Hard to Control (HTC), created in February by seniors Kaelan Brown, Peter Banks, and former senior Joaquin Friedman, is a new emerging hip hop and jazz band made up of 12 Arlington musicians, 11 being from W-L. The three founders played in the school’s jazz band together and from there added more musicians to the mix. “We recruited a bunch of kids from the Jazz Big Band to play with us, and we started doing covers of Kanye West, Frank Ocean, Donnie Trumpet and Vic Mensa,” senior and drummer Peter Banks said. “[We perform] modern hip hop stuff, but we always put in a jazz fusion/rock element to it.”

HTC, originally named Sunday’s, had their first performance back in June at the Iota Club and Cafe. The performance followed popular Arlington band Red Light Distraction (RLD) as an encore set, since band members who make up RLD are also in HTC. The band performed covers to songs such as “Sunday Candy” by Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiments and “All of the Lights” by Kanye West. “There was a huge turn out, and I think they did an amazing job,” senior Emma Mobley said. “Everyone was on their feet, singing and dancing along, which made it a lot of fun to see and be a part of.”

Several seniors from the band, including lead singer Bianca Galvez, trombone player Henry Banks, soprano saxophonist Remy Rossi along with many others, graduated with the class of 2015, causing the band to disband shortly over the summer. However, the band has recruited numerous new members including junior and pianist Grace Leckey, junior and lead singer Caroline Raphael and junior and soprano saxophonist Steven Bluestein. The combination of the new and old members has created new experiences and interactions for all. “I always leave our rehearsals not being able to hear because our drummer, Peter Banks, is incredibly amazing, but also incredibly loud,” Raphael said. “[Additionally], singing with Kaelan has been really fun, he brings so much energy.”

HTC plans to debut its newly improved band of musicians soon, but nothing is official yet. “I can almost guarantee the next time Red Light Distraction plays at IOTA, HTC will as well,”  Banks said. “We’ve got some new material cooking that we’re all really hyped about.”