Hey Champ!

Hey Champ can be called many things. To some, the band is the best thing to come out of Rockford, Ill., since Cheap Trick. To others, they are nerds, hippies, rockers, champions of dance music and - most importantly - former Princetonians. After making a name for themselves on the Chicago music scene (and not to mention, dominating the Hype Machine), the trio was signed by Lupe Fiasco's label, 1st & 15th, in 2008. Since then, the band has been on a hectic schedule, touring with everyone from Justice to Lupe himself. The band consists of guitarist and vocalist Saam Hagshenas, keyboardist and synthesizer man Pete Dougherty '07 and drummer Jon Marks '05. They plan to perform at Terrace Club in May.

Q: How did you all originally meet and form the band?

A: Saam Hagenshenas: I met Jon when we were kids and in a band in Rockford. Jon was 13 and I was 16. Then we met back up in Chicago when he was done with college and started another band. We decided we needed a keyboard synthesizer in '07 and talked Pete into coming to Chicago.

Jon Marks: In my year after graduating in '05, I would go back to Princeton a lot. Because I was a music major, I was playing a lot of jazz performances, and on the side, I would also hang out at Terrace with Pete, who was the social chair. Pete showed me all this new French dance music. We would play a lot of live shows at Terrace, so I went back home to Chicago and I told Saam, "We need to get Pete in our band because he's totally in on what we're getting into and he plays synths like a badass."

Q: So Pete and John are both Princeton graduates. What kinds of groups were you guys involved in while you were here?

A JM: I was in the glorious Tiger Inn, but I spent the majority of my time in Terrace anyway. Those were the hippie days, where I hung up posters, wore Bob Marley shirts and had a jam band called Duende's Wake, which was actually with Terrace members.

Pete Dougherty: Jon and I met while living in Forbes . I also played in the jazz ensemble for a couple years, and I would jam a bit from time to time with Duende's Wake. I was also in the original Sensemaya, playing keyboards and organ with them.

Q: Where does the name "Hey Champ," come from?

A: JM: Saam was the Cliff Bowl champion, and Pete was the mathlete champion.

SH: Hey Champ is kind of an awkward phrase that people use, and it's our way of having bravado - but there's still a huge nerd element to all three of us.

Q: Can you describe the band in three words?

A: SH: Serendipitous, auspicious, nincompoopery. No, that's really tough - is self-conscious one word?

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Q: What do you try to get out of a live concert?

A: SH: Win over fans. I think a lot of people who come and see us don't know what to expect. Some expect that we're going to be DJs, some expect us to just be one guy. I hope the girls start dancing and the guys think, "Wow, those guys are great musicians."

JM: We try to differentiate a lot between the studio and a live show. The studio is very refined and things are very pop, but in a live show, we don't want to sound like a half-assed version of the album, so we bring a totally different energy. We become much more like a rock band.

Q: What activities do you do outside of music?

A: JM: If we're not playing music, we're making it, producing it, writing it, writing about it or reading about it.

Interview conducted, condensed and edited by Lisa Han.