Starting a band in high school isn’t a rare occurrence for instrumentally talented students, but keeping up with it is.
For senior Sasha Watson, her band Cheap Death began even before high school.
“She went to a rock band camp at the music studio where she takes lessons, so she’d already been in lessons there and they started hosting different camps, so she decided to go,” Sasha’s mom, Lori Watson, said.
Sasha and her bandmates all went to the rock camp at Blue Raven Music Studios and voted on the name “Cheap Death” from a game they played during the camp.
“I really like being in the band because we all go to different schools, so these are people I consider really close friends,” Sasha said. “But every time I’m with them we just mainly focus on music and everything is always so wholesome.”
Cheap Death usually does about 10 gigs a year, varying from 30 minutes to multiple hours, even playing a four hour gig at Gray’s Keg about a month ago, which was one of Sasha’s favorites.
Sasha also really enjoyed playing at Lincoln High’s post prom, and the Battle of the Bands at Gray’s Keg was also popular among her and her bandmates.
“My favorite gig was Battle of the Bands last year at Gray’s Keg,” member Becca Rice said. “That show was one of our best and we won second place in that competition. It’s hands down my favorite Cheap Death memory.”
The group has many places they can practice at, including the studio, their sponsors’ house and even the Watsons’ house.
“I actually enjoy them [practicing] because they’re good, they’re fun to listen to so it’s not like they’re kids who don’t know what they’re doing,” Lori Watson said. “They’re really really nice kids to hang out with.”
A majority of what the band plays are covers of other songs, but in the past year Sasha and her sister started writing their own songs, so the band has begun using a few of those during their performances.
Since they play at a variety of places, their audience can vary from gig to gig.
“When we play for a middle-aged crowd it’s much different than playing for people your own age,” Sasha said. “So I’ve had to come up with a bunch of jokes and things in between each song because we also transition a lot since a lot of us are multi-instrumentalists so we have to switch around what we’re doing.”
Cheap Death hopes to continue to improve together as they grow, just as they have in previous years.
“It’s been cool to see how everyone has grown in their instrument and how we’ve built up confidence over time,” Sasha said.
