Cape Girardeau band Surtsey makes its River City Music Festival debut

Among the 30-plus acts slated for this year's River City Music Festival is Surtsey, a newly formed trio of young musicians who have established a name for themselves in the music scene locally and across the Midwest.

Surtsey is a volcanic island off the southern coast of Iceland. But in Cape Girardeau, Surtsey is Joseph Bassa, Drew Koeppel and Aaron Essner.

Guitarist and singer Bassa was born in Iceland while his mom was stationed there in the military. Bassa started the musical endeavor as a solo acoustic act, but an interest in touring with a full band led him to collaborate with Koeppel and Aaron Essner -- members of the local rock group, Oh for Audio. This culmination of Surtsey, with Koeppel on bass and Essner on drums, formed in February.

After playing together for less than nine months, Surtsey has already established a fan base as far as North Dakota. In early August, the trio played Rock the Leaves, a two-day festival in North Dakota. Koeppel said least 150 people attended the show.

"People were actually singing along to some of our songs, and we sold out of the shirts," he said. "Who would have thought there would be a following 20 hours away?"

Essner said he was excited by just being able to play that far away.

"Then the crowd response we got really boosted our morale," Essner added.

Surtsey also recently performed in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, South Dakota and, of course, Missouri. The band is performing at 7:30 p.m. today on the Broadway Stage at the River City Music Festival. The performance will mark the fourth time Koeppel and Essner have played the festival, but the two have been with a different group each year. Last year they played with Oh for Audio, with whom they will be playing again this year, but for the band's last performance.

"We just decided it was time to go our separate ways," Essner said. "We all had different ideas of where to go with Oh for Audio, so we're all doing our own things now."

Now, Essner and Koeppel spend most of their time practicing, writing and recording with Surtsey. The trio primarily plays original songs, many featured on Surtsey's first album, "Broken Beds," which was released in May.

Koeppel said because Bassa wrote and recorded the first album with other local musicians before he and Essner joined, "the CD sounds a little bit different than the live sound." Now, he said, the band has four or five songs in the works for another album they would like to put out before touring again.

"It's not going to be as hard of rock, but it will still be impactful," Koeppel said.

"It's getting a little bit more upbeat, with a little more folksy country," Essner added.

Surtsey also throws a few cover songs into the mix, which Koeppel said they put their "own spin on and don't play them exactly as they were recorded." He said they cover bands they like and who have influenced them, such as Ryan Adams and Simon & Garfunkel.

"As we get older, our musical interests expand, and I've just been on a country streak lately. It's not like radio country, but more of a folk type of country," Koeppel said. "I like to play it mainly because that's a reflection of what I'm influenced by most right now."

Though Essner said he doesn't necessarily like that kind of music, it's something new and refreshing not only to him as a musician, but to the local music scene in general.

"It's just refreshing to play music like that, because a lot of the music in the scene doesn't sound like this, and it's something you normally wouldn't hear at a local show."

For tour dates or more information about Surtsey, visit myspace.com/Surtsey.