Emplyfi

Emplyfi was first introduced to the world at their first performance ever on the evening of November 3rd 2005 when, at the Paul J. Holzworth Performing Arts Center in their hometown of Davenport, Iowa. They played what was then their first fully completed song, “Featheredge.” It was the Davenport North High School talent show “Follies” and they had been selected to play before their peers. They were performing with their fist complete lineup of members, consisting of founding members Matt Unglesbee on guitar/vocals and Scott Simpson on the drums, Mike Schindall on bass, and newly acquired second guitarist Lucas Alvarado rounded out the lineup. The show went well and they decided to continue with their work.

Since then, the self-taught musicians continued to experiment with sounds and write new songs, several of which have yet to be completed. Their method of writing parts and then storing them in their arsenal has helped to finish multiple songs further down the road. They take writing seriously, and don’t release/play anything that they’re not proud of. They take pride in not compromising the quality of their music and believe that they are continuously becoming better musicians the more they write and perform. They never rush through the writing process and have been known to occasionally take several months to complete a song.

Since that first show in November of 2005, Emplyfi have played various other school talent shows, friends’ parties, a battle of the bands in Chicago and opened for Psychostick in Davenport in July of 2007. In November of 2007, Emplyfi’s bassist at the time, Mike Schindall was released from the band. The band proceeded to look for a new bass player, during this time they had even thought of remaining a 3-piece band in lieu of bringing an unfamiliar person to the group. Luckily though, they gave Kevin Weis a chance to step in. Kevin had been a friend of the band for several years, and happened to play guitar which aided in being familiar with playing bass. Kevin managed to learn all of Emplyfi’s songs plus a couple cover songs within a matter of a couple weeks. Two weeks after Kevin joined the band, Emplyfi would perform at their former high school once again, with a great response from the 600+ crowd and managed to sell out of all of the CDs that had been made at the time.

If you ask any member of Emplyfi what their sound is like, they would probably only be able to answer you with one word, “rock.” Some listeners say some of their music sounds slightly like the music of progressive rock/metal band Tool’s “Opiate” EP. The band however, unanimously agrees that they feel no need to put their material into any specific genre. Their attitude from the beginning has always simply been, “we play music.”

The members of Emplyfi have a wide range of musical influences that make up parts of their unique sound. Guitarist/vocalist Matt Unglesbee’s influences include The Doors, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails, and Korn. Drummer Scott Simpson’s influences include Rush, Dream Theater, Disturbed, and Yanni. Guitarist Lucas Alvarado’s influences include Rammstein, Audioslave, Korn, and Disturbed. Finally, bassist Kevin Weis’ influences include Pantera, Rage Against The Machine, Psychostick, and Lamb of God. Some of these influences can be easily recognized in Emplyfi’s music by anyone who might be familiar with those artists.

Emplyfi’s live show also reflects their passion for playing and performing. They are always energetic and interact with the crowd. The believe that almost no band should just stand still while staring at the fret board without even acknowledging the audience. All three guitarists even have their own wireless systems to prevent any hindering of movement while they perform.

Today, Emplyfi continues to pursue musical excellence, and though a full-time career in the music business is an extremely hard position to fill; they hope to one day be able to concentrate solely on their music, and hope to find some people along the way who enjoy listening to it as much as they love to write and play it.