And after stumbling across drummer, Christopher Pedraza, and guitarist, Julius Lietuvninkas, he called off the search.

“We just hit it off as soon as we started jamming, and the rest is history,” Cuda said. “It was like love at first sight — but with men.”

The trio came together last year to form the pop-punk band Skyline, which will perform at the first-ever battle of the bands charity event BandAid, hosted by the RCAH Council.

The show, which will take place from 8-11 p.m. Thursday in the RCAH Theatre, will be the group’s first official performance.

“I’m really nervous,” Cuda said. “I can’t even eat I’m so nervous.”

Each of the five acts performing at the event will represent a local organization that will be awarded the proceeds from tickets sales if their band is named the event’s winner. There also will be a $200 cash prize for the winning group, which will be determined by the audience.

“We decided that we wanted to have more of a charity or give-back feel than just a straight-up battle of the bands,” said Residential College in the Arts and Humanities senior Kendra Shirey, who helped organize the event.

Members of Skyline said they choose to represent the Alliance of Creative Students — a group of emerging talent formed by innovative local minds — because they support the organization’s goal to build a network of resources for young artists in Greater Lansing.

“That’s what we live for,” Residential College in the Arts and Humanities and theatre sophomore Pedraza said. “Being able to play our music and raise money … is literally the dream, and it’s so crazy that it’s happening. (It) is why we do what we do.”

Cuda said he and his bandmates look up to other pop-punk bands, such as blink-182 and Sum 41, because of the energy they bring to their music.

“I think our goal personally is to bring the kid out in someone,” he said. “(We want) to get them up and jumping around and energetic because that is what music is for — to get involved and to appreciate it.”

Members of the group said they try to portray the same liveliness in their work as the bands they are inspired by and love watching their friends enjoy their practice sessions.

“You can see them bobbing their heads and getting up and jumping around,” history and political science junior Lietuvninkas said. “It’s a lot of fun, (and) it’s a great experience to see that other people are enjoying the music.”

Band members said they typically practice three times a week, but as their debut performance approaches, they have been rehearsing even more frequently.

“It never gets old, (and) it’s always fun,” Lietuvninkas said. “Even if we play the same thing over and over again — we just love it.”

Since the three former strangers began playing together, through rehearsals and informal performances, they said they have grown extremely close to one another and their followers.

“We have our own family, but then we have a band family,” Pedraza said. “Our fans are our family, and that’s what we try to portray as much as we can.”