Austin Bernhard is a student at the University of Iowa by weekday, but with guitar in hand and some purple face paint, he becomes the lead singer and guitarist for the rock band Purple Frank.

Bernhard is from McGregor, Iowa, a town of fewer than 900 residents on the Mississippi River. He began his music career at age 7 in this small community.

As a young solo artist, Bernhard won a country-music contest in his hometown. The contest promised work with a record studio in Nashville, but the recording sessions never appeared.

“I played a Jack White cover, which is kind of funny when you think about it,” he said. “I guess I’m kind of happy it never happened; I wouldn’t want to be playing country music now.”

Bernhard went on to form a band, The Sweet Jeebuhs, with some of his high-school friends. The name for the band is a Bart Simpson exclamation-turned-meme that was frequently used by one of the band’s history teachers.

“I would bring my laptop to class and record him,” Bernhard said. “We ended up using recordings I got from that class on our first album.”

The Sweet Jeebuh’s first album, Swumbino, captures Bernhard’s early recordings that he conducted in a basement using a single amplifier and a pair of Apple headphones to record vocals.

“We ended up doing a lot of stuff right,” said Cole Wille, the drummer for the group. “The only thing we didn’t do right was recording the drums correctly; we were way off.”

Wille is now an audio-engineering student in Tucson, Arizona. He came to Bernhard as an interested musician, and during the time spent recording with the band, Wille fell in love with the audio-engineering component of music.

The band now has two EPs, Disco Asylum and Easy Breezy, that it released in 2016.

When Bernhard entered the University of Iowa, the band struggled to stay together.

“We didn’t ever ‘break up,’ but we couldn’t play together regularly, so it was left up in the air,” Bernhard said.

The undoing of The Sweet Jeebuhs led to a void in his schedule. Aside from the projects he was completing during his freshman year as a cinema major, the down time became overwhelming.

“I would come back after class in the early afternoon and have nothing to do until class the next day,” Bernhard said. “So I just decided, ‘Let’s write some music.’ ”

During this time, he began crafting the stage character Purple Frank.

“I just love the idea of a character,” he said. “I love making music, and I love making films, so when the two collide, it’s a great feeling.”

This characterization of Purple Frank can be seen in the music video Bernhard put up in January on YouTube for one of the tracks on his first album, “Thinkin’ About the Rhythm.”

During his freshman year he also met now friend, bassist, and roommate Matt Fetzer.

“There are about three instruments in our living room at all times,” Fetzer said. “There is always someone jamming, which leads to others joining in.”

Fetzer is a part of the group of rotating musicians that back up Purple Frank. Others include Colt Amborn, Brendan Higgins, and Jonah Hatten.