Editor’s note: This is the third installment of The Penn’s Arts on Campus column.
This week’s artist highlight is musical duo Battery Acid Boyz.
Battery Acid Boyz is a student band made up of Summer MacPherson and Marie Smith.
The duo has been making music together since last year, and has a few demos and covers out on YouTube and SoundCloud.
The members have been friends since their freshman year at IUP, and each of them have long personal histories with music.
“When I was four, I told my mom I wanted to learn how to play the harp and she said ‘no, but you can play the piano.’ so I took piano lessons for years and years,” said Smith (junior, criminology pre-law) the groups vocalist,“I like to do music, I play a lot of instruments, but I didn’t know anything about drums.”
The group’s musical background dates all the way back to their early childhood.
“Music is my main passion, I’ve been playing drums since I was five,” said MacPherson (junior, communications media production) the group’s percussionist, “I love drums, but you can’t really get anywhere with just a drummer.”
Both members of the group had a passion for music but were missing a component to making the music the way they had hoped to, and they found that in each other.
“We were like, ‘we’re friends who both want to make more music with people, wait a minute….’” said Smith.
Now, a year later the duo goes by the name Battery Acid Boyz. The duo’s name came from an unusual source: Roblox.
“It was like 2 a.m. I was playing Roblox on my computer and like two weeks beforehand Marie said, ‘we need a band name so think about it,’ and I said ‘okay,’” said MacPherson,“So, I was playing this game on Roblox where you’re in a band and you had to make a band name, and I wrote down “battery acid babez” with a “z” and I went ‘oh wow this is actually kind of fire.’”
MacPherson then introduced the name idea to Smith who liked it, but they workshopped the idea to make it unique to them.
“I use the example of Destroy Boys because they’re predominantly an AFAB (assigned female at birth) band but then their name is Destroy Boys, I like that dynamic,” said MacPherson, “Me and Marie are both AFAB people and I wanted to change and get that dynamic.”
Smith had a different name idea before Battery Acid Boyz was decided, however.
“I really wanted our band to be called Moustache Revenge and Summer was not having it.” said Smith.
MacPherson felt as though Battery Acid Boyz fit their vibe better and the duo has gone by that name ever since.
Smith does much of the lyric writing for the duo and shared about her process writing songs. “I get really upset, and I open the notes app,” said Smith.
Smith willingly admitted that her writing style is a bit eclectic. “It’s a little messy,” said Smith, “I have a lot of ideas and then I’ll very quickly swap between them.”
MacPherson just goes with the flow and works with the ideas that Smith comes up with, even in last-minute situations.
“We’ll go to play a gig and then it’s like “we’re playing a new song” and I’m like “I’ve never heard this new song,” said MacPherson, “Not to toot my own horn but I’m someone who can listen to something and come up with something almost instantly. It’s a janky process but it works for us.”
The duo can be found at open mic nights around town. Their music can be found on YouTube and Soundcloud at Battery Acid Boyz, and they can be found on Instagram at batteryacidboyz.
