The Unemployed Architects

PONTIAC -- For two days, downtown Pontiac will be filled with live music, old cars, a beer garden, a children's play zone, a bags tournament and lots of vendors.

Summer Bash II will get started at 6 p.m. Friday and continue into Saturday evening, featuring a cruise night and concert by area band Bottle of Justus.

The success of last year's event prompted organizers to hold the event again, said Lori Fairfield, executive director of Pontiac Redeveloping Our United Downtown (PROUD).

"We wanted to make this into one overall bash," Fairfield said. "Our ultimate goal is to showcase what a great downtown Pontiac has."

The event is coupled with Heritage Days, which features demonstrations of blacksmithing, chair caning, soap making and glass blowing.

The beer garden, sponsored by DeLong's Casual Dining, 201 N. Mill St., is a fund-raiser for PROUD. The beer garden and live music stage will be on Washington Street between Plum and Mill streets.

In addition to a Civil War history demonstration today, Amarillo Sky, Green Thirteen will perform downtown and the Pontiac Municipal Band will hold its weekly concert at Yost House, 298 W. Water St.

All the streets around downtown and the Livingston County Courthouse will be closed starting at 4 p.m. Friday.

On Saturday, Meritage, Unemployed Architects and Bottle of Justus will perform in the evening. Cruise night will feature cars along Madison Street.

Museums will be open for extended hours.

Pontiac Tourism Director Ellie Alexander said the event will likely create repeat visitors for the city's Walldog Mural Museum, Route 66 Museum, Livingston County War Museum and the Yost House.

"We will be hearing a lot from weekend visitors that they didn't know these museums were here," Alexander said. "Summer Bash will help introduce us to more people who likely will be willing to come back and make a day of it." - Pantagraph.com

When asked to describe his band’s sound, Tyler Sweitzer did not have to hesitate.

“We’re naturally unique,” he said.

Do not let the name fool you. The Unemployed Architects have been hard at work—working on a unique style of music that is catching on within the Bloomington-Normal community.

Playing at local bars on just about every other weekend, the diamond-in-the-rough band has been bridging the gap to make a splash in the music scene outside of the Twin Cities.


Sweitzer, along with Blair Steffens, Kevin Lyons and Derrick “Big D” Griffin Jr., combine to create a potent formula of different music genres.

“A lot of our stuff is acoustic that we’re playing electric,” Steffens said. “We’re adding the band [sound] to the unplugged song. It’s alternative rock—not too hard, not too soft.”

Steffens, who sharpens the band’s sound on the electric guitar, said his up-beat dance rock music background meshes well with Sweitzer’s slower acoustic style.

“It’s a nice in-between of the genres,” Steffens said. “I want the guitar to be heard so it’s nice to have an acoustic background and it’s not just electric mayhem.”

Sweitzer, the originator of the band in high school, said the “completely different influences” of the four band members have helped to create a distinct sound.

“We have a lot of different stuff so it’s hard to put us in one category,” said Sweitzer, who plays guitar and works the keyboard. “What we’ve gotten from most people is early U2 and Dave Matthews type of feel. Phoenix is a good band to compare us to.”

“But it’s more rock,” bass player Lyons said. “Tyler [Sweitzer] and Blair [Steffens] are the writers for most of our songs. One is more acoustic and one is more rock-oriented. It comes together well and doesn’t conflict. I think we have a step up because of how original we are. We’re not trying to be anything we’re not.”

Steffens, 23, and Lyons, 21, who are stepbrothers, hail from the nearby Pontiac area with Sweitzer, 21, while Griffin Jr., 21, better known as “Big D” to the band and fans, is originally from Bolingbrook, Ill.

“I’ve known these guys [Steffens and Lyons] since forever,” Sweitzer said. “I met Big D playing football and with the whole college thing, Big D and I were still doing open-mic stuff. I was ‘The Unemployed Architect’ for a while.”

“We were working together randomly one day and we were like, we should call Blair to come play with us,” Lyons said. “It worked out perfect because we all play different stuff.”

Griffin Jr. serves as the missing ingredient in the band’s chemistry on the drums. He is the “pepper” or extra spice as Lyons puts it.

“He’s listened to rap his entire life. He hasn’t gotten into what we’ve gotten into until recently,” Lyons said. “He never had any real music training background so he helps set us apart.”

“I just started picking up the [drum] sticks in the 5th grade. Whatever I hear, I think about how it’s played and take that. I listen to all types of genres,” Griffin Jr. said.

Although the band has recorded multiple songs, their material is mostly geared towards live performances.

Whether it’s Steffens singing into his guitar or Sweitzer singing strikingly similar to Kings of Leon when the band covers “Use Somebody,” the Unemployed Architects try to make their shows something for everyone, while spreading their name though word of mouth.
“We’ll do a show and then when we bring a crowd, they’ll ask us to come back,” Steffens said.

While playing mostly in Bloomington-Normal or Champaign-Urbana, the band has performed in the Congress Theater and Elbo Room in Chicago. With all four members working either full or part-time jobs, they hope to take their passion to the next level.

“We want to get to the point where we’re playing all over the country,” Sweitzer said. “We want to do music for a living, as a job. What we’re shooting for now is to be heard by people.”

The Unemployed Architects’ “Matchless,” a song the band believes to represent themselves the most, is currently on YouTube. The group’s next showing is at Theater’s Cool in Bloomington on Jan. 29 at 9 p.m.
- The Vidette

Pontiac, Ill. — There will definitely be a local flavor in the music being played at a local nightspot this weekend.
The Unemployed Architects will appear at T.C. Buzz in Pontiac Friday night. The group is made up of a group of guys who currently live or have lived in the Chief City.
The quartet consists of Derrick “Big D” Griffin Jr. of Bolingbrook, formerly of Pontiac, on drums; Tyler Sweitzer, of Pontiac, singing lead vocals, playing rhythm guitar, backup vocals and keyboard; Blair Steffens, of Pontiac, playing lead guitar and singing lead and backup vocals; and Kevin Lyons, of Pontiac, playing bass guitar.
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For the E-edition just click on the E-edition link. - The Daily Leader