By BRUCE SYMES
Register Reporter

Watch members of Agathy perform on stage, as they did Saturday in Emporia, and it’s easy to see they enjoy their music. Chance Luttrell, Chris Maddox and Dustin Barker believe in their message and their ability to deliver it to the young audience gathered at My Place Too. They trust their talents to take them far in the music industry, carried by a unique style of rock ’n’ roll marrying classic guitar and cutting-edge vocals. Fun-to-watch entertainment. Simple-to-spot dreams. Impossible-to-avoid energy. What might not be evident is the Iola musicians’ business sense and their workaday approach to what they hope someday is exposure to the masses. The Emporia gig was small, with only about 15 teenagers and a handful of older people listening, but the show was another inroad, another opportunity to build fan base, another rung on the ladder to success. Maddox and Luttrell got together as bandmates in 2000, when they were freshmen at Iola High School, and soon enlisted classmate Barker to form Agathy. “We started just fooling around. Then Chance wrote some songs and we played them,” said Barker, 22, the drummer. “Right from the get-go we knew we were going to be an original band,” said guitarist and lead vocalist Luttrell, 21, who also writes Agathy’s songs. Maddox, 22, is bass guitarist and sings. The friends started discovering their sound, amassing a collection of songs and gaining some experience before audiences. A 2003 appearance at the local Wadestock concert was a coming out of sorts. “Being from Iola, we didn’t really have anywhere to play, and being in high school, we couldn’t get out and play much,” Luttrell said. “We’ve been together a long time,” Barker agreed, “but actually being out there and doing it — it’s only been a couple of years.” A turning point came last year, when Agathy hired a national booking agency and did a number of dates in major cities. They played in St. Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis and other places, getting their sound out and in some cases, learning from the school of hard knocks. A case in point was a show at the now-defunct Stray Cat in Kansas City. “It was our first show on the road and we were all excited,” Luttrell said. “We took 15 people with us and that was about it for the audience. They were supposed to take money at the door and they didn’t. It was really bad.” “It was their house,” Maddox added. “These guys lived above the place and just had bands come over and play. They did have cats walking around while we played, though.” Some positives also developed. A show in St. Louis gave the band a boost when several audience members stated their approval of Agathy’s music and signed up on a mailing list. “It’s fun traveling around and meeting people,” Luttrell said. “We figure if we make one new fan at each place, we’ll be all right.” A date in Chicago, though sparsely attended due to poor publicity, solidified for them their dedication to their quest. Far from home, with little earnings to show for their efforts, Barker, Maddox and Luttrell were more determined than ever to pursue their dream. “You really have to love what you’re doing, and if you do, the audience will be more likely to love what you’re doing, too,” Barker said. “You have to put every ounce of energy you have into it.” “We’ve proved if you really believe in something and go after it, you can do it,” Maddox said. WITH RELATIVELY FEW years in the music industry but depths of knowledge from life lessons and in-the-trenches experience, the young musicians of Agathy are poised to pounce on opportunities as they arise. After their national booking agency’s schedule was completed, Luttrell, Barker and Maddox decided to concentrate their work more locally, in Kansas. They enlisted the help of Larry Brockway of Neodesha, who operates Hall of Fame Studio and has shared years of insight and important contacts with them. A demo album in 2004 was followed up by the extended-play compact disk “The Room” last year and the self-titled EP “Agathy” this year. Brockway sent the newest album to Gerd Muller, an industry veteran in Nashville, who “has been shopping it around,” Luttrell said. “It’s definitely a confidence booster,” Barker said, “to have someone who’s been in the business, who knows what’s good, to have him interested in us and tell us we’re doing some things right.” With a library of more than 50 original songs, Agathy touts itself as pure rock in a time when popular music can be defined in myriad ways. “We really stick out like a sore thumb,” Luttrell said, “because we’re not like anything people have heard before. We have a good mix, with old-fashioned classic guitar sounds but with a more youthful message. It’s a sound everyone can enjoy.” The band completed three mini tours this fall, visiting Kentucky, Mississippi, Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri and Colorado. They’ve continued their concentration in Kansas, as well, hitting Wichita, Lawrence, Emporia and other cities monthly, and plan to air a television commercial for their CD on state television next year and to target college radio stations with their music. Agathy also is nearly finished recording its first music video, for SEKMag.com, to “You Must Go,” which will be on the Internet early in 2007. “We’re definitely on a track now,” Barker said. “When we started playing, we were good, but we weren’t as good as we are now. We’re playing more regularly, and we definitely put on a good show now.” AGATHY CAN BE HEARD regularly at The Getaway in Iola, and their songs are free for the listening on the band’s Web site, www.agathy.com. Renee’s Bakery is a local source for the band’s CDs, which for the time being are on Agathy’s own label. A December gig at the local club showed Agathy’s maturity in another form. The group and The Getaway donated cover charge proceeds, or toys brought in lieu of admission, to Toys For Tots. More than $400 and two boxes of playthings were given to needy children. Agathy’s latest EP has five songs, each demonstrating the group’s clean musicianship and grunge(y) lyrics. A verse in “Never Again” proclaims “I never said better dead than cool. But like Cobain I think cool is for fools. I say I’m fine but I’m wound up inside. I say I’m fine but I’m trying to hide.” “You Must Go,” the song for which Agathy’s first music video is being completed, contains a catchy guitar riff that’s easy to imagine engrained in the minds of those masses the band’s members seek. In the right promotional hands, it seems Agathy could be on radio stations, or iPods, everywhere. “We would like to be on a (major) label someday,” Luttrell said, “but it has to be the right label. Unless we just get lucky, we’re going to keep playing, building our fan base and writing our own stuff. When the right opportunity comes along, we want to be ready.”