Provo has been an epicenter for music for decades, and the city’s music venues have given rise to bands such as Imagine Dragons, Neon Trees and The Backseat Lovers.
Inspired by the past and influenced by icons, bands in Provo continue to emerge each year, excited to offer something new to the ever-growing music scene. Many of these bands originate from Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University, where students have opportunities to create and perform.
Here’s a look at some of the bands that have jumped into the Provo music scene.
Seven Seater has been on the scene since BYU’s 2025 Battle of the Bands, where they unexpectedly took third place.
“It was our first show as Seven Seater,” Thomas Evans, the drummer and lead vocalist, said. “We had just put in a lot of work, didn’t know totally what to expect, and got way better feedback than we were anticipating.”
Seven Seater originally began as Public Square, but changed its name because of Evans’ trusty minivan.
“It’s kind of like a symbol of … connection with other people, like having lots of seats in your car,” Evans said. “We’d load up the van and go play shows, and it just kinda became the icon of the band.”
Seven Seater dabbles in several genres, but Evans summed up their sound as Indie Rock clashed with R&B, plus some acoustic guitar. Evans and his fellow band members — Simon Poulter, Jackson Ward and Alex Southworth — have played at several venues since, and even have a show coming up on Feb. 12 at the Speakeasy here in Provo.
The band doesn’t define their accomplishments by any set of statistics, though.
“What we’re proud of the most is nothing quantitative,” Evans said. “It’s probably honestly just been maintaining at our core the kind of music that we love … Doing it for the love of the game. It’s not for anyone but ourselves, and those who just want to have an experience listening to music and connecting with other people.”
Another band that has been playing in the area for a little more than a year is Dogpaw.
Garret Bailey, Jaden Haney, Neil Dalton and Ethan Nielson formed the band after they all met during their missions in Fort Collins, Colorado. The group got together to play, and clicked instantly.
“Our very first practice, we wrote two original songs,” Dalton said.
Dogpaw took every opportunity to perform. For their very first show, Dalton hand-built a stage in his uncle’s basement for the group to play on. Eventually, the band was given their limelight upon winning Velour’s Battle of the Bands.
When asked about their experience at Velour, the band mentioned the fans literally barking at them from the audience — a fun tradition started by their friends from the mission.
“There are people we’d never met before who didn’t know us at all, and they’re like ‘I’m here to vote for Dogpaw,’” Bailey said. “And then they were out in the crowd, they were barking, and it’s like, that’s the coolest thing.”
Dogpaw is continuing to write and record music, with the intent of releasing more songs this February.
“I think kind of all of us are in the same boat where it’s like, we can’t not have music,” Bailey said.
One very new band emerging from Heritage Halls at BYU is Breakroom. Marley Sokia, Garrett Robison, Jackson Olsen, Asher Robinson, Harley Gomez, Bryant Jordan and Tanner Brinkerhoff came together to form the band one month ago, and have already been presented with opportunities to perform.
Breakrooms leaned into "The Office" aesthetic in their first music release, a snippet from a song they’re writing called "Parking Lot." The vision was thought up and pulled off by Robinson and the band in just two days.
In terms of genre, Breakroom’s members are heavily inspired by jazz music, but their music leans more toward a combination of rap, pop and funk.
“It’s like New York City,” Olsen said. “You’ve got people from literally everywhere coming together to make this great city — we all come from very different backgrounds trying to create our sound for this music.”
Breakroom is planning to play in the 2026 BYU Battle of the Bands and aims to eventually play at Velour.
Another new band on the rise is Glyphics. Lead vocalist and bassist Atticus Boone had no trouble convincing Landon Young, Jack Perkins and Harley Gomez to get on board.
“Most of these guys are just happy to play … you don’t really need to convince them,” Boone said.
The band’s first performance was Jan. 22 at Wyview Park, where they played an assortment of covers to kick things off.
“The turnout was more than I was expecting, and I was super pleased with it,” Boone said. “I saw a bunch of people that I really love … and it just made it so much more fun.”
Boone plans to start writing original music to hopefully release before the summer.
“I’ve always just wanted to be able to perform and influence others’ emotions in … the way that my favorite artists have for me,” Boone said.
There are also many longer-standing bands from Provo, such as Gralley.
Kaden Cook, Jared Walters, Judd Whiffen, Harley Gomez and Alley Greer started making music together as Health Care back in 2021 before adopting the name Gralley (a combination of Greer’s first and last name).
While the majority of their music was released as Health Care, the band is excited to get back into performing live and writing new music. Totality, an album they released in 2023, is one of their proudest works.
“We worked so hard to write all those songs … they’re just packed emotionally,” Cook said.
Health Care used to perform twice a week over one summer, and Greer acknowledged the burnout that came from that. Their favorite performance, however, was headlining Velour right before people left for their missions.
“(It was) right before our farewell, and so just the feelings and emotions — there were so many people there too, like it was the coolest show. I think we all cried,” Cook said.
Each member of the group has a huge passion for what they are creating together — not just music-wise.
“I think it’s just really cool, the community you build with it,” Greer said.
Whiffen similarly shared his love for the community that they've been able to build.
“It’s a fantastic excuse to spend time with people that I absolutely freaking love,” Whiffen said.
Of course, the music is still an accomplishment as well.
“It’s cool to have an actual tangible, listenable version of something that we’ve created … that we can say ‘Oh, I made that,’” Walters said.
If you want to listen to any of these bands, check them out on Spotify, Apple Music, Instagram or YouTube. Be on the lookout for live performances — especially BYU’s Battle of the Bands on March 28, 2026.