Kent-based band’s music has rock, soul and funk influences

Photo Courtesy of Eclyptic

Credit: DKS Editors

By definition, ecliptic is the supposed path the sun takes around Earth. The band Eclyptic, however, defines itself as a combination of four separate guys creating rock-influenced music with a splash of soul and funk.

With their third album, “When the Night Calls it Quits,” set to release Oct. 17, singers and guitarists Derik Kroeze and Chris Bohrer, bassist Danny Kolliner and drummer Michael Factor say their sound is a unique combination of musical influences.

“It’s like Bob Dylan had tea with Van Morrison who got in a car wreck with Neil Young who made a baby with ’60s and ’70s rock,” Kroeze said.

Eclyptic, which has been managed by FTF Records since May of this year, began recording its new album in September 2007. The band went through seven 10-hour sessions over a year and a half. They finished four songs in 2007, but didn’t finish recording until August due to money complications and time restraints.

While Kroeze, Bohrer and Factor are all students at Kent State, Kolliner attends Oberlin College, making it difficult to manage time while juggling school and work.

Once the songs were recorded, then came the mixing and mastering process, which took the band a month to adjust levels of the vocals and instruments, and then another month to fine-tune everything.

The band worked with an artist to create the album art, which is a symbol from the wallpaper of a prison cell in the Mansfield Reformatory.

After three and a half years since its last album, Eclyptic will celebrate its new release at the Robin Hood on Oct. 17; however, it is available on iTunes now.

Their second album, “In Your Mind,” was released in May 2006, and the first album, called “Introducing Eclyptic,” was released a year before that.

Eclyptic was formed six and a half years ago when Kroeze, Bohrer, Kolliner and the original drummer, Andy Hale, performed “Waiting” by Green Day at their seventh-grade talent show in Hudson.

“We all kind of started our instruments at the same time and we just wanted to start a band,” Kroeze said.

When deciding on a name, Kroeze’s father suggested “eclectic,”to compliment the different influences the four original members each brought. Bohrer, however, thought Kroze’s father said “ecliptic.”

It wasn’t until the band’s guitar teacher suggested changing the “I” to a “Y” that the band became known as Eclyptic.

After winning the Cleveland High School Rock Off in the members’ freshman year of high school, Eclyptic was not only given the reward of opening for Moody Blues, but also the opportunity to play in a wide range of venues.

Now in their sophomore year and Kolliner’s junior year of college, the band has graced stages at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, House of Blues, Tower City Amphitheater and Blossom, where they opened for the Jonas Brothers.

“It was a bunch of girls wanting to get to the Jonas Brothers and wanting nothing to do with us,” Kroeze said.

Eclyptic will be interviewed on 88.9, The Alternation on Wednesday, Oct. 14 at 11 a.m.

Contact features correspondent Courtney Kerrigan at [email protected]