Someday Rome

The next hot, new band may just come out of a 10’ x 12’ room on Warren Street & and Allen Hull, Matt Ryan, Giuseppe Tarara and Sean MacAlpine are hoping for just that.

We all want to have this be the main thing in our lives, said MacAlpine, Someday Rome’s bass guitarist, who lives in Brighton. We want to build a fan base, record as much as we can and be known as a great Boston band.

Inspired by a variety of musicians like Dave Matthews, Eric Clapton, John Mayer and Jimi Hendrix, Someday Rome gathers two to three times a week at Hull’s apartment to practice a repertoire of originally written songs, which range from catchy pop ballads to funk-infused rhythms.

It all began in when Hull and Ryan, also a Medford resident, met while rehearsing with an improvisational acting troupe at Middlesex College in 2004.

I had to bring a guitar for a joke skit, said Hull, who sings lead vocals. I was supposed to cover John Mayer’s “Your Body Is a Wonderland”, and mess it up. Since I didn’t play guitar at the time, it wasn’t that hard to do.

Ryan, who has been playing the guitar since he was 16, went over to Hull, who offered him his guitar and they immediately hit it off.

Matt started playing Dave Matthews’ “Grey Street” and I started singing the lyrics, said Hull. We decided to get together later to jam.

Shortly after their first meeting, Hull and Ryan joined another guitarist and formed their first band, Otis, and started out playing cover songs. They quickly decided they wanted to broaden the scope of the band and spun out six months later to focus on writing original music and lyrics.

Ryan picked up another guitarist, Jon Ball, and bassist MacAlpine and relied on the occasional visiting drummer to form a new band, Rome, which eventually evolved into the current Someday Rome.

In the past two years, the band has performed throughout Cambridge and Somerville at venues like the Middle East and the Burren. Three months ago, when Ball left the band to move with his new wife to Prince Edward Island, Hull picked up the guitar and Tarara joined the band as a permanent drummer.

“Growing up, I played certain kinds of music like Hendrix and Zeplin”, said Tarara of West Roxbury. “I didn’t want to jump into an 80s hair band. Their style is upbeat pop, reggae, R&B and I get along with the guys great so I signed on.”

Playing it safe

It wasn’t until Someday Rome was putting together promotional materials that band members Hull and Ryan realized they had more in common than their love for music.

“Somehow we stumbled on a conversation about my accident”, said Hull. “I almost drowned when I was 7 years old in a neighbor’s pool. My neighbor’s dad pulled me up and all I remember is coughing and gagging.”

Ryan had a similar experience. “My family was on a lake, heading down one dock that was connected to another floating dock by metal chains”, said Ryan. ”As we walked along, the two docks separated, I fell through the gap and the docks closed again. My dad pulled the docks apart and pulled me out of the water.”

Fred Grandinetti, Ryan’s co-worker at Toyota of Watertown, thought Hull’s and Ryan’s experiences could be a good way to promote water safety on his television show, “Drawing with Fred”, an award-winning children’s show broadcast on Watertown’s local access television station.

Someday Rome will be featured on “Drawing with Fred” to promote safety around pools and instruct parents to install and check safety gates and take precautions to protect their children. Five of Someday Rome’s original songs will be used during the show and they will also be featured soon in a coloring book to promote water safety.

“We want people to know that we’re not just an average band who plays music”,said Ryan. “We don’t just want one hit song and be gone in five minutes. We want to be around to play our music and also voice our opinions where it’s helpful in the right places.”

The band will also be featured on the Jordan Rich show on WBZ radio 1030 on Nov. 10 to discuss their water safety promotion, and appear at Bill’s Bar on Lansdowne Street in Boston on Nov. 7. It will be Tarara’s first public appearance with the band.

Someday Rome is also currently working on its first recording, which will be available in early 2008. But for now, they’re happy to be practicing in a tiny blue room at Hull’s apartment, surrounded by scraps of paper documenting lyrics and music, big amplifiers and festively colored lighting.

“We don’t want to re-invent the wheel,” said Hull. “We just want to play and have a good time.”

For more information on Someday Rome’s upcoming shows and hear some of their music, you can visit their Web site at www.myspace.com/somedayrome
- Wickedlocal.com