By Joshua M. Pratt

The list of quality bands with ties to Northeastern grew once again during the last major snowstorm in New England. Lock and Key, an upcoming punk band, got snowed in at New Alliance Studios in Boston with Ethan Dussualt, a producer for the band. When the snow melted and the sun shined, they were finished with their “No Fate” EP, which they premiered at a CD release party last Monday at the Middle East Club in Cambridge.

To release this record, the band — Ryan Shanahan, lead singer and guitarist; Mike Vera, guitarist and background vocals; Josh Hoey, bass; and Keith “Trash” Casella, drummer — has been very busy. Besides playing local shows every weekend, the band bought a van and an east coast tour was coordinated.

After hearing the EP, Matt Dumont, a senior criminal justice major, said, “I like their music. [It] reminds me of the band Hot Water Music. I think it’s cool that good bands that play punk rock attend NU.”

At the April 7 release, Lock and Key took the stage second and rocked the house. A good portion of the crowd seemed to get into their set. The band is heading back to Cambridge this Friday to play at TT and the Bear’s Place with Quick Fix, Mind Like Water and Drexel.

When asked what he thought of Lock and Key opening, Marc Flynn, of the headlining band Drexel, said, “I’m really excited to have Lock and Key playing with us at TT’s this weekend. They totally don’t suck at all, not even a little. I heard one of the other bands wears leather pants and mesh shirts, and I know Lock and Key doesn’t wear that, so they’ll help balance it out. But honestly we’re really happy to have them play.”

The Northeastern News got a chance to ask lead singer Shanahan a couple questions after their mini-tour this weekend in Pennsylvania.

The Northeastern News: How did you guys meet?

Shanahan: Trash and I met in high school. We played in a fast beat, hardcore punk type band for a couple years called Fastlane. When we disbanded we started this new band just to keep playing and try out new ideas. When we realized that we had something serious going, something that we were actually proud of … we started making a real effort to do it full-time. A friend of ours from another band that had broken up ike jumped on to play guitar, and our bass player, Josh, was one of a few who answered a “bass player wanted” ad.

The News: Who’s in the band and what do you guys do when you’re not rocking it out on stage?

Shanahan: Trash plays drums, works full time at a record store and lives in good ‘ol Watertown, Mass. Josh plays bass, grew up in N.J., and is a journalism major at Emerson College. Mike plays guitar and sings backup, works full time at Staples, and just graduated from AI with a degree in music production. I play guitar and sing, I will be graduating NU with a music industry degree next spring, and I work part time at a hotel here in Boston.

The News: What are your goals and pursuits? What do you want from playing?

Shanahan: We’ve been working our asses off with this band and having a blast doing it. In this first year we’ve written and recorded our first EP for Irresponsible Records. We bought our first van, and did our first east coast tour. Today we just got back from a small weekend tour in Penn. and plan on touring and playing as much shows as we possibly can. It’s the only way to truly grow as a band and it’s the only thing that really makes us happy. We’re honestly just so happy to have made it this far so quickly. We hope we can continue to make progress and elevate to the status of a full time touring band, meeting new people around the country and building a solid fan base, and learning as much as we possibly can along the way.

Lock and Key play this Friday at TT’s. For more information on the band, Mp3’s and more tour dates, check out lockandkeyrock.com.