As Chicago’s indie music scene continues to thrive, local artists and bands have found themselves a city that makes it possible to perform at city venue one night, to Lollapalooza or Pitchfork the next.  While the possibility of turning this dream into a reality may be rather slim, the young and talented four musicians of Ember Oceans have made it certain that they’ll join the ranks of recognizable indie bands grown from Chicago.

Comprised of three DePaul students, Joe Cox, Parker Simonaitis, Sean Groebe and first year student at Art Institute of Schaumburg, Freddy Purcell, the four men have not only made their band Ember Oceans a vital aspect of their college years in Chicago, but an overall important part of their life as well – one that started back in 2013, while they were in high school.

Close friends in high school, Simonaitis and Purcell occasionally played together after school in Simonaitis’ dad’s garage.  After writing a few songs together and twiliing with the idea of starting a band, the two quickly realized that they not only needed more people but different tunes and instruments to flesh out the band’s sound.

“I knew Parker from grade school. We ended up going to separate high schools but junior year I responded to Parker’s Facebook post that was looking for ‘talented musicians.’ The next week I went over to Parker’s to jam in the garage with him and Fred and as we started playing and writing more songs, we realized we needed another member, primarily someone who played bass,” said Cox, the guitarist and singer.  “I had chemistry class with Groebe and I had heard he knew how to play bass. We invited him over to the garage and it has been the four of us playing since.”

“We have been playing together for about three and a half years now, all growing up in the northwest suburbs.”

The band has drawn from many influences of the years, but the members have mostly described themselves as an Indie pop-rock band.

“Bands such as The 1975 and Foster The People are typically pretty comparable to our sound,” Cox said. “We all love catchy pop tunes but we all love jamming out during the appropriate times during our live set.”

Now college students, with a variety of pursuing degrees from accounting to computer science to audio engineering, the four live together in a house – with an outfitted home studio – in downtown Palatine, where the four have quickly become aware that their band is much more than after-school hobby.

“After high school we all decided to move in together and continue pursuing the band while going to school,” Cox said. “We have converted the other half of our basement into the home studio where we practice and record our demos. Ember Oceans has become so much bigger than a hobby.”

And as the band has gotten its feet through the doors of some of Chicago best music venues like the Metro, Schuba’s and Beat Kitchen, the four have realized not only how much Chicago has to offer to new artists but also just how many new artists and bands there are, competing for the same goals.

“We have been fortunate to have had many opportunities given to us to play at many cool venues in Chicago from early in our career,” Groebe said.  “Obviously its been intimidating looking at all these bands coming out of Chicago and playing in front of big bands, but you just have to stay the course and believe in what you’re doing.”

“We don’t think of it as competing for a spot against other bands, but figuring out the best ways to work with other artists that have similar sounds and vibes which leads to benefiting everyone,” Cox said.

But as Ember Oceans attempts at growing its popularity and fan base, the four men behind it have not only their music to continuously practice but a full time school schedule to balance as well.

“Being full-time students while balancing part time jobs can be tough.  But with us living together we still find time to have late night practice sessions,” said Purcell, Ember Oceans’ keys and singer.  “We practice everyday, but when there’s no immediate show around the corner, we’re occasionally more laid back with full-band practice – with me spending most of the time writing some new stuff on my own before I feel like its time to bring the entire band together to work it out.”

With the three DePaul students in their junior year and graduation almost within a year’s grasp, the members have long thought about what the future of Ember Oceans looks like.

“As the band progressed we always pushed ourselves to get better and even be better than each other,” said Purcell. “I think it’s this drive that helps us be as good as we are now. So its not a matter of seeing the goal of being a successful band as unrealistic, but rather realizing we need to be as good if not better than the bands we look up to.”

“Being in a band is never easy. But I personally don’t think there has been a moment where we doubted what we are able to do,” Cox said. “We have always tried being realistic with ourselves while pushing our boundaries at the same time. We have always had a lot of faith in what we were doing.”

“Being able to go to shows to see what other people have been doing has given us something to work towards.”