Local Rock Star Sitting at the table with long, thick blonde hair and a hint of Brad Pitt's facial features sits Brian. He's a 17-year-old high school student, guitarist in a local band, and he's my interview. He will start almost all of his sentences with "uhh..." but then proceed with long, interesting responses. I started by asking him when he first became interested in music and what his influences were. “I've always listened to music,” he said, “my first album ever was Nevermind by Nirvana; it was a cassette. I also listened to a lot of Michael Jackson—don't laugh, I mean Thriller and stuff like that. "What inspired you to play an instrument?" The Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic CD was the first time I realized that I wanted to play an instrument. "What instruments do you play?". “I've played guitar for the last four years, saxophone for the last two, although only in the school band,” he said. "The keyboard, bass and drums I can 'understand musically', even if I don't usually play them." So tell me about the band. What is the meaning of the band name, No Name Charlies? “Uhh… well we had, like, 100 names that we tried and we didn't really like them. Then Greg, our former trombone player, said that whenever his teacher in elementary school got an unnamed essay, she called him "No-Name Charlie." In a way everyone liked it; it's definitely grown on us since then." He told me that the band formed in November 2001, and their first show was in the spring of 2002. There has been a lot of movement in terms of band members: some are come and go, some have come, gone and come back again, some have changed instruments and some have stepped in. The setup, like… in the middle of the paper… is the first,” he says, referring to their 2003 Demo Shut up and listen! They met Pat Kays, bassist for the band Catch 22, when they opened for his band last year. Kays told the boys that he liked their sound and was interested in engineering and, to some extent, production. “It was mutual,” Brian said, “because we wanted to record and he wanted to be an engineer. Everything fell into place." Youthful resilience, continued optimism and a small but steady growth of fans have contributed to No Name Charlies' local success. When asked if the band would take the chance to become famous if given the chance, Brian said they would take it no questions asked. However, he believes balance is important and would not sacrifice a college education for it. When asked if he thinks the band will become big, Brian replied: “I like to think so.”