Kelly Trom
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It all started with one mutual friend, one house on Fredricks Street and Hathway Avenue, and similar music interests. Louder Space is made up of four best friends who are both current and former Cal Poly students: industrial engineering senior Chris Kaye (lead singer), Oren Ben-Joseph (bassist), Philip Tyler (drummer and background vocals) and Clayton Daly (guitarist).
The quartet is currently in the process of recording its debut album, Airwaves, which will help define the band’s sound. The band has an EP it recorded in the comfort of its own home, but the foursome wanted their next step to be recording a full-length album in a professional studio.
To achieve this goal, however, the band realized it would have to cough up approximately $7,000.
“We thought if all these other bands and startups can make thousands of dollars off of Kickstater, why can’t we?” Kaye said. “Let’s film our next live show and show them that we are more than a bunch of guys who sit around and make music.”
The band has currently overshot its goal with approximately $8,500 to devote to this album, money which the band hopes will further progress its dream of touring California this summer.
“That has really been a theme for us; every time we set a goal for ourselves it really pushes us to get on it and we always seem to meet them,” Kaye said. “We are always setting shorter term and longer term goals.”
Not only did the band exceed its fundraising goal, but it hopes fans realize it is a turning point for Louder Space.
“When you hear the word ‘airwaves’ you are thinking about sound waves or radio waves extending out into the universe,” Ben-Joseph said. “Our first EP was titled Signs of Life — that was our start and now these ‘airwaves’ are our next step; we are spreading our music out.”
The sound quality, overall experience with recording and writing songs and commitment to the band have all increased since their last attempts to capture their sound.
“Before, we would just throw songs together and be happy because now we would have something to play live,” Kaye said. “We just want to keep working with it until there is no cringe factor — when we listen to it two years later, we don’t want to cringe at a certain part.”
Louder Space is influenced by bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sublime, Young the Giant and The Expendables. However, defining its music within one genre is a tough task to accomplish.
Its new album is a testament to that, with songs dipping into all sorts of alternative rock.
“As a young band, we don’t have a reputation to uphold or a sound people are expecting, so we are not afraid to experiment and explore what our sound is,” Daly said. “That is why it is so hard to put a genre on it, because every song sounds pretty different.”
Their songwriting inspiration comes from college years in San Luis Obispo — cruising on California Boulevard, hiking Bishop Peak, going to the beach. Their house on Fredericks Street and Hathway Avenue was a big part of that experience.
“That house is everything,” Tyler said. “We wouldn’t have had Louder Space without that house. There is not many houses in San Luis Obispo that you can get away with playing in a rock band. Back then, we were hacking around, not really sure what we were doing. We were trying new things.”
Though they have moved from the house where they became best friends, they experienced many important, historic band moments there.
“That house too was where our first shows were, and we definitely will never forget that house or the experiences we had,” Tyler said. “That’s why a lot of songs are inspired by that house, because it was the ‘mother’ of Louder Space.”
All four band members were friends first and bandmates second — and that’s the way they want to move forward.
“Some best friends go surfing or snowboarding together, we play music together,” Tyler said. “That is just what we do as friends.”
San Luis Obispo has been their home for the four years of their Cal Poly education, but the band might be spreading their wings soon.
“Our evolution is very closely linked to going through school, living together, having the support of Cal Poly students and administration having us for events,” Ben-Joseph said. “The whole local community has been really supportive. I think later this year there is a possibility we are going to be moving out of San Luis Obispo to Los Angeles where more of the music scene is, but we are very happy with our time here.”
For now, Airwaves is the band’s next big move.
“Once the album gets released, we are going to send it to a bunch of venues, labels, connections we have, radio stations,” Daly said. “We are all going to be graduated, so we will actually have the time to travel around, play more shows, get more people to listen to album, growing in our fan base and hoping that the right kind of people get to hear it.”
Airwaves will be released sometime during the month of April.
Correction: In a previous version of this article, Clayton Daly’s name was spelled “Daley.” The correct spelling is Daly. A previous version also stated the band has released two EPs, when it has only released one.