By Keighla Schmidt, Staff Writer

On its second go around, Cryptic is hoping the code will be cracked to reach the next level of their music.

Cryptic is a three-member band comprised of Burnsville High School alumni who just released a professionally-made EP (extended play) album “As the Gun Drops to the Floor,” that features five tracks; two fresh favorites and three perfected and pulled off their debut album, “If a Kiss Could Cure My Disease.” Cryptic

Two days into the New Year the modern alternative rock band introduced their new album during a release party the Cabooze in Minneapolis in front of over 200 people.

“The first album we made in my basement, and that’s pretty much where it stayed,” said lead singer and guitarist Mitch Hoglin, of Savage. 

With time, however, their cryptic code has been deciphered.

“When you’re up there and you see people singing along and they know the words and they’re feeling it – there’s no feeling like it in the world,” Hoglin said.

Bassist Luke Aton, of Savage, agreed, saying the feeling on stage and seeing fans get into the music is “intoxicating.”

“For me, I’m still part of something people are in love with and they are screaming the words and their fists are in the air – it’s absolutely awesome,” he said.

New songs

Cryptic’s songs, Hoglin said, are typically about relationships, but have recently expanded to include “more fun” topics. One song, “Colonel Mustard” is loosely based off the board game Clue. And “Evil Step Sister” is sung from Prince Charming’s point of view, and is about the wicked ladies from fairy tales.A 'Cryptic' code: Cryptic recently released its second
CD, “As the Gun Drops to the Floor.” Bass player Luke
Aton (left) and guitarist/lead singer Mitch Hoglin
perform “The Orange Song” at the CD release show.

“We’re trying to write more songs that deal with things other than relationships,” Hoglin said.

The new album took over a year to make because of various setbacks, including retracing their steps a few times and rerecording tracks. So the CD wasn’t ready until literally a few hours before the scheduled release party, Hoglin said.

“We all at one point had dreams of being up on stage naked and we don’t have strings on our instruments, and well …” he joked.

Hoglin’s guitar actually broke during the sound check before the show and he had to tape it together and cross his fingers hoping it wouldn’t break.

“Luckily, it held up,” he laughed.

Aton said he thinks the stage Cryptic is currently in is part of a process.

“Anyone who’s seen ‘VH1 Behind the Music’ knows everybody has to go through really hard times, a struggle and get past it, and then, they’ll catch that break,” he said.

The break, they hope, will come soon.

2009

Cryptic has spent the past nine years getting the word out.

They’ve performed at many local venues, hitting the typical band scenes like bars, parades, battles, free shows and colleges. Their biggest show was at the La Crosse Center in La Crosse, Wisc. in August with hard rock bands Sevendust, Drowning Pool and Nonpoint.

Their plan this year is to market themselves by playing less. Hoglin said he hopes fewer shows will mean a higher demand and draw more fans.

“We want to make it more of a monthly event – like ‘Where are they going to be next month?’ and then they can all come out and bring their friends,” he said.

While some of their fan base is built on friends and former classmates, they’ve also made a name for themselves by appearing on Web sites.

Their own site, www.crypticiscoming.com, has links to the band’s MySpace site. Getting the cryptic code translated there, Hoglin said, took time.

“It felt like it took forever to break that 100-hit mark,” he said, “Recently, though, we’ve had a few thousand hits.”

They also have pages on Facebook and YouTube where they feature videos of their daily routines.

“We want people to just get to know us, and who we are,” Aton said. “We’re pretty silly guys, we like to have fun.”

Roots

Cryptic formed in 2000 with Hoglin and drummer Andy Gagnon of Savage. Aton joined the band as a bassist in November 2007.

Hoglin, who Aton described as “the music of the band,” grew up surrounded by music. He took piano lessons, spent time as a percussionist in school bands and sang in the Metropolitan Boys Choir.

“All that came together and influenced song writing,” he said. “When I was 14 I picked up a guitar and started hashing it out.”

For Aton, his mother is a music teacher and forced him to take up an instrument. He admitted he was reluctant at first, but eventually became “a band geek.”

“I got really into band, I was captain of the drumline,” he said, as he was wearing a zip up drumline hoodie from high school. “I got hooked on it.”

And even though he plays bass guitar in Cryptic, he feels like a “drummer that plays bass.”

Reading music for the band’s drummer Gangon, however, is literally cryptic, as he was never in band during school and has never taken a music lesson. Growing up, his dad had a drum set and taught him the standard four-beat progression, Hoglin said.

“He’s completely self taught. To see where he is now just from listening to other people’s music and adapting his drumming technique, it boggles my mind to know he was never trained, but that he just fell into it,” Hoglin said. “He does things on the drums sometimes that blow my mind that I can’t even wrap my head around.”

All three band members being drummers, Aton said, keeps the beat alive in their songs.

“We’re really aware of it,” he said. “It’s like a constant metronome.”

The trio went to school together and the band’s name came from a high school English class where vocabulary words were pushed hard.

“Andy and I were bouncing (band) names back and fourth and he suggested ‘cryptic’ and I asked him what it meant, and he said ‘hard to understand, confusing, coded,’”  Hoglin said. “And we ran with that, and it stuck.”

Keighla Schmidt can be reached at kschmidt@swpub.com.

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