in late December of 2025, senior Alex Searles wanted to record Christmas songs with his friends. One day, Searles, senior Maddox Hutchinson, senior Brayden Grindall, junior Vincent Simpson, and sophomore Lizzie Winklepleck started practicing together. On occasion, Freshman Ava Foster joins in and sings with them. After performing the Christmas songs, they started to lean more into playing rock‘n’ roll songs, enjoying how well they played together, thus creating The Gentlemen. Searles, the bass player, never played instruments till this year. Luckily, his band members have been teaching him everything there is to know about the bass, and he has improved greatly. While practicing, he noticed that “everyone’s improved a lot. Maddox has gotten better with his voice control, Lizzie improved her fretting, Brayden has gotten better with timing, Ava has improved her confidence singing in front of others, and Vinny’s speed has gotten faster with his speed on the drums. It’s great seeing everyone improve, and I hope we continue to grow.”
Photo provided
‘Creep’ by Radiohead, ‘Ignorance’ by Paramore, and ‘Brain Stew’ by Green Day are some of the variety of songs they sing. The group aims to practice as much as they can. On February 18th, The Gentlemen competed in the Battle of the Bands at Jackson College. Throughout the night, they strived to have fun and do their best. The band played ‘Say It Ain’t So’ by Weezer and ‘Come Together’ by The Beatles. In the end, they placed 3rd out of seven other bands. Before performing on stage, people can have nervous energy, but Hutchinson doesn’t feel it: “a lot of the time when I’m with the band, they’re my best friends, so I don’t really get nervous. I’ve also had a lot of privilege of performing in my entire life, so this is natural for me.”
Recently, The Gentlemen played at The Cave on February 21. They played there in support of the band boosters and to have a chance to play in front of another crowd. Foster even joined them to sing backup in most of the songs. The crowd enjoyed their performance by cheering, singing along, and dancing to their songs. The band played ‘High and Dry’ by Radiohead, ‘American Idiot’ by Green Day, and numerous other songs. The song that motivated them the most was “Come Together” by The Beatles, which they see as portraying them as a group. The drummer of the group, Simpson, has a strong love for music, and when he plays, he hopes that people will “know that everything can start from something small, it just matters about those first steps and the work you put in afterwards. Nothing comes easy.”
The group has recently been working together to make their own songs. It has been a work in progress, but they hope to play their own song at their next performance. Smith, a singer and sometimes guitar player, has been helping out a lot with composing the songs. She feels that “it’s a way to express ourselves and we are taking this band very seriously.”
From their first performance to performing on stage, The Gentlemen’s journey shows that all it takes is one idea- and the courage to act on the idea- to create something inspiring and memorable for everyone involved.
