Mike Pearsall (MSB ’06) closes his eyes when he sings, and for just a few moments, he’s not inside a small office-turned-practice room on Wisconsin Avenue. It’s clear that he’s picturing the faces in past audiences — 20,000 at MCI Center, hundreds at the 9:30 Club, even a couple of Hoyas in Copley Formal Lounge — and the audience his band, Honor By August, will see in a just a day at their CD release party.

When Pearsall graduates from Georgetown in May with an MSB degree in hand, he won’t be marching off to Wall Street in search of a contract with a premier business firm. With any luck, he and bandmates Evan Field (COL ’98, lead guitars), Joe Wenger (GRD ’04, bass/vocals), and Brian Shanley (drums) will be touring the east coast and eventually the Midwest. Pearsall has his sights set on signing a record contract with an established label within the year.

“I like to aim high. I’m the optimist of the group,” Pearsall said.

High hopes for the coming year seem reasonable for a band that has one Billboard World Song award, a successful show opening for Bon Jovi, and a full-length studio album to its credit. After all, the boys have only been playing together for a year.

Pearsall was introduced to Wenger, who sang a capella with the Phantoms during Grad school, by a mutual friend. While working as a bartender at the Daily Grill, Wenger met Field, a 1998 Georgetown graduate. The three began playing together and recorded an acoustic album in January 2004. After placing an ad on Craig’s List for a drummer, Honor By August was born with the addition of James Madison University graduate Shanley.

“We’re three-quarters Hoya,” Wenger joked.

On March 23, the band celebrated the release of its first album, Drowning Out The Television, with a show at the hip club, IOTA in Arlington. The album is the product of two months spent recording in Raleigh, N.C.

The band held a CD release party in New York City two days later.

Long before the group was headlining shows at trendy clubs in major cities, they had their first electric show in Copley Formal Lounge. Field entered a recording of “Only In Photographs” from that 2004 performance in Billboard Magazine’s 12th Annual World Song Contest. Field had hopes of receiving an honorable mention along with the top 500 entries, but to his surprise, Honor By August took home First Place in the pop category.

“It’s always good to have one of those on the shelf,” Wenger joked.

Honor By August opened for Bon Jovi in a December 2005 show at MCI Center (now the Verizon Center) after winning the Have A Nice Gig contest, sponsored by Bon Jovi and XM Satellite Radio. Just a few weeks earlier, the boys had opened for Hanson at the 9:30 Club.

With a ring to it almost as nice as Pearsall’s catchy melodies, “Honor By August” is a tough name to forget.

“The idea is that you gain honor by doing something admirable or awe-inspiring,” Pearsall said.

“Like maintaining a full class schedule and two jobs,” Shanley added.

The boys struggle to accommodate their work schedules and Mike’s course load by only playing shows on weekends, but if a fantastic opportunity to play falls on a weeknight, they do everything they can to make it work.

“It’s not easy, but this [music] is the most important thing in the world to me. I’ve been doing what I have to do at school just to get by,” Pearsall said.

Field and Wenger devote extra time to managing the band’s business affairs.

“Up until this point, we’ve been completely self-managed,” Field said, about hiring a publicist in January 2006. “[We have to] be strategic about the people we hire,” he said.

The boys are hard-pressed to think of what they would be doing if they couldn’t perform. After a pause, Pearsall said, “actually going to my classes.” When Shanley claimed he’d probably be involved in federal law enforcement, Wenger chimed in with a laugh, “He’d be arresting us!” It’s clear that the boys’ personalities lock in as well as their harmonies.

Editor's Note: Honor By August is playing tonight (4/7), 8pm, at Jammin

Java, 227 Maple Ave. Vienna, VA. All Ages, $10. Also playing two sets on Thursday, 4/13 at Whitlow's in Arlington, VA, 9:30 pm. Admission TBA.