Lusitania Rises

Through thick and thin The Lusitania are never down and out. The five members maintains its momentum as one of El Paso's most recognized bands.

Mike Duncan (guitar/vocals), who is also a UTEP english lecturer, Blake Duncan (bass), Charles Berry (drums), Will Daugherty (guitar) and Adi Kanlic (keyboards) were rattled during their last tour in November. On their way to Portland, Oregon from Boise, Idaho, their vehicle hit a patch of black ice that caused the vehicle to lose control and flip after colliding with a median.

"They're definitely very talented musicians and song writers. It was definitely saddening to hear about the accident. Thank goodness no one was seriously injured," said Cynthia Chacon, senior health promotion major. "Before you knew it, they were off playing music again. Definitely shines light on their devotion to their music and fans."

The fellas will soon finish recording their second studio album, which, as of now, remains untitled.

"I think our sound has changed a lot. It's definitely a lot more punk rock. It's definitely a lot more stripped down…not as much instrumentation," Mike Duncan said. "I think of it just as like a rock and roll album. I'm really excited about it."

As for lyrical content, the new record is going to stay away from its narrative song writing and be scripted by personal events.

"This (record) is a lot more personal for me," Mike Duncan said. "This last year, 2011, we had the wreck, I got out of a really long-term relationship…not a traumatic year but definitely eventful for us."

How the band is able to keep composure through the bad times is something they can only understand.

"It's so hard for a band to stay together because it's different individuals with different agendas," Mike Duncan said. "We've been in crazy fights…we'll have people get drunk and walk away and be like ‘fuck you guys, I'll never see you guys again' but we always persevere."

Besides internal eruptions that occur in the band, they also have faced the challenge of breaking into the scene nationally from a town like El Paso.

"You have to fight hard in this city to stay together, to make money, to get out of it because geographically it's isolated; culturally it's isolated. To get out you have to be tougher,"  Mike Duncan said. "That isolation helps you, too. You're not coming up being influenced by this big, huge scene of bands around you. If you're a little bit kind of out there by yourself, you're going to end up doing something that's a little bit different, has a little bit of its own edge that I think helped us."

This March, The Lusitania will head to Austin to perform at the South by Southwest Festival. They are also hopeful to play a few shows in April with Alkaline Trio.

They are currently working towards getting label deals with the likes of Victory Records, SideOneDummy Records and Epitaph.

Luis R. Mota, booking agent for Tricky Falls, has placed The Lusitania as a supporting act for Frank Turner's show at Tricky Falls, Feb 2.

"The Lusitania was chosen mainly for style of music, fitting it as close as possible to Frank Turner. The fans of Lusitania will likely be the fans of Frank," Mota said. "On top of Lusitania being one of the hardest working bands in El Paso, getting their own name out is a hard thing to do."

The Lusitania hopes to land more slots like this for bands such as Lucero and The Gaslight Anthem.

"If you stay at it long enough and you believe in what you do and you do the best you can, eventually those things are just going to come to you," Mike Duncan said. "You got to work but it will just come out of nowhere."

The Lusitania will be the opening act for Frank Turner at 7 p.m. Feb. 2 at Tricky Falls.

Kristopher Rivera may be reached at the prospector@utep.edu.