The Plasters are looking forward to the future of their band after winning the Battle of the Bands competition in March, and being given the opportunity to open for Gunna and Social House at Spring Fling just a month later.
The band consists of Cameron Cantine, lead singer and a junior double-majoring in economics and cinema, Julian Mahboubian, guitarist and a junior majoring in psychology, Lucy Goodman, drummer and an undeclared sophomore and Audrey Park, bassist and an undeclared freshman.
Although The Plasters as a band were not formed until recently, both Cantine and Mahboubian said they had been involved in the local music scene for several years before they began working with Goodman and Park.
“The Plasters definitely did start this year, well, last semester, but [Cantine] and I have kind of had these little bands since our freshman year of college,” Mahboubian said. “And when we first came to [BU], we were both freshmen who really wanted to keep doing music and didn’t really know how to do it. But out of some sheer luck, we were thrown into like the perfect music scene here. Freshman year we were playing for like 150 people in cramped living room shows.”
Cantine discussed some worries they had when the music community was shut down in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and what it was like coming back from the shutdown.
“We were scared [the music scene] wouldn’t come back, because we got a taste of it during the fall of 2019,” Cantine said. “It was so amazing. We thought we were really gonna have to do it ourselves, and like really force the music community to come back, but we didn’t do a thing. People really helped us, and there are so many beautiful, amazing people here.”
Since The Plasters formed, they have come a long way in only a few months, practicing frequently and have been focusing on improving their habits since they have been performing almost every weekend, according to Mahboubian.
“I would say as a band when we don’t have big shows coming up, we probably practice once or twice a week,” Mahboubian said. “But when we have a bigger show, like opening for Gunna, we practice every day of the week. Something that we’ve recently tried to stop doing is rehearsing the day of the show. We’re crammers at heart.”
Cantine added that there have been a lot of good chances to get their music out there.
“There’s always opportunities because we have such a good little music community at [BU],” Cantine said. “But obviously we just got blessed and played at Spring Fling, which was awesome, that was the biggest crowd we’ve ever played in front of. I think that was true for everyone in the band. We were super grateful for that. There are tons of community events, all the time, that we play at too.”
He also spoke on behalf of the band about their experience being able to open at this year’s Spring Fling concert.
“It was definitely like an honor to be told that you deserve to be doing that in the first place,” Cantine said. “I think that was a common feeling among all of us, being a little bit shocked that we were thrown into that opportunity. But we are all really proud of how it went, think we deserved it and are proud to have been given the opportunity.”
Mahboubian said the band has been gaining some popularity after Spring Fling, especially among students, and explained some of their upcoming projects to be on the lookout for.
“We are recording an album right now, yeah, I don’t want to say too much about that, but things are definitely brewing,” Mahboubian said. “The album will definitely come out at the beginning of the summer. There are some hits on there that’ll be some fun summer songs I think. We’re taking the next step, which will be fun. Someone told me at [the Spring Fling concert] that people were ‘Shazaming’ our songs. So, soon you’ll be able to Shazam us when we play.”
For The Plasters, it is about more than just music. Mahboubian said that although they have made a lot of progress, they still have a long way to go.
“I think what [Cantine] and I always looked to and still look to is kind of to create that community that we were surrounded by, and I honestly think we’ve done quite a good job of that so far,” Mahboubian said. “But we’re not finished.”
Follow The Plasters on Instagram @theplastersband