Everything about Lee Terrace is local, from its name to its members.

The band’s name comes from the street in Syracuse that guitarist and vocalist Kevin Metzger and bassist and vocalist Mike Sloan lived on. Every member of the band grew up in the area, and the band has been performing around the city since 2007.

The band formed after Sloan approached Metzger, a senior musical performance major at Syracuse University, and asked him if he wanted to jam. Drummer Pj Sweeney joined a few months after, and keyboardist and vocalist Ian Doherty joined in 2012 when he returned to Syracuse after graduating college.

“I think we’re different in the fact that we’ve been playing so long,” Sloan said. “We joke about it now, but we were pretty rough in the old days. It wasn’t till recently when we got our new keyboardist that we actually felt like we made some progress in terms of making an impact on the music scene in Syracuse.”

The band has performed in Syracuse for the past eight years and is a self-described “improg” band, which they define as a combination of improvisational and progressive rock.

Every band member is from a different part of Syracuse, and Metzger said the music scene in Syracuse has dramatically changed since the band’s beginning. He said the opening of The Westcott Theater “created a lot of avenues for local music in the city.”

“When we were coming out, we were just kids. The music scene in Syracuse wasn’t that big,” Metzger said. “We’ve all grown a lot musically, we’re all much tighter with each other as musicians, we’re writing and playing more complex songs than we were in the past.”

He also said the local climate has directed the type of music the group writes. Some of the band’s earlier songs are about natural parts of the region, including “Crystal Canyon,” about the area by Green Lakes State Park, and “Montezuma Soul,” about the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge.

Like most friends, the band members have inside jokes with one another, and this translates into their music — songs with unique names like “Swagger” and “Tales of Ted” represent jokes the band has.

“It’s always been completely natural and we have a good time doing it,” Sloan said. “It’s not even work — it’s more like hanging out, making music together.”

Lee Terrace released an album called “River the By Down” three and half years ago on iTunes and Spotify, which features their prior keyboardist. The band also has free music available on SoundCloud and put several live performances on the Live Music Archive. To date, the band has released two EPs and one album, and hopes to release a four-track album, which the band will record at SubCat Studios.

Metzger said he is moving to Boston in August to study classical guitar at the New England Conservatory of Music, and said the band will continue — the band has been together and performing consistently for eight years — just down different avenues.

Lee Terrace will play an acoustic set on April 23 at Alto Cinco. The band will also perform several times at Funk ‘n Waffles downtown and The Westcott Theater this summer before Metzger moves to Boston.

In the past, the band has opened for artists like The Radiators, Perpetual Groove and TR3, which features Tim Reynolds, who is also known for his duo with Dave Matthews. Metzger said it is experiences like these that have been the most rewarding part of being in Lee Terrace.

“I just want people to know that we really are all the best of friends in this band, and we have worked so hard,” Metzger said. “We’ve caught some breaks here and there, we’ve missed some breaks here and there, and that’s the nature of the game.”

Published on April 20, 2015 at 11:30 pm

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