There are tons of young bands out there, and they are all claiming to be the next big thing. However, the only thing they have in common is that they all stink. Every once in a while rumors spread that a friend’s neighbor’s band hit it big, only to hear some noise that belongs at a high school talent show. Well, it’s time to break the mold. The up and coming band The Stellar Life is the real deal — and definitely not your average cousin’s friend’s roommate’s band.

Like many good stories, this one starts on YouTube. Tyler Pennington, the 19-year-old lead singer from Delaware was watching a video when he saw the word “stellar” used on one of the comments.

At this point, he had gone through “a mad amount of names, but they were all dumb and poppy,” he said. “But no one uses the word stellar, and I was like ‘I’m broke as fuck, but I want to live the stellar life.’” So that is when he decided on the name The Stellar Life, which Pennington says is “basically our motto.” Then, along came Dave.

Dave Kriegisch, 19, is a guitarist from New Jersey. At the time of Pennington’s stellar revelation, Kriegisch was in a band in Seattle that ended up not working out.

“My manager wound up putting me back in Delaware,” he said.

That is when Pennington needed band members, and Kriegisch needed a band. Richard Reines, The Stellar Life’s manager, then got Tom, Andy, and Billy on board. Tom Falcone, a 23 year old from Buffalo, had been on tour since he was 16. He was the drummer for a small band (that you may have heard of) called Cute is What we Aim For.

When Andy Genet, 22, was approached to play guitar for The Stellar Life, the band was also in need of a bassist. He was already in an Akron band but knew of Billy Pierce, a bassist from another local band.

“I knew that Billy was perfect for the style we were doing,” Genet said. “We got together and everything just clicked. We all instantly got along.”

At five months old, The Stellar Life is still an infant, but it is evident that the band has chemistry and works extremely well together.

“We’re currently independent artists,” Kriegisch said. Right now, the band is writing and practicing to record in the studio. They are shooting their first music video in a few weeks, which is when their first song “F****d Up” will be released. Then, The Stellar Life plans to go on tour although the exact details of that are still being worked out.

The Stellar Life explains its style as a mixture of old classic rock and pop punk. Influences range from metal to pop to jazz to country — basically, anything. Other bands that have individually inspired band members are Say Anything, Lamb of God and the All American Rejects.

“You can hear a mix between New Found Glory and some pop influences like Blink 182, but I hate to say we’re like anyone else,” Kriegisch said. “We have our own genre.”

The band members agreed that they don’t write for anyone but themselves. “We write based on what we’re feeling,” Pennington said. He said the songs right now are about “rebellious rebellion.”

“They’re not about love, not the cliché love songs. It’s about growing up really and the things that I’m going through,” he said. “But definitely not love,” he adds. It’s been made clear that there’s no love going on, but there’s at least some drinking and hooking up. Who can’t relate to that?

The three best words to describe The Stellar Life are “livin’ it up,” and that is evident in the band’s music. Though the audience is generally directed towards a more mature college-aged crowd, anyone will be able to the band’s product because of the energy the members put into it.

There is one thing for the public to know about The Stellar Life — they are not rich boys.

“We are a hard working American blue collar band,” Pierce said. “We care about it. We just want to have a good time,” Falcone adds. “Writing music and playing music is what we love.”

Contact Natalie Moses at [email protected].