It is common to hear about a group of college students forming a band within the Los Angeles County area. The process of a establishing a band is no easy task with the amount of talent and competition in the music scene. There’s something about The Violet Jays that might be the next band you put all your priorities aside for in order to catch their next gig.
Formed in late January, The Violet Jays are a quartet of Citrus College students consisting of lead vocalist and guitarist Connor Jolgren, english major, 20, bassist Agustin De La Torre, music major, 19, guitarist Cuauhtemoc Stenmo, music major, 21, and drummer Seth Rivera, music performance major, 18.
The band was founded by Jolgren and De La Torre, who have been close friends since they were in middle school. The duo met Stenmo and Rivera by playing music together through the Pop Rock program at Citrus.
The Violet Jays primarily revolve around the alternative and classic rock genre, while building in their own elements that will strive to flourish toward that rock oriented music style.
Jolgren admires how highly skilled each member is.
“Cuauhtemoc just knows a lot about music theories and he’s able to hop in on songs and can just solo and go from there, he’s learned a lot,” Jolgren said. “ The same with Seth too, he can fill in on a groove like nothing and Agustin just hops in and does his thing. Everyone plays so much, These guys work hard.”
All members of the band carry a fusion of different music influences that contribute to the involvement of their music process. With influences such as Rage Against the Machine and Metallica for Stenmo, Jazz oriented drumming for Rivera, The Smiths and The Beatles for De La Torre, Kings Of Leon and Bruce Springsteen for Jolgren. The band has a strong sense of pride for sharing their different styles among each other, and in result, it allows them to become extremely versatile.
The band has no official songs released yet. They have two original songs that will potentially be released in early May. They have a few more songs that are in the works. Jolgren emphasized that they’re ready to release some content by late April.
Jolgren also said that they will be releasing important information and content on the band’s Instagram, Twitter and Facebook such as videos, and potential upcoming shows.
Regardless of The Violet Jays not having many original songs to share yet, Jolgren’s mindset on the band playing live is to make sure their audience enjoys some familiar songs they might know of.
“When you start out and you’re playing bars and whatnot, you’re just trying to get as much of a set list together as you can, so you play any songs that anyone knows to get people going and build up your repertoire from there,” Jolgren said.
The band’s first show was on March 29 at Skyland Ale Works brewery in Corona. Jolgren was satisfied and relieved with the outcome of the band’s first attempt at a live performance.
“The gig went really well, considering it was the first one, there was good energy and a couple hiccups here and there, but that’s to be expected,” Jolgren said. “The sound was really tight, it was a solid start,” he added.
De la Torre and Stenmo said their mindset for The Violet Jays is to provide music that can connect with all generations in a variety of ways.
“I really want to strive for versatile songs that not only people can groove too, but as well as having songs that do have message that we feel sentimental about, as we actually put thought into them. I don’t want to just strive for one style of music,” De La Torre said.
Stenmo added, “I do like versatility in music. As a band or an artist you have to have some sort of formula to attract a fan base and keep them invested, but I do like bands that take chances in taking the opportunity to attract other people. You’re not going to be able to please everyone, to have a wide variety of taste in your music rather than playing to one specific group of people.”
The Violet Jays booked their first show at Skyland Ale Works with only three months of formation as a band, that determination shows they are ready to share their talent with tremendous competition in the music scene. With the ambition and charisma that the Violet Jays carry, it won’t be surprising to see them on some lineups at various venues soon.
