West thumb on creation, connection and community with music
Written and published for my senior journalism capstone project, Dec. 12, 2025.
Dominic Demilio, Jake Ferraro and Dieter Weinmeister are three NAU students exploring what Flagstaff has to offer them besides an education. The local music scene has been a place for them to thrive as individuals as well as a network.
All three of them grew up surrounded by music and have an extensive history of playing together. Demilio and Ferraro both did middle school choir together and in 2018, their program hosted a “coffee house” open-mic night where Ferraro and Weinmeister played “Under the Bridge” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The three also formed a band called Marionette in 2021 as seniors in high school, playing for friends and family. Demilio was vocals and bass, Ferraro and Weinmeister played guitar and their friend Jackson Roberts played drums.
All three traveled to Flagstaff for college and stayed friends but didn’t find themselves playing in a band again until inspiration struck in 2024. Ferraro and Weinmeister did a summer of seasonal work in Yellowstone National Park together, where they were able to scrape together a band to play in the employee talent show that they then won.
They called the band West Thumb, an homage to a geyser basin at Yellowstone lake. The geological feature was close to the “village” they worked at and were competing for in the talent show. With Demilio’s absence at the time, they found more musicians to play with. The bassist, Eli Lem, ended up moving to Flagstaff for his next round of seasonal work to continue playing music with them. Back in town, Ferraro and Weinmeister reached out to Demilio and asked him to sing for them in between singing for other local bands.
Although the three of them have played together for years, Weinmeister said that their individual passion for the craft is what has kept them together.
“I’ve been jamming with those guys for so long that something feels right,” Weinmeister said. “I don’t want to be in another band without Jake and Dominic, that would feel so fucking weird. I love those guys.”
West Thumb debuted in Flagstaff at local open mics hosted by Sun Entertainment, KJACK Radio and Mountain Top Taproom throughout February and March of 2025. They agreed that their most impactful performance around this time was when they played a show for the NAU Audio Engineering Club in April of 2025. Less than a month later, they played and won the KJACK Battle of the Bands.
As they found their footing in the local scene, they were able to find a permanent drummer, Chad Maricich and bassist, Gavin Vogl. Weinmeister said that although the three of them had been playing for a long time, Maricich and Vogl had no problem integrating because they put their passion and dedication first.
“There is a lot of potential and talent here,” Weinmeister said. “If we keep pushing and keep going, we could make something out of it. … I mean, this is what we love to do.”
In the beginning stages of the band, they all found themselves saying yes to every opportunity that got thrown their way. Ferraro said that this approach is extremely beneficial to life in general, emphasizing the importance of genuine creation and connection.
“You keep going, never be satisfied with anything,” Ferraro said. “You just keep on going and trying to be the best person you can be, and trying to express yourself in so many ways. It’s just there should never be any complacency within life.”
The band gave a lot of credit to the audiences, saying that performing and connecting with the community is the main goal.
“It’s work to figure these songs out, to write a song, to get it all cohesive with five different people,” Weinmeister said. “We put a lot of effort and passion into this, so when we have that good of a reaction, it just, like, fuels us even more. You know, it’s like a positive feedback loop,”
Weinmeister highlighted many aspects of this, like shows hosted by NAU that allow younger students to feel inspired to start their own bands or shows where the line between audience and performer get so blurred that he needs to make sure his equipment doesn’t get moshed into.
One of the band’s favorite performances was for First Friday at Cornish Pasty Co., a bar and restaurant here in town. The place was packed; Demilio crowd surfed and danced with the audience, bringing everyone in the room into their performance with them.
Demilio, Ferraro and Weinmeister all have very distinct values when it comes to life and creating music and community. In a time when music production has been commercialized in some ways, they all have used playing music to connect more with themselves and the world, rather than as a means to make money.
Audiences have latched on to this authenticity, creating a fan base of sorts for the band; consistent supporters who highly value authentic drive and creation, whether that be conscious or subconscious.
“What we really need is coming together and having a collective and not demonizing other people,” Ferraro said. “Everyone needs to be in a community. That’s what drives life.”
The band has turned this momentum back toward the community to continue their growth. Things like hiring local photographers and designers to flesh out their visual branding or hiring local recording studio AAA to produce their EP have helped support the cyclical network of the Flagstaff music scene.
In a small town, it can be difficult to know what to do with momentum. Demilio said it can be scary in creative industries, where everything can feel like a competition for success.
“Planning for the future is one of the hardest things you could do as an artist, because you really never know what to expect,” Demilio said. “But that’s also something that’s very inspiring about [it].”
West Thumb’s inspiration can be drawn back to their love of music and the tradition that comes with it. Weinmeister said music is “family, friendship, community. It’s the driving force of life.”
All of the members have different ideas of what music means and Ferraro highlighted the importance of interpretation and expression. He said no matter what someone’s interpretation of a song or a live performance is, they are getting something out of the experience. And that is what they hope to continue to inspire.
“I think we’ve gotten to that point where we want to take the next step in our musical writing and just do new things with the motion,” Demilio said. “A big part of it, for me, is being able to spread messages as a singer, spread joy, of course, and kind of let people get a break from the world that they’re living in right now.”
