Graphic: Tv with flowers Kenzie Todd/The Olaf Messenger
“We’re like The Beatles,” Sean Rogers ’24 said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger. “It’s just like a really fun study break to practice for two hours and make music.” The self-proclaimed “Beatles” in question is Roofalanche, a campus band that Rogers takes part in. The band’s name derives from their origins — Holden Village.
Alongside Rogers, Carter Schafer ’24, Matt Kompelien ’24, and Ryan Meany ’23 took part in an Interim study away program to Holden Village for a theology class. The term ‘roofalanche’ is a word coined by residents of Holden Village as the remote mountain village collects dozens of inches of snow. “It gets on the roofs and when it gets too much of it, it will slide off in a mini avalanche,” Rogers said. “They would have walkways that were marked off as like a ‘roofalanche’ zone where you couldn’t walk because they knew it was going to fall at any time and it eroded the village at one point.” The quartet decided the word wasn’t only synonymous with Holden Village, but their band as well.
Here in the Cascade Mountains of Washington with no internet connection or cell signal, the four resorted to making music together to pass the time. The group performed a parody version of “Wonderwall” by Oasis at an Open Mic Night with lyrics specific to Holden Village, and the town became the birthing place of the group’s infamous song, “Evening in Missoula.”
The song title draws inspiration from a tea wall at Holden with various selections of tea, one of which was Evening in Missoula. “[Ryan Meany] was like, ‘If I ever write a song or something, we’ve gotta write ‘evening in missoula,’” Rogers said. Upon coming back to campus, the band continued to create music together, and shared the polished version of their first original song at an Open Mic Night on campus. It was here that they met their drummer, Hahns Huebsch ’24. “Hahns was a great asset to add to the band because he’s like an awesome songwriter and a multi-instrumentalist,” Rogers said.
Huebsch wasn’t the only new addition either. “Ryan Meany graduated, so we needed a new bassist with long hair, a beard, good vibes, and Nolan spawned,” Rogers said. Nolan Dowling ’24 is the newest addition to Roofalanche, and has rehearsed with the group a couple of times.
Since their inception in January 2022, Roofalanche has performed at Open Mic Night, Here for the Hill, Tiny Desk Concert, the Contented Cow, and opened for MIDWXST for the Fall Concert. At their performances, the members play a form of musical chairs with their instruments. “It’s a fun thing to do at the shows we’ve done to have Carter go from piano to guitar to banjo and Hahns from drums to lead guitar,” Rogers said. The switching of instruments matches their genre variations — they don’t stick to one.
“What’s fun about Roofalanche, one of the many things, is that we can kind of experiment with many different genres as we go. We’ve had some funky stuff, some pop, a couple of originals, and we’ve done like ‘Wagon Wheel’ and blue-grassy tunes,” Schafer said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger. For the group, Roofalanche is an outlet for relaxed, fun creativity. “It can be less commitment than Ole Band or something like that, and I get to do it with friends, and it’s such a blast,” Schafer said.
“You get to have your creative input directly go into the product which is kind of cool,” Huebsch said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger. When asked how they balance the band and being a full-time student, they agreed that there are difficulties with time management. “In our free time, we’ve been trying to allocate more time to writing,” said Rogers. “The college schedule is not really conducive to writing music.”
With courtesy of the Pause, the group practices for two hours every Sunday to polish covers and work on songwriting. The Pause provides rehearsal slots for student musicians to rehearse with an assigned Pause technician and materials are provided. “If anyone else is interested in joining a band, you should talk to the Pause,” Rogers said.
Roofalanche has been working on original songs such as “Ain’t Too Hard” written by Schafer and “I Wanted Lemonade But You Ordered Water So I Ordered Water Too And Now I’m Sad” by Meany. The group expectes to perform more songs this year, and hope to perform at The Contented Cow this fall. As for the release of “Evening in Missoula,” as stated in their Instagram, the song will be released as soon as they are able to record the drums.
Their performances have been memorable for not just the group, but the audience and friends as well. “Here for the Hill was a sit-down event, and I think we were the closers,” said Huebsch. “We pulled out “Holiday” by Green Day as our last song and everybody got out of their seats and were at the stage jumping.” Roofalanche’s Tiny Desk Concert performance in Spring 2023 brought in an entirely full house to the point where the Pause deemed it a fire hazard. The group may not be Norseman Band or the St. Olaf Band, but Roofalanche is “the” band to see on campus.
Kenzie Nguyen is a junior English major with a concentration in International Relations from Brooklyn Park, Minn.. When not in the office, Kenzie enjoys walking around town, exploring Content Bookstore, watching reality tv and movies, and chatting with her friends. She dreams about owning her own little breakfast and coffee nook. In the future, Kenzie hopes to be a news and politics reporter.