Local youth band to perform at state fair

A band of young and local musicians has won the honor of performing at the Iowa State Fair next week. The group is known as ?The Starbolt Band? and consists of Adam Todd, his brother Nick Todd, Adam Guy and Kaylie Horak. The band will perform at the fair Monday at 3:30 p.m. on the Budweiser Stage, which is on the west end of the grand concourse. Starbolt will also perform at the Old Threshers Reunion on Sept. 4.

In order to perform at the state fair, the members of Starbolt (with help from their parents) had to submit a résumé of their work to state fair officials. The band created a list of the venues where they had played and included letters of recommendation from people who heard their performances. Starbolt has performed at the Washington County Fair, Celebrate Washington, KidzFest and at local restaurants and night clubs.

The four members of Starbolt have been together since 2010. The two original members of the band are brothers Adam and Nick Todd, the sons of Mike and Teresa Todd of Washington. Guy, the son of Cindy and Danny Guy of rural Brighton, joined Starbolt in the summer of 2010 and then Horak, the daughter of CJ and Sherri Horak of Crawfordsville, was added a few months later in November.

Guitar instructor Randy Swift was instrumental in putting the band together and making it what it is today. Adam Todd, age 12, and Nick Todd, age 14, began taking guitar lessons from Swift three years ago. Swift encouraged the Todds to play in public. The two boys performed with other musicians for a few years. They agreed to play at KidzFest in June 2010, but they were without a drummer a week before their performance. N. Todd asked his classmate Guy, age 16, to fill in on short notice. Guy had just one rehearsal with the Todds before going on stage with them.

Swift said, ?It?s one thing if you?re an adult and you?re asked to sit in, but for an eighth grader, who doesn?t know any of the music, that is really something. Not only that, but he had never played in front of people before.?

While Guy was becoming accustomed to his new role, Horak, age 13, was making a name for herself at county fairs such as those in Washington, Louisa and Jefferson counties. Horak has performed with the Ryan Persinger Project and has sung at several open mic nights at area businesses. Swift saw Horak perform live and suggested to the members of Starbolt that they ask her to join. The band watched videos of Horak singing and agreed she would fit in nicely as the lead singer.

?They hit it right off,? said Swift. ?She is a great addition to the band. She really completes the band. She?s got good stage presence and now the band can do so many other things.?

Horak joined the band in November with just one month to go before the ?Battle of the Bands? competition. She learned the three songs the band would perform for the contest, and has since learned dozens more. Swift said that when the band performs a three-hour set, it plays 30 to 40 songs.

That set includes mostly classic rock songs from the 1970s and 1980s. A. Todd said it features songs from bands such as Van Halen, The Doobie Brothers and Stevie Ray Vaughan. The band plays ?Sweet Child O? Mine? by Guns N? Roses, ?Sweet Home Alabama? by Lynyrd Skynyrd and ?I Want You to Want Me? by Cheap Trick, just to name a few.

Swift said Guy had not heard the classic rock songs the Todds played because Guy was not so much a fan of classic rock as he was of country music. Through Guy?s influence the band has begun to play country songs such as ?Kerosene? by Miranda Lambert.

?I like old and new country,? Guy said. ?I like Trace Adkins and Randy Travis.?

N. Todd, on the other hand, is not crazy about country.

?Some of it is OK, but some of it I don?t care for,? he said.

Horak said she doesn?t have a favorite kind of music. She said she was familiar with Starbolt?s classic rock lineup when she joined, and doesn?t mind adding a few country songs.

?I listened to country when I was younger, and I was OK with adding music other than classic rock,? Horak said.

Horak said the band is working on more modern songs to fill out its repertoire such as ?Kryptonite? by 3 Doors Down and ?Second Chance? by Shinedown.

Swift chooses the songs for Starbolt. He explained why he chooses classic rock songs for them to play.

?The band is made up of guitars and drums, so we have to play guitar-driven songs with guitar rifts and hooks,? said Swift. ?Those are the classic rock songs from the 1970s.?

Swift said that video games such as ?Guitar Hero? introduce young people to these classic rock songs and turn them into fans of the genre.

The band members approached Swift one day and told him they wanted to perform ?Don?t Stop Believin?? by Journey. Swift was initially skeptical the band could pull it off because of the difficult vocals. Nevertheless, the band practiced it and practiced it and the song is now part of its set.

The band rehearses every Sunday, and Swift leads the rehearsal.

?Rehearsing is not always fun because I?m pretty hard on them,? said Swift. ?I push them hard because they?re talented. They?re very good right now and they?re becoming better musicians all the time. There is no ceiling for their potential.?

Horak said she plans to audition for American Idol and America?s Got Talent when she turns 15 years old.