At 12 years old, BSC business major Price Pewitt began to form his first few bands. He watched them grow, eventually partnering up with rival musicians, and has seen the music evolve into the modern rock/pop hybrid that is Moxie Hotel.

Pewitt is the vocalist and bassist for Moxie Hotel, along with guitarists and vocalists Stanton Langley and Anderson Gore and drummer Sims Ruffino. They’re bringing pop music “without losing that element of explosive, energetic rock” to Birmingham and venues all over the east coast.

“Moxie Hotel has a couple regions to its style, but it largely centers around this ironic notion to take what we do very seriously, but not ourselves,” Pewitt says. “Hence why some of the content may sound or look so dramatic, but if you come see us live, it’s a lot of us laughing and interacting with the crowd.”

At Crestline Elementary and Mountain Brook Junior High, Pewitt and Langley crossed paths and began a few groups, leading to what Pewitt sees as their first real band, Riverbend.

“I introduced the band to Sims when we were 15, after rivaling his bands for years,” Pewitt says. “We buried the hatchet and got busy quickly. After high school, it came time to decide how far we would be willing to take it.”

Pewitt, Langley, and Ruffino got a production deal in Nashville, which led them to find Gore, another local musician-turned bandmate. Together, the four members all bring a love for pop and rock and collectively channel that energy, while still bringing their own preferences and varying commitments to the rock roots – creating the equilibrium Pewitt likes about their style, which was set in stone once they added Gore.

“That’s really when we rebranded to Moxie Hotel and found our new sound, our vibe, and essentially started over with this lineup and our producers who stuck with us all the way through the madness of the pandemic and internal changes.”

Moxie has performed at several campus events, like E-Fest and Spring Bash, and has multiple ties to BSC: Pewitt transferred to the Hilltop in 2020, Ruffino attended BSC in 2018 and 2019, and his brother, Max Ruffino, is a current first-year student.

Last summer, Moxie traveled to venues in Texas, Virginia, Georgia, and Washington, D.C. The musicians also played the Sloss Music and Arts Festival and with Cage the Elephant at the 1065 Music Festival in Mobile. They plan to keep traveling, and Pewitt is developing his business major to focus on marketing to help manage the band.

“It is my friends, my career, my income, my passion – all tied into one project with a purpose to meet people of all kinds and include people in what we do,” Pewitt says. “It’s very cathartic to me knowing that whether I’m in a business mood, a creative mood, or a social mood, I have an outlet to find a way to work it into the band.”

This story was published in the Fall/Winter 2021 issue of ’Southern, BSC’s alumni magazine.

If you have ideas for our next issue of ’Southern, please email [email protected]. We always welcome stories about outstanding people from the BSC community.

Listen to Moxie Hotel on Spotify here.