My Mental Island

Band has deep roots with MHCC

Chelsea Van Baalen
The Advocate

To say that the band My Mental Island has ties to Mt. Hood Community College would be an understatement.

The group of four — vocalist Staci Huffaker, guitarist Jon Miller, bassist Collin Miller and drummer Craig Hansen — formed three months ago and have played at the college twice.

	My Mental Island, from left, is comprised of bassist Collin Miller, guitarist Jon Miller, vocalist Staci Huffaker and drummer Craig Hansen. The group formed three months ago and have played twice at Mt. Hood Community College.

The first was at Danielle Pannell and Rae Peres’ rally for their bid at ASG presidency and vice presidency on May 5. The second performance was Thursday night during ‘Rites of Spring’ from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

However, My Mental Island’s roots in the college run much deeper than that.
Huffaker is a risk management coordinator at the college, while Jon’s wife Laurie Miller works at the college as the confidential executive assistant to the COO/vice president of administrative services. Collin Miller is attending Mt. Hood Community College to get his associate’s degree in business.

“We’re definitely connected here at the school,” Collin said. Jon added that “the college supports us (so) we’ll support the college.”

The band enjoys playing at MHCC because, as Collin Miller says, “I think it’s a fun environment to play in. It’s relaxed.”

The group formed three months ago when Huffaker and Jon’s duo Five Miles More added Collin and Hansen. Huffaker and Jon do most of the songwriting, with 65 original songs.

While the band members have a wide range of influences, from inspirational to punk rock, they have honed their sound to include folk, pop and rock influences.

“We’re calling it 21st century folk,” Jon said.

When it comes to the long term, Jon would like to see the group record and perform. Collin adds that he wants the music to be a career “rather than a hobby.”

Meanwhile, the group is in the process of recording their first album at Hands Down Studio.

“We do it as an ensemble,” Jon said. He added that in the studio, the group prefers to record songs in their entirety rather than stopping in the middle to fix imperfections.

The group is working with Jeff Young, who will be engineering the album and who is the former radio program director at MHCC.