Clad in red skin-tight pants, layers of chunky jewelry and a glinting nose ring, sophomore Audri Augenbraum looks every bit the rocker chick that she is. However, there is far more to Augenbraum than meets the eye. Besides having a broad taste in music, she has been playing rhythm guitar and singing backup in the band “The Strangers on the Footpath” for about a year. She found the band through a MySpace bulletin posted by a friend’s older brother. The Strangers on the Footpath is more than just an average teenage rock band, and gets booked fairly frequently at pubs. In just a few months, it will be competing in a battle of the bands that will be held in the Lower East Side. “We don’t classify ourselves. You have to sit and listen to it and describe for yourself. We’re evolving constantly,” said Augenbraum.
Music became a part of Augenbraum’s life when, at age seven, her grandfather gave her a guitar for Christmas. She started taking lessons and soon developed a passion for it. At Bank Street, her junior high school, she found her very own “Jack Black-like rock n’roll mentor,” and the two of them hit it off right away, as they discovered their mutual interest in music. Augenbraum’s mentor was in a band of his own, and as the two of them got closer, he started letting her play a song or two to open up his shows. Eventually, whenever her mentor’s band had a gig, they would split the stage time so that Augenbraum could perform some solo pieces, something she still does now.
At Bank Street, Augenbraum began to develop a taste for theater as well. The school emphasizes the performing arts, and Augenbraum spent much of her time onstage. She has also committed to Stuyvesant productions, and has become a prominent figure in the theater community, with roles in Soph-Frosh SING! ‘07 and Godspell.
From Augenbraum’s background, it is hardly surprising how Augenbraum combines rock music and literature. She grew up surrounded by Shakespeare, both at her home and in school, and her father always fostered her literary talents. Augenbraum’s mother, Carla Scheele, has spent many years experimenting with music and entertainment of different cultures, among them African tribal dancing and playing in a Javanese (Indonesian) orchestra. While Augenbraum is a fan of Shakespeare, she also loves reading works by what she calls “writers who are obnoxious just for the sake of being obnoxious. […] They take you out of your comfort zone.”
Augenbraum has also been writing poetry for many years. “The only difference now,” she says, “is that it’s gotten a lot more cynical.” Scheele views her daughter’s work differently. “Song-writing is such a great medium for Audri, because it combines her beautiful poetry with music,” she said.
Family is not the only source of support for Augenbraum. She has many friends who adore her talent. Lead singer of The Strangers on the Footpath and Augenbraum’s boyfriend Gabe Shanahan said he “wouldn’t trade her for anyone else in the world […] [because] nobody keeps it real quite like Audri.” Augenbraum’s friends outside the band are also there for her, and she loves how they will show up and surprise her whenever she performs.
It is easy to understand why they would make the trip, seeing as “she is so incredibly super-talented,” said friend and fan Singha Hon.
Even phrases Augenbraum uses in routine conversation sound like lyrics to a rock song. Her bright personality is immediately noticeable. She is “a creative and brilliant soul, like no one else is,” said sophomore Lazar Bozic. Some of her English classmates would likely agree, as few besides Augenbraum would describe a character from The Taming of the Shrew as “rockin’ in the free world.”
