With the help of Cage the Elephant’s co-founder and guitarist Brad Shultz, Common People, a band made up of USC alumni and current students, is making waves in the alternative rock scene.

After releasing a handful of singles since last July and opening for Cage the Elephant’s “Neon Pill” tour, the band is gearing up to hit the road as one of the openers for the North American leg of Rainbow Kitten Surprise’s upcoming tour and Congress The Band’s “Congress in Session” spring tour.

“This feels like our first real year as a touring band,” said Nicky Winegardner, a guitarist and vocalist for the band. “We’re in the phase where we’re just starting out. So, we want to be in front of as many people as possible, and give them as many different opportunities to hear us as we can.”

Common People performed their first headline show last Thursday at The Venice West. Asher Thomson, a senior majoring in international relations and the global economy, said the show was the perfect jump-off point to prepare them for supporting Rainbow Kitten Surprise’s tour.

The band members, alumni Winegardner, Sam Belzer and Konrad Ulich, as well as senior majoring in journalism Cormac Cadden and Thomson, first met through their fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha. Ulich said the fraternity gave them a place to practice and a reliable crowd.

“It was nice because we automatically had a crowd of people that would come watch it,” said Ulich, the bassist and a vocalist for the band. “It just gave us a good platform to start playing for people live, probably more people than would ordinarily come to see us if we were not a college band.”

Last year, the band signed to Shultz’s label, Parallel Vision, in partnership with Big Loud Rock. Winegardner said the last year has felt like a waiting game for the band; Common People began recording and writing music during the summer of 2024, but didn’t release their debut single, “Thank You,” until July 2025.

“Thank goodness we waited because we weren’t ready to start putting music out,” Winegardner said. “Our live show wasn’t where we needed it to be. We just weren’t ready yet. That first year was really just starting to play shows around [Los Angeles] for the first time, and playing bigger and bigger places and just growing slowly.”

Ulich said even while the band has nearly hit 50,000 monthly listeners on Spotify only around six months after the first single debuted, the band’s rise hasn’t felt quick. Still, he and the band are motivated to keep going with new music set to be released soon, including their upcoming debut album.

“We still have a long ways to go, but it’s cool to see anybody enjoying our music,” Ulich said. “We’re just excited for [our new singles] all to come out and just keep going.”

Common People’s latest single, “Dear Worry,” was released Friday, following their release of “Rain” in January. Both tracks were produced by Shultz and are packed with catchy guitar riffs and breezy vocals that create a blend of garage rock and indie sounds.

Winegardner described Shultz as the band’s “musical crazy uncle” and said he was the first person to believe in the band after listening to their first couple of demos. Winegardner said Shultz’s friendship, knowledge and influence on the band’s sound have been incredibly valuable.

“He’s become like a big brother to us, a mentor, a role model,” Winegardner said. “It was a lot of our first times really going into the studio, recording properly. … A lot of it was learning through his way he likes to do things.”

Common People joined Shultz on Cage the Elephant’s tour for three shows last fall. Belzar said it was a fun experience to get to watch the show multiple times and connect with the other openers.

“The Cage stuff was really fun to see how a big-boy tour happens,” said Belzar, a guitarist for the band.

Thomson said touring with Cage the Elephant took off a lot of pressure he faced when performing because he realized that even highly successful bands make mistakes live.

“Nobody’s perfect,” said Thomson, a guitarist for the band. “Might as well just have fun with it.”

Winegardner said Common People is at its best live, when they focus on playing together and are forced to adjust to unforeseen mistakes and circumstances. He said the more shows the band plays, the more they learn how to perform better together.

“Hopefully, by the time this semester is over, we’ll be a way better band than we were when talking today,” Winegardner said.

From performing shows on campus at frat parties and at Rock & Reilly’s to touring with one of the biggest rock bands in the world, Common People is just getting started with more music soon to be released and a slew of live performances throughout the year.

“Five years ago, none of us would have probably said that this is what would have happened, or where we would be,” Winegardner said. “It’s one of those things where you blink, and you’re in a band, and you’re playing on stage and opening for Cage [the Elephant].”