While certainly excited about graduation, two West Des Moines Community Schools (WDMCS) seniors are also thinking about another upcoming milestone: their album release party. Valley High School senior Marshall White and Walnut Creek Campus senior Jacob “Jub” Martinez are two members of The Crust, a local band gaining recognition across the state, including a win at the Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame's 2021 Iowa Rocks Talent Competition. The release party for their debut EP will take place June 3, one day after the WDMCS school year ends.
“For a while, all our band was, was proving people wrong,’” Valley High School senior Marshall White said.
Having to prove themselves does not faze the classic rock-inspired band. After all, White and Martinez were some of the band’s first skeptics.
“I first joined this band with the name The Crust, and I looked at the Facebook page, and it’s these two middle schoolers playing death metal!” White said. “I’m like, ‘There’s no way.’”
“The name came from Josh,” Martinez explained. “He said, ‘I want to name this band The Crust because nobody likes the crust.’ And I remember, we first joined this band, and we thought, ‘What is this?’”
“Josh” is Walnut Creek sophomore Joshua Snuffin, founding member and guitarist, drummer, and keyboardist for The Crust. White also plays guitar and keyboard and is the lead vocalist. Martinez plays bass, and Valley junior Steffen Poulsen plays guitar, drums, and keys.
These are just the roles they have in the band — all four members are multi-instrumentalists and perform in a wide variety of school band, choir, and orchestra ensembles and theater productions. Between them, The Crust can play more than 10 instruments including the banjo, trumpet, violin, and accordion. It’s one of the first signs that maybe The Crust isn’t your average high school garage band.
Getting the Band Together
Like all great rock bands, The Crust has seen some changes in the lineup since its “middle schoolers playing death metal” phase. The original members, including Snuffin, first connected with an aspiring band manager at a local Guitar Center. They started practicing at his house and trying to build a group. Around the same time, Martinez and White met at Valley Southwoods Freshman High School and formed a different band with mutual friends. Things started to come together when White invited Martinez to his Halloween party, then plugged a bass into a sound system, and said, “Start playing.”
“It’s not a bunch of people, but 10-15 people coming into a little crowded room to watch you play is kind of a cool feeling,” Martinez said. “Then, out of nowhere, this kid comes up that I’ve never met before, and he just starts playing with me.”
The impromptu jam session was with an original member of The Crust who invited Martinez to join. When they were also looking for a singer, he suggested White. After a little more reshuffling, the band settled as the four-piece it is today. Martinez and White credit Snuffin’s skill and perseverance with getting The Crust off the ground.
“He had fun playing music and wanted to just find other musicians he could play with,” Martinez said. “The fact that he was that good, he could do what he wanted at that age. … He went through a bunch of people just trying to find people that he could play with and rely on. It took until us to where he was finally settled, and we were all happy.”
The Crust quickly exceeded their former manager’s expectations, and he left the picture, giving them full creative control and a host of new responsibilities. Their parents currently manage the band’s online presence, but the members are in charge of booking gigs. Walnut Creek economics teacher Alex Hammer describes Martinez as the “quiet, driving force” behind some of the band’s business decisions. Hammer built a rapport with Martinez based on their shared love of classic rock and has often been a sounding board for Martinez’s aspirations for the band.
“It’s been cool to see him take the knowledge he gains in class and apply it to what he’s trying to do with his life,” Hammer said. “That confidence for advocating for himself came from gaining more knowledge about business matters and our talks. … I think he really found a place (at Walnut Creek) where he could get what he wanted to out of his high school experience, which is what we’re here for.”
Both seniors in The Crust have the full support of the adults in their lives when it comes to pursuing music. Martinez’s father is a drummer and gifted Martinez his first bass guitar. It was a few years before Martinez gained a serious interest in it, but when he did, his father was the catalyst again: He played a Primus song for Martinez in his car.
White’s interest in music also started with his parents. His mother is a classically trained pianist, and his father is a jazz drummer. On a trip to see his paternal grandparents in third grade, White was introduced to the cornet, an instrument similar to the trumpet. The trumpet was his main focus until middle school when former Stilwell Junior High vocal music teacher Kathy Gedler asked him if he knew he could sing.
