Endorphin Rush is back.

The band officially disbanded last March, but lead guitarist/back-up vocalist Chase McKelvy, 22, didn't think that was the finale.

"I had suspicions that we would be back eventually," he said. "With Endorphin Rush, so many things fell into place."

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Listen Up: Endorphin Rush performs their original, "Odyssey." Watch »

Michael Donahue/The Commercial Appeal

Endorphin Rush: Chase McElvy (from left), Charles "Bear" Wilson, Rory Laster, Marquis "Tank" Hodges and T. J. Clark

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"We were going strong," said lead singer/rhythm guitarist Rory Laster, 22. "We developed a decent following. We had a record label, Serjical Strike Records, looking at us."

But personal and professional problems among band members got to be too much. "I just walked away," Laster said.

Endorphin Rush was complicated from the beginning. McKelvy and Laster worked on songs, but from a 2,000-mile distance. McKelvy goes to St. John's College in Annapolis, Md., so songs were born during "long phone conversations," he said.

After the break, Laster began a solo project and then another band, The Reverend Hitchhikers, but neither of them took off.

Last summer, he and McKelvy began talking about bad relationships they had and other problems. "We started talking about life and all that stuff and all those discussions started turning into material," McElvy said.

They each wrote a song with a similar theme.

Laster wrote "Armageddon's Every Day." "I'm summing this up," he said. "It's not about what you do, it's about what you do with what you've done."

Describing his song, "Armageddon's Just Another Day," McKelvy said, "Drama, it's everywhere. People always want to get so riled up about it: 'Oh, what's this big thing looming?' You just step back from life for a moment and realize it's really always that way. And it's less scary that way."

They thought writing songs together again was about it, McKelvy said. "We weren't talking about getting the band back together; we were talking about writing music."

Then one day McKelvy called Laster and said, "Let's do it again."

"I sent out a mass text message to everyone in my phone and said, 'Endorphin Rush reunited. Coming soon,' " Laster said.

He enlisted bassist T. J. Clark, 19, right away.

The old Endorphin Rush was more hard rock. "I think T. J. added a fresh deal to it, a new aspect to the music," Laster said. "More soul and funk."

They also added drummer Marquis "Tank" Hodges, 28, and session/backup drummer Charles "Bear" Wilson, 23. "Tank and Charles and T. J., they saved Endorphin Rush," Laster said. "They were the missing pieces to the puzzle."

"All for Me" is their most recent original. "The crux of the song is learning to go along with life, but worry about yourself," McKelvy said. "Not to be a selfish person, but to worry about you. You forget that so often."

They never considered changing the name of the band. "It had to be Endorphin Rush," Laster said. "That's our baby, man."

Listen Up spotlights area performers.

Endorphin Rush

The band performs at 10 p.m. Saturday at Double Deuce, 577 S. Highland. No cover charge.