Ethan Thompson finds his place on the big stage

Whitefish residents who tuned into the “Today” show last week may have been surprised to see a familiar hometown face taking the stage.

Ethan Thompson, a Whitefish native, and his band Ocean Park Standoff recently performed their single “Good News” on the Feb. 22 show.

Thompson, along with bandmates Samantha Rossi and Pete Nappi, are set to debut their first, self-titled album on Friday and were also named “Artist of the Month” by radio personality Elvis Duran. The band’s appearance on “Today” came at the tail end of their current tour, which ended on Monday in Vermont.

Thompson describes the band’s sound as “aggressively uplifting,” a positive-sounding mix of the band members’ various influences.

“It’s a mix of electro-pop. hip hop, 80s, old rock, it’s got a lot of influences,” he said. “There’s three of us and we all have way different backgrounds.”

Thompson got his first break when he won a Folgers Coffee jingle contest in 2010. A few years later while living in Boston, he auditioned for the popular reality singing talent show “American Idol,” appearing on the show in 2014.

Music has always been a driving force in Thompson’s life. Between starting piano lessons at age three and reaching No. 28 on the Spotify Viral 50 charts in October, Thompson said there was never really a moment when he decided music was his calling.

“It was just pretty much something I always did, there was never really a defining moment,” he said. “I always pursued it and never stopped.”

Thompson got involved with local theater performances in the Flathead Valley before studying music in college, first for a year at the University of Montana before attending the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston.

“It was one of the best places to be,” he said, noting that he met fellow band member Nappi at the school.

“Being a kid from Montana I did not like being in a city with such tall buildings,” he added with a laugh.

The band has been writing music together for the last two years and signed a record deal with Hollywood Records in 2015.

This summer Ocean Park Standoff will start another tour with Third Eye Blind and Silversun Pickups, and hopefully the band will have their second album out by the end of the year.

Thompson said he and bandmates already have plenty of future music written, but it’s still always hard to tell which song, like “Good News” will be a hit.

“Doing music for a living is funny. There’s so many times where you’re throwing a thousand songs in the dark that’ll probably never be heard but that builds up to that one song you write and that’s going to be worth it,” he said.

Having played the Today Show and other big gigs like the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards in Los Angeles — where celebrities like Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban sat in the crowd — Thompson said it’s actually hard to point to any particular achievement as being one he’s most proud of.

“I try to not look at things as one better than the other. We went over and played at the children’s hospital the other day, and that felt like the greatest thing to me. I was able to help somebody in need, and that’s awesome to me, and then we were able to go and do the Today Show and that was great,” he said. “Different things, no matter how big and small, have their own merits.”

Ocean Park Standoff’s Today Show performance can be viewed at http://www.today.com/video/watch-ocean-park-standoff-perform-new-single-good-news-live-on-today-882413635708, and more information on the band is available on their Facebook page.