Dartmouth College does not have a long history of producing great bands, but there have been a few
recent success stories. The Mathias Family Band (also known as Filigar) and Ryan Dieringer '09, onefifth
of the bluegrass band The Powder Kegs, give hope to the Dartmouth student with dreams of making
it big in the music world. It has recently come to my attention, however, that Dartmouth may already be
housing a band with greatness in its future. It's a trio with founding member Joe Hanley '08 on guitar,
lead singer Chuck Stoebe '08 and drummer extraordinaire Luke Mann O'Halloran '09. I have never
seen them perform and little is known about them, but I've heard plenty of their work, and they are truly
a force to be reckoned with. Ladies and gentlemen, my exclusive with West Nile Virus.
Rembert: How long has West Nile
Virus been together?
Joe: I started as a solo act about two
years ago. It started out small, with
social events and private parties. Then
at this battle of the bands in Cleveland,
I began to gather a fan base after a
convincing win with Boston's charttopper
"More than a Feeling."
Chuck and I started playing together
over the summer. We would
crush at karaoke bars in Manhattan
and small gigs at children's stores
around New England. We had probably
10 great shows, beating every
joker clown in the area that tried to
step to us. Then we met Luke in Food
Court at the start of Fall term. It just
clicked. Luke's the backbone, Chuck's
the talent and I get all the girls.
R: Who are your major infl uences?
Luke: I'd say I am most inspired by
Chuck Stoebe. His dedication to his
craft is like none I've ever seen before.
Mostly he gets his moves from
classic infl uences like Backstreet
Boys, N*sync and Enrique Iglesias.
Overall we like The Clash, Bono and
Marvin Gaye.
R: You're pretty underground.
What venues do you usually
play?
Chuck: We try to keep it relatively
tame. Fraternities are our go-to spot
because our peers are our best fans.
We go where the fans are -- it's all
about the fans.
R: What kind of crowds do you
attract?
J: It gets pretty eclectic. We get
people just walking around who hear
us jamming, and we get people who
request us to take the stage. The only
consistent thing is beautiful people.
For some reason beautiful people
love us.
R: Who gets the most ladies?
C: Hanley. easily. Have you seen the
way his fi ngers move on that guitar?
No one can do what Hanley does with
his pinky fi nger. Incredible. Hanley's
fi ngers are like the hatch in "Lost," but
instead of causing a plane to crash he
attracts every girl.
R: Are any of you classically
trained?
L: Remember what Mavis Beacon
did for computer typing? Imagine
someone doing that for the drums. I
am Mavis Beacon.
R: Why did you decide to be solely
a cover band?
L: All three of us are extremely talented,
but we're not creative. Plus,
college bands suck at writing songs.
R: Do you think you will release
an album soon?
J: We aren't actually signed or anything,
but we are going to record and
release a song for Valentine's Day. It
features our single, "Whole Mess of
Love." I'd say it's a very progressive
single, especially in the realm of cover
bands. It's our take on Led Zeppelin's
classic "Whole Lotta Love," but let's
face it, sometimes love gets messy.
R: So you are rewriting an entire
song to the tune of "Whole Lotta
Love"? That's awesome.
L: Well, I think Stoebe is just going
to say "mess" instead of "lotta"
throughout the entire song. I'm pretty
sure that's it.
R: Ever play any outdoor festivals,
or only indoor venues?
J: I'm quite surprised we haven't
been outside yet. Have you seen
Luke? I'm pretty sure he was raised
just like Tarzan, or Mowgli from The
Jungle Book.
We wanted to play on top of
Mt. Moosilauke, but Luke couldn't
carry all the instruments, cords, etc.
Stoebe and I are the prima donnas of
the group and refuse to do anything
physical.
R: Ever do any acoustic work? Is
MTV Unplugged in your future?
C: I would love to. There's something
about watching Hanley really mellow
out and just be "one" with the crowd
that I wouldn't want to miss. But yeah,
we have not really fi gured out how it
would work.
R: If you could challenge any band
on campus, who would it be?
C: If Young Ivy is considered a band,
then him. I'm in a theater class with
him, and I'm pretty sure he's moving
from rapping to acting, so I'd challenge
him for his name.
R: So Hanley, tell me more about
your epic solo performance of
"More Than a Feeling" by Boston.
Do you think this supergroup
can ever match that type of performance?
J: No. I don't think anyone will ever
top that performance. With that
said, I'm in the process of forming
a spin-off that has a little more edge
than West Nile. We're bringing in a
ringer named Emerson Curry '08.
He plays the oboe, and with certain
technological advances, I think we
can make it work.
R: Are there any live performances
of West Nile Virus up on YouTube
or elsewhere on the Internet? I'm
dying to actually see the magic.
C: Well, we've nailed a few pretty
tough songs at an extreme level of
technical diffi culty, and some of our
fans put the videos up. We're just trying
to help out some other bands still
stuck on easy stuff.
R: Since you aren't releasing CDs,
how exactly are you measuring
your success?
J: I mean, having nine of the top 10
high scores ever recorded isn't too
shabby.
R: I didn't realize you could
'score' a song -- that's great. I
am inspired by your success.
For all of the aspiring musicians
out there, where do you get your
instruments from?
C: As the singer, it comes from the
heart. And by the heart, I mean the
vocal chords. And by the vocal chords,
I mean the computer that adjusts my
voice to make it sound good. But yeah,
we got our stuff from GameStop.
R: Interesting. I didn't know they
sold instruments. So, I heard that
if you could perform at any venue
at Dartmouth, it would be at Alpha
Theta's DARTCON convention.
Why there of all places and not,
say, Leede Arena?
J: Have you seen that place? There
are freakin' video games everywhere.
Luke doesn't even have to carry all
of our stuff; they've already got the
instruments and the Xbox 360 set
up, ready for The West Nile Virus to
take control.
R: Xbox 360? Okay, um, not to
be rude or insult your craft, but
I was assigned to interview a real
campus band. Don't tell me West
Nile Virus is just three dudes
that just got Rock Band in their
fraternity...
C: Well, yeah. I mean, I'm a Division
I athlete, Luke plays club volleyball
and Joe used to row or something,
so there isn't enough time in our
busy schedules to get a "real" band
together. But then again, "real" is such
a relative term.
R: Well, I told The Dartmouth I'd
have a "real" story, and seeing
that it is Thursday evening, this
is probably my last interview for
the paper. Thanks guys, seriously.
I'll never get those 45 minutes back.
