Backstage, there’s the sound of distant chatter and instruments being tuned, along with the quiet buzz of the speakers. Onstage, Neverless soundchecks their equipment while preparing for their next performance.

This teenage punk-rock band is based in Londonderry and draws inspiration from bands such as Blink 182, New Found Glory and Yellowcard. They are described by fan, junior Norabelle Berlien, as having “an incredibly expressive, intense, and raw sound.” 

Senior Jacob Sevigny is the band’s lead singer and songwriter, as well as a guitarist. 

“For the past four years I’ve been writing my own songs,” Sevigny said. “I got into it originally because I’ve always wanted to show people my craft and find ways to express myself through my music.”

Though Sevigny is “passionate” about music and songwriting, it’s not always a quick and easy task. The songwriting process “definitely takes some time,” with lyrics being “the hard part.”

“[Songwriting] usually starts with me writing a riff or finding some chords to get the structure of the song. [Lyrics] usually take double the time it takes to write the guitar part for the song.”

But it doesn’t end there, after the song is written, it is learned and workshopped by the rest of the band. 

“We chunk out bits and pieces of the song until we have it fully down,” Sevigny said. “These practices can last a while, depending on the difficulty of the song. We usually work on it for most of the practice until we understand the overall structure, and build from there.” 

Neverless originally went under the name “Longshot,” a band which featured Sevigny and a few LHS alumni. The band often played summertime shows at the town common, but when summer ended, the majority of members went off to college. That’s when senior Gabe Dygd stepped in.

“When I started, [I was just] going to be playing guitar,” Dygd said. “Later on Jacob asked me to play bass guitar, which I’d never played until jamming with them. I ended up picking up bass guitar and that’s how we became Neverless.” 

However, Dygd’s musical journey started in fifth grade, long before joining Neverless. Dygd began playing drums and later on learned to play guitar.

“I enjoyed playing guitar a lot more because it was so different from what I was used to,” Dygd said. “I continued learning and progressing my skills, I wanted to start playing with other people.”

Despite Neverless writing some of their own music, the group doesn’t shy away from covering music from other punk-rock bands.

“I’ve been really enjoying doing Blink-182 covers with Neverless,” Dygd said. “Jacob and I swap back and forth with our vocals and it’s super fun and high energy between us.” 

No matter what challenges the band encounters, Dygd and Sevigny work together to be the best that they can be.

“[We] play off each other really well and find ourselves just having fun in our rehearsals,” Dygd said. “ It’s a great environment to be around.”