People may be surprised to learn that Half-Seas Over, the band that kicked off the Boropalooza music festival on April 16, has only been a band for several months.
Members Tyler Tam, Tanner Fussell, and Trey Stadler started the band in fall of 2015.
Tyler Tam (left)- lead guitarist, backup vocals, junior education major
Tanner Fussell (right)- rhythm guitar, lead vocals, senior IT major
Trey Stadler (middle)-drummer, backup vocals, senior construction management major
Before the three of them played together, though, Tam and Fussell played local venues including Shennanigan’s and Loco’s as a two-man as an acoustic duo.
Stadler, the drummer, is actually from the same town as Tam. He and Tam grew up in Thomson, Georgia, near Augusta, and would get together in Stadler’s backyard shed and jam. However, it would be a couple more years after Stadler attended the University of Georgia before he moved to Statesboro and began attending Georgia Southern. Thus, the band was born!
The band started picking up more shows as the semester progressed, and the need for them to have a name became more important.
“We were looking for a band name. We couldn’t really come up with anything, and we had shows coming up, so we were just sitting there like googling something, somehow got on old british or english slang terms back in the 1920s,” said Tam. The group discovered the term half sea over.
“It’s like saying someone’s three sheets in the wind, drunk.” Tam said. “It sounds more majestic than it is. We thought it was funny because we were playing mainly bars.”
When Half-Seas Over plays bars and other venues, such as local fraternities and sororities, they cover a medley of songs from different music genres.
“We try to play a little bit of everything. By the end of it, everyone’s going to hear something they like. We can go from playing Johnny Cash to Red Hot Chili Peppers,” said Tam.
Each of the guys bring a variety of musical influences into the band. Tam draws from artists like the Eagles, Lynard Skynard, and George Jones. By contrast, Stadler and Tanner draw influence from artists like Led Zeppelin, Kings of Leon and Jimi Hendrix.
Tanner Fussell said that making original songs is a key goal of the band going forward. “I think we all have the ability. It’s just a matter of making time for it. It’s easy when there is a song that’s already written and we have a gig coming up, it’d be much easier to practice that.”
Half-Seas Over will be playing at Dingus Magee’s on May 7. You can keep up with the band via their Facebook.
Photos courtesy of Half-Seas Over and Yasmeen Waliaga.