“Before then, I was always super self-conscious of singing; I never thought I could do that kind of stuff,” White said. “So I auditioned for the school play the next year and got the lead role. It was (“Seussical: The Musical”) … and that’s where it turned into a performance as well as music that was becoming my passion.”
From Halloween Party to Hall of Fame
Understanding the importance and appeal of performance is what has bonded the current The Crust lineup and kept them stable as they balance the band with school and work.
“I think we all have a similar goal, and I think that’s really important in this context,” White said. “In music, there’s a lot of landing spots.” But all members of The Crust agree that they love to perform.
“(Marshall and Jub) are fun to perform with because they both have things that bring in the attention of the audience,” Poulsen said. White thinks the band’s intense live performance skills are partially responsible for their win at the Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame's 2021 Iowa Rocks Talent Competition.
“A lot of people in the music industry would love to just appreciate the music, and I think that’s a really cool thing, and I have my own appreciation for the music aspect of it, but you have to sell the show,” White said. “That’s what the whole ‘it’ factor situation is.”
He compared seeing them perform live to simply streaming their music — which you can do, thanks to free recording time they won through the talent competition. Instead of catching up on homework or downtime during winter break, The Crust traveled to Cedar Falls to record a four-track EP of original songs at Catamount Recording Studio. Poulsen and Snuffin both said the sessions were a dream they never thought they would get to experience, but there was also a learning curve, with tedious parts like recording single phrases over and over or re-tuning for each take.
“It was nice to finally hear my ideas come to life through something that wasn’t just me playing my guitar in my basement,” Poulsen said, adding, “Overall it was a great experience, and I’m really happy with the final product.”
The Show Must Go On
So, what’s next for The Crust? They’ve already hit many of the milestones they imagined as a local band, from winning the talent contest to recording their own music instead of playing covers.
White will attend Drake University next year, and Martinez plans to work and focus on band promotions. Both are eager to keep their momentum with The Crust going, even with the other members still in high school.
"There’s a saying that you could be in 100 different bands in your life before you’re ever in the last band that you’re in, you know?” White said. “But there’s a lot to be said for the last year and a half of playing music with these same four people that has been kind of irreplaceable."
The senior members talk about their bandmates, especially 16-year-old Snuffin, with sibling-like fondness. They both referenced giving Snuffin advice and anticipate a day when everything that’s happened with the band will finally seem real in his eyes. In turn, Snuffin is proud of everything they have already accomplished, in the band and outside of it.
"They’re my brothers, man," Snuffin said. "I'm excited for them."
As they transition to bigger venues and higher profile stages, like the 80/35 Music Festival this summer, The Crust wants the music that brought them together to stay the top priority.
“You almost lose control of the music a little bit when you’re constantly thinking about, ‘Oh my god, we just played these big shows, and this is what’s happening with the band,’” Martinez said. “When you do focus on the music, that’s when good things happen.”
This music-first approach has also helped them keep things in perspective when it comes to their growing fan base. Becoming rock stars isn’t about popularity to them. It’s simply what they love.
“We played 40 shows before anyone was able to Google our music,” White said. “There are people who put out albums before they ever perform. … The cool thing about it is, in my opinion, I think we’re doing it the old-school way. We’re not waiting for someone on social media to tell us we’re good. We’re not waiting for our likes to go up.”
Still, Martinez and White are being realistic. They have back-up plans in place, but they both feel strongly that if the band goes down, they want to go down swinging. More than their parents, their peers have sometimes questioned or judged their choice to pursue music, but neither can imagine doing something different. It’s the magic of making music and performing that keeps them committed, even through the parts of being in a band that feel like any other job.
“At the end of the day, everyone’s got those feelings,” White said. “You’re going to have to sit back and think, ‘Am I happy?’ Not think, ‘Am I rich yet? Can I retire in 10 years?’”
“I just feel like, how can you not want to just do as much as you can to be happy?” Martinez asked. “When there’s so much stuff around that’s just a cycle that keeps happening, and you find the one thing that’s different, and the feelings are completely different from everything else, I don’t see how you couldn’t go after that.”
Listen to The Crust’s debut EP “Droppin’ Miles” wherever you stream your music or catch one of their live shows.
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Photos courtesy of The Crust.