Nearly a decade ago, the members of Brown Haven first got together and started playing music in a cold storage unit in the Mendenhall Valley.

"We were playing in a brown storage unit when we all met, and it was our haven," said band member Damien Horvath, telling how the group came up with its name.

The band's earliest incarnation had Horvath on bass, Darin Jensen on guitar and Tyler Lindquist on drums. Lindquist later left the band in 2005 and was replaced by Alex Romero.

Friends who came by the storage unit early on encouraged the band to go out and play in the community, so it did. Brown Haven's earliest gigs were open mike appearances downtown, a set at the Aqua Funk Lounge show featuring Wisconsin Slim, and as the opening act for Contra Public during its 2003 Halloween show.

Brown Haven has since put on several of its own Halloween shows with Rock Alaska Records and performed gigs at the Alaskan Hotel & Bar, Rendezvous and Squires Rest. The band has one EP, "Home Grown," which was recorded in 2005. Last month Brown Haven rocked the Island Pub at a New Year's Eve show.

"We all really like playing live, but we're all very much aware of Juneau's burnout factor," Horvath said. "We're not gonna play every weekend, and we're not going to try to book the band on every night where you'll hear the same music from the same three guys over and over and over again. It keeps it fresh."

Some people have described the band's sound as Bob Marley meets Black Sabbath, a mix of ska, rock 'n' roll, metal and funk.

"Damien is from the Virgin Islands and brings kind of a reggae aspect; Alex has this heavier funk kind of thing; and I have the metal edge." Jensen said.

"We kinda play everything," Horvath said. "I think it's just more what we like and how we feel than trying to fit in any genre of music.

"It's worked so far," he added. "Most of it's original. It can be fast; it can be slow; it can be pretty."

Jensen and Horvath write most of the band's music. Their songs range from lifestyle songs, such as Jensen's "Yakutat Rag," inspired from a surfing trip to Yakutat, and Horvath's "The One," with the opening lyrics, "It rains every day in this God-forsaken town."

Other songs tell stories, such as Jensen's "Devil Went Down to NASCAR," about a race car driver racing for his soul, or Horvath's "Jah," about people struggling with addiction.

Romero is self-admittedly not a poet and doesn't write many of the band's songs.

"I handle a lot of the technical stuff," he said.

Romero said he really likes recording and capturing the band's live performances.

"Alex has brought that whole side of the music that Darin and I would never have had," Horvath said.

The band practices regularly, but took off the month of January to help Romero move into a new home that will serve as the band's rehearsal and recording space.

"We'll polish up a couple new songs and use that as a practice forum," Jensen said. "We're gonna take these new songs and put them on an album.

"It's still all original. And it's still all fresh, because we're continually bringing new songs out," Horvath said. "I think that's one thing that's really kept us together and kept us really hungry to showcase what we're doing."

Horvath said the band will likely play on a Wet Wednesday at Squires Rest in the near future.

"The Bastards play there a lot. We play there a lot. Moses Kane's been there once in awhile. Chrome Forest. It's just really a nice spot to go and play to a decent receptive crowd almost every time," he said.

"We don't play a lot of gigs, but we practice twice a week, I mean, constantly, all year," Romero said. "We're always writing; we're always advancing our equipment; and it's just fun."

• Teri Tibbett is a writer and musician living in Juneau. She can be reached at www.tibbett.com.