Colorado State Student Restarts Band: Critter

When a bunch of college kids get back together and revive a band, sometimes there might be a little fire (and ice) involved. Colorado State, student Erik Sophir is leading the charge with his band Critter.

It all started back in high school when Erik and some of his old friends Joey and Hudson started a band called Mighty Jo young. Last summer Erik and the boys wanted to start the band back up last summer, so that’s exactly what they did, not without a couple bumps in the road, however.

Gathering for practice, Critter faced nature's fury. Critter was at a bandmates house earlier this summer in Littleton, Colorado, just trying to shred some tunes on a quiet afternoon. It took the band a good while to get set up as it was one of their first practices of the summer.

Then, a daunting storm rolled over the Rocky Mountains that brought ominous clouds. The storm started to ramp up and ended up producing a tornado warning, after all the hard work of setting up the garage, they weren’t just going to pack it up! Hail pounded like an enraged percussion section, but within that chaos, their music emerged.

Erik and his bandmates practice as often as they can, with competition always improving there is no time for losing your touch. Erik had this to say about practice sessions, “Trying to build up enough material and original songs and like covers but we want a repertoire of both new songs and songs people know.”

Erik has loved playing instruments his whole life. He’s never done learning either, he says he is starting to learn the drums as well. You never know what role you may have to play any given night in the music industry, it helps to build your portfolio. His good friend and roommate said this about Erik’s commitment to music, “Erik’s been doing the whole band thing for a while and it’s cool to see that he’s sticking with it. It’s seems like a good hobby to commit to.”

From Critter's Instagram Page: critter_band

Music isn’t the only challenging thing about being in a band, Erik gets thrilled out from more than just producing the art. Here is a quote from Erik on another aspect about preforming, “Playing live music is something that is very good for making my life and the people around me lives better and gives us an outlet to be creative. Getting ourselves out there and putting ourselves in positions where you can push yourself outside of your comfort zone and presenting yourself to an audience without knowing where it is going to go”