Class of 2002

JOEL SCHUDSON & HENRY GUMMER want to "get people moving."

"Bravo Silva!" Shamriev's artful bellow in Chekhov's The Seagull, is perfectly fitted to Joel Schudson (a.k.a. Bravo) and Henry Gummer's (Silva) interpretation of pop-rock, what Paper Magazine describes as "air-tight, no-frills pop that is literate, melancholy and still catchy."

Playing together since their first day at Dartmouth (fortunately, they were posted to the same floor in the Choates), guitarist Schudson and vocalist Gummer formed a band called The Well, played numerous shows at Dartmouth and cut a short album their senior year. But they only "got serious," they say, when they moved to New York City as Bravo Silva. "We started listening to bands doing things we couldn't begin to understand," Schudson says, "which we resisted at first—then we began learning." "We started to understand amps, tools, pedals, "adds Gummer, "which meant that we really began to understand 'sound.' "

They tick off their influences: 1980s music, classic radio rock such as Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, early Police ("but slowed down"), The Cure. "We want to create a context," says Schudson. "When you take a sound from one era, and backdrop it with a style from a different era, you have something new."

Their goal: "To get people moving." They've been doing just that at all the hot spots in N.Y.C.—including The Syrup Room, where they premiered their self-titled debut album—and L.A., where they will produce their second album. For details on shows and to hear songs, go to www.bravosilva.com.