Meet Ivan Oliva, Chris Cameron, Dakota Metzger and Dominic Parker of .XOM in Palmdale

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ivan Oliva, Chris Cameron, Dakota Metzger, and Dominic Parker.

Members Ivan Oliva, Chris Cameron, and Dakota Metzger met regularly in and out of their college music classes and began a handful of projects that included several of them at any one time. These projects ranged from 70s inspired punk rock to covering anime theme songs. While in the pursuit of a 3rd member for the political hard rock group Sound Curfew, Chris was recommended to Dominic Parker. While .XOM originally started as a quick idea for the music to find an audience, as the band began to take shape, Dominic agreed to join and fill the current lineup of .XOM.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Our journey as a band and the obstacles we face, while nothing extraordinarily special, we feel our issues can be shared by many young and independent new artists. We struggle with financial difficulties, mental health issues and even physical injuries (from both work and live shows). Ivan broke a finger at a recent live show and more than one member of the band has sought treatment for depression in the past year. Sharing these problems and being open about them we feel brings artists closer together in realizing that many of their peers go through the same things and no one is ever truly alone when dealing with life. Reach out!

So, as you know, we’re impressed with .XOM – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
As live shows became an option, we all separately wrote and experimented with the ease of electronic music and the blossoming indie/lofi music popular with our peers (we jokingly called our music ‘Indie-strial’.) Whenever we hit the stage, we put all our energy into our music and into the performance, at the risk of breaking our instruments and even ourselves. As .XOM we also quickly have been open to helping use our platform to spotlight causes and organizations we want to support. In the past year, we’ve hosted fundraisers for RAINN, LGBT Rights and Sexual Assault Prevention.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We’re definitely looking forward to playing bigger and better shows and venues. We want to keep on hosting benefit shows and help give space to newer bands and organizations who usually aren’t given the chance otherwise. We’re also working on an independent tour through the north and southwest to reach new areas and fans. A dream of ours is to play the Teragram Ballroom. It’s been our resolution for 2019 and we’re working every day for it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://xom-band.bandcamp.com/
• Phone: 6615574144
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/xom_band
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/XOMband
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/xom_band

Image Credit:
Alex Romero, Cameron Shannon, Alan Kenneth Uribe, Connor Kane

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