Conor Garrison (left) and Jon Fricchione. (Courtesy photo)

In the summer of 2005, Harvard residents Jon Fricchione and Conor Garrison borrowed a neglected laptop from Fricchione's father. But the two did not use the timeworn machine for school projects or work—it was for rock 'n' roll.

"The laptop had a built-in microphone and a Windows '98 sound recorder, so we sort of played music at it," Fricchione laughed during a recent interview. "Mixing consisted of physically moving the computer around different parts of the room, so it was really a 'live' album. It was very primitive."

Bandmates Fricchione (guitar, vocals, keyboards, effects) and Garrison (drums, keyboards, effects) have certainly come a long way since those archaic days, honing their sound yet maintaining the same eccentric dedication to their music. The 21-year-old multi-instrumentalists and songwriters are now known as October Surprise, and proudly released their third full-length album, No Delta, on Jan. 1.

Before any guitar strings were plucked, before cymbals crashed, and before vocal chords strained, the duo were simply best friends. While attending the Bromfield School, they both developed an intense passion for music—playing it, listening to it, and, eventually, making it.

"We really bonded over music we liked," Garrison said. "Bands like Radiohead, Modest Mouse, and Wilco brought us together."

Fricchione mentioned how natural it felt when the two began collaborating—at only 15 years of age. "We just played well together from the get-go. We knew what the other was thinking."

The name October Surprise was thought up by Fricchione when writing a school essay on President Reagan. "It has an element of subversion to it, and subversion is very rock 'n' roll," Fricchione quipped.

The band describes the aforementioned "old laptop album," entitled Sunlight Never Helped Anyone, as "more a set of sketchy live takes than a polished studio production." But it acted as a catalyst for their melodic endeavors. October Surprise quickly returned to their "studios" in various Harvardian basements to record their second album, Vapor Trail, in 2007.

"[Vapor Trail] was fuller, bolder, and more confident, and we experimented a lot more," said Garrison. "This time around we had better instruments, better equipment, and that really helped a lot."

Fricchione fondly recalled how the two marched into the Bromfield School holding cardboard boxes stuffed with CDs: "It was tough to sell those, especially when you are as shy as Conor and I were."

Despite their bashfulness, Fricchione and Garrison had disseminated a decent number of copies, and October Surprise established their presence as full-fledged musicians. Residents of Harvard began hearing the band around town at events such as Fall Festival and the Fourth of July parade and at the Harvard Public Library and the Bromfield School.

They even organized a special webcast at friend Phil Stapleton's house in the summer of 2009 called Sleepdrunk. Aided by filmmakers Chris Byler and Jared King, as well as live performers Will Byler and Stapleton, October Surprise played songs live over the Internet to hundreds of viewers across the world.

"It was such a great experience and an accomplishment, because we had no idea what we were doing," Fricchione said. "Yet we set up this broadcast, and everyone just collaborated. I had so much fun doing it."

Following in that spirit of innovation, the pair took their no-nonsense brand of indie rock and turned it inside-out on the EP (extended-play recording) Concrete Box, a swerve into the vaporous atmosphere of electronic beats, influenced by bands like ambient post-rock group Sigur Rós. Also released in 2009, Concrete Box was a major step towards exploring musical boundaries and transforming the creative process.

"I remember thinking at the time that all this new stuff [Concrete Box] just didn't make any sense to me. It was foreign because we grew up with pop music before knowing of any kind of experimental music," Garrison said. "But it was fun to be like, 'Wow, noise doesn't have to be a song?'"

Taking cues from Concrete Box and Vapor Trail, the two began work on their third, and most ambitious release, No Delta. But alongside that ambition came painstaking work and other difficulties; the album became increasingly arduous with both Fricchione and Garrison at their respective universities. Fricchione describes it as "...three years of toiling."

"I think we were distressed a little by it, frustrated," he said. "We wanted to reach a goal, and that was to make a cohesive album on a much more professional scale, and it was hard."

To facilitate the process, the band made a bold move, literally: Garrison and Fricchione set up shop in a Medford apartment over the 2010 summer, attempting to finish the record. The two record, produce, and mix all their own music, while the engineering is handled by Stapleton, whom Fricchione calls "brilliant."

Their extraordinary perseverance finally paid off, making the final touches on No Delta in the autumn of 2010.

"I was happy, but I was also nervous," Fricchione said about completing the record. "I knew the album wasn't exactly an easy or immediate listen, but I think we both felt it was valuable and worthy of release."

No Delta features an expansive musical palette, covering the electronica of DJ Shadow, the gritty folk of Neil Young, the experimental rock of Radiohead, and many more genre-blending influences. But, in the end, it is inherently October Surprise.

"It's a really personal album," Fricchione admits. "But at the same time, I think it is a very relatable album... people can get it. It's not a diary or something. It's talking about universal things."

Garrison has a tremendous sense of satisfaction with No Delta. "What's really cool is that people have told me it actually sounds like a real band's album as opposed to something created in someone's basement on the weekends," he said. "It's something promising to think about."

"Promising" is the perfect word to describe October Surprise. They are hungry to test out their new material in front of live audiences and, as Garrison said, "striving to grow with every new piece of sound." On March 15 they released another EP, Coma Kids, of material that was excluded from No Delta. They filmed videos for the songs "Coma Kids" and "Driveway" as well.

"We're going to keep trying to make music the best we can, as often as we can, as much as we can," Garrison said. "It's rewarding merely making music together."

The Windows '98 laptop may be gone, but the same wholehearted devotion and genuine friendship are definitely there.

To listen to No Delta and check out all things October Surprise, visit www.octobersurprisemusic.com.