About this story: When it comes to local music, Galesburg bands deliver everything from bluegrass to punk to country. In this series, we’ll profile a different band each Thursday in our Out & About section. Have an idea for us? Email features editor Robyn Gautschy at rgautschy@register-mail.com.

WOODHULL — Plunkett, an alternative/punk group from Woodhull, has been raising its profile in the past eight years with shows in and out of the area. Having first met at Woodhull’s AlWood High School, they consist of drummer Jacob Beck, guitarist Jake Messman and bassist and vocalist Timothy Yates.

The group released their first album on streaming services, digital storefronts and CD last year, titled “Anywhere Else is Where I Want to Be” and recorded at Galesburg’s Swanky Manor recording studio. They also recently recorded a new EP in Milwaukee, which is set to be released later this year. We spoke to them at their band house in Woodhull.

RM: How did you decide to call your band Plunkett?

Timothy: We’ve been a band for eight years, almost nine. We used to be a band called Speaks Like Silence, and we kind of wanted to change our name more to something that didn’t sound like a screamo band. When we were in high school, we’d eat lunch at this table every day and there was a picture in the AlWood High School of this guy Max Plunkett. We’d never heard that as a last name, so we said, “That sounds cool,” and we picked that. It wasn’t until I went to Ireland and I saw, oh, this is a very common last name all over the world.

RM: You’re a Woodhull band that’s been playing for a long time. How did you get started?

Timothy: All of us went to AlWood High School. Me and Jacob were friends since first grade, and Jake moved right before freshman year of high school, into this house, actually. May 22, 2009, was our first practice as a band. It was awful!

Jake: We tried to do some Green Day, some Beatles covers, and we did Nirvana stuff a lot.

RM: How have you grown since then?

Timothy: We started to define our influences a bit more. Jake always says that we reverse-engineered (’80s punk group) Hüsker Dü. We were really into the Foo Fighters and Green Day and Nirvana, and we just went backwards and listened to the stuff they were influenced by. If we’re gonna boil down our influences, it’ll be Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, Cheap Trick, Pavement.

Jake: We just started listening to more bands and that affected our sound. That, and played together nine years.

Jacob: We were originally a four piece, and we shed more weight in the form of our rhythm guitarist. Our sound changed because we had to make up for that space that was now gone, and that helped us. I think that was honestly one of the biggest things that gave us the room we all wanted.

RM: Have you always been writing original music?

Timothy: We’ve written our own songs since day one. The first show we played we did a handful of covers and two originals.

Jake: Slowly but surely the originals outweigh the covers.

Timothy: Now if we do a cover, it’s a band nobody knows, like Weston or Guided by Voices. It’s fun for us.

RM: That sort of sets you apart in this region.

Timothy: We don’t play with that many bands.

Jacob: We play with people now, but most musicians I met around here don’t really mesh with what we’re doing as far as influences.

Timothy: We’ve definitely hit a stride as far as branching out a bit more. Our first album as Plunkett came out last year, and we recorded that in 2016 at Swanky Manor in Galesburg with Nick Ischer. We got that album recorded and then me and Jacob both went to Monmouth College, and Jake went to a technical school in the Quad Cities. We weren’t doing much then.

Jake: That’s when we transitioned fully into Plunkett.

Timothy: Now we’ve been living here in this house for a year, and we’re like, let’s play some shows. We’ve got dates in Madison, Wisconsin, and we went to Milwaukee and recorded an EP this weekend at Halloween Records.

RM: You don’t play as much in the area anymore, though?

Jake: We used to play a lot of road races and Run Galesburg Run. Last time was the first race we would’ve done billed as Plunkett. We got set up, and it just started pouring rain.

Jake: We had my laptop set up to record a live album, so we actually have a song recorded of us trying to play.

Timothy: The panic of this tidal wave coming in behind Discovery Depot. After that we stopped waking up at 5 a.m. to play road races.

RM: When can we expect your next release?

Jake: We still gotta name it and get cover art. It’ll probably be a month before it’s out digitally.

RM: Are you going to try to tour on it?

Timothy: We all three have full-time jobs, so we just play one-offs.

Jake: That’s more of a goal. Obviously, we’re not gonna tour if nobody’s gonna show up.

Timothy: Yeah we will. (Laughs)

Jacob: If we’re asked to.

RM: What keeps you in Woodhull after nine years together?

Jake: We’re kind of in the middle of everything. Three hours to St. Louis, three to Chicago, a couple hours to Champaign.

Jacob: It’s surprisingly ideal, and the Quad Cities have pretty good venues on their own, if you don’t want to go to Chicago.

Jake: Even just being halfway between Galesburg and the Quad Cities here!