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The Charger Bulletin sat down the Crystal Clear, an all-freshman, six-member band. The band consists of Jake Goode on guitar and singing, Joey Stanca  on guitar, Jo Sinta on keys and singing, James Hegger on drums, Steve DeRose Jr. on bass, and Ken Fabian on banjo, ukulele, and singing. Mitch Whiting is the manager/producer, and most of the songs are written by Jake, Jo, and Ken.

Karina Krul: When did you form Crystal Clear? How did the six of you come together?

Ken Fabian: Since we all live in bethel and we’re all freshman we all just started jamming first semester, hanging out doing it in an informal way.

Jake Goode: I attribute a lot of us forming to Bethel itself and the way it is set up.

KK: Can you describe a little bit of the road you took to get here? You’ve gained popularity relatively quickly, what do you attribute that to?

Jo Sinta: There are six of us and we all have a lot of friends and then our friends tell their friends. It all started with the SCOPE Beanhouses.

JG: We weren’t afraid to ask to do things.

KK: Can you describe the process you went through to put out Rough Draft?

Mitch Whiting: As the story goes they came up to me and swarmed me and were like ‘hey we’re in a band we just started’ and I’m like oh god another freshman band that’s gonna break up in a weak, whatever. And then we got into the studio, complete mess the first session, so I was left and I was like, ok I’ll give them another shot, get this project over with and then I never have to talk to them again. So after that it was great, they killed it in the studio every time, we were recorded the whole EP last semester, and it was mixed and mastered this semester and we’re in the process of making another album.

KK: Do you have anything you’re currently working on?

KF: We have a couple things we’re working on, all of the music is written and we’re almost done recording it.

JF: I will tell you if you listened to the EP, you’re going to have a couple of your favorites back on the album.

KK: What are your inspirations as a band? As individuals?

Steve DeRose Jr: I’m a big metal and classic rock kind of guy, I would not expect myself to be in a band like this but I love it.

MW: I would say bombay bicycle club is a huge inspiration for their sound, I try to kind of take their style and implement because it definitely works. When I’m mixing I try to be as original with them as possible, so Crystal Clear is my inspiration.

KK: You guys are pretty popular on campus, what does it mean to you to have so many fans here?

JG: Honestly I love it here and I’m living my dream doing this, it’s the coolest thing to me.

KF: One of the last shows we played I legit saw this girl I had never seen before in my life, but she was singing along, and I was ready to cry right then and there.

KK: Why is it so important for you guys to have a large presence on campus?

KF: It’s the best way to see a lot of people at once.

JS: I like to think of it as a captive audience. When we play on the Bixler everyone in Bixler heard us, I don’t care if they wanted to or not, they heard us.

KK: You were nominated for artist of the Month by Deli magazine, what did the nomination mean to you?

JS: We lost technically and we were all broken up about it. The prize is they put your picture up for a month, and we went on and they had the winner and then there was us.

JG: What really got me about that whole thing is that it touched me because we got recognized by the magazine/website none of us had any connection to them.

KK: What are some challenges of a six person band?

MW: All seven of them smash into my car with all the gear we needed to bring.

Joey Stanca: Mitch’s car has taken more damage from us than anything.

KK: Mitch, what made you want to be their manager/producer?

MW: Helping them craft their sound lend itself, and the fact that I was driving them everywhere.

KK: Where do you see the band in 5 years?

KF: A full feature film. Crystal Clear the musical. No, I want to see how far we can go.

JS: I want to be so wild that we can’t tour anymore. I think we can do big things. I’m just hoping we can keep this momentum.

Glenn Rohrbacker: Jo, what’s it like being the only girl in the band?

JS: Every time we play somewhere its cool because people are like ‘oh you’re the only girl’ and that part is cool. Then people will come up to me and say that’s impressive and I’ll be like ‘what my band’ and they’ll say ‘no like you holding your own with those men’ and I’ll just be like ‘shut up. But it’s fine, it’s fun.

KK: What’s the farthest you’ve ever traveled for a gig?

JG: New Jersey. We played a show in my home town.

GR: What are you guys going to do over the summer?

Jo: We’re going to try to maybe play a show. It’s hard because we’re all over but our families have been good about letting us stay places.

KK: Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?

MW: Buy our EP, band camp and sound cloud.

JG: Seriously thank you, we love you guys a lot. Album coming soon.