Conversations with BITE! THE BAND

Today we’d like to introduce you to BITE! THE BAND

Hi BITE!, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Bite! started in December of 2022 when our Drummer, Ethan Rumsey, reached out to the rest of the members individually with the idea of a new project. Ethan contacted his most musically talented friends for this opportunity. Most of us were strangers to each other at the time and were only connected through a shared friendship with Ethan.

Ethan grew up surrounded by music being inspired to learn the craft, and was self taught from a young age as a pianist, guitarist, singer, and drummer, and was in several bands throughout high school. He worked at Guitar Center for a short time teaching each instrument he knew after forming Bite!

Ethan started out by reaching out to David Marszalek about starting a band.
David began playing guitar after his uncle taught him how to play “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash in 2018. In 2021, he got a taste for the stage in a high school talent show. David continued teaching himself until he joined Bite!.

David suggested reaching out to Raven Ryan as our Front-woman. Ethan met Raven in 2016 after they played several talent shows together. Raven started as the main vocalist of a band in 2015 and stayed with them until late 2021. Prior to joining said band, Raven had been taking vocal lessons for 13 years.

Ethan had an obvious choice in mind for the bassist of this legendary rock crew.
Cole Williams started their bass career after bonding with Ethan over music. Being inspired by their step-sibling, Cole asked Ethan to teach them guitar, which they briefly played until they switched to bass.

After years of having a mutual love of music writing together, Ethan reached out to Merrick Makowski as the final member, and lead guitarist for the group. Ethan knew Merrick from high school, where they played in several bands together over the years. Merrick began his music journey as a bass player in a 2-man power-group in 2015 and went on to play in numerous bands and change instruments to guitar, eventually crossing paths with Ethan.

Today, Bite! is now 3 years in the making and continues to play shows and write music throughout the KCMO area.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Having began the band not knowing each other, an obstacle we faced was developing the musical chemistry between us. We began with playing cover songs, and through perseverance, we started to grow our bond, which led to us moving away from covers and writing our own material. Even though we had similar music tastes we all had vastly different inspirations, which ultimately is one of our strengths when it comes to songwriting, but took time to develop to our advantage.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
We are an Alternative Metal band, taking inspiration from Tool, Avenged Sevenfold, Death, Spiritbox, and Yellowcard. We’ve played several shows at venues in the KCMO area, like Sk8bar and Josey Records, with some amazing music groups like Dark Below, Captain Howdy, The Short Circuts, Island Policy, Cointoss, and SCUD. We have an intense sound with musically dense riffs, with all of our members getting the opportunity to show off their individual skills as we play, our energy is a physical presence you can feel, and our breakdowns are a featured specialty in our music.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
We plan on playing bigger and better shows, expanding our notoriety beyond the KCMO area, recording and producing our music, as well as releasing it on all platforms. We plan to keep writing and refining our sound, as well as building our community.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bite.theband/?next=%2F
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61562680630270