UT Tyler Students Use Band to Make a Difference

February 22, 2007

John Hetherington

John Hetherington and Brian Braquet, members of the band Sterling and juniors at The University of Texas at Tyler, are using their sound to help children in Africa.

Sterling was recently chosen second runner up in a national battle of the bands competition, organized by KCA Rebels, a non-profit organization that raises money to assist children in Africa that have the HIV/AIDS virus.

Sterling was selected one of the top five bands out of 20,000 that auditioned.

“We’ve been together for three years, but I always thought we were good enough,” said Hetherington.

The band is made up of four socially conscience men whose goal is to ‘make noise that makes things happen.’

The business majors, along with Trevor Tull and Jim Buie, make up this musical foursome who entered songs off of their CD Forward Rewind.

“We got an email from a friend saying we should upload our music for the competition,” said Braquet. “We didn’t hear anything for two months. Then we just got a phone call.”

Brian Braquet

Sterling also has partnered with other socially conscience organizations like ONE, which focuses on fighting poverty world wide.

“We don’t enter many contests, unless they promote something we stand for,” said Hetherington.

The band feels like this is only the tip of the iceberg and plan on taking this trip as far as they can. They might have the opportunity to go on tour.

“This competition rejuvenated me on why I think we’re supposed to do this. We want to make the little voice heard. We want to change the world,” said Braquet.

For more information, contact Sterling at www.myspace.com/sterling.