If you’ve ever met Sean Cauley and spoken to him for more than five minutes, you’ve heard about his band Till Morning (of which Cauley is the guitarist, pianist, bassist, backup vocalist, drummer, and producer). The lead singer is one of Cauley’s closest friends back home, Brandon Huneycutt. They met in high school and bonded over a mutual love of all things emo. Soon after they graduated, Cauley and Huneycutt began playing covers of anything by Fall Out Boy or Panic! At the Disco. In 2017, they made it official and started their two-man band, Till Morning. Sharing a witty sense of humor, they chose this name due to the fact that they always began creating music in the dead of night and working until the sun rose in the morning.
Pictures by Lauren Johnson
Early last semester, Till Morning dropped their first EP and Cauley spent his first weeks at Covenant College hyping it up to literally anyone who crossed his path. From pulling trash with Team 13 to walking through the Great Hall, Cauley became one of the biggest memes in Carter. September 13 rolled around and Till was launched; a spectacular EP full of gentle strums of an acoustic guitar and including a truly beautiful song called “December Starlight,” which is about Huneycutt’s long-time girlfriend. Rolling up to campus after Christmas break in his iconic Jughead Jones black jean jacket, Cauley was bubbling over with excitement about Till Morning’s newest EP: “Gold Star.” Cauley promised five new, banging alternative rock songs, and the mountaintop fandom of Till Morning was hype.
In the week leading up to January 24, Cauley invited his friends to a listening party in Summit to celebrate its release. Expecting a crowd of around ten or fifteen people, Cauley put out two or three bags of chips and a few bottles of soda and set up a small sitting area for his guests. He was certainly not prepared for the hectic celebration that was gathering to swarm a very small section of Summit’s hallway. Cauley had to rapidly set up a microphone so his voice could be heard through the crowd of over fifty people all jostling each other, eager for the music to start. Tumbling through “thank-you”s and “I’m so glad you’re here”s, Cauley introduced us to “Gold Star.”
“Gold Star” is a passion project, created by two people who were drawn together by a love of music and songwriting. Cauley called himself and Huneycutt “two nobodies making music for their own enjoyment” and he joked that even if no one else cared all that much about their music, he and Huneycutt cared enough to give themselves a gold star for trying. The five songs on the EP are beautifully crafted and full of zeal and love.
It begins with “Give Me A Pen,” the second song that Huneycutt and Cauley ever wrote, which is about their journey playing music together (basically their origin story). Till Morning’s heavy emo influence is apparent in the title of the second song, “Misery Acquaints A Woman With Strange Bedfellows,” which tells the story of a girl who desperately does anything she can to find the approval of a rough crowd. The fifth song on the EP is a 50-second song called “A Place To Rest” that Cauley sings lead vocals on, and includes an audio clip of their first live performance together as a band (when listening to it, you hear Cauley introduce them as their original band name, “B+S, but not because we’re not cool”). This heartfelt song is a gift from Cauley to his bandmate; a thank you for all Huneycutt contributes to the band.
Blasting from speakers and reverbing throughout literally all of Carter, “Gold Star” was celebrated by over fifty people in the Summit hallway. Colorful lights hung haphazardly from the ceiling, illuminating the boisterous jubilee of people bouncing off the walls.
The songs in “Gold Star” are rich and full of intentionality and deep meaning, and the music is expertly orchestrated. But one of the most beautiful things about “Gold Star” and Till Morning is how it brought people together. From Huneycutt and Cauley bonding over emo music in 2014 to Josiah Burns crowd surfing in the Summit hallway while “Yes We Can!” echoed between the walls, Till Morning has an infectious joy woven throughout their songs that is taking over Covenant College. Till Morning’s mantra is “Love all, and love well,” and this is why we should all be incredibly grateful to experience their music. “Gold Star” reminds us how to love each other well.