Poor Richard

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Not even a year ago, in the dim days of January, three musicians came together to create something original, loud, and expressive. That something was Poor Richard.

Poor Richard is a garage band that consists of seniors Grant Diffee, Patrick Finnegan, and Connor Griffin. It all began when Diffee met Finnegan while they were auditioning for the spring play A Few Good Men.

The two discussed their aspirations as musicians and decided to jam together. A few weeks later, the duo discovered Connor Griffin’s uncanny talent as a drummer via his Instagram, and the trio was born.

The three found instant chemistry in their similar musical tastes and inspirations, and the bond is visible in person.

Bassist Grant Diffee plays on stage.

Diffee’s love of music began when he was about ten years old and started playing his uncle’s old guitar. “I picked up bass in junior high school and had an on-again off-again relationship with it until Poor Richard. I learned most of what I know now on Rocksmith,”  said Diffee, who now plays bass and backing vocals.

Diffee’s brother has a long standing friendship with Green Day’s guitarist, and that sparked his initial interest in music. “My favorite bassists are probably Flea and Les Claypool,” said Diffee. However, he admitted his first singing experience was a high school musical song in a middle school talent show.

Finnegan picked up guitar a year before Poor Richard’s conception and took formal lessons for only four months, and played piano when he was young. His first live performance was playing a Green Day song in a talent show; he said that James Hetfield from Metallica was among his favorites, along with Dave Grohl of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder.

Griffin’s first exposure was during a Catholic Schools Week American Idol imitation when he sang a track from the animated film Chicken Little. His favorite drummer was Neil Pert of Rush. Griffin is a powerful drummer and brings a lot to the table. He began drumming at about eight. He said, “I got into music because of my brother who plays guitar, but I got into drums because I didn’t want to imitate him.”

Poor Richard currently performs mostly covers of artists they like, but they also have written some original material collaboratively. They play a mix of hard rock alternative rock along with some new rock. Their first show was September 12 at Vino’s Brewpub as part of “Young Blood Night.”

“It was a miracle this band even formed,” said Finnegan. “We all found each other by complete accident.”

When talking about their first real gig at Vino’s, Diffee said “Two of the other bands were from Catholic. There’s a lot of musical talent here that isn’t just in schola or the school band.”

The three all acted very comfortably around each other despite having only been friends for a few months. “Chemistry in a band is important,” said Griffin. “If you don’t complement one another off stage, you won’t on stage either.”

Diffee said “I wouldn’t mind if we went big, I love music and hope to make some sort of career out of it. We’re moving into creative territory.” Said Diffee, “Lately we’ve been writing more and are working in getting some recording equipment. If everything goes smoothly we could have a demo tape by December.”

Video provided by guitarist Patrick Finnegan

Dakota Case

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