Theatre sophomores Rain Scott-Catoire, Sophia Brazda and Sydni Myers share their original, self-composed lyrics and alternative piano rock tunes with the University campus through their band, Group Therapy.
Group Therapy had its debut concert on May 3 at the French House, performing the upbeat “Contraband,” “Words” and “Fate Is You.” The group received major support from friends and family as well as the LSU School of Theatre community. The band is ready to share their music with the rest of the University and the world come fall with an EP they expect to make available to listeners through Spotify and Apple Music.
Group Therapy unexpectedly began during a fateful night in the spring of 2019 in Brazda’s dorm room, the designated hangout spot due to her roommate’s continual absence. Though the women were friends, Brazda and Scott-Catoire did not know each other well. Myers had brought Scott-Catoire along to hang out.
That night, they had a sleepover where they shared stories and secrets, including a poem Brazda had written in high school about having a crush on her then-boyfriend’s best friend.
“I was reading this little poem I had written with a very basic melody to it,” Brazda said. “Then I looked up from my phone because I was terrified to see their faces and they were both beaming at me.”
Scott-Catoire immediately asked Brazda to let her put music to the song. The next night, they met up in the School of Music at a practice room, and Scott-Catpore conceived a bouncing eight note chord to accompany the lyrics. Since then, the group has focused on original songs.
The name of the band surfaced in a practice room after a series of vetoes from Scott-Catoire, who required a meaningful name for the band. The group reflected on how cathartic their practice sessions were, leading to Brazda’s winning suggestion of Group Therapy. The rest is history as the women decided it matched exactly what they were doing.
“What’ll happen most of the time is one of us will write a song that has a melody and lyrics and then we’ll bring it to each other,” Scott-Catoire said. “We’ll all contribute to it so that we can all build this thing together, but the basis, it starts with one of us getting inspired.”
A classically trained pianist, Scott-Catoire composes the music while also providing vocals along with Brazda and Myers. All three students have incredibly strong voices that, when harmonized, create a sound that commands any listener’s attention.
While most bands experience dry spells of creativity, Group Therapy has the opposite problem — they have an outpour of it with 22 songs in various stages of development. As they prepare to release the music in the fall, they expect the emotions to be as strong as the melodies.
“The problem with having a band centered around group therapy sessions is that everything comes tumbling out at once,” Brazda said. “ So, when it does hit the internet, it’s going to be with a bang.”
(from left to right) Rain Scott-Catoire, Sophia Brazda and Sydni Myers decided to form their band Group Therapy in an LSU School of Music practice room.
