Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua de Leon and Tyler Lofftus.
Joshua and Tyler, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Well, I met my friend James Gill in middle school, around 7th grade, and we would just hang out and skate around after school. And this was around the time when the Edgar Wright adaptation of Scott Pilgrim came out, and I know James bought his orange Rickenbacker cause of that movie. I was in the process of learning guitar, and my brother David was into drums because we both played Rock Band growing up. James, David and I ended up going to the same high school, where I met Tyler Lofftus, who also played guitar.
James was one of the only friends in my P.E. class, and he had an iPhone that I used for music while running the mile because I only had a nasty flip phone. I just trusted whatever music he had on his phone, and then this band came up called Arctic Monkeys. I specifically remember it being off their second album, and it was Fluorescent Adolescent. Up till this point, I thought music was limited to whatever my parents listened to and the top 40 charts. I ran the mile, pulled James over, and said “Dude. What is this music.” So he showed me the rest of the Arctic Monkeys discography, and this was before their breakthrough into the mainstream with A.M., so it was all kind of deep cuts. And it blew my mind.
After that, James, David, Tyler, and I put together our instruments and decided to try our hands at it. Our first practice was centered around the FIDLAR song “White on White”. We sucked. But from there, we only got better as a band and we ended up playing talent shows and pep rallies.
Eventually, we started making our own music. It started as my own senior project, and I wrote five original songs. It came out sounding very bad, but I passed and I used that time to improve some songwriting and recording skills. We knocked out a couple more original songs, two of which are on Spotify. “Please” is still our opener, just because it goes so hard. “Maybe Someday” was the first song that I recorded, and that was a blast to both write and collaborate on. That came out in 2017, and most of them are on SoundCloud still.
We had some studio time in 2018 when we released an EP. It’s called “Second Place”, and it was a cute little session we had with all four of us and our original keyboardist, Trey Sanbar. In college, we played some gigs in Riverside, where I lived, and in San Diego where my brother went to school. Just school events, pretty great stuff. We opened for RJ Aquino for some Filipino club event, that was pretty cool. Sadly, Trey left the band but it was cool.
Dustin Hunt was a friend from high school, and he was good at keys, so he filled in for our boy Trey and that’s our current lineup. Now we’re making music back in my garage, sweaty as hell during the summer but we have been getting stuff done! Our last song, “The Only Lovers Left Alive” is the first song we made in a while, so it’s really nice to be back together and collaborating again. Now we’re like 70% done on an album we expect to be out next year. Singles soon.
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?
It’s been pretty tough, high highs and low lows. The most difficult part is scheduling something where we’re all free since we all went to different colleges. We had time on the weekends to get together, but it was just crazy having to schedule stuff through the years.
Tyler and Jamie went to the same college so it was easy for them to hang out, but I was out in Riverside pretty much alone. It’s nice to be back in Glendale though. More time to write!
Can you give our readers some background on your music?
We’re a five-piece band from Glendale, California. Our sound drips with Southern Californian indie rock with some britpop influences. We love loud guitars, deep bass, and pounding drums. We just want the music we make to reach the right people so they can walk away feeling uplifted. I’m super proud of the coordination of our bandmates and what each guy brings to the table.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I would consider luck to be a pretty limited factor. Mostly just because of the bad luck I have (I consider myself pretty unlucky), and a lot of success we find as a band is through hard work and creativity. I will say I am lucky of the fans we have and how great it is to bring people together through music that we make. I’m super lucky so many people have listened to us and shared it with their friends. I’m pretty sure without my bandmates constantly working so hard we wouldn’t have made it this far.
Pricing:
- 99 cents for our songs on bandcamp!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://oneouttaten.bandcamp.com/
- Phone: 3234021157
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/one_outta_ten/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oneouttatenofficial
Image Credit:
Photos by Eric Hakopian, Josiah Collins, Paolo Panlilio, and Preston Maestri.
Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
