Appendix Park and the Diverse Music Scene on Campus

Photo by Billie Throm

Article by Lea Olivares Raudes

NEWBERG, Ore. – Through the fuzzy distortion of their lives, the members of Appendix Park shed an optimistic light on the music scene present on George Fox University’s (GFU) campus. Within this school year, they won Battle of the Bands, made a reappearance during Fox Got Talent and ended the month of January with a fun house concert.

With Ian Powers on bass, Brody Fischer the drummer, Ben Rozema as lead guitarist and Sammy Vanden Heuvel on vocals, Appendix Park stands out in the music scene on campus. 

The history between these four starts during their freshman year, when a shared incident would notoriously become the band's name. Somehow, Vanden Heuval found the silver lining in getting appendicitis during his first month of college.

“I got my appendix removed,” Vanden Heuval explained, “and my parents got a Vrbo a couple blocks off campus to help me get back into shape after the surgery. I sort of knew [Ian and Ben]...so they would hang out with me at this park next to the Vrbo and we ended up calling it Appendix Park. When we started playing music maybe a year after, we were trying to figure out a name and Appendix Park just seemed to fit.”

The four members of this band come from unique musical backgrounds. Although they began playing musical instruments at different stages of life, their talents come to life through their original singles and covers.

As a group, they enjoy taking inspiration from concerts. “We love going to concerts,” said Powers. “We’ll go to concerts and point stuff out that they're doing and kind of put those things in our music.”

“When I go to concerts, half the reason is to watch them perform,” said Rozema. "It's fun being there and fun to learn from what they're doing.”

Inspiration can come from all places. Appendix Park enjoys putting their own spin on covers as well as taking influence from groups such as The Back Seat Lovers and Pine Grove. Rozema’s guitar parts in particular are influenced by the band U2.

When exploring the band’s workflow, their routines and practices seem to flourish. An example is the conversations between the lyricist, Vanden Heuvel, and the rest of the musicians.

“Writing original songs happens in so many different ways,” said Vanden Heuvel. “Sometimes you're just playing something and lyrics just magically come out. It is a bunch of weird, different processes.”

Appendix Park finds a space between intricacy and simplicity, resulting in original songs such as Simmer Down and Losing Time.

Attending a Christian university has also shaped the way the group approaches their music. While they agreed on the sound of their music staying consistent regardless of their environment, the atmosphere they’re in now has influenced the way they interact with one another and their audience.

As they all stay rooted in their faith and attend church consistently, they have found ways to incorporate Christ’s teachings into their interactions and how they play. This same atmosphere has opened their eyes to musical talent all across the George Fox campus.

“I take music classes here and people who aren't even in music classes—minors and majors across the hall from me—are all really good,” said Fischer. “There is so much musical talent here that is not tapped into.”

Appendix Park described this campus music culture as growing and diverse. During the campus wide event Battle of the Bands, we got a glimpse into GFU’s talented bunch.

From intense high energy rock performances to charismatic, storytelling country, the music scene is eager to expand. Rather than competition, Appendix Park saw this event as momentum for the campus music scene to gain anticipated attention.

As Appendix Park looks ahead, their goals remain steady: to keep creating and performing! They hint at recording an album and hope to have a launch party and dream of a campus wide concert.

Appendix Park proves that it’s not just major labels and big cities that create vibrant music scenes. If their momentum is any indication, the sound and music community at GFU is just getting louder.