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Miami alumni head to the next round of 'The Voice'

After singing a cover of "Closer to Fine" on the hit TV show "The Voice", the Bundys, a trio of siblings and Miami alumni, are off to the next round of competition, with the aid of Kelly Clarkson as their coach.

Born in Cincinnati, Megan, Katey and Ryan Bundy have devoted most of their lives to singing and songwriting. Growing up, their whole lives were centered around music. Some of their idols, like John Denver, Simon and Garfunkel and Dolly Parton, greatly influenced their songwriting and encouraged them to continue singing.

The Bundys attended Miami for their undergraduate degrees, but did not study music or songwriting. Since they were close in age, each sibling was able to experience college with at least one other sibling. During their free time, Megan and Katey would sit in Katey's first-year dorm and sing covers together, further discovering their harmonies.

Three years later, when Katey was a senior, she and Ryan would get together and sing covers. Katey believes that college was a time for them to find themselves and learn who they were. Katey, Megan and Ryan all loved Miami and enjoyed the experiences and friendships they'd found on campus.

Through her entrepreneurship minor, she learned how to start and maintain a business. The emphasis on the need for quality public relations behind a business was one of the skills that Megan eventually applied to The Bundys' band.

"A band in itself is just like running a business: very entrepreneurial," Megan said. "I found advantage from my entrepreneurship minor at Miami, especially in the classes that I took."

Ryan majored in marketing and minored in English, which furthered his writing abilities, especially when it came to composing songs, and helped find a stronger sense of self. And through marketing Ryan was able to take business classes, which allowed him to develop a skill set in branding the band in the most effective manner.

Each sibling established their individual musical careers through Miami extracurriculars. Megan and Katey sang the National Anthem for basketball and baseball games, Katey was in another band and Ryan participated in musical endeavors in his fraternity, Kappa Alpha Order.

But, the trio did not discover that they wanted to be in a band until they were all out of college. A year after Megan graduated in 2009, she moved to Nashville, Tenn. to further her musical career. While recording her first EP, she asked both Katey and Ryan to join her with harmony.

After recording that first EP, they realized that their voices blended well together because they had grown up harmonizing as a family.

"In that moment, we knew we had to pursue a musical career and make something of ourselves," Katey said.

They started writing songs together and practiced singing more intensely with a new purpose. That first EP brought Katey, Megan and Ryan together to form The Bundys, an effort they've been taking to with enthusiasm.

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Throughout the last few years, The Bundys have been perfecting their sound and produced their full-length album Louisiana Avenue in September 2015 and released their EP Before I Go in December 2017.

After "The Voice", The Bundys hope to produce another album or even their first record sometime soon.

haubence@miamioh.edu