Story originally printed in the Holmen Courier or online at www.holmencourier.com

Published - Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Zetus Deamos to kick off rocking summer with local show

The members of Zetus Deamos -- from left, Erik Williams, Mike Ganrude, Zac Barbieur and Jake Barbieur -- pose for a picture at First Avenue, one of the club's they've performed at in the Twin Cities. Contributed photo

By RANDY ERICKSON | Editor

Pity the band that must go head-to-head in musical battle against Zetus Deamos. The hard rocking quartet played its first live gig at the 2005 Oktoberfest Gong Show in La Crosse and won with an original song, just a month after forming. Six months later, the band won the regional Launchpad competition, and then a year ago they triumphed in a local battle of the bands to open a concert at the La Crosse Center headlined by Buckcherry.

“When we played that, we were like, ‘Man, this is what we’ve got to be doing,’” guitarist Mike Ganrude said of the La Crosse Center show.

That Buckcherry gig was a big, fat, steel-toed boot wedged in the door of the music business. In the past year, Zetus Deamos has played shows in Madison, Milwaukee and Minneapolis, opening for touring recording artists the likes of Billy Idol, Hellyeah, Chevelle, Airbourne, Endeverafter, Black Label Society and LA Guns, just to name some of the more widely known bands.

At this point, though, the band’s biggest battle is geography and time. Guitarist and lead singer Erik Williams is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Bassist Jake Barbieur is going to college in Milwaukee. Ganrude is set to graduate from La Crescent High School with plans to study sound recording in the Twin Cities, and drummer Zac Barbieur still has a year to go at West Salem High School, which is where older brother Jake and Williams both went to high school.

“It’s been a struggle, not being in the same place,” Williams said.

This summer, though, they’ve already got a string of shows booked across Wisconsin and Minnesota, kicking it off with an early, all-ages show Friday, May 23, at the Coalition Skatepark in downtown La Crosse.

“It sounds like it’s going to be a cool show,” Williams said. “The thing I’m looking forward to is it’s all ages. It’ll be really cool to play a show where people we went to school with can actually come and watch us.”

The band came together back in 2005 by a strange stroke of fortune: everybody had a parent working at the same car dealership in West Salem, Valley View Ford. Williams and the Barbieur brothers had been playing with another singer for about six months, but that had fallen by the wayside.

Ganrude’s father mentioned that his son had a few years of guitar playing under his belt. After one jam session, a band was born.

When Zetus Deamos started, Williams thought he’d be the lead guitarist and have the new recruit do the singing. But then Ganrude turned out to have some phenomenal guitar skills — think Eddie Van Halen Jr. with a splash of AC/DC’s Angus Young — so Williams became the reluctant front man.

The name’s origin is a well-guarded secret, suggested by Zac very early on. Zetus Deamos has nothing to do with demons, Williams said, and it stemmed from some words in English that were misunderstood.

One thing all four band members had in common was a love of head-banging music, mostly from the 1980s. They all loved AC/DC, Aerosmith, Guns and Roses, Van Halen, Stone Temple Pilots, Metallica and Alice in Chains.

Those influences are evident in the band’s original music, which features thundrous yet intricate and melodic guitar interplay between Ganrude and Williams, the kind of tight, propulsive rhythm section born of brotherhood and Williams’ powerful growling vocals, reminiscent of Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver and his idol, Layne Staley of Alice in Chains.

From the beginning, the band has put an emphasis on creating original music — the band has about an hour and 40 minutes worth of original material. They didn’t even work up any cover songs until they started booking some headlining shows. Williams said they were very selective in picking the covers they do play.

“We try to do covers that are really good songs but you don’t hear on the radio anymore,” Williams said.

Last year, Zetus Deamos took some of its original songs to Natural Recording in La Crosse and put together its first full-length CD, “With a Vengeance.” They’ve sold an estimated 400 copies of the CD between selling them at shows and sales on the band’s Web site.

In addition to fitting in some more live shows over the summer, the band also plans to write a lot more songs. That usually involves the group getting together and hashing out a basic verse and chorus, most often based on some of Ganrude’s riffs. Then Williams will take the music and set some words to it.

“I just try to keep it positive,” he said.

It would be nice, Williams said, if the next CD could have the backing of a record label, with all the distribution advantages that entails. But he’s realistic about that battle.

“There’s a lot of really, really good bands who aren’t signed,” Williams said. “Part of it is you have to know somebody.”

With all the opening slots the band has played, they are making connections. Ganrude’s older brother, Kyle, has helped out a lot by managing the band for the past year, starting his own management company that recently was merged with another company, giving the firm a couple dozen bands on the roster.

All the guys in Zetus Deamos are pursuing post-high school studies — “something to fall back on” — but they’d like nothing better than to make a living making music.

“I guess we’ll go as far as we can,” Williams said, “just keep playing as long as it’s fun.”

“We want to make it big if we can,” Ganrude said. “We want to keep doing this as long as we can. I just love playing guitar and being with these guys.”

Contact Randy Erickson at randy.erickson@lee.net or 786-6812.

AT A GLANCE