Alex Christ is a very charismatic lead vocalist, to say the least.
Dancing, singing, sweating, screaming, shouting and, frankly, doing way too much on stage. His ferocity and stage presence mixed with the solid instrumentation of the local indie band, Moravian, might make him a household name in the near future.
On Thursday, April 4 in the Oakland Center Habitat, the winner of Oakland University’s Student Program Board’s Battle of the Bands, Moravian, took center stage and opened up for WXOU’s 57th annual Birthday Bash.
The band — consisting of college students from OU, Wayne State University and Western Michigan University — occupied the seemingly small platform set up by WXOU and SPB staff to try and contain both Moravian’s and the opening act, The Doozers’s, excitement.
Christ even jumped off stage and ran through the crowd during one of the songs in their set, the energy that night was simply immaculate. He fed off the crowd and vice versa — he is everything you should have in a lead vocalist.
You take a look at Moravian, though, and wonder: Why do they only have 2,162 monthly listeners on Spotify?
The beginning.
Coby Valead, the bassist of Moravian, is the loudest person in the room.
He nonchalantly tries to explain his conspiracies to me while the others are egging him on. Valead then starts to talk about what makes a band local — how and when do they eventually escape their scene and become “popular.”
Valead, a Western Michigan University student, and I share remarks about Kalamazoo — my former place of residence — which include the restaurants we frequented, street names and landmarks.
Valead, along with the rest of the band are all dressed in white shirts with suits or black overcoats. On the surface, professional and practical.
Tomi Baumeister, one of the guitarists for Moravian, adds that he could potentially be related to a serial killer. The others chuckle, but you can tell in his calmness that he is serious and the mood thickens.
This turns into a conversation about each member of the band’s musical starts.
Christ’s musical journey began with him learning trumpet — he adds that he did not know how he got into band, he just got there. In his last semester of high school, he joined the choir and got his singing career started there.
“If you were to just do what I do in the street, people would think that you’re on some serious drugs and since I’m on stage, people want to see any captivating performance alongside the music — just to express myself in the most outlandish but authentic to myself way. That’s what I like to do,” Christ said.
Rico Velaz met Blake Potvin and Baumeister in middle school, and during COVID-19 they all started to experiment with instruments like guitar, drums and bass.
Christ and Valead came into the mix later on. Christ met Baumeister in church, Valead met Baumeister in high school and when they wanted to form a band, they all found each other in the summer of 2022.
They did not even start with covers, Moravian formed as a band and went right into making original songs.
“One day Alex was just writing lyrics and was like, ‘Sex with you is like cocaine,’ and we all just thought it was a joke,” Valead said.
Sparks went off and the band ended up recording their first single, “Cocaine,” around the fall of 2022.
But they were not satisfied, and tensions ran high until they eventually came to a head one day.
The struggle.
In early 2023, due to a disagreement with the other members of Moravian, Christ and Valead were fired from the band.
“I felt pretty betrayed,” Valead said.
Christ shared the same sentiment.
“It felt like, ‘You guys just made a big mistake,’” Christ said.
This moment sparked outrage but also grief in the two now ex-members of the band.
In order to get back into Moravian both Christ and Valead had to prove their drive, ethic and effort to change to the rest of the crew.
In Christ’s mind, he just wanted to put “Cocaine” out. So, he — along with Valead — came to the rest of the members and pled their case, and they agreed to do a studio session to hammer out their first track.
“Cocaine” was put out in June 2023 and one month later “Infatuation” was released. Then, in October, Moravian put out “Figure It Out.”
Momentum kept building for the band and they kept on recording newer and newer stuff. Eventually, they released their debut EP, “Moravian Drive,” on Feb. 9, 2024.
The future.
So what’s next for Moravian? Apparently, more music.
Moravian is going on a spring Michigan tour with performances in places like The Sanctuary in Hamtramck, Blind Pig in Ann Arbor and The Lager House in Detroit. After that, however, they will be back in the studio recording more songs.
“I don’t care how much you like ‘All In’ and ‘Medusa,’ this stuff is better,” Christ said.
After their wild performance in the Habitat, Moravian stuck around to sell merch and watch The Doozers perform.
With loads of people buying tees and stickers, Moravian definitely gained more fans than enemies, and with their upcoming shows, I think they will be gaining a whole lot more.
