Another Day Dawns, a hard rock band based in Lehighton, may not have come home from Los Angeles with a recording contract, but the experience and exposure is sure to carry frontman Dakota McGeehan, 22; lead guitarist Tyler Ritter, 19; drummer Nick McGeehan, 19; and bassist Livi Dillon, 19, a long way.

“Obviously we were all bummed,” said Dillon, “but we made really great connections. We knew win or lose, it was still an amazing experience and we’d gain so much from it.”

The band found out on Dec. 1 that they were one of five finalists in the neXt2Rock competition.

After being whittled down from around 2,000 other artists throughout the country through fan voting, and a live performance against nine other bands in Scranton, Another Day Dawns earned the opportunity to vie for a major recording contract with Big Machine Records and the promise of national airplay on Cumulus Media radio stations. Big Machine and Cumulus were the contest sponsors.

“It was amazing just being out there,” said Dillon. “Being around other people from the industry and the other bands.”

The sponsors flew the band and their two managers, Gener McGeehan and Scott Ritter to Los Angeles last Monday for Tuesday’s competition. They were put up at The London West Hollywood, an elegant hotel just a block from the famed Sunset Boulevard.

“The hotel was amazing,” said Dillon. “The fanciest place I’ve ever seen.”

While there wasn’t much time for sightseeing, they did get a chance to walk around Sunset Boulevard and take in the local color.

The finals were held Tuesday evening at the iconic Viper Room, which is frequented by both rock stars and movie stars.

During the competition, Another Day Dawns was the second band to take the stage. They were allowed to play two songs as part of the competition.

“It was amazing,” she said. “It went by so fast. We all performed the best we could.”

The other finalists were Marina City from Chicago, Migrant Motel from Los Angeles, Will Evans of New London, Connecticut, and Ivory Black of Kansas City, who was the eventual winner.

Dillon said there were no second- or third-place finishers, but they did hear that their performance ranked pretty high with the judges.

“When they were talking about who would win, we were definitely up there,” said Dillon, who heard that from someone who was in the room while the judges were deliberating.

Judges were Gavin Rossdale, frontman of the rock band Bush; Scott Borchetta, record executive and founder of Big Machine Label Group; John Varvatos, record executive and music-centric fashion designer; Desmond Child, songwriter and producer; and Steve Jones, best known as guitarist for the Sex Pistols.

After their performance, Dillon said all of the judges’ feedback was good. Most exciting, perhaps, was feedback from Rossdale, whose music is in the same genre as Another Day Dawns.

“The judges all gave us feedback, and he said he loved us, and he said I was the star of the band,” Dillon said, the thrill still evident in her voice. “It was great, hearing that from such an amazing person with a huge career. That was so great to hear.

“He said that he really liked our sound, and that all of us had great presence.”

Child, a legendary Hall of Fame songwriter, was also impressed.

“He also said he really loved us, and win or lose, he’d still work with us either way.”

Borchetta and Varvatos, who own Big Machine Label Group, gave the band good feedback as well.

“Scott (Borchetta) said we were real contenders and he liked our sound. He also said he’d like to get Cody (Dakota) in the studio and see what his voice can do.” While Another Day Dawns didn’t come home with a recording contract this time, the future is looking pretty bright.

“We definitely made massive connections,” said Dillon, “and big things are definitely coming our way from this contest.”

Tuesday’s event was streamed live on the neXt2Rock website, and is still available for viewing at http://next2rock.com.