The members of Bury the Moon have gone through middle school, high school and college together, developing their friendship as they work to create music.

The Corvallis based band consists of Brian Blythe on vocals and percussion, Caelin Alba on bass, Nevan Doyle on guitar, Josh Bowman on guitar and Jorge “Tito” Bañuelos on piano.

Bury the Moon identifies themselves as the alternative/indie genre, with inspiration from band such as The Black Keys and The American Dollar.

Each member pulls from different influences both internal and external to blend their personal style into their songs.

Bowman brings heavy rock, Alba brings funk and jazz influences on the bass and Bañuelos works to create atmosphere on the piano.

According to the group, their process of songwriting is very collaborative. There are no steadfast roles in the process of music making.

“We don’t have a single songwriter that writes all the chord progressions or a single person that writes all the lyrics for our songs,” Blythe said. “There’s not a hierarchy to the way that things are done.”

Four of the group’s five members; Blythe, Alba, Doyle and Bañuelos met when they were in middle school in Philomath. After their friendship developed, the tight-knit group of friends started “jamming” together. and growing as musicians.

In their sophomore year of high school, the group decided to debut as Bury the Moon. The first performance they held was for a benefit concert at Imagine Coffee.

After watching the group perform, Josh Bowman, a year ahead of the others in school, was impressed and asked if the group would be interested in having another musician come aboard.

The band responded enthusiastically and encouraged him to attend one of their practices.

For Bowman, getting to his first practice with the band was more of a challenge than finding his place among the other members.

After getting stuck in the snow on the way to the band first practice, he carried his guitar and amp up the long, ice-packed driveway of Blythe’s house.

According to Alba, Bowman immediately found his place among the rest of the band members.

“I remember thinking ‘Wow, this sounds really good.’ Sometimes it takes a while to click with someone and get used to somebody else’s style of playing, but (Bowman) just integrated right in,” Alba said.  

After high school, Alba left Corvallis to attend Portland State University for his freshamn year of college.

During his absence, the rest of the band brought Jayden Italia and her vocals into the mix. The next year, when Alba decided to return home, he was able to reclaim his place in the band.

Bury the Moon released their first EP, “River & Rain” in November 2015.

“There’s been a lot of development as a group since that EP,” Alba said.

“River & Rain” includes some older songs and the bass and vocals of their short-term member, Italia.

“If you listen to the EP we just put out, a lot of the songs that are on there are about that period in our life right after high school,” Blythe said. “Trying to figure out where we are in the world and what we’re doing next… I think that that’s reflected in the maturity of the music.”

Right now, Bury the Moon is working to develop enough songs to release a full-length album. They also hope to continue cultivating support by performing in Corvallis and surrounding cities.

According to the members, the band has thrived on their long-lasting friendship and their willingness to embrace change and evolution.

“We’re excited to make this full-length album because we’re still building and we’re still creating,” Bañuelos said. “We’ve been together for so long and watching each other grow in music…it’s been awesome. So it’s definitely helped us develop our sound and create what we love.”

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