You may pause when you hear the name Birdperson, but once you hear the songs from this local band’s recent Extended Play (EP), your ears will want you to press play over and over again.

Birdperson, consisting of Georgia Southern students Aaron Cooler, Wheeler Lovett, Trey Wilson and Anthony McLeod, had their first live performance on March 27, 2015. Since then, they’ve had multiple shows in Statesboro, and have even managed to record a self-produced, four-track EP together, which is available to listen on iTunes, Spotify, and SoundCloud.

Broad genres such as punk, rock, or even indie, aren’t quite effective in pinning down the
distinct sound of the band’s EP. According to vocalist and senior music education major, Aaron Cooler, “house rock” is the most accurate way to describe and label the band’s music.

“We try to write music that’s natural and just reflect our lives,” Cooler said. “The four of us live together, work together and perform together. It all comes and goes in this house. The music is a reflection of the experiences we had living together in this town.”

Birdperson isn’t the first time these Georgia Southern students have played music together. They were previously musicians in GSU’s Southern Pride marching band. They’re also currently roommates and members of the Phi Mu Alpha fraternity.

“We have disagreements from time to time, but the fraternity stuff, being best friends, living together, it just helps us communicate what we want to get across without being at each other’s throats all the time,” Trey Wilson, guitarist and senior music performance major, said.

“Being in both a fraternity and a marching band together, we’ve learned how to cooperate and communicate efficiently,” Lovett, drummer and senior chemistry major, said. “We know how to conduct rehearsals, we know the logistics of putting on a concert, and we know how to give each other constructive critiques. We’re treating this as a professional attempt to make some art together.”

The band released their EP earlier this spring and will try to build on the momentum by playing more gigs and creating merchandise such as t-shirts and CDs to pick up at their shows.

“Ever since we played our first show, we just wanted to do more, more, and more,” Anthony
McLeod, bassist and junior international studies major, said. "We just try and follow the natural progression of what a band does. Play shows, write some original songs, record the songs, get some t-shirts. It just kind of happened.”

Birdperson will be playing in Statesboro for another year, with their most recent upcoming show at Statesboro Karate on July 9.