Photo Courtesy of LUIS ELENES "The Dimes" - Portland locals The Dimes may just rock hard enough to keep you from getting to your class. And it would almost be worth it if you didn't need that stupid tier two TRAD to graduate.

No matter the style, there's no doubt that music is a form of therapy. With influences ranging from hard rock and indie rock to country, The Dimes are trying to make their mark in the musical spectrum one therapeutic small venue at a time.

Despite the differences of their musical influences, the members of this five-piece Portland/Austin based band have managed to keep it together while touring for the first time.

"Johnny and Shawn had kind of a more a straight up Texas rock background," said guitarist Pierre Kaiser. "Some of us up in Portland were more into kind of more out there, kind of artsy experimental music. So each of us got together and learned from each other's tastes."

Kaiser, a Boston native, has lived in Oregon for 10 years and met the front man while working with Johnny Clay's wife as an engineer.

"Johnny's wife moved up to Portland to get a job, so Johnny, sort of against his will, was quick to move up to Portland," Kaiser said. "But, obviously, he loves his wife so that was a compromise he was willing to make."

Before and during the transition, Clay did some tough, but much needed soul searching.

"I had been in a serious band in the Austin/San Antonio area that was starting to come apart at the seams, and so it just felt like the right time to make a move," Clay said. "I'm not saying it was easy by any means.

"I went through a four or five month period of depression, questioned everything about myself, the move, the marriage, all of it. But I learned so much from that. I dug deeper than I've ever had to and realized that for me, it's not about the fame or fortune."

Fortunately for Clay and his fellow musicians, the band is doing well, mostly because of the fact that they all get along so well.

"Shawn, who Johnny had played with in Texas before, kind of heard some of the stuff we were doing, got excited and he really made the leap of faith and just decided to move up solely for the band, which is kind of a little crazy, but it worked out well," Kaiser said.

The band's name came through a discussion the members had with Jackson Jackson, the guy who produced their first record.

"We wanted something with the number five in it just because there's five of us and we have a pretty strong social dynamic in the band," Kaiser said. "The Nickels just wasn't cool and so, The Dimes just seemed a little better."

Jeff Buckley, The Cure and Dave Matthews band are a few of the band's biggest influences, but who can resist being affected by the greatest band in history?

"I was raised on the Beatles. My mom was a humongous Beatles fan, so it was always playing around the house," Kaiser said. "And I think, like every American male, I went some sort of through a Led Zeppelin phase in high school."

Kaiser also got into alterative rock, especially when Radiohead popped up on the radar.

"A band like Radiohead really was kind of a turning point for me in the mid-nineties," he said. "That was the kind of music where I was just like, 'Wow! You can make stuff, which is just cinematic and expansive, but also be song oriented and have meaningful lyrics.' They really just seemed to do everything I wanted and so they were a humongous influence on me."

Shawn Tuthill, the renaissance instrumentalist of The Dimes, was born and raised in Houston, but met and became best buds with Clay in 1996 when the two sang in the choir at Texas State University.

"I play more than four (instruments)," he said. "It kind of depends on the venue."

Those instruments include keyboards, hand percussion, tambourines, vocals, trumpet and "whistling, of all things."

"For me, touring, it's exactly what I've been wanting to do," Tuthill said. "I'm touring with a bunch of guys that are really talented at what they do. We have fun. We always make sure fun is first because if it doesn't turn into fun, then it feels like you're working and you don't want to do it."

While touring with material from their two EPs, Tuthill said they'll start working on a full-fledged album once it's in their budget. For now, their priority is to just continue to make and share music.

"I love music. I think about it all day, I think about it in my sleep, and I learn about life through music, through writing music," Clay said. "There's nothing I'd rather do and I want to give it every chance to be what I do for a living. I can live with failure, but I can't live with not giving it a shot."

The Dimes perform on the UA Mall today at noon before heading to perform at Last Exit in Tempe this evening. For more info on them, visit their site thedimes.com.