Fresh Hops

Fresh Hops

Fresh Hops is a brand spankin new band out of the Tri-Town area of Northwest Indiana. Fresh Hops consists of six talented musicians, each with a very wide range of musical influences, which creates the unique, or “fresh” sound of Fresh Hops. Fresh Hops’ energy and passion for playing live music that makes people want to dance and party down, creates a live performance that you won’t forget. Each show is a new or “fresh” experience due to the fact that they never play the same set and do a lot of improvisational jams. In the short time that Fresh Hops has been together they have already started to gain a very close and passionate following by playing show after show in Chicago, Bloomington, Muncie, Lafayette, Downers Grove, and of course the Tri-Town Area of NW Indiana.

Although Fresh Hops is a new band, the members are definitely not new to playing live music. The founding members of Fresh Hops, Matt and Kevin, have been close friends from the start of their musical lives and met through playing music in their first band, Theef, when they were just thirteen years old. They played over thirty shows, recorded two CD’s, and won multiple battle of the bands. After four years they broke up and Matt started a new band called Frog the Jam. Frog the Jam is where Matt first started to play music with Joe. After about one year, Joe left the band to pursue his musical education at Indiana State University, playing in a few bands along the way. Around the same time Kevin stared another band called, Sould Out. After a few shows and one recorded demo Kevin left the band to pursue his education at Ball State University. After a year of Ball State, Kevin had the itch to start up another band, Deep Fried Sound. After a few gigs Kevin decided to leave the band to concentrate on his education.

Over Christmas break of 2007 Matt and Kevin got together to jam along with Matt’s brother Dave, who played in a band called Thanks to Kypers, and long time friend Stephan. They all had a blast and knew it was time to start up another band. They all knew it was going to take a lot of effort and gas money to make it work because they were all split up in three different locations, Indiana University, Ball State University, and Purdue Calumet. About a week later Fresh Hops managed to land an hour and a half set on the bill at the first annual Spring Fest at the Waterbowl in Muncie Indiana. They practiced extremely hard and knew they had to do a lot of improvisation to cover the time slot. Lucky enough for them, they pulled it off and got asked back to play at the first, Wuhnurth Music Festival with nationally known headliners such as, Tea Leaf Green, Groovatron, UV Hippo, Cosmic Railroad, and Brainchild. In 2008 Kevin decided to leave Ball State and go to a local school to allow more time to be with the band. Luckily, at this same time Joe just graduated and immediately joined the band on the guitar and keys. After one gig at Goose Island Brewery Joe decided to bring in his friend, Brian, on the saxophone. They immediately clicked and as of September of 2008, Fresh Hops has been rocking as a six-headed musical monster ready to play all over the Mid-West!

Individual Bios

Brian Boros- Self taught-guitar, piano, and tenor saxophone over the past four years. Influenced by all types of music especially Jazz, eastern & gypsy modal music. Favorites include: John Coltrane, Lester Young, Joshua Redman.

Stephan Cook- Playing the violin since he was 5 years old. Trained classically by the Suzuki method of teaching.. Traveled the world playing in many orchestras and classical groups such as, The Chicago Consort and the South Suburban Orchestra for six years. Inspired by many different violinists such as: Jean Luc Ponte, Boyd Tinsley, and Indiana University graduate, Josh Bell. At age 15 he started playing hip-hop with local mc BC aka Brainchild219.

Joe Marcinek-Received his Bachelor's degree in Music Business from Indiana State University. There he studied with Dr. John Spicknall and Dr. Brent McPike. Joseph taught guitar and bass lessons at the conservatory of music in Terre Haute, Indiana. A guitarist and keyboardist, Joe is also a composer who finished his first string quartet in 2007.

Kevin Mardirosian- 3rd Generation drummer, started playing at about eight years old, taught by his father of M & R Rush. Percussionist in the Kahler Middle School Band. Influences: John Fishman, Billy Martin, Carter Beauford, Marty Mardirosian, Stanton Moore, ?love, Michael Travis, Steve Gadd.

David VanVlymen- started taking bass lessons at 12 years old by a Greg Milikin at Broadway Music. Musical Influences ranging from punk rock to Jazz.. Influenced by: Victor Wooten, Matt Freeman, Christian McBride, Mike Gordon

Matthew VanVlymen- Matt Van Vlymen has played in various bands throughout the years. He won an outstanding soloist award at the Indiana State University Jazz Festival and attended the Birch Creek Jazz Academy in