Oak Harbor native ready for rambling life of a troubadour

It makes sense that Justin Nycum became a musician.

The 25-year-old grew up in a Navy family. While he considers Oak Harbor his home -- he started kindergarten and finished high school there -- he also went to school in Texas, Pennsylvania and California.

"I'm sure it has had an effect," he said of growing up with no set home.

So, yeah, the life of a troubadour, rambling around with a band, had its appeal.

As the bassist for pop rock group Garrison Frost, Nycum hasn't done much traveling -- yet. The power pop group has been together for about a year, and plans to open a show at the Showbox SoDo in Seattle on Saturday for headliners the People Now.

The group showcases a radio-friendly style of modern rock on its first album, a self-titled and self-released record available on iTunes.

Standout songs included the uplifting "Could Get Better," a tightly constructed harmony-driven tune, and the more crunchy guitar rock number "Watching You," which sounds a bit like the alternapop of Shades Apart paired with pseudo-Police lyrics.

"I just kind of want to write arena rock music," Trevor Larkin, the group's chief songwriter and vocalist, said with a smile.

"Then we can go to the angry dissonant music," joked Nycum, who plays under the stage name Justin Bruce.

Fans of the album can expect something a bit different during live shows. Songs sometimes stretch beyond their four-minute running times.

"What you listen to on the record is kind of tight, pretty lean, economy-of-mind kind of rock music, but when we play live, we improvise a lot more," he said.

Nycum, who works a day job restoring and refinishing antiques, started playing bass when he was 13. He was pushed toward the instrument by circumstances beyond his control.

"All my friends got guitars roughly around that time," he said. "Nobody else was playing bass."

Now, the bandmates room together in a north Seattle home, where video games are lined up beneath a huge flat-screen TV and dorm-friendly artwork hangs from the walls. It's a modest place befitting an up-and-coming group.

Garrison Frost -- the band name comes in part from a cold evening and in part from Walla Walla-based Garrison Middle School, where Larkin and drummer Devin Anderson attended -- may tour some in 2008. For now, the band's gigging around Seattle and practicing in a dingy space at the Jam Box.

"It smells like spilled PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon beer) and vomit and cat litter, and it's awesome," Nycum said, ever the optimist.

This group seems to have high spirits. Playing music simply makes the members happy; without the experience, Larkin said, he is "not a very nice person." And Nycum seems to have a similar mind-set. Music helps tame some sort of internal beast.

"It's almost a drug," Nycum said. "It's almost like after you haven't played live in a few months, you really feel the need to get out there. I don't have any other way to describe it. It's almost similar to my feeling of wanting to move and travel. It's just you feel kind of incomplete without it."

Reporter Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455 or e-mail arathbun@heraldnet.com.