When I met up with SCM Electrix, I had no idea what to expect. Ivan Gonzalez, the guitarist and singer with a voice that parallels Kings of Leon’s Caleb Followill, sat reading the paper. Soon thereafter, bassist Lacey Smith and drummer Taylor Von Jones arrived, flustered between fighting parking woes and the in-between class rushes.

The three members, all UNA students, recently played South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, and were able to network with bands and others who could contribute to their emerging success.

“We met a lot of venue owners and management,” Von Jones said. “It was really awesome. We even had a band, Pocket Vinyl, sleep in our van.”

The band stayed at a campsite, leaving their van uninhabited.

Being on the road is no easy feat, however, and they each had their fair share of sacrifices to make.

“You have to sacrifice a lot of relationships,” Gonzalez said. “It’s a cutthroat business. You have to associate with the right people. As a band, we have to be focused on our sound — how we describe ourselves in our bios is what we have to stick to. Marketing artistry hasn’t been explored very long but now it’s become hyper-explored.”

SCM Electrix, formerly known as Spanish Castle Magic, changed their band name specifically to make themselves more marketable.

“We had to change from Spanish Castle Magic to make ourselves more searchable on Google,” Smith said. “But keeping the SCM adds some mystery. It can be whatever you want it to be.”

“Like the Stone Cold Masons,” Gonzalez joked.

The three agree that even though their majors — political science, Spanish, secondary education and entertainment technology, respectively — have little to do with their artistic profession, they have been able to take aspects of their classes and apply them to their music.

“Because I’m a Spanish major, I’ve taken a lot of Spanish literature,” Gonzalez said. “It’s really influenced my writing style. There’s a lot more imagery and manipulation of words to get the point across without saying it outright. Dr. (Scott) Infanger forced it on me and it paid off.”

For Von Jones, leaving school to tour has been incredibly difficult, though he has overcome the difficulties in the long run.

“I was really worried when we had to sacrifice a week of school to go do shows,” he said. “I had talked to my teachers but I was still freaking out three weeks before we left. I had this realization that I had spent so many hours praying for this opportunity like my life depended on it, so that week that we were gone I got a tattoo that said ‘Find what you love and let the rest all go’.”

One of the greatest things the band has learned through their experiences is the power of social networking, be that via Twitter, Bandcamp, ReverbNation or Facebook.

“There’s a fine line between shameless self-promotion and promotion for the band to keep attention,” Gonzalez said. “We’re thrown into the Internet where it’s a constant update; now, now, now. It’s hard to keep things updated when everything changes so quickly.”

SCM Electrix will be performing April 11 in the Mane Room. Their EP is available for purchase on iTunes. Their album is scheduled to release this summer.