Elmhurst University band Raspberry Milkshake goes ‘international’

Photo by — Zachary Stephenson

Raspberry Milkshake is a new variety band that was founded by two Elmhurst University music students, Dylan Catapat and Joseph Sarabia. The band recently released a new song called “New World” after their debut single, “<3.”

The band’s formation was spontaneous, as the duo stated that they both were interested in making a song for their own amusement. 

“We were just working on a song, just for fun, but then ended up liking it a lot,” said Sarabia.  “So, we kept working on it overnight.” 

Sarabia continued by saying that “When it came the time to put the song out, I was like ‘we needed a name to put it on,’ and both of us agreed that it would be good to form a band because everything would be much easier.”

Beside the coincidental formation of the band, the name, Raspberry Milkshake, was also an “unrehearsed” occurrence.

“We went through a bunch of names, but we chose this name just because back at home, my mom makes great blueberry milkshakes,” Sarabia stated. “Yes, blueberry milkshakes, not raspberry.”

Sarabia continued, “So, I thought this was a cool name and asked Dylan what he thought about this. He was like ‘it is not bad, but it has to have something to do with me, too.’ Then we remembered that Dylan loves raspberries, and he eats them all the time. So, we combined one to another and that is how the name Raspberry Milkshake was formed.”

While forming the new band was exciting, it was inevitable that Catapat and Sarabia would run into obstacles along the way. 

“There were a lot of difficulties at first,” said Sarabia. “The biggest one is that instead of us being in a setting of just performing, we are now recording too. We have to make sure it sounds right, and we have to mix it, which is like learning a whole new instrument for us.”

Sarabia continued, “The difficulties did not really come in the making of the music, it comes in the process of making it just sound good. Not even the actual musical content, but the sound that comes out.”

The band made their debut performance at EU’s talent show, EU on The Rise.

“When I and Dylan got there, and we saw the whole setup in Founders [Lounge], we were both like ‘wow, okay, this is for real,’” Sarabia said.  “We thought it was just only one song, you go up, you perform, and you are done. But after we were done, I and Dylan both had big ole smiles and gave each other a big hug.”

Sarabia continued, “It was very cool — a very emotional moment especially considering that [when] we made the song, we did not think even, like, in a couple of months we could perform it on such a good stage like EU on the Rise.”

When it comes to going international, the band recalled one funny story that happened when their debut single was released. 

“One of our good friends from Vietnam loves the first song we released on Spotify called ‘<3,’” Catapat said. “He made all his friends back home stream the song at one point. Therefore, what happened is that our most listen[ed] country was actually Vietnam at that point. So, there was an ongoing joke between us, like, ‘Wow we made it internationally.’”

Raspberry Milkshake’s biggest goal is to release an album and to be able to perform their collection of songs in a concert one day.

Graphic by — Rachel Fratt