Janie Boschma

It was early 2002. Polydream, a budding rock band, lined up shows before even adopting a name, said singer and guitarist Jonathan Knudson. Consequently, the band’s manager pushed them to think of something to put on flyers for their first performance, Knudson said.

“We were discussing life in general,” Knudson said when explaining how the band decided on a name. “Different people in the band wanted to do different things, they didn’t necessarily want to follow music their whole life; they had other dreams. Our name is based on the etymology ‘poly’ meaning ‘many’ dreams.”

Polydream, which will perform at 9:30 p.m. on Friday at the Stones Throw, 305 S. Barstow St, consists of Knudson, Eric LeMieux on guitar, Lucas Etten on bass and Britton Rice on drums.

Etten and Knudson, both from Medford, began playing together as an acoustic guitar duet in seventh grade, Knudson said, adding they also played in various bands throughout high school.

“We’ve been together ever since, with different lineups,” Knudson said.

It wasn’t until Etten and Knudson moved to Madsion that LeMieux entered the picture, LeMieux said, adding that after replacing a former drummer with Rice in early 2006, Polydream became the band it is today.

Since then, the band has played “all sorts of different venues,” Knudson said, adding that sometimes they play little acoustic shows, sometimes clubs or bars and sometimes venues as big as Summerfest, where they played this past summer.

“I love playing little bars like the Stones Throw because they’ve got a nice sound system and stage,” Knudson said. “You can get a couple hundred people and it’ll still feel cozy. You can still go out and talk to everybody after the show.”

LeMieux agreed.

“As far as playing in Eau Claire, we pretty much always play at the Stones Throw,” he said. “They treat us very well there. They take care of the place, take pride in what they’re doing and always bring a lot of people out.”

Polydream has performed in Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago as well as cities in Iowa, LeMieux said, adding that the band will travel to Ohio in a couple weeks for some club performances.

“We have a wide range of influences,” LeMieux said. “It goes from old country music like Johnny Cash, Willy Nelson and Tom Petty to bands like Coldplay and U2. It’s just a really wide spectrum.”

Knudson said the band’s sound can be described as melodic rock.

“It’s ambient, a little bit ‘spacey’ and kind of ‘rootsy’ when it has to be,” Knudson said. “It’s kind of a back to the basics kind of music.”

Knudson, who writes the band’s lyrics, said he writes the lyrics while drawing from different experiences in his life.

“I write about different experiences I’ve had, how I view the world,” he said. “Often times I don’t know exactly what the lyrics are about until I get done and look at them. Then after first listening to it, I can kind of figure out what was going on in my brain when I wrote it.”

UW-Eau Claire alumnus Ryan Kiefer said he went to high school with Knudson and Etten.

“I knew he was a good guitar player in high school but I never knew he was so good with vocals,” Kiefer said, adding he first time he saw the band was in March 2007 at the Stones Throw.

“The first time I saw them I was very impressed,” Keifer said. “I bought their CD immediately. I think they’re just one step away from being heard on the radio.”