In its first year, Kansas City-area band Jump Rope for Heart went from casually recording music in members’ homes to touring Japan, recording two full-length albums along the way. The musicians just wish someone knew it.

The conglomeration of Belton, Mo., musicians, plus keyboardist Brian Campbell, a Boston transplant, came from the kind of humble beginnings typical of small-town teenagers.

“We played our first show at a biker bar,” drummer Stephen Roper said. “We almost broke up right after that. We were out of our element, really.”

It didn’t take long for the five-piece act to bounce back with successful gigs at house parties and after-prom celebrations. Soon, Jump Rope for Heart had acquired a small legion of fans, composed of mostly friends and acquaintances.

The band tried to book shows at clubs and theaters in the Kansas City area, but venues were unreceptive to the indie rockers, usually opting to book more established acts. The band turned to Lawrence.

Front to back: Stephen Roper (drums), Taylor Dunn (vocals/guitar), Brian Campbell (keyboard), Chris Turner (guitar) and Josh Watson (bass) make up the Belton, Mo., band Jump Rope for Heart.

“The Bottleneck was gracious enough to give us our first real show, and then they invited us back to headline,” bassist Josh Watson said. “Lawrence has really helped us.”

Then the band stumbled across an opportunity to play in Japan. The unit was working with a public relations company to plan an East Coast tour, its first ever. News came that another act with the same company had been in a serious car accident, leaving its Japanese tour booked, paid for and without an act. Jump Rope for Heart filled the vacancy, headlining many of its eight shows in and around Tokyo.

“We played a lot of punk clubs with punk bands,” guitarist Chris Turner said. “The majority of the tour was us trying to win over punk audiences, which I felt we did.”

Watson attributed the band’s success with Japanese audiences to the versatility of its music.

“We have harder, faster songs, and we have more mature songs,” he said. “We have country-ish songs and even some drum machine stuff. The trick was to watch the other bands, see what the audience was reacting to and do our best to play what we felt would work best.”

The group returned to the states and began work on its latest album, “Constants,” to be released at the end of this month. The album took two weeks to record, a slight increase from the two days required to complete the previous album, “Come in Out of the Rain.”

The band had much of the album written before the tour but found that the music evolved in Japan.

“The basics were there: the melody, the arrangement and the instrumentation,” Turner said. “What we found once we got about three shows into the tour was that the songs were taking on new shapes and sounds.”

Now Jump Rope for Heart is once again focusing on its live shows.

“In Japan, we felt like we had something to prove,” Turner said. “Acting completely insane made it more fun for us and it kept the audience’s attention. We’re trying to incorporate the fearless stage presence here at home.”

Jump Rope for Heart has played several recent shows in the Kansas City area. Its next show is Thursday at The Jackpot Saloon, and the band hopes its new material and improved performance will help build a larger Lawrence following.

“We tried to turn our show into what we want a band to sound like when we go to a show,” lead singer Taylor Dunn said.

– Sarah Kelly is a member of the Lawrence Journal-World Teen Board. She is a senior at Lawrence High School.