Foreign Figures, an alternative rock/indie band made up of five returned missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is seeking to build on winning the KSL Garage to Glory contest.
The band recently released its first EP or extended play, “Come Alive,” which the musicians hope will reach and inspire a large audience.
Guitarist Seth Dunshee said winning contests like the BYU Battle of the Bands, The Stereo Room Battle of the Bands and KSL’s Garage to Glory contest — which allowed them to play live on KSL-TV Ch. 5 after Super Bowl XLIX — has opened doors for the band. Garage to Glory, in particular, gave them name recognition they didn’t have before.
“The KSL competition started us off with a bang,” Dunshee said.
Foreign Figures celebrated “Come Alive” with a release concert at Velour Live Music Gallery in Provo. Songs on the six-track EP take on different feels and cultures, which the band will continue to embrace, multi-instrumentalist Jonny Tanner said.
“We’re working and striving to achieve a really diverse sound and incorporate different cultural aspects from around the world,” Tanner said. “Through different percussion choices and different synth choices, we’re able to do that.”
Tanner said the band didn’t necessarily want to have “the whole Christian rock band vibe,” but Foreign Figures still hopes to inspire.
“We’re about bringing light and positivity to this world that is so saturated with filth," he said.
Bass player Eric Espinel said the main reason the band doesn’t want to be labeled as a Christian rock band is because the band members feel they can “communicate to the mainstream music industry and be bigger examples” if they continue to grow and are able to “reach more people and be that more visible.”
“We really are passionate about the deep meaning that we have and the desires we want to achieve,” Espinel said.
Dunshee said he didn’t listen to Christian rock music and that he “typically reserved Mormon artists for Sunday.”
“As important as that music is, we want to be able to not have any limits or barriers on who we can inspire and uplift,” he said.
Before they left to serve LDS missions in Chile, Espinel and drummer Steve Michels had a classic rock band. Once they returned, they formed the band “The Hideout” with Steve’s brother Eric Michels as vocalist, and later invited Dunshee, whom they met while he was also on a mission in Chile.
Eric Michels then decided to serve a Mormon mission and left for the Ukraine. Steve Michels, Espinel and Dunshee continued to play music together but waited for Eric Michels to return.
Dunshee said Eric Michels had wanted to serve a mission, but wasn't sure when. "Being around returned missionaries all the time must have had a good effect on him," Dunshee said. "He knew how much we loved our missions, but we made sure to let him make his own decisions."
Once everyone was home, the four musicians recorded a Coldplay cover and enlisted Tanner — another missionary Steve Michels, Espinel and Dunshee knew in Chile — to produce the song.
Tanner said he added extra tracks for a fuller sound and told the band that if they wanted to capture that sound live, they would need another member. He was asked to be that fifth member.
Dunshee, who has been married almost four years, said that as the band became more serious, he couldn’t help but relate everything the band did to grow to a successful marriage.
“Really it’s the giving and taking and the compromise and having faith in each other,” he said. “We’ve had so many band discussions about issues that have blossomed in an awesome way.”
Dunshee said that most 25-year-olds would be more concerned about their own individual lives, families and career opportunities, but the band has “such a strong connection.” He added, “We are all best friends — all five of us.”
“Everyone writes their own parts and we all pitch in and collaborate together,” Tanner said. “We write together, and I think that’s the main essence of the band. Everybody is able to feed off of each other. We get some really great ideas generated in the studio.”
The name Foreign Figures, proposed by Eric Michels, was picked out of hundreds of possible band names.
Dunshee said every band member has a different interpretation and relationship with the name.
For him, the name referenced the fact that because there is always someone foreign or unfamiliar with the music, “there is always someone more that can hear it.”
For Espinel, the band’s name refers to how language is written in “foreign figures,” and so Foreign Figures is their mode of communication to the world.
“One of our underlying and big motivations … is that we want to promote positivity and unity and just give a good message to the world,” he said.
Tanner didn’t have a personal connection with the band name until after winning Brigham Young University's Battle of the Bands.
“It hit me like a ton of bricks," he said. "It just came to me and overwhelmed me that ultimately, Christ was the largest foreign figure here in this life and in this world. It was just a powerful realization for me that we as a band and each of us individually have the opportunity to emulate that in a small way.”
"Come Alive" is available for purchase at the band's website, foreignfigures.com, and for streaming on Spotify.
Email: vromney@deseretnews.com, Twitter: GinnyRomney