A group of local musicians is taking their passion for modernized bluegrass music on the road – for the second time.

Scrambled, a band made up of Mark Vironda, Britton Liefer and Zach Hoock, attempted to make their way south to tour in places like Nashville and Memphis earlier this month.

Their journey was delayed when their van broke down and they had to return north to raise money to repair it.

They’ve been a bluegrass band for about a year, after they made the switch over from an electric band that didn’t work out.

“We got back together about a year ago and decided to take it a different route,” Hoock said. “We wanted to do something more appealing, instead of being loud and obnoxious.”

The guys chose to unplug and take the route of what they call a combination of bluegrass, Americana, blues and rock.

Vironda plays guitar, Liefer plays drums and mandolin, and Hoock plays bass. They all do vocals as well.

The switch worked out well for traveling, because going acoustic meant far less equipment to haul.

“When we toured with the electric band, we had a whole bus,” Liefer said. “It was totally unrealistic.”

Hoock and Vironda went to high school together and have known Liefer for some time.

“We were all musicians when we met, so it all just kind of fell together,” Hoock said.

As a group, they list such influences as Tony Rice, Del McCoury and “a lot of old country.”

They branched over from rock to bluegrass via Old Crow Medicine Show, an Americana string band from Nashville.

Liefer said making the transition from rock to bluegrass was very different for him because he had been playing drums and had just picked up the mandolin.

“I’ve only been playing the mandolin for about a year and a half,” he said. “It was weird, but pretty cool. I really like it. Mandolin is probably the most rhythmic out of these instruments.”

Vironda said he “had it easy” because he just had to switch from electric to acoustic guitar.

Hoock switched over from playing electric bass to a stand-up bass.

“It’s a lot harder to play and it’s more expensive, but it’s fun,” Hoock said.

Overall, the Scrambled members said they enjoy playing these instruments more.

“This is a whole new style that we never would have thought to play before,” Vironda said. “It’s helped us grow.”

Nowadays, when they go back to playing electric for fun, the guys said they can see the bluegrass influence transferring to the music.

They play covers of songs and are working on original material as well.

Local support has been growing as the community gets to know the band.

“We’ve played at Gallagher’s a couple of times, along with J.Fires’,” Hoock said. “It was slow at first because no one knew us, but now people will come out to see us. It’s been awesome.”

They saved up their money and decided to dedicate a lot more time to music and head down south to play shows.

“This is totally about us following our dreams and aspirations,” Hoock said. “This is taking a chance and working hard on something we’ve been saving for a year to do.”

Unfortunately, after they headed out of town in their van at the beginning of the month, the van broke down one day into the trip.

“The rear end went out in the van,” Hoock said. “We started noticing a noise and pulled over.”

After deeming the problem unfixable where they were at, they called friends to come bring them back home.

“Luckily it wasn’t too far into the trip,” Hoock said. “We’re trying to get (the van) running again now and get back on the road.”

Their goals are to be able to make a living playing music and doing what they love.

“All we want to do is have enough money to eat and travel,” Hoock said. “We’d love to be able to establish a following somewhere else, too, where the music scene is really good and the vibes and positive.”

They also plan to write a lot of music in the next year.

“We all participate in the writing process,” Liefer said. “We all have input, and we’ll sit down and write lyrics.”

One thing they are very passionate about is not having a leader or front man for the group.

“We really like to have an equal understanding and for everyone to have their say,” Hoock said. “This isn’t a dictatorship; it’s very open. We’re always open for advice.”

They don’t have any shows scheduled where they’re headed and just plan on figuring it out as they go along.

“We’re planning to go to Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga and South Carolina,” Hoock said. “From there, we’ll head to Florida for the winter.”

To listen to Scrambled, visit www.soundcloud.com/scrambledband.