When you're walking through Fort Sanders, on any given night, and you come across a house that sounds like a music festival of rock 'n' roll, funk, jazz and folk, you may be hearing the band practice of the local group, softer, louder. Todd Bond, 22, Taylor Zachry, 22, Ben Malone, 22 and Jackson Sibley, 19, are all students of UT, and they are bringing their "melting pot of music" to the World Grotto at 9:30 Saturday night.

I sat down with the guys in a small bedroom lit by a black light, amongst a lava lamp, incense and a slew of musicians' posters, to find out what it's like to be a student band member and what sets them apart from the rest.

Q: How long have you been playing together? How did you guys come up with the band name softer, louder?

A: Malone: We've only been playing together since September; so not even five months yet. Taylor came up with the name. Softer, louder pretty much describes what our music's about.

Zachry: Softer, louder just sums up the dynamics of our sound. All of us bring something different to the table. We each have our own tastes in music, and you can hear it in what each one of us adds. We cover a wide range of music, whether it's country and folk, rock, blues-anything.

Q: Obviously your own tastes in music effects what you play. If you could only listen to one artist or band for the rest of your life, who would it be?

A: Bond: Pearl Jam

Sibley: Umphrey's McGee

Malone: Vince Guaraldi Trio

Zachry: The Beatles

Q: I can't imagine having to balance work, school and band practice. How do you do it?

A: Zachry: I have a job, but I only work about 15 hours a week. And, I'm a senior so I kind of have the school routine down. Basically all my free time goes to the band.

Q: On that note, I'm sure all the ladies want to know how you guys balance a girlfriend into that schedule? Are you all single then?

A: Bond: We're all single except for Ben. So we hope to see the lady friends at our show.

Q: Did you ever plan to be playing at venues in Knoxville? What is your ultimate goal now as a band?

A: Zachry: Really we want to graduate and be able to support ourselves by playing music. I don't know if we'll make it on a grand scale, but I'd love to be able to travel around the Southeast, and play in different cities.

Bond: Playing in Knoxville was our primary goal, but our ultimate goal is to be able to make a living doing what we love.

Q: Why are you different from other local bands?

A: Sibley: We appeal to the masses. You can't blow your mind for five dollars any other way besides listening to our music.

Zachry: Our sound is unique. We're able to draw people in from both ends of the spectrum. We like to do the jam band thing, so we're very instrumental, but we know people like lyrics, too, so we incorporate that some too. We all bring styles of popular artists, and other artists not many people have heard about.

Bond: Definitely. We all have our own sound, and it's always worked together. That's what I love about our band. We never had to force it, or always work on fixing what was wrong. As soon as we got together we all just started to jam, and it worked. We've been jammin' ever since.

Q: Now's your chance to tell everyone why they should come see you at the World Grotto this weekend. What's your best shot?

A: Zachry: We've not even been playing together for long, but the whole time we've been waiting for our chance. This is our debut show, and it's that chance. We're more prepared than ever; we're excited...the feeling is going to be contagious.

Bond: The biggest thing for us is to be supported by our friends and family. The support from everyone thus far has been incredible, and we are so blessed.

Malone: It's powerful. Everyone will find some thing about our music that they like.

Sibley: Support our troops.