So it starts...

We never expected the band to be anything more than a one-time fun activity with friends. In fact, a month of rehearsing 3 songs was aimed only for an open mic performance at Raffa & Rainer's "Can You Rock a little Softer" night that they hosted last year. So if you've attended one of our shows in the past couple of months and have no idea where we came from, here it is:

It's only been a little over a year since our very first performance. It all started at our female vocalist's home. It was a Friday night and our current bass player Gerry was playing back then at the late and great Studio A. This particular night was a local jam night and Gerry told us to come out and support. Growing up in West Kendall (wayyyyy south west kendall,) a trip to the more commercial areas of Miami always needed to be worth your while, so Chanti and I quickly investigated who else would be playing. We looked up every other band on MySpace, and we were less than impressed with the sounds we heard. We thought, "This isn't something I'd pay ten dollars and drive 40 minutes for." We stayed in that night and jokingly said, "We could do this too!"

Around that same time our guitar player Nick had been diggin' deep into the local scene, and via online resources alone recommended I take a listen to Rachel Goodrich, Raffa & Rainer, and Jesse Jackson. Jesse had a regular gig Wednesday night at Amendment XXI by Midtown and that was my first encounter with not only a sound but a performance I'd pay to go see. My next stop was Restaurant 190 where Rachel Goodrich had a weekly Friday night gig, another musician I'd pay and drive to see. She, her guitar, and those heartfelt lyrics become playful sketches of this artist's experiences. I was speechless and so were the other members I had brought along for the ride. Finally, I had the pleasure of meeting Raffa & Rainer, a duet that manages to tell a vivid story in every song and always charmingly interacts with their audience. Personally, I was at a point in my life when painting and photography were insufficient vehicles of expression and after hearing a bit of my life in each of these local artist's words, I decided to pitch the idea of a band to Chanti (this time in a less joking manner.)

Chanti thought the idea was great and when I showed her my song book, she took out her Apple notebook, opened a new file on Garage Band, and soon the room was full of snapping, clapping, humming, and harmonizing. It only took us a week or so to pitch the idea to Nick, who with a quick listen, grew excited about the sound and instantly had his friend John Olin, our former drummer, take a listen. It all happened pretty quickly and primitively. We would gather in a bedroom, the four of us and that notebook, and work out our first 3, very simple, songs: Let Me Go, Thump'n of My Heart, and One Day. We practiced these songs for a while just because we had never performed as a group and wanted to make sure we all felt each other out.

So the Wednesday night came and we played and sang our little hearts out. The crowd was a lot more receptive than we had expected. What we had thought was a one-and-only memory and experience was actually the first of many. Right after our short open mic set, Raffa invited us to play with she and Jesse and a couple other acts the very next month. We were flattered that after only one performance we could play with these local gems we kept telling our friends about. It all goes uphill from there -- gig after gig and the accumulation of the best listeners ever, who now drive their butts 30-40 minutes to see us, brings us to where we are today.

We are now a troop of 7, Daniel Higuera on drums, Gerry Felipe on bass, Matt Gajewski on second guitar, Daniel Fernandez on keys and bells, Chantal Meza vox, Nick Deluca guitar and vox, and me Jo... I write the songs, I hit a canvas, I dabble with harmonies. We are currently working on an album (which you guys can totally get the EP for free if you contact me,) working on a music video with local producer Myriam Valdez (which we never expected to do,) and setting up shows throughout the year in attempts to continue to spread the sound. LIKE A PLAGUE I say!