To many, Owatonna may seem to be another small town in Minnesota, but something those people may not realize is that Owatonna is bustling with ambitious musicians  that dream of having moments in the spotlight. Seniors Hunter Johnson and Gavin Karow are just an example of the multitude of independent musicians in town. The two students decided to start making music together during middle school, and have been making music together since then.

Going under the band name Five In The Morning, the band’s beginning stemmed from Karow’s love for music. Karow said, “I’ve always wanted to be in a band, I just thought the whole idea was really cool.”

Five In The Morning primarily produces alternative rock music, taking slight inspiration from artists such as Twenty One Pilots, Pharrell Williams, Calvin Harris and others. Johnson said,  “We take influence from artists, but we really try to make our own sound as well and be our own thing”. Karow and Johnson are not strangers to live performances either. Karow said,“We would do open mics near Old Town Bagel and perform concerts in the summer in Central Park and we also did livestreams during COVID.” Their latest live performance was during this year’s NHS talent show at Owatonna Senior High School.

When it comes to writing music, Karow and Johnson like to stay in touch with their feelings, writing lyrics that reflect their emotions, Karow said, “There are a bunch of songs that I write that touch into personal experiences I’ve had, if I’m feeling certain emotions, I put those feelings into my lyrics.” Johnson also spoke about the process of their writing. He said, “It kind of goes off of what’s catchy as well, so we take these experiences and we try to figure out how we can make it so that people would want to listen to it.”

Currently, the band is working on releasing their single “Dreaming” as well as an album sometime in the summer. Their music can be found on Spotify and Apple Music under the name Five In The Morning.