The Composure keeps things under control

The Composure

Oct. 24

6:30 p.m.

Diesel Club Lounge

412-431-8800

The Composure has… The Composure

Oct. 24

6:30 p.m.

Diesel Club Lounge

412-431-8800

The Composure has neither a solid record deal nor a fancy practice space. What it does have is a Pitt student, a kick-*ss, universally themed single and a hope and a prayer.

“Stop Now Start Again” is the first single from the Composure. “[It] was one of the first songs that, once the band was solidified, we did,” founder Paul Menotiades said. “It’s been hanging in there for a while.”

“A while” is almost three years in the making. Menotiades and former band member Jesse Hall co-founded the band in 2006. Bassist Andy Marks and drummer Cory Muro were added in 2007. After Hall left in 2009, the band needed a new guitarist/vocalist. It needed a Pitt student.

The Composure didn’t have to scour the Oakland campus looking for a Pitt student that could sing, play guitar and add to the band’s DNA. Matt Fuchs, the newest member of The Composure, and Menotiades have known each other since high school and have played and toured together before. Fuchs is a junior at Pitt studying accounting and economics.

Fuchs has big plans for The Composure. Whether the band gets immediately picked up by a label or does not is the least of his worries.

“For years, bands have done it D.I.Y,” he said, meaning the bands have self-published albums. “[Other bands] have pressed their own records and sold them at shows. That’s definitely on the table for us.”

Another idea on the agenda for The Composure is change, particularly in the way people listen to music and watch concerts.

“There was a time when everyone went to shows, and every show was awesome,” Muro said. “It would be awesome if it were that way again.

“It used to be that you could go out to a show, and that would be a good night,” Fuchs added.

In a day and age when a good time consists of — for many college students — just alcohol and a house party, The Composure wants to bring back the joy of concert-going.

“Hopefully we can be a part of that movement,” Fuchs said.

Menotiades hopes that other bands will join in the fight as well. He thinks The Composure is doing its part to bring everyone back into the movement of having a good time.

“We’re playing shows and staying busy and recording and writing new music that we think is our own. Hopefully, [other bands] do that as well,” Menotiades said.

As far as other bands are concerned, The Composure has had its fair share of comparisons.

“We’ve been compared to Weezer, Taking Back Sunday, Good Charlotte and Green Day,” Fuchs said, emphasizing that The Composure doesn’t try to sound like anything but itself. “People that listen to you automatically put a label on you. It’s hard to get out of the stigma of being a [pop-sounding] band without people thinking you’re watered down.”

Menotiades compares the band’s sound to music from the 1950s as if it were the present day. The band tries to maintain a fun and positive sound while incorporating influences from the past.

“I really like the fact that our music is intricate. Our songs just happen,” Fuchs said.

He compared this intricacy to one of the greatest bands of all time.

“The Beatles did it best. Their music is really simple, but they make it their own,” he added.

Menotiades prizes The Beatle’s lasting quality and hopes that The Composure can come away with some of that timelessness. He hopes that “people can listen to [the album] all the way through without skipping songs.”

The Composure stays busy touring nationwide and practicing every chance it has in Menotiades’s basement.

“We love what we do, and if we could make it our full-time jobs, that would be the coolest thing,” Menotiades said.

The Composure will perform in Pittsburgh’s South Side at Diesel Club Lounge on Oct. 24.

“It’s Gene the Werewolf’s CD release. They’re awesome. If you come to the show, you get the CD for free,” Muro said.

For this show, advertisements list The Composure as a special guest, but Fuch’s dream is to one day sell out Madison Square Garden.

“Hopefully that comes from people checking us out and listening and enjoying [our music],” he said. “And hopefully when we get big, there’s not another The Composure.”