By Trina Rahman The Gamecock
The process of moving on after the death of a friend or family member can take an overwhelming amount of effort, incomprehensible to those who have never had to deal with the death of a loved one.
The members of the local band Pawnshop have not only had to endure such a loss during the past year, but they have had to regroup and reorganize their artistic focus following the death of their lead singer, Ryan Beville.
The band is gearing up for a live show Friday at the New Brookland Tavern with longtime friends Hot Lava Monster and Tinker's Punishment. The founding members of Pawnshop - Brad Owen on guitar, David Dixon on drums and Eric Dixon on guitar - met while attending Lugoff-Elgin High School. Bassist Ryan Webber and vocalist Brent Wells have since joined the group. Their latest release, "Buy, Sell, Trade," came out this year.
Beville, who served as the band's singer and lyricist, worked on the EP's first track "Stories" with the other members.
"The song 'Stories' was written by Pawnshop a few months before Ryan Beville passed away. The rest of the songs we worked on as a new band," Webber said.
Today, the songwriting process is clearly a group effort: "A member will present an idea to the band, and they will either work on it or throw it in the trash. If we decide to work on it, then we put a collective effort to the song as a whole band," Owen said.
The idea to actually perform with a new lineup came together a few months ago, and the band hopes to continue to play as much as possible. They performed an average of about 40 shows a year, having played around the Southeast in the past, but they plan to expand their touring as far west as Texas and as far north as New York in the coming months.
Pawnshop released its latest EP, in part, to generate interest in the newly reformed band, hoping to attract more fans to upcoming shows.
"We just wanted to get something out there with the new lineup so people could get a feel for what direction we are going in. It just wasn't possible to write a whole CD given the time frame. We plan on releasing a full-length CD by the summer of 2004," Wells said.
The group's music has been previously described by the Free Times as influenced by Eve 6, Silverchair, Radish and Nirvana.
Webber and David Dixon said Pawnshop is also influenced by such bands as 311 and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Webber summed things up by saying, "We have many influences and try to incorporate many aspects of those influences into our music."
Hot Lava Monster - a band whose members are very close to the guys in Pawnshop - will be opening Friday's show along with Tinker's Punishment. The two bands first met each other when Hot Lava Monster beat Pawnshop in the Elbow Room Battle of the Bands.
"I think the reason we get along so well is because we are both professional and feel strongly about what we do," David Dixon said. "They are all great at polishing our guitars before each show."
The band's Web site, www.pawnshopmusic.com , now greets visitors with soothing scenes from Hawaii. This is a new layout for the site, said Webber, who has been doing a lot of work on the site in preparation for the group's first show with a new lineup.
Although the original logo can still be found, this revamping of the Web site serves as a testament to Pawnshop's continued growth as well as its exploration of new musical territory. This is a local band who refuses to quit - the group has even developed a "street team" to put up fliers for upcoming shows.
Although they have been faced with hardship, the boys are trying to make the best of their situation and move on as a band. Their upcoming show marks a milestone in that process. As David Dixon says on the group's Web site, "We are looking to the future to create something new with our music while never forgetting who we are and where we came from."
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