Senior band member Ryan Casey laughs as he talks about his band, Crosswalk, and its pre-concert ritual of channeling “High School Musical” and yelling, “What team? Wildcats!”

Junior band member Ian Lockhart said he co-founded the band with Perpich Center for Arts Education juniors Duncan Macklem-Johnson and Troy Richardson.

“A couple years ago, me, Duncan Macklem-Johnson and Troy Richardson had the idea of starting a band. We were already playing a lot together, so starting a band was a next step,” Lockhart said.

At the time, however, Lockhart said the three musicians lacked a drummer. The following January, Casey joined Crosswalk, completing the band.

“We still needed a drummer and then we met Ryan about a year ago,” Lockhart said. “Even though he is currently the lead guitarist, at the time he helped us become a full band.”

Casey said the primary intrigue of the band is having the ability to express emotions through song and rhythm.

“Music shows emotion that can’t be said with words,” Casey said. “A song becomes meaningful when both the lyrics and melody make you feel the artist’s intent.”

Lockhart said the band takes their inspiration from old and new rock songs.

“We get a lot of inspiration from ’90s bands and alternative bands like Hippocampus or Vampire Weekend,” Lockhart said.

According to senior Ben Chong, the passionate musicians in Crosswalk engage their audience during a concert with musically intriguing songs.

“There is never a dull moment,” Chong said. “All the musicians are so incredibly involved in their craft that there is always life and emotion brought to the stage.”

Despite busy schedules and separate schools, Casey said the dynamic of the band members continues to be laid-back and low pressure.

“We usually get together once a week because we all have stuff going on, but within our busyness Crosswalk has always been pretty casual. We sometimes rehearse without everyone and it works fine,” Casey said.

Casey said he attributes the success of the band in finding gigs to Macklem-Johnson and Richardson, who specialize in music at Perpich.

“Having half the band switch schools has made it tougher to communicate, but the connections they’ve made have helped us a lot,” Casey said. “Our last two gigs were both planned through people they met at Perpich.”

According to Lockhart, Crosswalk already performed four concerts around the Twin Cities and plans to put out an album this winter featuring all original songs.

“When we do concerts, we do both original music and (non-original) songs. We only have about five or six originals right now, which is not enough to fill a concert with our own music,” Lockhart said. “We are looking to create more original music and potentially record an album this winter.”