They were drinking in the middle of July, but the calendar was stuck on June.

Long-time friends and time management gods, Salt Lake’s favorite alternative band, Drunk in June, will be on the lineup for K-UTE Radio’s Halloween show on Friday night at Fellowship Hall.

Drunk in June is comprised of members Truman Hight (bass), Nick McCullagh (guitar and vocals), Billy Riley (drums), Hallie Eha (keys) and Paisley Larsen (vocals). From a beginning in high school jazz band to alt-country, punk-rock, indie superstars, Drunk in June has become a significant figure in the Salt Lake music scene.

The band grew out of a high school friendship between McCullagh, Riley and Hight. Larsen and Eha both hail from Washington. Larsen soon became McCullagh’s boss at an environmental company, and Eha was Hight’s roommate. And thus, the band was born. Football players turned musicians, each one has a role to play, whether it’s ripping on the bass or spending 11 hours scrolling on social media. Together, they can only be described as wild and cathartic, which is much like their music and live performance.

More passion, more energy

One can describe their music in many different ways, including “cool and awesome and emo-ish” and “indie-rock with teeth.” But, overall, the band is not afraid to try something new. “I don’t think we’ve ever said no to a direction,” McCullagh said. From pop, emo, punk rock and most recently, alt-country and folk, they’ve tried it all and are still experimenting with new sounds.

“We try so hard to not fit in a lot of the time that we end up fitting really hard into other things,” Hights said. “But we’ve existed really well [in the] alt-country space recently with some of our new songwriting.” “I don’t know if we’ll ever find [our] sound,” McCullagh added. “I think we’re just going to keep being adventurous.”

Each band member has their own sphere of influence, which is what creates the amalgamation of the band’s sound. The process is collaborative not only within the band, but also within the community. McCullagh explained that, at times, their process involves a whiteboard, backyard parties and beer. Everyone throws ideas at the wall, and what sticks makes the final cut. This was true for “Choke” from the album “Anhedonia.”

The band released their fourth record “felicity,” earlier this year and have a fifth in the works. Their studio sound differs from their live performance, with studio wizardry and polished ease for listeners. When playing live, they said “[we’re] trying to be palatable across multiple spaces, trying to find a home for our music for multiple types of people, and across different genres,” McCullagh said. “When we’re live, it’s about throwing as much energy as we can at people and seeing if they’ll take it or not.”

Where they’ve been and where they’ll go

Drunk in June is a high-energy act that has found themselves all over the valley, playing shows at Kilby Court, Urban Lounge, The Beehive, Quarters at the DLC and Black Lung Society. The last night of Battle of the Bands at Urban Lounge stands out, channeling the energy of a sold out crowd, and blowing away the friends they brought along.

What they won’t play, are shows that ask them to self censor or turn the volume down. “We get into some pretty heavy shit sometimes. And I don’t want to have to work around that and change the messaging of our tracks ever,” McCullagh said. “And a lot of those spaces need us to be below conversation volume, and that doesn’t quite work for us … we are just too loud,” Hights added. “We’re not a cover band or a blues band, going up there for the day playing three hours … we’ll give you a really hard performance for like an hour and a half,” McCullagh said.

The band played shows for Halloween every year since they began. Dressing up in niche costumes, but still sticking to a theme, it’s become an annual favorite of theirs. One of their first shows was for Halloween with Jack and the Fun Guys at Quarters. They said it’s what put them on the map.

This year, they have big plans for Fellowship Hall, dressing up in matching costumes with partners, roommates and even each other. McCullagh added their excitement about playing at Fellowship Hall. “The program’s awesome, and it’s a good thing to have in this city for people who need it,” he said. “And we’re always happy to support people getting help how they can and when they can and if they need it.”

Continuing a long-time dream

Running up on three years together, the band has stuck together despite work schedules and busy lives, seemingly having mastered time management. Though, they seem to disagree. “We’re really bad at it… we’ve had every Wednesday and Sunday night reserved for this for the last three years, spending between four to eight hours a week together… lots of calling in sick to work… we stay really hard on it.”

Going onto their fifth release, Drunk in June have found a groove with songwriting. “I don’t like writing stuff for other people,” McCullagh  said. “They write their own music and bring it every single time… the lyric part is harder.” The band favors writing with friends, “we’ll sit down and have a few beers and get the whiteboard out and start throwing shit at it and see if anything comes out of it,” McCullagh said. “It kind of just works, and we throw it back and forth until it sounds right, and we just don’t leave the room until that happens,” Hight added.

Drunk in June is working on a new album, with hopes of a release early next year. They will be playing a few songs from the album at the show on Friday.

If you missed them at Fellowship Hall, be sure to check out Drunk in June at their next show on Nov. 13 at the Beehive. You can learn more about the band at their website here.