The next big thing? It’s a rock cliche, but the members of Weekend Excursion have the markings of up-and-coming contenders. The band’s string of recent accomplishments reads like a checklist for making it big: landing opening spots for names like Sister Hazel and REO Speedwagon, having a New Year’s Eve blowout show at the House of Blues and getting songs played on “The Real World” and “Dawson’s Creek.”

Weekend Excursion is based in Raleigh but hails from Boone, NC, where the band attended Appalachian State University between local gigs and weekend road trips to North Carolina venues such as Cat’s Cradle and Ziggy’s.

After graduation, the group began touring full-time, expanding their fan base and reputation for intense and enthusiastic live shows. Weekend Excursion will be in Wilmington this Saturday, Jan. 19, at Marrz.

Currently, the band is in the studio recording their fourth album, due out this April. Drummer Cas Edmunds called from outside of Raleigh to talk about the band and the new CD.

Seahawk: How is the new album going to be different from your earlier work?Cas Edmunds: Our music and our songwriting has matured with every CD, and this one is no different. It’s much more diverse than any of our other albums, especially the last one we did… We’re going through a transition with [our] bass players, so we have a new guy playing on this CD. Also, we’re having a string section, a horn section on one song; some different things.

Seahawk: What was the high point of 2001 for the group?CE: One of the bigger things we did was headline the House of Blues [in Myrtle Beach]. That was a pretty great show. It’s always been a lot of fun for us to play shows at the House of Blues, especially when we get a chance to headline. I think we all enjoyed that.

Seahawk: Any New Year’s resolutions?CE: Make sure we get this CD out on time and get back to touring. It’s been a while. Nowadays we’re playing about twenty shows a month on a regular basis but being in the studio for the last . . . two months, we really haven’t played all that many shows.

Seahawk: Weekend Excursion has played up and down the east coast, from D.C. to Florida. Do you have a favorite venue to play?CE: The House of Blues is still a favorite one for us to do. On our shows we’ve done in Florida, we’ve played with another band, some friends of ours called Big Sky. We’ve done a few club shows down there…college events, things like that.

Seahawk: Do you think you have a big audience with college students?CE: Yeah, I’d say that it’s pretty big. It helps us a lot, definitely. They tend to come out [to our shows].

Seahawk: Any rock-star stories from the road?CE: I’ll tell you; we’re building them every day. You get into a lot of crazy stuff when you’re out there for a while, but we love playing shows and hanging out together. It’s very rare that you can find a job or profession where you get to hang out with your best friends all the time.

Seahawk: What are you listening to right now?CE: Well, I’ve always been a huge Beatles fan. Actually, right now I’m listening to Rubber Soul; that’s probably my favorite album. But a lot of the stuff I’ve been [listening to] is what we’ve been doing in the studio. That’s what I’ve been focusing on.

Seahawk: When did you guys first realize that the whole music thing could really take off?CE: Well, that’s an interesting question. We started this band in high school. Jeff [Foxworth] and I started about 7 years ago. Basically we just wanted to start a band, you know? It was really odd–I think as soon as we started, we never really looked back. We just started playing music and figured that’s what we’re supposed to do; that’s what we want to do. We’ve just done it since then it’s always been getting better. It’s never been one big jump or anything; we just kept plugging away. In college we got a manager and booking agent and started playing a little bit more. We graduated from college and started playing full-time about a year and a half ago.

Seahawk: If you guys couldn’t be in a band making music, what would you do?CE: For me, I don’t know what I’d be doing. I mean, I’m still only 23. I can’t see right now any other thing I’d want to be doing, or any other schedule that would fit my lifestyle.