About – The Beginning
Ron Metts and Tracy Van Nunnery, both native to South Carolina, met at Clemson University in 1987 as marching trombone players in Tiger Band. Both rode the musical New Wave in their high school years and, while Ron still lingered there a bit, Tracy immersed himself deeply in the alternative musical landscape of the day both as a radio DJ and as a sound engineer for local, regional, national, and international musicians. A running joke between the two is that Tracy rescued Ron from his top 40 ways, but Tracy at least credited Ron with choosing the best of the lot, such as Duran Duran and INXS. Fairly soon, the two found themselves at concerts and in joint listening sessions, simultaneously looking at one another and declaring, “We could do this!” With that, the first incarnation of their musical partnership was born.
Purchasing two Korg M1s, a mixer, and a drum machine (financed by delivering pizzas and work at a local music store), Ron and Tracy began working on music together in their off-campus A-frame apartment. Hinting at things to come and paying tribute to one of their favorite New Romantic acts, they decided on the moniker Secret October. Throughout their college careers, they played local venues, dive bars, watering holes, and sorority gigs, enthusiastically delivering mostly ’80s covers with the occasional ’90s alternative dance tune to keep their fans on their toes. Repertoire and influences at the time included Depeche Mode, New Order, Duran Duran, Gene Loves Jezebel, INXS, Orbital, Nine Inch Nails, Nitzer Ebb, The Orb, Underworld, The Shamen, and Meat Beat Manifesto. Secret October enjoyed modest success on the local and regional level but failed to extend their adventure further during their college days.
With graduation, Ron and Tracy were forced to follow other avenues in the “real world.” Ron took a mechanical engineering position on the SC coast, and Tracy went on to advanced degrees and eventually made his way to the West Coast to begin a career in informatics. Even though geography separated the two, they remained friends, with music a strong, connective passion. As a second career consuming nights and weekends, Tracy worked with countless bands as a professional concert photographer on the West Coast while Ron nurtured a semiprofessional symphonic performance career back on the East Coast.
Families flourished, careers developed, and nearly three decades rolled by until, one day, Tracy announced intentions to move his family back to South Carolina. At a party thrown by a mutual friend after the move was complete, it all changed. Between sips of an experimental craft beer, Tracy casually asked Ron, “You ever think about doing music again?” That was all it took to once again stoke the fire that had burned within them all along. The two immediately began working to liberate the musical ideas that had been forming in their subconscious for almost thirty years.
Since that serendipitous exchange around 2018, Second October have continued their monthly ritual of meeting in Tracy’s private studio somewhere in South Carolina to work on new original material and also record their favorite reinterpreted covers, simply for the love of it. To date, they have released three EPs and have a plethora of unreleased material that will no doubt make it onto future EPs or albums in one form or another. Stand by for more!
