Submitted Photo The members of Auto Drive, from left to right, are Sawyer Wilhelmi, Wyatt Wilhelmi, Anna Griedl and Ian Iverson.

STARKWEATHER — With bands like Greta Van Fleet rising in the music charts, a group of Starkweather 14- and 15-year-olds who identified with their classic rock twist on modern music came together to form the band Auto Drive. Auto Drive does fan-favorite covers of musicians like Creedence Clearwater Revival, ACDC and John Thorogood.

“There are still bands out there who can make it while still playing good music,” said Sawyer Wilhelmi, lead vocalist and guitar player for Auto Drive when speaking on what inspired the group to start the band. They take inspiration from a variety of ’70s and ’80s bands like Steely Dan, the Eagles, Metallica and Billy Idol.

Sawyer was at a garage sale when he found an $80 drum kit and brought it home for his brother, Wyatt Wilhelmi, and he became a self-taught percussionist.

Auto Drive was created the summer of 2020 with the brothers doing quick five song sets. The summer of 2021 the brothers approached Anna Griedl to play bass, an instrument that she didn’t know how to play at the time. Sawyer, who had been playing guitar for a few years, taught Griedl the basics and she learned the rest from online tutorials. The band was completed with the addition of Ian Iverson in the summer of 2022.

Just like the second-hand drum kit, Iverson found his keyboard at a garage sale and said, “Why not?” From there he used online tutorials to become a self-taught musician, also picking up guitar and various other percussion instruments.

The four have known each other since kindergarten.

Greidl said staying on task is a frequent challenge for the group at their daily summer practices. “It’s just we’ve been friends for so long sometimes it’s easy to get off track and joke around the whole practice,” she said.

Other obstacles the band faces include battling poor weather during gigs and figuring out which songs to work out. Sawyer said the band tries to compromise between choosing which songs they’d like to do versus which songs are crowd-pleasers.

The band’s current goal is to expand its notoriety in North Dakota, starting out with humble gigs playing for tips at their local venues. The members of Auto Drive say their primary goal is to release an album of original music, for which they currently have one song completed at this time. Still, the group makes sure to play the track titled, “Time is Like a Highway,” at every show, and they say they have more in the works.

Auto Drive will be playing at 6 p.m. Saturday, July 29, at the Oak Park Ampitheater in Minot.