WAVES, an alternative rock duo of Lucie Ashmore and Tyler Maximoff, won the second annual ShamRock It Out Battle of the Bands on March 21 at their first public performance as a band.

Four bands competed in the event, and WAVES impressed the 67 audience members enough to take top honors among the participants.

Ashmore, junior communication major, has been passionate about music from early on, taking guitar lessons at age 8, but it was in a Multi-Track Recording class last semester that she met Maximoff, junior computer graphics and technology major, and went on to form WAVES.

“We just gel really well together, and it makes the creative process of making music so much fun because it’s so easy for us to sit down and come up with something,” Ashmore said. “I think that’s one of the reasons we enjoy being in this band so much.”

Ashmore and Maximoff’s friends Chris Peters and Sam Pizzuto stepped in to fill vacant band positions for the competition.

“We really wanted to perform at the battle of the bands because we hadn’t played any live shows as a full band before and we knew it would be a great experience above all,” Ashmore said.

Both Ashmore and Maximoff are versatile musicians. Ashmore can sing, play rhythm guitar, bass, piano and drums. Maximoff plays lead and rhythm guitar, bass, piano and drums.

For Ashmore, though, songwriting serves to channel her emotions and attracted her to composing music.

She began writing songs at the age of 12 and has found a love for the entirety of the creative process, ranging from writing to recording and producing and ultimately to performing. She considers the chance to perform songs she wrote and to win with friends and loved ones in the audience fulfillment of a dream.

The ShamROCK It Out Battle of the Bands is only one platform the band is using to launch themselves forward. WAVES had already produced a 4-track extended play album called “AFTER// THOUGHTS” which can be located on SoundCloud and Bandcamp.

Still, Ashmore’s taste of success is only leading her to want to be more involved in the music industry.

“I think I speak for both myself and for Tyler when I say that we would love to pursue this as a career and eventually be able to travel around and show our music to the world,” Ashmore said.

Natalie Beckley, Student Life coordinator, said she would like to see more bands compete in the event in the future. Beckley said one way to market the event better would be to have musicians play in the SUL concourse, combining a memorable performance with its promotion.