Up on stage for their first official gig at GVA Cafe in downtown Morgan Hill, four local neighborhood kids—calling themselves Antique Radio—performed as one in front of a crowd of family and friends.
“We had a good turnout. The vocals were on top of the band and the sound was really good,” said bassist Mike Boyer of the group’s Aug. 21 show at the small downtown venue.
Boyer, along with bandmates and fellow Live Oak High School alumni Daniel Gomez, Nick Rennie and Ryan Bishop, grew up less than a mile from one another on Del Monte Avenue and First Street in Morgan Hill.
“I like it here. This is our hometown,” Boyer added. “Our sound reflects Morgan Hill.”
Gomez—lead guitarist and vocalist—described Antique Radio’s unique sound as “Indy Blues Rock,” an infusion of different influences brought into play by each of the four bandmates.
“We’ve been writing the songs for years, five years maybe. It’s all been written but not recorded,” said Gomez, 28, who studied music, along with his cousin and drummer/vocalist Nick Rennie and pianist/vocalist Ryan Bishop, at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. “The three of us were jamming together, studying music.”
Boyer was attending UC Santa Cruz at that time and, after being contacted by Gomez about joining the band, drove his 1989 Volkswagon down to Los Angeles almost every weekend.
“It’s definitely always been my calling. Whether I’ve been able to satisfy that calling is another thing,” said Boyer, who picked up his first bass guitar more than a decade ago. “Just being in this band is keeping me in the music scene….They know their chops.”
With tunes such as “California Waits For You,” “Band Apart,” “The Penny Gun Shooter,” and “Queen of the Streets,” the band started recording just last year and are shooting for a December release of their untitled debut album. In the interim, Antique Radio will perform Oct. 18 at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco.
“Being in a band has always been a vision,” Gomez said. “Ever since I started playing as a kid (at age 8), this was the only option for me.”
Gomez, Boyer and Bishop were in the same LOHS Class of 2004 with Rennie graduating two years ahead of them. They all played in local bands throughout their high school years, but never all four of them together. That is until now.
“(Music) brings people together. It kept us together as friends,” said Gomez, who recalled skateboarding in downtown with his buddies and hanging at The Music Tree. “If we didn’t have music, we’d all be in other places, doing other things.”
All now living in the Bay Area again, the group gets together once a week at a storage facility in Sunnyvale to jam and work on their music. They are currently looking for a local spot with good acoustics to practice at in Morgan Hill, and hope to have a launch party for their debut album at the Granada Theater.
“My biggest goal is making it a working career. For me personally, I just love recording music,” Gomez said. “We have hundreds of songs that we never recorded. It would be nice to get them down and, if it takes off, that would be amazing.”
Or as Boyer put it: “The world is ready for us now.”
Check out the sounds of Antique Radio on Facebook.com/antiqueradiomusic
