KODA playing at Midway during the annual bye-week bar crawl on Oct. 19. Credit: Courtesy of KODA
If students have wandered around campus on a game day or visited any of High Street’s staple bars, they’ve probably heard local rock band KODA playing a show.
Made up of four Ohio State students — keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Jackson Buss, a fifth-year in strategic communications, bassist Jake Brewer, a fourth-year in consumer finance, lead guitarist Jake Klausner, a graduate student in biomedical engineering and drummer Brian Foster, a fourth-year in computer science and engineering — and one St. Louis native — vocalist Jake Juenger, a May 2024 Miami University graduate — KODA is a growing force to be reckoned with in Ohio’s college rock scene.
Now, the quintet is graduating from classic covers to their own gritty rock sound with their debut single “Smoke Show,” which is set to release on all streaming services Friday.
Juenger said with the band’s first single, it hopes to capture members’ high energy and passion for their craft, with influences ranging from Cleveland-born acts like The Black Keys to ‘80s rock legends such as Led Zeppelin.
“It’s really a breaking-the-door-down kind of song for us,” Juenger said. “It’s gritty, it’s raw, it brings that energy straight out of the gate. It’s the kind of song that, every time you play it, whether people know it or not, is an introduction to who we’re going to be as a band and who we want to be as artists.”
Buss said the band initially formed in 2020, with just three members to start — himself, Brewer and Klausner. The group often played graduation parties and small venues, until they found their lead singer at Miami University in Oxford during spring 2021, he said.
From left to right: Jake Klausner (lead guitar), Jackson Buss (rhythm guitar), Jake Juenger (lead singer), Jake Brewer (bassist) and Brian Foster (drummer). Credit: Courtesy of KODA
“I started [school] at Miami in Oxford and met [Juenger] one night, just by [coincidence],” Buss said. “He was a really great guy, and we just kind of moved forward with starting a band with him, [building] our group from there.”
Klausner said once he joined the others, he knew the band could benefit from traveling to Nashville, Tennessee and studying the city’s grassroots rock scene.
“When [Buss] and I were first starting, some things we wanted to consider were that we didn’t really have any original music, no one would want to hear it from an unknown band, and we needed to play songs that were going to get people’s attention,” Klausner said. “So, we went to Nashville, the music capital of the world, and we paid attention to the performers at the bars there, like what kind of music they were playing and what was drawing in crowds.”
After returning from Tennessee, Buss said it was all about finding a venue that would book KODA. He said it was Matt Herron, owner of the Library Bar, who finally gave the band a chance, though they had to lie — saying they had played other bars before — to get the gig.
“It was a really big white lie that got us the gig,” Buss said. “We went straight up to [Herron] and asked him if we could play there, and he said, ‘Yes, but if your s*** sucks, I’ll pull the plug.’”
Buss said in the weeks leading up to that first gig, the entire band felt pressure to make the show a good one.
“We believed in ourselves. We thought we could do it,” Buss said. “We practiced for three weeks straight, for three to four hours a day, just blisters and bloody fretboards. We wanted to get primed and ready to go for this gig, and it definitely paid off.”
With exit signs blocked and fire codes broken, Juenger said the group managed to attract the attention of many High Street partygoers, curating a line that spanned blocks away to neighboring bar Threes Above High.
“Once we started playing, it got louder and louder. They opened up the patio window and just let the sound go throughout High Street, and it just filled it and kept drawing more people in,” Buss said. “We’re so grateful to [Herron] because, at the time, nobody was going to let us play anywhere else.”
Buss said following the success of the Library Bar show, requests for KODA to play at Greek-life events and other near-campus bars came flooding in.
“We felt really confident after that and wanted to start making some of our own music,” Buss said.
Brewer said having established a repertoire of covers spanning from Mötley Crüe to the Backseat Lovers, KODA spent the first four years of its career finding its distinct sound as a band.
“We did everything, anything, that we thought would go well in a bar setting, that people would enjoy listening to, and just had a good overall energy that we could blend together,” Brewer said. “In terms of the songs we play, it’s heavier stuff; I would say it’s loud, it’s fast, but I think it kind of goes with how we are as a group. We like to play stuff that has a good vibe, just energetic, that you can dance to and have a good time.”
Juenger said the band’s newest member, Foster — who joined the band in June after KODA’s former drummer departed from the group to move back home — also contributed a great deal to the band’s sound.
“In the short time that we’ve had [Foster], he’s brought so many new ideas right off the bat,” Juenger said. “It has completely changed the dynamic of the band in a positive way.”
Foster — a Cleveland native, longtime musician and younger brother to indie-rock band Foster the People’s frontman, Mark Foster — said music has always been in his bloodline. Upon joining the band, Brian Foster said he hoped to bring a fresh perspective to the studio.
“Being able to have this open communication [and] being able to have a positive feedback loop, it definitely helps our creative process,” Brian Foster said. “I think that we were able to collaborate differently in the studio, just by hearing everyone else more clearly and working well together on the spot.”
As for the band’s name, Klausner said it comes from a favorite childhood Disney film depicting the sanctity of brotherhood.
“Originally, we thought of calling ourselves ‘Jake’s Dilemma,’” Klausner said in reference to three members of the band being named Jake. “Growing up, there was this movie my brother and I would watch called ‘Brother Bear,’ and I always really appreciated the theme of it. The little bear, his name is Koda, and I loved the idea of paying homage to brotherhood as a band.”
With the ultimate goal of keeping energy high, fortifying its brotherly love and using music as a universal connector, Klausner said students and fans can look forward to more upcoming KODA shows in Columbus, an EP and an album coming in 2025.
“Right now, it’s really just about getting an EP out in the next two months, then an album next year and just connecting with other bands in Ohio that want to come to Columbus,” Klausner said.
For more information about KODA, including upcoming show dates and any release updates, visit the band’s Instagram page.
