The vocalist sings softly into the microphone while strumming his fingers over a guitar. He hears the bass start to strum, and the vibrations of the guitar fill the room. The drums pick up after the bass, and soon everyone hears the auxiliary join the mix. Suddenly the room is made up of sounds and lyrics that express why they were all brought together: to make music.
“The Outsiders” is a band consisting of seniors Jonathan Flores and Gavin Santopetro, junior Dylan Ulloa and new band member college freshman Niko Bussell.
“Jon and I were just brainstorming, and we thought ‘The Outsiders’ sounded cool, so we rolled with it,” Santopetro said. “It was supposed to just be a working title until we found something more interesting.”
The band was formed last year by Flores and Santopetro. According to Flores, the individual musical talents from the members was what made the selection of members for the band easy.
“A few months ago, in November of last year, Gavin and I started writing,” Flores said. “We added the other two members of the band, [Niko] and Dylan later on. I play acoustic guitar, and I am the lead singer while Gavin plays auxiliary instruments and guitar. Dylan plays the bass, and [Niko] plays the drums.”
According to Santopetro, although creating songs can be exhausting, it is all worth it in the end because the band’s ideas coming together creates great music that they are proud of.
“Producing music that others listen to keeps us on our toes,” Santopetro said. “We realize that we need to continually strive to make our songs the highest quality possible.”
Although both seniors are going separate ways after graduation, the band aims to try and do as much as they can for as long as they can in the hopes of even coming out with an album.
“You get to share various ideas with other great musicians and be able to write and expand further musical concepts,” Flores said. “Being in a band takes a lot of dedication, just like having a dedication to a sport.”
Music from “The Outsiders” is available on Spotify, iTunes, Bandcamp and Soundcloud.
“Producing music is an amazing feeling, especially knowing that other people are able to listen to it,” Flores said. “To hear feedback from so many different people brings me so much happiness.”