In March, Reptar played at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, and in June, the band appeared at Governor's Ball, a music festival in New York City where the band got its "first taste of people treating artists like they're something more than just people playing music," Engelberger said.
That gig led to "increasingly crazy experiences" and opportunities, like a tour with fellow up-and-coming bands Foster the People and Cults, which took the band to the West Coast for the first time. Reptar is in the process of setting up shows in the United Kingdom and is in communication with a record label whose identity the band is not yet allowed to reveal, Engelberger said.
Engelberger is currently taking time off from school with the rest of the band in order to "realign mind energies" and concentrate on making music.
"[Reptar is] getting noticeably better as a result," he said. "Everyone is more focused, our mental energies align to form a chakra, a Death Star-like entity that creates positive energies instead of destroying planets."
Although he's not quite sure when he'll be back in Hanover, Engelberger said he is excited by the opportunity to "follow this thing and see where it goes."
Engelberger was born and raised in Atlanta and met many of his future bandmates during childhood. He and Reptar frontman Graham Ulicny attended elementary school together and met keyboardist and drummer William Kennedy in middle school.
Engelberger started playing the trumpet in third grade and experimented with other instruments in the jazz family like the euphonium and tuba, which he called "an awesome and very underrated instrument." In seventh grade, he began playing bass guitar and has continued ever since. With Reptar, he plays the bass and assists on the keyboard and with backup vocals.
Since arriving at Dartmouth, Engelberger has studied music and enjoyed classes in composition and improvisation. He cited music professors Kui Dong, Robert Duff and Steve Swayne as "great teachers" who not only inspired him and fired his creativity but also taught him practical, useful skills. "I think we're trying to take four years to figure out college and Reptar instead of holding off on Reptar or ignoring college completely," Engelberger said. "We're trying to give both things the time and respect that they deserve."
Reptar grew out of the three Atlantans' high school jam sessions. Andrew McFarland, another drummer, joined Reptar's ranks when Kennedy matriculated at the University of Georgia in Athens. The band members stayed in touch throughout their freshman fall, and McFarland joined the trio in Atlanta over winter break, at which time they played their first concert in Williams' bedroom for about 30 people.
On Engelberger's birthday, May 24, 2009, the three musicians living in Athens played a show without Engelberger that drew rave reviews in the local press and inspired the band members to live together that summer in Athens and get more serious about their music.
Engelberger cited Kennedy's energy as a key to Reptar's early success. Kennedy's dynamic stage persona "naturally draws people in and they started responding to that energy," and Reptar gained a reputation as a great live act, Engelberger said. The buzz built and at the end of the summer, the band played a concert at a now-defunct Athens venue called Tasty World.
The show, held at 2 a.m. on a Tuesday night, was "totally packed," with people "throwing down as hard as they could throw down for our band," according to Engelberger. Reptar had a confetti cannon and the crowd threw glitter and danced onstage with the band, he said.
In fall 2010, the band faced scheduling conflicts, with frontman Ulicny driving to shows from Asheville, N.C. and Engelberger away in Hanover. Other musicians filled in when they could and eventually, "increasingly crazy things started happening for us well-connected and increasingly generous people offered us their time," Engelberger said.
Reptar's music can be hard to describe, according to Engelberger.
"If you took all of our musical styles and boiled them down to their essence, like an oil, and poured them into a vat and added ice in there to make ice cream, added the sounds of the ice cream blender and the sounds of an ice cream truck with all the kids running around screaming plus the sounds of a bar and parties going down, and then distilled that into a flavor to give to a happy old man who suddenly becomes young again that's the only way I can describe our music," Engelberger said.
He later gave a more concise definition of Reptar's genre as "experimental dance music," and noted that the band gets many comparisons to Animal Collective.
"[The music is like] Pantha du Prince, or Prince we have electronic sounds, but I wouldn't necessarily call it electronic music," Engelberger explained. "We have live, rooted percussion and guitars."
Engelberger also noted Reptar's use of backing tracks that influence its sound and make it more electronic.
"We all listen to African music, [which] definitely influences our own music and rhythms," Engelberger said.
One element of the band's mythology that draws parallels to the aforementioned Animal Collective is Engelberger's pseudonym Ginger Bear, an "alternative persona" he takes on from time to time.
As Ginger Bear, Engelberger wanted to "just let the kids at home [know] that short bears can't reach the honey, but if you wait, you'll get a little bit taller."
The Ginger Bear persona evolved from jokes about Engelberger's red beard,and the fact that "some people think I'm warm and cuddly," according to Engelberger.
For now the band is focused on finishing a few more songs, going on tour and eventually recording an album later this year. Engelberger hoped that the band's touring schedule will allow it to come back to Hanover. He said Reptar has been talking to Friday Night Rock, and that "it's now a matter of finding a way to fit in a Dartmouth tour date between a Boston and Montreal gig." He also said he hopes to play at Alpha Chi Alpha, his fraternity, again someday.
While you wait for Reptar to come to Fuel or Collis Common Ground, keep an eye on the band and its bassist's bright red beard. These Southern-fried party poppers could be headed for the big time.
