Sophomore Jackson Bogomolny and his brother, BMS eighth-grader Chandler Bogomolny placed first at the 18th Tri-C High School Rock Off with their band Backstage Politics on Feb. 1.

According to the Rock Off’s main website, the band was among 55 semifinalists who competed at the House of Blues in downtown Cleveland for up to $1000 dollars in prizes.

The band consists of Jackson playing the guitar, Chandler on bass, Sam Porter, an eighth-grader from University School, on the drums, Tessa Murthy, a Hathaway Brown junior, with her keyboard and Liz Bullock, a Lake Catholic sophomore, on vocals.

Jackson said one of his most memorable moments from the Rock Off was during the first round.

“I honestly didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “I just knew I liked the other bands and thought they played well.”

Chandler enjoyed listening to other bands as well. “Going to the semifinals and watching others play was an amazing experience.

Although going to the semifinals and later, the finals, was an exhilarating experience for the brothers, the path to success was filled with sweat and tears.

“Writing all that music with the time we had was the hardest part. We would get together each weekend at one of our houses and practice a lot,” Jackson said.

“We’re a pretty new band,” Chandler said. “We had to get lots of material recorded and had to do a lot of stuff before semifinals, so time was the biggest problem.”

Jackson, who has been playing the guitar for 11 years, joined the band with his brother a few months prior to the Rock Off.

“Sam Porter, our drummer, messaged me on Facebook one day,” Jackson said.

“He said ‘Hey, do you want to start a band?’ I said ‘Yes,’ so we all got together and played some music. We didn’t even know the other [band] members before this.”

Porter, a long-time friend of Chandler, stumbled upon the idea when he noticed an ad for the competition.

“I saw a flyer for the High School Rockoff, and wanted to play some music, so I got Chandler and Jackson and we started playing some reggae,” Porter said.

“[Reggae] is fun to play, pretty chill and laid back … It’s some cool stuff.”

“All the [other] performers were similar,” said senior Max Bleich, who attended the Rock Off. “They were all rock bands, they were all bands that were classic rock, punk rock, alternative rock..But the difference in Backstage Politics had a different sound. They were playing reggae, and nobody else was playing anything like that.”

The two brothers enjoy reggae as a genre the most. Jackson said he is primarily influenced by  a South Bay reggae band, Fortunate Youth, while Chandler prefers Black Uhuru, a Jamaican reggae band.

According to Jackson, the band is planning to release an album, and are currently working on songwriting and practicing for any new events they can take part in, including a studio recorded show.

Go to Cleveland.com’s Tri-C Rock Off website for a video of their performance, and the Backstage Politics Facebook page has more updates on the band.