_edited.png)
Hey UIC! As you may know, UIC Rado’s very first Battle of the Bands is coming up next Wednesday, March 19th! This free – yes, free! – event will be held in the Illinois Room of Student Center East at 6pm.
So, in honor of the battle that will commence soon, I’m giving you, my faithful readers, the chance to get to know the members of one of the bands entering – Gold Fires.
(Photo from left to right: Siul Reynoso, Jose Anthony Izaguirre, Edgar Elio Diaz, Mark Rendon, and Josh Allen. Courtesy of Gold Fires’ Facebook page).
Gold Fires is a local Chicago band whose unique sound resembles that of The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys, and the members’ influences also include Tame Impala, Interpol, The Smiths, and Ratatat, according to their Facebook page.
The band has a Soundcloud, along with a Youtube channel as well, where you can hear several of their songs.
A huge thanks again to the band’s members, Siul, Jose, Edgar, Mark, and Josh for taking the time to answer all my questions, and best of luck to you all at the battle!
First off, where are you guys from and how did you all meet? Edgar: “We are all from the Berwyn/Cicero area so we mostly all met in high school. Mark (guitarist) and I went to a different campus of the same school (Morton East) and Josh, Jose (bassist) and Siul went Morton West. I met Siul first senior year and we ended up becoming friends. He later introduced me to his good friend Jose and later he asked me to sing for this band he was in and thats where I met Josh. The rest of the guys met Mark when [we] were recording our music for that band – he was our sound engineer.”
Do you all attend UIC? Edgar: “Only Siul and I attend currently.”
How/when did you guys first become a band?
Edgar: “We became a band after the bassist and guitarist of our old band split. There were attitudes that needed their space so we decided to change our name, sign up our good friends Mark and Jose and we have never looked back.”
When did you first start making your own music? Edgar: “We started making music maybe in late summer of 2012. Our first finished song was “Cathedral,” I believe.”
In what ways did your tastes in music influence your band’s sound? Siul: “It has a big influence since we all have a middle point that we base our music on, but the slight variations in our musical perspectives gives the band’s sound that certain spice that makes it unique and every one of us can relate in our own way. For example Josh (drummer) and Jose (bassist) are into old school hip hop, and Edgar (singer) and I (guitarist) like regional Mexican music, even though these two genres don’t really relate to each other, we find a way to mix them together and make it sound like it does. Like Gold Fires. We are always trying to experiment with new and different sounds so our musical taste is constantly changing along with the band’s sound.”
I heard you’re working on an EP. When will that be released? Siul: “We are working on a small 3 song EP. The tracks are already available for free on our soundcloud page but they won’t be available as a physical copy until a couple of weeks, not exactly sure when, but when it does come out we will let the whole world know. It will be available for “sale” for a voluntary donation.”
Again, good luck to you all and can’t wait to see you perform at UIC’s first ever Battle of the Bands!
-Sonia
Comments