In January, a group of coworkers came together to help one of them with a class assignment. Approximately eight months later, that class assignment became Feline Frenzy, the five-person rock fusion group owning the stage at The Union, located at 18 W. Union St., and on the rise in the Athens band scene.
Nathan Napoli, a fifth-year student studying music production and recording industry, or MPRI, Gretchen Sahr, a junior studying sociology and philosophy, and Jordan Tabasky, a junior studying music therapy, all met working together at Latitude 39 and bonded over mutual musicianship.
One day, Napoli asked his two coworkers if they would help him with a music production assignment featuring Sahr on bass, Tabasky on guitar and another friend, Austin Lim, filling in on the drums.
“We ended up getting talking, Austin and I, and we were like, ‘We could start a band, we just need to find a legitimate drummer’ and then somebody put us in contact with Mr. O’Korn,” Napoli, the current singer, said.
Dominic O’Korn, a sixth-year student studying music education, joined the group on drums and Lim, a senior studying MPRI, transitioned to his current role as rhythm guitarist. With those additions, Feline Frenzy had entered its final iteration and the group began discovering its style.
“I’m still figuring out my style for sure, because I haven’t been playing that long,” Tabasky said.
The band members, who doubled as coworkers, found themselves subconsciously creating their first setlists by listening to music together on shift. The three were able to discover sounds they all enjoyed and found their individual, yet complementary styles.
“You guys (Tabasky and O’Korn) use a very ‘70s (sound) and you (Napoli) have a more hard rock (sound), and it meshes together in the perfect way,” Sahr said.
Napoli cites nu-metal and punk rock legends like Linkin Park and Green Day as his primary influences, while Tabasky finds herself inspired by Nancy Wilson of Heart, one of many female-fronted groups she hopes to emulate.
“I’m as at home in jazz as I am playing this stuff, my record collection is just all over the place,” O’Korn said. “But as for this project, Dave Grohl from … his Nirvana days and Jeff Porcaro from Toto … are a huge influence.”
As a cover band, Feline Frenzy has a special relationship with its influences, getting to add its own spin directly to the work of its inspirations. Performing covers also creates a special energy between the group and its audience.
“Being a cover band you can tie in people from all over … it’s awesome because they are there with us, we … share it (the music) with them more than show them,” Sahr said.
The band first noticed this special relationship with the audience during their first gig: Palmer Place Fest.
“When we had a whole crowd chanting, ‘One more song,’ I’ve never performed in front of a crowd like that,” O’Korn said. “I was in the (Marching) 110, I’ve gotten to perform in Peden Stadium, but (there’s an) intensity of a crowd right in your face.”
Aside from the group’s appearance at Palmer Place Fest, Feline Frenzy has only performed one other time, at The Union Sept. 19. Despite it only being its second show, the group felt the same support it felt at its first gig, in large part due to its friends.
“Our friends were working the same jobs we were, not making a … lot of money and they were like, ‘Yeah, I’ll pay $10 to go see you’ … and having them there helped draw the other crowd,” Napoli said.
Along with their many favorite aspects of playing together, the group faces difficulties in balancing the schedules of five members, as well as finding the right balance in their setlist with the presence of such varying musical tastes. Additionally, Sahr finds the promotional aspect of running social media accounts to be a challenge.
“There is something to be said as somebody who wants to be a professional musician and this duality of wanting to put stuff out there in the world but also having to live every moment of your life under a microscope on social media,” O’Korn said.
The future of Feline Frenzy includes a few tentative returns to The Union but is largely still in the works. The musicians have found a home in the collaboration between themselves and their audience, a combination that will allow them to continue internalizing the inspiration of their influences and their fans in their own work.
