Music Monday is ready to head-bang into oblivion with a fantastic post hardcore influenced rock band, A Residual Affinity!
Started back in the summer of 2018 when Alex Escobedo (Bass), Josh Dowd (Rhythm Guitar/Vocals) and Cameron Kueneman (Lead Guitar/Vocals) came together to start a My Chemical Romance cover band! This “Black Parade” never quiet took off and the members looked for a new venture to engage their artistic prowess. Soon after, the 3 men came together, in a local pizza hut after hours, to record their first demo of Guilt in Guillotine! With their music style in mind they set out to find some additional members! Danny O'Berry (Lead Vocals) joined the band though a mutual connection and Joah Hardy (Drums) joined soon after! Once, these friends were merely coming together to form a band but what they found was a band of brothers. They are committed to providing the treasure valley some seriously fucking awesome music.
Prior to forming, the band members found their love of music first. Alex started playing bass because he absolutely loved thrash metal. He wanted to learn bass so he could join a cover band! Little did he know he would go on to rock stages with his own music! Joah’s parents started him out behind a drum kit at the age of 5! From there he played in middle school/high school bands and moved on to marching and jazz to gain more skills. Danny started music in the second grade and went on to take band class throughout high school. From there he studied music theory and ear training in college to hone his talents. Danny further pushed his abilities while he was in the army by playing in the Army band. After leaving the military he took a break from music but found his way to Andrew McBride side project Prey for Peril where Danny played the drums. Danny later decided to venture off to pursue his own adventure, mentioning to Scott Charles he was interested in vocals. From there Scott got Danny in touch with Josh soon after he became the vocalist for ARA Josh started playing guitar at the age of 10 when he mastered Guitar Hero 3 and asked for a real guitar for Christmas. He soon moved to learn the bass, he has played in some notable local bands such as Credenda, Skeleton Kryst, Septic Era - Boise, Idaho, and most notably, Kurgan Hypothesis. He later moved back to guitar. Cameron found his love of music from because of his grandmother, “My grandma gave me a guitar a decade ago. I started really growing as a musician when I started recording my own music, figured out I needed to learn more instruments to get the sounds I wanted. I joined choir and learned drums and music in jazz rhythm section, along with learning about production through YouTube.” Cameron Said.
The band’s name is derived from Alex’s life experiences, “When we formed the band Alex was going through life changes and was ending a major relationship. There were going to be strong feelings and memories that would always remain. “A Residual Affinity.” The band added. They also brought that personal touch into their music influences, lyrics and stage performances. They draw influence from bands like Senses Fail, Escape the Fate and My Chemical Romance. While they try to bring raw energy to the stage and present themselves as vulnerable, they do this without sacrificing their fierce stage presence. “A lot of our lyrics represent past or current relationships, as most emo music will. Whether it’s about still loving someone from the past or good riddance to them; “Hold this letter to your chest, sweet nothings on the page. Promise me you won’t forget, because that would be the end of me”. “And it’s a shame that half a world away is as far as I can be from you. Toast to the fallen ones to come”. Love, jealousy, hate, passion. These are easy emotions to fall back on when looking for inspiration to write a song.” The band concluded.
Though the group is “broke as balls” they have some huge aspirations to achieve their goals. They want to focus on building their merch inventory, tracking their songs to build an album and growing a solid following! They also want to be signed to a record label such as Rise Records, Pure Noise, Epitaph because these labels house some of their favorite bands!
Music Monday has been fortunate to see this band perform 3 times over the past serval months. The first time was at the Olympic when they supported The Sky Burns Brighter. We were absolutely blown away by their fierce energy and lack of any common freshman band traits. They know how to connect with their audience, when to go completely wild and when to truly slow down the moments to allow the audience to feel their passion. Danny shines as the visibly passionate front man. Joah carries the beat while completely stoic and entranced by the music. While Alex is an absolutely treat to watch as he flexes his bass instrument control and his amazing colored hair flies about. Josh is a fantastic addition to this band as he brings a fierce harsh vocal backing when the time is right. Finally, Cameron adds his guitar skills with perfect ease to throw down some awesome guitar breakdowns that bring out the metal horns. This is one band that must be added to your local music bucket list, they never disappoint as they leave everything on the stage!
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