Kweku Collins, 2015 graduate, made it big and so did Manwolves, 2016 graduates. Now, The Marquees seem to be emerging as the next popular band.

The members of The Marquees; Niko Kapetan, Jackson Hamrick, Luke Stamos, George Krupkin and Aidan Dillon, all met at Willard Elementary School and played together in various groups for years. It was not until high school that they officially formed The Marquees.

It started when Kapetan, 2018 graduate, lead vocalist, pianist and guitarist, was applying to study music production in college and utilized Hamrick’s song writing expertise to help him create an original music piece he needed to submit, thus forming The Marquees.

ETHS has encouraged and offered resources for The Marquees.

“I have learned a lot from jazz ensemble. Playing in a big group is fun,” Hamrick says.
With Kapetan as the lead vocalist, Hamrick and Stamos on guitar, Dillon on bass and Krupkin on drums, The Marquees have all the pieces for success.

While band is made up of close friends, that does not mean there is not trouble in paradise.

“Sometimes we have disagreements about what should happen in a song, but it is always constructive and that’s part of being in a band,” Hamrick says. “That being said, everyone has tons of freedom to do our own thing within the songs and to get creative, everyone has an equal say and everyone’s input is respected.”

Since the band formed this past May, they have performed at 210 Live in Highwood (a bar in Chicago in addition to local house shows).

“The community of musicians in Evanston are all super supportive of one another,” Jackson says. “We didn’t think anyone would come, but 100 people showed up, and we raised over $300 for the ACLU.”

The Marquees have shifted their focus from performing to recording their music with Scott Tallarida, a co-owner of Trigger Chicago, an events space that caters to musicians and artists. They plan on having some house shows over winter break, as well as releasing an album by next summer.

Their music can be found on Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp via the link on their Instagram @themarqueesband. The Marquees should be on everyone’s radar, hopefully in the coming years we will see them performing at Lollapalooza.