The Purple roses is a great culmination of talent and opportunity, spurred on by a love of music and good friends, this is their feature. 

While going through many cast changes throughout their lifetime of 3 years, they have settled on a crew of five, Tristan Wright, Dalton Henninger, Avery Bridges, Ryan Runquist and Jack Hayes. All of these juniors have had musical backgrounds with many playing an instrument since middle school or sooner. 

Fellow guitarist and keyboardist Ryan Runquist has had a large musical background and has been composing original pieces for the Purple Roses original catalog. This being his eventual end goal and path for the band.  ”My goal for the band is to write enough originals to record in a studio and release it and collect royalties.”-Ryan Runquist

I asked them about how the pandemic has affected their operations with Tristan Wright saying “The pandemic feels like it’s essentially a hiatus because it’s challenging to organize a safe rehearsal much less a gig.” This of course being a common theme across the world. 

Tristan also said that “the pandemic allows us to practice more individually,” and that he’s personally devoted more time to “instruments I’m not fluent in like Keyboard and guitar.”

The star bassist, Avery Bridges, made an interesting comment which highlights the stress which goes into on-stage performances. “Orchestra performances don’t faze me but performing for School of rock or Purple roses still makes me extremely anxious”

This I totally understand from being on both sides of the coin. Playing in front of an audience when you have a role which is exclusive to you, can make the fear of faltering nearly overwhelming. Orchestra performances on the other hand, seem remarkably easy in comparison. 

Being Under Pressure also makes you stronger. Dalton Henninger said that “being with the band [has] definitely improved greatly on my vocals and have grown a lot more confident in that aspect of our performances.”Under Pressure was also the Purple Roses debut song at the 2018-2019 Lubbock High School talent show, where Jack Hayes, the drummer, says his “natural ability” was first challenged by a song. 

Thus much more goes into the Purple Roses performances than just practices and performances, many hours of planning go into every aspect of their career exemplified by the current world situation. Their performances are fun and enjoyable from every perspective and I hope they can continue to play for the students and citizens of Lubbock texas.