For ska-punk jammers the Originalites, music just isn’t a hobby. It’s their livelihood.
The four-piece Huntington Beach band is bringing its sound to this weekend’s Shoreline Jam at the Queen Mary, smack dab in the middle of a jam-packed touring schedule.
A visit to The Originalites’ website reveals a seemingly endless calendar of tour dates, but singer/guitarist Daniel Tello said playing all these shows is necessary.
“We play a lot of shows to build our fan base, and this benefits us because in return we sell merchandise,” Tello said. “Playing so many shows is affecting the rate at which we can make new music and perfect it for recording. It might get tiring sometimes but this is what we love to do and we must work hard to get results.”
The Originalites are in an ever-shrinking subset of touring bands who manage to make a living off of playing all those shows. Saxophonist Mike Belk says, unlike many bands working to gain a following and hoping to make a career in music, the band will only play paid gigs, with the exception of charities or special events under certain circumstances.
Playing these shows has garnered the band attention in the local ska and reggae scene. They have a weekly Monday night residency at Gallagher’s Pub in Huntington Beach, and have shared the stage with the likes of the English Beat, Save Ferris and Pennywise. They also received the OC Music Award for best Surf Band two years in a row in 2013 and 2014.
The band started out around 2004 during Tello’s first year at Fountain Valley High School, he said.
“I had asked (drummer) Peter Fontes to jam,” he said. “On and off it went until senior year when I heard Tim played bass. Peter approached Tim and asked him to jam with us. We met up one day after school. We eventually called ourselves the Originalites and played a couple gigs where we met Mike. And so from then on we’ve been together.”
Many of the band’s songs, from their first release “Vol. 1,” are about love, surfing, hanging out with friends and being positive through life’s struggles.
Tello said he considers his lyric writing process “simple.”
“I just use any one or more feelings to inspire me to write lyrics,” he said. “And there’s a lot of feelings to feel and a lot of ways to express them.”
Tello said the band’s ultimate goal is to be come internationally known, if not universally known and well-respected as artists. “Just like we’ve been influenced, we wish to influence those that come after us and even before us in a positive way. We also obviously want to make a good living off of our music,” he said.
The Originalites play the Shoreline Jam from 2:30PM to 3:30PM on Saturday. Single day, general admission tickets are on sale for $25 in advance and $35 on the day of the event. Other ticket packages, including multi-day tickets, are available for purchase on the Queen Mary’s website.