Student band: Tetrarch

The West Georgian

By Lauren Taylor

Staff Writer

Published: Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Updated: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 22:11

Chris Casatelli Photography

West Georgia is a university full of diverse groups of students. Some are athletes, sorority members, cheerleaders, and then there are artists. Many people at the university are unaware that they walk by many promising music artists and band members every day; one is Ryan Lerner, a senior at West Georgia and a member of the band called "Tetrarch."

Lerner is a mass communications major; however, he wants to focus more on his band when he graduates. Lerner explained, however, that it is a necessity to have a degree from a university.

"I think it is important that I have a degree just in case the band thing doesn't work out," Lerner said. "I would like to produce music in a recording studio if that became the case."

The band consists of four members. Three of the members are male and the fourth member is female. Lerner is a newer member of the band and plays the guitar; however, the band has been together since 2004. Tetrarch asked Lerner to come audition and ended up really liking his style. He played for several other bands previously but decided to audition for Tetrarch since the other band he was playing for wasn't working out.

Tetrarch, an Atlanta-based band that plays shows regularly in the region, is a metal band with a mesh of older sounds like Metallica and Iron Maiden mixed with a newer twist. Although not signed with a label yet, Tetrarch is on the right track.

On Wednesday, Nov. 3, the band played with Black Tide, an up-and-coming metal band, at the Masquerade in Atlanta. Lerner explained that playing with Black Tide was a big deal.

"Black Tide is pretty well known, which is good, because it helps create more exposure for us when we play with them," said Lerner.

Although Tetrarch is a metal band, they sound far from death metal.

"We play our music in a tasteful way, there is some screaming but we are trying to focus more on singing," said Lerner. "We want to be mainstream and be played on the radio but not sound like Nickelback. We like the sound of Disturbed -- they are heavy but not overboard."

Lerner explained that many people associate metal with Satanic-like music and that their music is far from that.

"Just because we all wear black doesn't mean we praise Satan," Lerner said. "I think wearing black is slimming anyway. Also, most people who listen to metal are just like everyone else, they just like more intense music."

Tetrarch's music has already been played three times now on the radio. They hope one day that being played on the radio will become a regular thing. The band owes much of its exposure to social media. Tetrarch utilizes Facebook and MySpace to gain contacts and to promote the band.

"Social media has really helped gain contacts for us," said Lerner. "We have more than 2,000 Facebook friends from all over. Without it we wouldn't be where we have gotten today."

Although the band is not signed, they are working toward that goal by regularly playing shows and networking through social media.

http://www.thewestgeorgian.com/go-west-brands-university-new-identity-1.1769883