A lot of bands have what it takes to make it in the industry, but they don’t have the dedication that it takes. Here’s one band that could very well be it: Fatkid Dodgeball.

Based in the Ohio State area, the fatkids play rock ‘n’ Roll and refuse to be classified as anything else. They have a large audience in Columbus and growing group of listeners in the Springfield area.

In March, they placed third in the Budweiser True Music: Battle of the Bands at Promowest Pavilion. They have been offered a couple recording deals, but they are holding out for the best one. They are determined to make it big, and with their hard work and talent, they’re bound to do it.

Brian Frank, vocalist and bass guitarist, writes the music, along with Brian Turnbull, who plays acoustic guitar and does vocals.

Casey Potts, who went to Midway Elementary and Fairborn High School, plays lead electric guitar. Jon Lawrence is the newest addition to the band. He plays drums, keyboards, and mixes recordings in his studio, Blue Radio Recording.

I had a chance to sit down with the band.

When did each of you start playing?
Brian Frank (BF): I started when I was about 13. Brian Turnbull (BT): I was about 17. Jon Lawrence (JL): I picked up my first drumsticks when I was about 15. Casey Potts (CP): I was 12. Thank God, I sucked at sports.

When you were in high school, what did you see yourself doing at this point?
CP: I pictured graduating college, and I’m still working on that. But I always knew I’d be in a band. JL: I thought I’d graduate from Kent State and be a teacher, but now I realize that’s definitely not what I want to do. I want to be a rock star. BT: I did the same thing. I came to Ohio State and I was going to go into communications. That fell through. BF: I just always wanted to be in a band, doing something creative. I used college as sort of a back up plan. I was hoping I’d be at least where I am right now, and I think things are going pretty well.

What’s one thing you wish you had done differently in high school?
BF: I wish I had known that the cool people in school aren’t the football players, or I would have focused more on my music. JL: I’ve got to say that I’m pretty satisfied with my high school career. I mean, I got through it. I learned how to play some instruments and I had fun, so no regrets. CP: I would have studied more. JL: Cut the mullet, dude. CP: (Laughing) yeah, I would have cut the mullet.

In three words, sum up your years in high school.
BT: Kind of dorky. JL: Time well spent. You get educated and you do your thing. BF: Biding my time. CP: No girlfriend. BF: Yeah that would be awesome if we, you know, weren’t doing an interview, and that wasn’t going to be in the paper. CP: OK, OK, fun-short-cool. BF: that sounds like you. CP: Me and my experience.

Who was your greatest musical influence?
BT: Guns and Roses. That’s what got me into music. It’s their stage presence and everything about them. That’s what introduced me to rock. BF: Mine is not a musician, it’s my aunt. When I was 5 and everyone else was running around in sand boxes, my aunt was introducing me to the Beatles. I was 5 years old and I rocked the Beatles and The Monkees. Ever since then I’ve just loved music. If I had to pick one band, though, it would be the Beatles. JL: NOFX, definitely CP: I’d say Led Zepplin. Classic, guitar-based rock.

How did the four of you get together?
BF: Online dating service. BT: No. no. Brian and I went to the same high school. BF: but I didn’t know him because he was a dork. BT: See a band that I was in had a show and our bassist quit. Our drummer introduced us (to him) and he learned 13 songs in a day and we played a graduation party. We’ve played together ever since. Casey was introduced to us by a mutual friend, and we met Jon through some friends of Brian’s. BF: I bartended at a bar where Jon’s roommates went. We’d been looking for a drummer for about a year…I heard his CD and that was it. The rest is history. CP: So basically, we met through friends of friends. Through the grapevine.

OK, so why “Fatkid Dodgeball”?
JL: Yeah I want to know that too. BF: For a long time we were called “Turnbull” because we were just to lazy to think of a band name> then we were “Upper 90” because our old guitarist like soccer a lot, and we couldn’t figure it out. He tried to explain it and we didn’t get it. So we were throwing names around and I had this roommate who came downstairs one time when we were laying around on couches and he said, “All right guys, I’m out like a fatkid in dodgeball.” Twenty minutes later I was like, “that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.” So I wrote it down. CP: that was the only one we could agree on. One was “Underground Beef” or “The Sensitive Linebackers.” JL: I am so glad you didn’t go with either of those.

How would you classify your music? Rock ‘n’ roll?
BT: We’ve talked about this and we don’t think we can be anything else. BF: I don’t think there should be categories because if you choose one you automatically turn some people off to your music. It’s easier to just say rock ‘n’ roll because you listen to it and if you dig it, you dig it.

All right, what’s next?
JL: realistically, I think we want to put out a couple of good albums and get them out there. Hopefully, in a year or two we’ll be on a label and getting semi-national exposure. BT: I want to tour. BF: Yeah, I wantmusic to take us across the country. CP: I’m not a big fan of cold weather, so if our band could get us somewhere where there’s sand…

Any advice for young bands?
BF: Don’t quit. Just keep on playing, keep on practicing. There are so many good bands and the only thing that keeps them from playing is that they’re lazy. They just don’t have the stick-to-itiveness. You just have to keep going.