{"id":2080,"date":"2016-02-01T19:48:47","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T19:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/music\/new-long-beach-band-i-o-pays-tribute-to-late-ikey-owens\/"},"modified":"2016-02-01T19:48:47","modified_gmt":"2016-02-01T19:48:47","slug":"new-long-beach-band-i-o-pays-tribute-to-late-ikey-owens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/music\/new-long-beach-band-i-o-pays-tribute-to-late-ikey-owens","title":{"rendered":"New Long Beach Band I\/O Pays Tribute to Late Ikey Owens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"io2\"<\/em><\/p>\n

Stencil of Ikey Owens outside the Prospector by I\/O singer\/bassist Tatiana Velazquez. Courtesy of Tatiana Velazquez.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In October of 2014, Grammy-winning keyboardist\/producer Isaiah \u201cIkey” Owens unexpectedly succumbed to a heart attack in his hotel room in Mexico while on tour with Jack White. The loss of Ikey reverberated like an earthquake back in Long Beach, where the 38-year-old was a beloved staple and mentor in the music scene.<\/p>\n

With death comes new life; it\u2019s a steady cycle that moves with or without one’s acknowledgement. In this particular case, Ikey\u2019s passing has breathed life into a new musical project \u2014 called I\/O, in his memory \u2014 involving four Long Beach musicians who each treaded their own journeys with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all individually friends with him and individually mentored by him,\u201d I\/O lead singer and bassist Tatiana Velazquez explained. \u201cBut we didn\u2019t really spend much time together until that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Velazquez, Ikey was one of her first friends when she moved to Long Beach in 2006, a time of massive transition for the artist. He encouraged her to organize her first art show at Que Sera; at the show, he claimed a mixed media piece she made of her \u201cblind stoner cat.\u201d Knowing she also had an interest in music, he accompanied her to the local music store to buy her first bass and gave her opportunities to sing backup on a few songs with his group, Free Moral Agents.<\/p>\n

\"IkeyOwens\"<\/p>\n

File photo<\/em><\/p>\n

When she found out about her friend\u2019s death, Velazquez spent the entire day painting and making stencils of Ikey\u2019s iconic smile. It adorns the back wall on the stage at Que Sera to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just this heavy mentor and this conduit \u2026 he had a magic to him from the get-go,\u201d she said. \u201cHe saw things in people and brought the bigger out of it. He was a good channel for that and made me realize this is what I want to be doing.”<\/p>\n

Last February, about four months after Ikey’s passing, keyboardist Jacob Connelly had heard Velazquez was writing songs and reached out about jamming. Connelly, who met Ikey in front of a bookstore in 2006, never really considered himself as a musician. Through mutual friends, they ended up \u201ctalking life over a blunt\u201d and listening to Connelly\u2019s recordings.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d sit there and listen to these mixes,\u201d Connelly recalled, “and he\u2019d say, ‘I know the sound of your room.'”<\/p>\n

A few months in, drummer Ryan Reiff heard some recordings by Velazquez and Connelly and wanted in. Reiff met Ikey in 2005 when he was playing in a psychedelic instrumental band with Jesse Carzello (Bobby Blunders). Ikey heard the group and occasionally sat in with them. Eventually when Ikey decided to transition his bedroom project Free Moral Agents into a full live band, he recruited Reiff to join the team. The group was active for some seven years and released two full-length albums.<\/p>\n

Velazquez, Connelly and Reiff briefly played as a trio under the name TAJAR but not for long. Guitarist Miguel Vazquez entered the picture as the last piece of the puzzle. His first encounter with Ikey came when he produced Vazquez\u2019s band Wild Pack of Canaries. They started working on other projects together, engineering in Vazquez\u2019s studio and making bass fuzz and oscillator pedals for Free Moral Agents.<\/p>\n

\"io1\"<\/p>\n

Image by Casey Lewis.<\/em><\/p>\n

This lineup has been playing together since last April under the name I\/O, a tribute to Ikey Owens.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted something that felt true to our relationship with each other,\u201d Velazquez said. \u201cWe were toiling over different names for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last six months, the band has been building up steam in Long Beach, hitting almost every venue in town including Que Sera, Alex\u2019s Bar and Prospector.<\/p>\n

For every Monday this month, I\/O will take over 4th Street Vine, with each night featuring a different project of friends. That includes Step Bison on February 1; Mendee Ichikawa (Free Moral Agents) on February 8; Secret Garden on February 15; Toy Pony on February 22, and King Kang (acoustic set) on February 29.<\/p>\n

The group says after this month\u2019s residency, it will be taking some time off to go into writing mode and start working on an album.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to the residency,\u201d Velazquez said. \u201cEach night will be a little different. We\u2019ll approach it a little differently.”<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: The author of this article is a member of King Kang, to peform at the 4th Street Vine residency.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In October of 2014, Grammy-winning keyboardist\/producer Isaiah \u201cIkey” Owens unexpectedly succumbed to a heart attack in his hotel room in Mexico while on tour with Jack White. The loss of Ikey reverberated like an earthquake back in Long Beach, where the 38-year-old was a beloved staple and mentor in the music scene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":67450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[938],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-on-the-beat","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2080"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2080"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}