Formerly known as Willy and the Hoons, the house band of Phi Kappa Psi was in a difficult position in spring 2023. The bulk of its members were set to graduate, and in order to remain active, the group needed new blood. That was when fourth-year College student Daniel Johnston and fourth-year Commerce student Zachary Fernandez joined the band that would then become the Pocket 9s.
“One [second-year] was sticking around. He knew that he wanted to continue the band, and he knew that I played guitar.” Johnston said. “Zach [Fernandez] lived across the hall from me when we were first years, and I knew that he played the drums, so we started connecting pieces together to try to keep the band going, and luckily, it worked out.”
One of these pieces was fourth-year College student Cameron Holdych, who was brought on in 2024 to replace a guitarist studying abroad — a temporary position that quickly became a permanent one after the group started playing together.
“We were a much younger band, and also the new band … at U.Va.,” Holdych said. “We’d only been around for a couple months, only played a couple gigs."
That version of the Pocket 9s is very different from the band of today, whose sets can draw a line all the way from Ellie’s Country Club to Mincer’s. Three years following their own recruitment, Johnston, Holdych and Fernandez have pieced together the same proverbial puzzle to usher in a new generation for the band.
In a setting where shifting commitments and impending diplomas make lineup changes an inevitability, they embraced the latest round of turnover as an opportunity to further establish themselves musically. The addition of four new members this past fall allowed the group to refine its sound, expand its setlists and sustain its momentum.
The first of these additions is second-year Commerce student and singer Alex Smyth, who characterizes his role with the Pocket 9s as more of a natural evolution into the spotlight than a clear decision to seek it out. Somewhat surprisingly given the ease with which he commands the stage and microphone, Smyth’s previous band experience was as a guitarist.
“I never set out to be a frontman,” Smyth said. “Singing started as something secondary, but over time it became clear that my voice was another instrument I hadn’t fully explored yet. The Pocket 9s gave me the space to take that seriously and see what it could become.”
Smyth is not the only new member taking on a role somewhat foreign to him. Second-year Engineering student Teddy Vaughan was also previously a guitarist, until Holdych brought him onto the Pocket 9s to play the bass.
“I didn't really ever play bass before, but it's very similar to guitar,” Vaughan said. “I spent three weeks where bass was pretty much the only thing I did to get the technique down, but it paid off, it's a lot of fun.”
Just as Vaughan was recruited by Holdych, third-year College student Megan Myers was introduced to the Pocket 9s by one of the band’s previous lead singers. In addition to singing for the Pocket 9s, she serves as the Music Director for the Virginia Belles, one of the many a cappella groups present on Grounds — with a very different gear of performance, according to Myers.
“With the Belles, I focus on blend and how my voice fits within a group of people, while with the band there are more moving pieces, and I’m focused on my own rhythm and phrasing,” Myers said. “I love both because they exercise different parts of being a musician."
Second-year College and Engineering student Mitchell Milias completes the group on the keys. Milias grew up as a pianist and a member of a band, and said he was looking to find that same musical outlet in college. He, like Smyth, is a member of Phi Kappa Psi, so Johnston and the Pocket 9s had been on his radar during his first year. More specifically, he knew the previous keyboardist was set to graduate in 2025, and took the opportunity to make his presence known.
“I just kind of bothered him for a couple months until he gave me a chance,” Milias said. “The keyboard[ist] was gone one week, and so I stepped in and played five songs ... I guess I did well enough.”
With fresh talent on hand, the current school year has been a showcase for this new generation of Pocket 9s, who have drawn massive crowds to their latest two performances at Phi Kappa Psi and Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
For Johnston, Fernandez and Holdych, this semester is about having fun while making sure the younger players are prepared to take on the leadership of the band following the trio's graduation this spring.
“We didn’t have anybody to mentor us, to show us how to do this stuff,” Holdych said. “I think hopefully that’s what we’re able to pass down to the new guys, instead of them just firing in the dark. We’ve shown them how you build a setlist, how you reach out to people.”
Fernandez noted how these processes have changed even since he joined the Pocket 9s back in 2023. With the band’s growth has come new freedom in choosing everything from gigs to songs — the latter sometimes on the fly.
“We’ll change our setlist in the middle of playing for two hours because … we want to keep [the energy] higher,” Fernandez said. “We’re at the point now where we can just mess around, and we’re enjoying ourselves, and everyone’s enjoying it.”
These gigs encompass anything from fraternity parties to bar shows to sorority formals. Holdych cited a Christmas formal they played at The Southern Café and Music Hall last semester as a particularly exciting venue and setup, while Johnston and Vaughan recalled their performances at Coupe’s and Ellie’s over Young Alumni Reunion weekend in the fall.
“The band members that graduated last year actually came up and played a couple songs for YAR with us, which was really cool,” Johnston said.
Crowds at these events vary greatly, and the Pocket 9s in turn vary their setlists based on a history of trial and error, according to Holdych. Those initial years of building the band’s identity were critical in determining what songs work for what audiences, whether that is slower singalongs like Coldplay’s “Yellow” and the Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” or higher energy classics like Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie” and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird.”
“I just think anything we can put our own touch on, that makes it fun. A lot of those songs, we skew off of the originals and try to make them our own in some way,” Smyth said.
Milias added that these original spins are shaped by the energy of the crowd — whether that is reflecting it or amplifying it.
“The slower songs we will make louder and more up tempo,” Milias said. “More of a rock spin on songs to keep the energy of the set high and align with what we want to play.”
Not only that, but the band is working on some originals of their own — one of several projects underway for the upcoming semester. Three encores at their semester-opening performance at Phi Kappa Psi signal the energy the Pocket 9s hope to carry into the upcoming months. With new members, new material and new momentum spurring them forward, the Pocket 9s are all in.
Read More
On Repeat: Songs for every emotion of a situationship
By Eshani Patel | 15 hours agoFor relationships in an indeterminate gray area, this Valentine’s Day may not be about defining love, but recognizing feeling
Pulling back the curtain on First Year Players’ costuming
By Bridget Baile | YesterdayUsing a combination of scrappy resourcefulness, careful research and attention to detail, the crew at FYP creates innovative and aesthetically pleasing costumes each semester for audiences to enjoy.
February Book Club: Four books exploring narratives of Black experiences
By Paige Campbell | YesterdayLiterature is one of the best mediums for expanding your recognition of Black history
