Clayton — Three Clayton High School grads and two of their buddies are making rock music that shows their roots.

"It would be kinda like if Johnny Cash and Sublime had a kid," said singer-guitarist Daniel Barbour.

Wrecked at Breakfast formed about a year ago playing mostly covers. But the band is making the rounds now with original songs and plans to record its first CD soon.

Barbour, with percussionist Nate Jones and guitarist Blake Cowan, said they played open mics as an acoustic trio at first. Bassist Phillip Liverman, who they know as Iggy, was a fan of the band and joined up after asking them if they wanted to add a bass player. Liverman recommended a drummer, his friend Eric Robinson.

"We've been playing just about every weekend," Jones said.

Cowan said the band started out playing for free bar tabs, and bar owners liked that they were bringing good size crowds to the shows. They played crowd-pleasers they liked, too, like "Paint it Black" by the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here."

As they built a following, they started introducing their own songs. Barbour said he, Jones and Cowan do the songwriting.

"The party songs are pretty much Nate, the deeper stuff is me, and the harder stuff is Blake," Barbour said.

"We've got one song we wrote basically about our manager."

"It's all true stories, but it doesn't make any sense," Jones added.

The guys say they play a long set that still includes a lot of covers, which people love to hear because they can sing along. But among their regulars, songs like "On the Run" have been well received.

"Everybody has a good time when we play," Liverman said.

"We have a good time," Robinson added.

Barbour studied recording at the School of Communication Arts in North Raleigh, and the band is getting ready to record in Barbour's home studio.

"We pretty much save all our money we make now toward the pressing," Cowan said.

Wrecked at Breakfast is competing in a battle of the bands March 9 at The Pour House on Blount Street in Raleigh. On March 15, the band will play at McKinley's in Clayton Corners Shopping Center on U.S. 70 in Clayton.