Academic excellence is inextricably linked with musical ability here at Wake Forest University. Joining the ranks of Chicken Scratch and Scratch & Co., newer student bands Winston Station and Settle Down ventured beyond campus to perform at The Ramkat on Thursday, Jan. 29.
The two bands took to the Ramkat stage, performing 90-minute sets for students and locals alike.
Winston Station
Winston Station, which has an established relationship with Andy Tenille, Wake Forest alum and co-owner of The Ramkat, invited the newer Settle Down to perform alongside them.
“They like the same music, it seems, and were buddies with some of those guys,” DeNatele commented about what motivated this decision. “Why not give them the same chance? We’re lucky enough to have set this up and we want to share the wealth.”
“I felt like that was the most obvious thing to do,” Ashley added.
Winston Station is composed of DeNatale on lead vocals and guitar, Wesley Ashley on rhythm guitar and backup vocals, lead guitarist sophomore Sutton Collins, sophomore Luke Laczynski on bass guitar, sophomore Phil Susi on keyboard and Luke Hegner, a senior at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, on drums. The latter two are recent additions to the band.
When sophomore Grey DeNatele, the lead guitarist and singer of Winston Station, was asked when the band first began playing, he was able to recall the exact date, October 4th, 2024.
“How do you remember that?”
“I just bought in,” DeNatele said.
The friends kick-started their career in the basement of Scales Fine Arts Center, where they converted a vacant marching band closet into a practice room. Since then, Winston Station has produced numerous singles. They performed one, titled “Human Summers,” at The Ramkat.
Settle Down
While Winton Station has found a solid footing within the Wake Forest social scene since their debut last fall, Settle Down has only recently emerged from the depths of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity basement with a similar objective: to perform good music.
The five bandmates of Settle Down began playing together in the fall of 2025, when lead guitarist, senior Tristan Stump, and bassist sophomore Simon Vulliez, recruited sophomore Asher Lewis to play the keyboard, sophomore Tyler Mashewari for lead vocals and junior Meade Evans for drums.
They were inspired to take the name “Settle Down” after repeated noise complaints from older members of Delta Kappa Epsilon when the band practiced in the basement of the fraternity house.
‘Settle Down’ is not a term that people use a lot or associate with music, for that matter,” Evans said. “It’s kind of a testament to the band.”
As the only band member who is not in Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE), Evans’ introduction to Settle Down was a mere coincidence.
“I was in Accounting with [Stump] and asked if he wanted to study,” Evans said. “He told me he had band practice and said they were actually looking for a drummer. So I came down and played, and obviously I did OK.”
While preparing for Stump’s absence after his graduation, Vulliez is hopeful that the band will persevere.
“[Stump] has pretty tough shoes to fill, but our drummer is a junior and the rest are sophomores, so hopefully we’ll be able to continue next year,” Vulliez said. “I really want to play for other schools and fraternities because I think it’s cool to play for more unique crowds.”
While Settle Down mainly performs indie rock covers, the band is working to release a few original singles within the next year.
The Bond of a band
While both bands have invested copious personal time and funds into advancing their music, they view the rewards as far outweighing the cost.
“It can be a little stressful, having to work together with a lot of different people with a lot of different ideas,” Stump said. “But it helps you learn how to work better in a team and take in other people’s input.”
DeNatele shared a similar sentiment.
“My favorite part of being in this band is having a completely separate group of friends that are personal to me,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a better bond than sharing music with each other. There are some challenges, but it’s all glorified in the end because we get through them.”
The bands have both evolved since their respective debuts, learning to lean on one another in times of uncertainty.
“It’s definitely nerve racking to think I’ll be playing for a lot of people I’ve never played [for] before,” Vulliez said. “But it’s comforting to know there’s five other guys out there feeling those same emotions.”
Looking to the Future
To varying degrees, both Settle Down and Winston Station see their careers advancing beyond the bounds of frat parties. They hope to continue to appear across Winston-Salem and say they will bring Wake Forest with them as they make their mark on professional music.
