Video

Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Brothers Jack (left) and Josh Van De Riet were introduced to musicians Matt Sielski and Trevor Robinson — who all now make up the band Blame James — by friend James Garrett. Watch a video of Blame James rehearsing and the brothers Van De Riet talk about music and brotherhood.

BLACKSBURG -- A beer bottle smokes on the front porch, stuffed with the remains of the last cigarette break. An upholstered maroon chair faces a porch swing. Behind the broken, knobless door: a living room converted to a makeshift bedroom, with tribal afghans tacked to the walls.

Matt Sielski sleeps in his living room. It's a sacrifice that he can blame James Garrett for.

The Radford University graduate, who has moved to Lynchburg, introduced four of his local music-playing friends, including Sielski, nearly four years ago. For the past two years, the musicians calling themselves "Blame James" have practiced in what would be Sielski's bedroom, a 12-by-15-foot room in the back of the house.

The tight quarters and absorbent fiber material coating the walls prevents sound from escaping into neighbors' yards, and no one in the neighborhood has complained yet, said Jack Van De Riet, Sielski's housemate and lead vocalist for Blame James.

The band, which also includes bassist Josh Van De Riet and percussionist Trevor Robinson, met in 2004.

"James introduced the two different sects of the band -- the Blacksburg sect and the Radford sect. One day he suggested that we all jam," Jack Van De Riet said. "We actually played a day later in Radford, on Grove Street, and that's where we were technically born."

What was born was a heavy, melodic rock sound that won over audiences in a Battle of the Bands contest in Radford shortly thereafter. The win gave the band members the confidence to stick with it and churn out 13 original songs. Jack Van De Riet said some of the songs, written by him with the help of the other band members, deal with raw emotion.

But others are just about "being in a band and playing music," Robinson pointed out.

Though the band members have yet to record a commercial CD, the band's music has been well received live -- they've progressed from playing house parties to college bar scenes in Radford and Blacksburg to city bar scenes in Richmond and Washington, D.C.

"We have a couple of buddies in a band in Richmond who actually went to Radford," Jack Van De Riet said. "They have been helping us get a lot of gigs in Richmond."

A city is where he sees the band going next.

Southwest Virginia "is a great place to start, but not a great place to expand" a band, he said. A city has more people, more money and a greater chance at a record label.

But for now, the foursome is keeping up with a steady schedule of local gigs, and practicing whenever it can in between. Jack Van De Riet, 25, graduated from Radford University in 2006 and works full time at Red Lobster. Sielski, 25, works full time for GNC stores. Robinson, 21, studies music technology at Virginia Tech. Josh Van De Riet, 22, studies anthropology at Radford University.

Whenever they're not working or studying, the band members are together, either practicing or partying at Robinson's place.

"We're all really, really good friends more than anything," Josh Van De Riet said. He and Jack Van De Riet have a special relationship, as fellow musicians, friends and brothers.

"Being brothers, we're just really good at communicating," Josh Van De Riet said. "So communicating musically has never been a problem."