Calmgrove belies their inexperience with a well-honed balance of pop-punk and emo, delivering with an assured cohesion, grit and honesty.
Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.
Eric Guzman (Vocals), Tommy Maung (Guitar/Vocals), Daniel Alvarado (Guitar) , Sean Gonzales (Bass) , Nolan Hernandez (Drums)
For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Calmgrove? How long has the band been around?
We all have been playing music together for a few years now. Daniel, Tommy, and I [Eric] went to high school together and have been in different bands through out the years. We’ve had the idea for Calmgrove for a while, but never had a concrete line up when we were writing our first few songs. Once we brought in Sean and Nolan, everything clicked. We released our first single, “Lifelong”, and played our first show earlier this year.
What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?
Calmgrove is the name of street in our neighborhood. We were bouncing different names back and fourth for a while and that’s what stuck out to us.
Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?
The majority of our songs are written together. Usually someone will bring in a riff or chord progression and we build off of it. I write the majority of the lyrics, but the guys are always helping me out with melodies and phrasing. It’s definitely a team effort and something we really enjoy doing. Our songs have a ton of emotions and are about a wide variety of subjects. We have songs about dealing with the loss of a loved one, the constant battle with conformity, feeling betrayed, and hoping for forgiveness. We write music and lyrics about how were feeling in a certain stage of our life. We try to put as much emotion as we possibly can into our music, so the listener can feel what we feel.
What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?
There’s a ton of awesome bands out right now! We’ve been listening to a lot of Like Pacific, Knuckle Puck, Citizen, Balance & Composure, and Movements!
Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?
We all grew up going to Warped Tour, so seeing all our favorite bands on that tour was always fun and really pushed us to start creating our own music. Personally, Taking Back Sunday was the band that really kick-started my interest to start a band.
What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, etc …
Nothing too crazy! We make sure our instruments are all good to go and try to have a tight sound check before we start. We’re all really good friends, so we’re usually cracking jokes or hanging out with the other bands before/after our set.
What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?
We just played our favorite Southern California venue, The Glasshouse! We played with Belmont, Such Gold, and Chief State – they are all great bands and even better dudes. We’re hoping to be back at the Glasshouse very soon!
If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?
It would be awesome to tour with bands such as, Knuckle Puck, Like Pacific, and Movements. They are all killing it currently with their latest releases and we dig their sound!
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Thank you so much to anyone who has taken the time to listen to our music. It truly means the world to us. Our next single, “Retrace”, will be out on October 16th and on all streaming platforms! We have plans to release more music through out the rest of the year and will be playing shows all over. Come out to a show when were nearby, we’ll see you soon!
You can follow us on Instagram & Twitter: @calmgrovemusic