MORGAN HILL
– Three nights a week in a rundown shanty off Tennant Avenue in
Morgan Hill, four young men have been hard at work rehearsing as
they aspire to success in the music business.
MORGAN HILL – Three nights a week in a rundown shanty off Tennant Avenue in Morgan Hill, four young men have been hard at work rehearsing as they aspire to success in the music business.
Their efforts are starting to pay off. The rock band called 7day Weekend debuts its first CD tonight at the Gaslighter Theatre in downtown Gilroy.
The band’s style is a mixture of ’50s rock and hip-hop with a little pop and Jamaican reggae thrown in to add a unique flavor, said 7Day Weekend member Ronnie Steele, who plays bass and performs some of the vocals.
“It’s a little bit of punk rock and a little bit of everything,” he says. “It’s kind of like what I grew up on.”
Steele, 28, grew up in Morgan Hill but now lives in San Jose where he sells garage doors and enjoys mountain biking and roller hockey. He started playing bass at age 17.
He and three buddies formed a rock band about eight years ago called “Soul Aggression” which performed at local nightclubs. It was spotlighted on cable-TV station’s VH1 talent search program “Save the Music.”
Soul Aggression recently evolved into 7day Weekend as the members found themselves writing and performing more personally emotional songs.
“We wanted to write our own music and not cater to a certain style any more,” Steele said. “It’s a lot of fun. At the same time it’s a lot of work. We’re trying to make it. We pour our hearts and soul in it.”
That heart and soul shows up in the songs of the band’s debut CD. Titled “Wednesday,” copies will be sold for $10 at the Gaslighter Theatre tonight. The CD is also now available at Street Light Records in San Jose.
“With 7Day Weekend, there’s a lot more singing harmonies,” said band member Matt Serrano, 27, who plays guitar and sings. “We still do the rap here and there. Some of our songs have a Beetles influence. It’s a big difference. We’ve grown a lot and we’re still evolving.”
Serrano started playing guitar when he was 11 years old. A couple of his brother’s friends had a Morgan Hill band called the Brownies, and he thought the music was cool. The movie “La Bamba” about Latino rock star Richie Valens also stoked his inner fire to play music, he said.
“Basically, it’s what I love to do,” he said. “It’s the only thing I see myself doing.”
One of the songs he wrote for the CD is called “Spend the Night” which is about his relationship with a former girlfriend a couple of years back.
“You’re in a relationship, you pretty much know it’s over with, and yet you keep it going,” he said, describing the song’s lyrics.
Performing such personal songs in front of an audience now comes much easier for Serrano than when he first started out.
“It took me a while to break out of my shell,” he said. “It’s almost like I’m a different person out there. It’s funny, I was a really shy person. People who know me during the day at work would never think I’m up there singing.”
Among other songs, band member Jonathan Hanson, 22, wrote the lyrics to “Call My Bluff” for the CD. He was influenced by the reggae music of his hero Bob Marley.
“It’s about the fear of falling in love,” he says. “I’ve been in that situation. I was exaggerating while I was writing it. Then it really did happen to me after I wrote the song. Kind of scary.”
He chuckles. “You got to really watch what you write about.”
Hanson joined Soul Aggression in 1999 when one of the original members left. The group was looking for a vocalist and he met a promoter at San Jose’s Cactus Club night club who suggested he audition.
Performing live in front of an audience, he says, is the best part.
“It’s kind of just like a rush, seeing people dancing and having a good time,” he said. “It’s really good party dance music.”
Hanson also has fun writing songs with the other 7day Weekend members. The collaboration really inspires him, he said.
“We all bring stuff to the table and make it better,” he said.
Morgan Hill resident Jason Itterly, 27, joined Soul Aggression in its last year. He loves music, has a passion for sharing it with others.
“I do it because I’ve done it since I was so young,” he said. “It keeps you out of trouble. … But sometimes I get nervous (performing) because I have such high hopes.”
Itterly’s former girlfriend Karen Benson came up with the name 7day Weekend for the group, he said.
“We were all standing around after we saw a friend get married,” he said. “At a bar, we started throwing names around in a circle.”
Benson suggested 7day Weekend, joking how absolutely everyone would love to have a weekend that lasted so long.
“We just started laughing about it,” Itterly said. “We figured everyone would like it.”
Itterly wanted other local bands to help out with the debut of 7day Weekend’s CD.
Also scheduled to perform at the Gaslighter tonight are punk rockers “Los Dryheavers,” a surf punk band from Berkeley called “Copper Tones,” and a female band from Gilroy called “Sheldon.”
“All the bands – we personally selected them because they’re all friends of ours,” Itterly said. “And we believe in their bands, too. Their bands are really good.”
No matter where 7day Weekend heads in the music business, the band’s members believe in staying loyal to the friends and family in the South Valley region. That’s why they chose the Gaslighter as the venue for their CD release.
“It’s a party to say ‘thank you’ to everyone for their support of us,” Itterly said. “We decided to do it local so that all our friends and families can be there.”
7day Weekend will debut its CD “Wednesday” at the Gaslighter Theater, 7430 Monterey Street at 7 p.m. Music begins at 8 p.m., 7day Weekend will perform about 10 p.m. All ages are welcome. The price is $8 at door. For more information, call 607-7472.
