Oxford, Mississippi has a new band filled with talent native to the “Sip.” The group goes by the name “UNI” and consists of four musicians: Dalton Burney, Carson Gentry, Bryce Heatherly and Joe Hogue. The guys have recently come together throughout the month of August and are beginning to display their talents as they perform at venues around the city of Oxford.

Burney is the lead guitarist for the band and has been involved within the music culture from the day he was born. Burney says music has played a great role in his life and he is able to express his love and talent with the band, and most importantly share his gifts to others.

“I feel like my role is honestly the most fun on the stage as I’m the lead guitarist so I get to jam out there and have fun and then take the lead whenever a guitar solo comes up,” Burney said. “My favorite part about being the lead guitarist is seeing everyone’s faces light up and get super excited whenever I get to play something on guitar.”

The group of guys had always jammed together here and there, but it was the 2023 Oxford Senior Sunset in which Burney performed along with other Oxford High School musicians that had Hogue and Gentry reach out to him. Burney believes that the group was created around the basis of making people want to move, sing, laugh and make them smile.

“We started playing together in early August so we haven’t played a lot of shows together yet, but our most notable is our first gig at Proud Larry’s opening up for Trash Panda and Hotel Fiction,” Burney said. “It was a great learning experience, being able to play with such talented people at our first gig had a huge impact on us and gave us confidence and taught us so much.”

Not only is the group booking more and more performances they are also beginning to come out with their own original music and albums. This is a big step for the band and Burney says that the connection they have as a group is very strong and there are great things coming for them in the future.

“Something I’d like to share is this is just the beginning and it’s amazing seeing people supporting us so early on and I promise there is much more to come,” Burney said. “Our original music is coming along amazingly and we are so excited to show y’all. We have a show on Sept. 27 with Thistle Ridge and Easy Honey at Proud Larry’s and would love to see all y’all there.”