Utah band Viewers Like You finds its energy in ska

By Chris McCormick

January 24, 2007 | Practicing in a their "cozy little pea soup" bedroom, I met three of the six members of the ska band Viewers Like You. My friends Amy Sullivan and Emily Hyer came with me to hang out with the band and get to know more of their lifestyle. It took a couple of minutes to get everyone situated in the small room full of drums and a bunk bed. The three members -- Devin Felix, Jeremiah Graves and Fathead Hylton -- launched in a ska version of the Christmas song God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.

The bassist was supposed to show, they said, but couldn't make it. This was the first time any had played that song together. Amy described it as a jolly/swanky rendition of the song. Afterward, we talked a bit about Jer's guitar playing and if he was using anything from the guitar class he had. Fathead brought out a bongo and the three started up on another song.

Viewers Like You, or the perquisites to it, began when they were in high school.

Devin said, "Anyone could make school band and suck." He said that they weren't really dedicated enough as a band. In the summer of 2004 while Fathead was in Minnesota, Devin and Jer spent some time playing in Jer's father's studio. It was just them messing around, but they wrote two songs.

Their drummer at the time got them a show. Viewers Like You needed 30 minutes of music to play. They "freaked out" and "quit playing Nintendo" and got down to business. The show made them a band and gave them discipline. The band promoted it themselves, made fliers and had their families come. There were 250 people at their first show.

Devin said, "When you see the crowd moving to your music, it's beautiful -- listening to the crowd sing louder than you."

Devin remembers Betsy Bennion, a girl in their school, aas the one who got him into ska. She had ska written on her shoe and he didn't know what it meant. Devin and Jer talk about her briefly, saying she may have not been "regarded" as the hottest girl in the school but to them, she was.

Her brother was in a local ska band called The Shriners. In the mid/late '90s Utah had the biggest ska scene it ever seen. It was fun, they said, going to shows by bands such as My Man Friday and local shows. Devin said, "It was the only music that I didn't feel stupid dancing to."

Jer during the practice gave us a history lesson about ska. It began in Jamaica in the late 1950s and '60s. It incorporated the backbeats more than the rock music they heard on the radio. The very first band was the Skatalittes. Jer said that the name came from the sound the upstroke made.

Ska has had three waves with the last one starting in the late '80s and early '90s. Some bands that formed the third wave are bands like No Doubt, The Aquabats and The Reel Big Fish. This is the period when ska had its greatest hits and the humor came into the genre Jer said.

I asked them what their favorite musical artist and Fathead and Devin both said prog rock. Devin described it as the "meat of my musical diet." They listed Rush, Kansas and Yes. Fathead had just got an Ipod and was transferring music from the computer to it during interview.

During a small lapse between questions, they forced me to ask them if they get chicks. The answer came before the question was finished. Not enough chicks, they say. Fathead got his wife in spite of us. "We'd probably get more chicks if we had wild after parties," Jer says.

On Dec. 1, Viewers Like You played a show in a pavilion at the Cache County Fair Grounds. Four bands played. I showed up right before the second band started, the Unmen, a local high school punk rock band. The crowd consisted of high school and middle school students with the occasional adult. A small group gathered at the front while the band played but the majority stayed in the back talking with each other.

Viewers Like You showed up halfway through the Unmen's set and I helped them set up the merchandise table. Jer had brought three Lite Brites to advertise on the table. One displayed prices; another with just the band's logo and the third said, "Viewers Like You is better than sucks." I sat behind there talking to the crowd and a couple of members of the band while the rest set up.

Viewers Like You played 10 songs to a crowd of about 30 people. The crowd danced around a lot especially the younger members of the crowd. The more energetic songs, such as The Lovey Song, Friday I'm in Love, and finished the show with Krimzon.

Devin said after the show, "We always finish with that song."

Viewers Like You would like to record their material but Jer has a perfectionist attitude that would make it difficult. They are glad for the fans and say that each time they play more people become fans.

"For three days afterward [homecoming show] people were commenting on how good we are. Even ASUSU said that they really like us because we got everyone involved." Jer said.

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