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Interview: Room 217, Musicians

By Rachelle Bowden in Miscellaneous on Jun 8, 2005 11:34AM

Room 217

Room 217 is a local Chicago band specializing in original alternative rock music. The band recently competed in the Emergenza Battle of the Bands, making it as far as the third round.

Room 217 consists of five members. Drummer Brian Sokolowski and guitarist Frank Pirruccello originally met at an audition and were later joined by bass player Steve DiDomenico. The group played as a power trio before being joined by singer and piano player Sara Schnarr and rhythm guitarist Steve Pirruccello. Since taking the name “Room 217” in 2004, the band has played at a variety of local venues and continues to expand their song catalog.

Room 217 plays dark melodic rock with acoustic and electric elements using a driving bass and drums. Their melody-oriented sound emphasizes singing over shouting and includes hints of jazz and other genres.

Last Saturday, Chicagoist trekked to a basement in Niles to chat with the band between practice sets.

Chicagoist: What does the name “Room 217” mean and where does it come from?

Frank: It’s from the novel, “The Shining”, a Stephen King novel. Actually, in the film, it’s called room 237, but I’m more a fan of the novels. Room 217, it’s actually one of the haunted rooms in the hotel, in which a dead woman rises from the tub and goes after a little kid staying in the hotel.

Sara: So what that means to us, as far as the band? We like to think of it as the mysterious room, like you don’t know what’s in there, where it came from, something different, something mysterious.

Frank: We’re not exactly trying to represent Stephen King. We thought the name sounded cool.

Chicagoist: How long has the band been playing together? What brought you together?

Brian: Frank and I have been playing for about ten years, him and I. Steve, you, me and Frank for about four years.

Steve D.: Yeah.

Frank: On and off basically.

Steve D.: Yeah. Brian, Frank and I played a couple of years ago for a few months.

Frank: We started as a power trio about two years ago.

Brian: We’ve known Sara for a couple of years now.

Frank: Me and Brian found Sara at a party where there was an open jam session and Sara didn’t have a microphone so she was standing behind Brian’s drum kit trying to project into his ear that she could sing.

(Laughter)

Sara: That’s exactly what happened.

Frank: And I showed her where the keg of beer was.

Sara: Yeah, that’s how I met Frank.

Frank: That’s where I came in.

Sara: Yeah, that was cool.

Chicagoist: Where have you been playing?

Brian: The last show was at the Double Door. There were two shows before that, the Note in Bucktown. Before that, we played the Bottom Lounge, then we were at the Bird’s Nest.

Sara: We’re trying to focus on downtown to get good exposure.

Frank: It seems like the suburb bar syndicate is mostly interested in cover bands and things of that nature, and we don’t do any covers and don’t intend to because we do mostly original stuff. We may do a cover down the road sometime after we have already established ourselves as an original band and do it our own way perhaps. So we stay downtown where original bands are more accepted.

Chicagoist: How many songs do you have in your catalog?

Brian: Total?

Sara: Hmm. This band, since the name “Room 217” came around, there’s gotta be at least twenty, though there are some we don’t play that much.

Frank: The catalog could easily reach twenty.

Chicagoist: How many of those songs do you typically have time to play in a set?

Frank: Eight to ten.

Sara: For an hour long set, it’ll be about ten songs.

Chicagoist: How often do you come out with new songs?

Frank: I write a new song about every other day, but most of them get tossed. I usually have a new one for rehearsals.

Sara: We usually have a new song every show. We’ve had consistently one new show every show.

Brian: We don’t want to bore our audience.

Chicagoist: What’s the new song you’ll be debuting next?

Sara: Brand new song? If we get it ready in time would be…

Frank: “Blue Shmock”.

Sara: Yeah, we haven’t done that one. Or actually we’ll have two.

Frank: We’ll probably have two brand new songs.

Sara: We don’t have a name for both of them.

Frank: “Blue Shmock” and “I Know” let’s say for right now, though that name may change and it most likely will.

~

Visit the band's site at http://www.rm217.com/ and read more about the group, find upcoming shows, and download a few songs in MP3 format. Also, be on the lookout for the band's next show and catch their new tunes “Blue Shmock” and “I Know”.

Thanks, Chris!