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March 08, 2005
It’s no small wonder this band is popular on campus
The country is loaded with musical hot spots, with numerous bands coming from places such New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle - just to name a few. Minot, ND, may not be ready to join the above A-list: It’s a town a short drive south from Canada, less than 40,000 people and shrinking. But it has its own small claim to make, as the original home of local act nosmallwonder.
Featuring Hamline senior David Mau and MCTC student Eric Stuberg, this acoustic duo has come a long way in a short time. The two each lived in Minot during their early years, though Stuberg began moving around in 1990 and eventually landed in Florida. After Mau’s first year at Hamline, he returned to Minot for the summer. Fate would have it that he and Stuberg would join together again, eventually forming a band called Slim to None.
The next year, however, a move to their new home in Minneapolis would spell disaster for the band, leading Mau to branch out and start a new project, No Small Wonder. Eventually this project would reunite Mau and Stuberg as an acoustic duo that dropped all confusing spaces and capital letters from their name. Thus, nosmallwonder was born.
A self-described emo-acoustic act, nosmallwonder focuses on the beauty of the guitar and the voice for their sound. They turn strongly toward their faith and beliefs as a source of guidance and motivation for their sound. But while some Christian artists seem compelled to convert everyone who listens to them, often coming off more confrontational and elitist than motivational, nosmallwonder avoids this pitfall. Their songs focus on their relationships with others and their own feelings towards the world and their beliefs, broadening their appeal beyond the congregations.
The band does its best to keep the focus on the music and their performance and has developed a fairly devoted fan base in the process. Whenever possible, they avoid charging for their shows, a strong appeal for the younger audience. They have recently played shows and festivals all over the Twin Cities and the surrounding areas, reaching out into Wisconsin and North Dakota and returning regularly to the Dunn Bros. Depot location in downtown Minneapolis.
Mau had this to say about the band’s purpose: “Our only hope with the band isn’t necessarily to get signed or reach a level of stardom, but to keep doing it as long as we can and have our songs reach out to our friends and say some positive things about life, love, and faith.”
Abandoning traditional recording processes, the band wrote and recorded their first CD, brokennearsperfection, from the comfort (or discomfort) of their Minneapolis apartment, in a mattress-enclosed makeshift studio. The 12-track release attempts to capture the emotion and energy of the live show. It can be found at area record stores, at nosmallwonder shows, or ordered directly from the bands website. The decision to avoid studios followed the band’s dissatisfaction with the results of their first studio experiment. With this independence came a level of flexibility that allowed the band to continuously fine-tune the CD.
More information on nosmallwonder, including booking and purchasing, as well as upcoming shows and Gibson’s bio, can be found on the band’s website, www.nosmallwonder.com.
Posted by msveum at March 8, 2005 04:51 PM
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