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     “I saw Terry [Keith] at camp this summer and asked if he could play the drums, and he lied,” Holder said. “He was like ‘I play the drums’ and then right after that [he] went and bought a drum set, he told me Tyler [Stroud] could play the guitar so he went and bought a guitar.”

     Holder and Jones have been playing and creating rock music in Holder's garage with bandmates Terry Keith and Tyler Stroud since last October. Holder sings, Jones plays the lead guitar with Stroud playing the rhythm guitar and Keith is on the drums. Although they just met the music-making process comes naturally to this group.

     “Starting off, someone just makes something up… our drummer makes a beat, I make a guitar riff that goes with it, and we make lyrics for it later on,” Jones said. 

     The band stumbled across their name, Then Again, in true jam band fashion. It wasn't planned but just came to them, the same way the songwriting does. 

     “We were hanging out and were just kinda spitballing names… and we came up with Then Again,” Holder said. “I stumbled over my words and said ‘then again’ like three times, and I was like ‘I like that’.”

     Playing in Holder’s garage has allowed the band to share their music with friends and family, and just have a good time.

     “If we have a band practice on the weekend people will just show up and come hang out with us and listen to our music,” Jones said. “We’ll start messing around and people just hop on the mic and start singing which is kinda fun.”

     Then Again plays mostly cover songs but has recently begun writing original songs in hopes of getting a gig before Stroud and Keith graduate in June.

     “It's been a hobby for a while, but we're working on making it into something more,” Jones said. “There's an actual gig that we've been talking about setting up.”

     They are looking to find gigs through friends and family in town and in Wilmington, NC as two of the members will be attending the University of North Carolina Wilmington next year. The band isn't just something they want to do in high school but will continue pursuing. They also have begun writing original music

     “Personally, my future goals are to take it as far as it will go, and hopefully, that's where it will be my job,” Holder said.

     Something that started as a small idea and four strangers has now developed into five band practices a week amongst four best friends.

     “Now they're some of my closest friends,” Jones said. “[and] I've grown to appreciate music more.”