Hermosa Beach’s Sand Section started off as a bunch of dudes jamming in high school to a full-fledged recording outfit. After playing gigs around the South Bay and Hollywood during these years, college came and the members went their separate ways, until their hankering for making music returned. Though the lineup has changed multiple times over the years, the guys in the band still manage to spread their brand of rock music to the masses. We caught up with Sand Section as they prepped for their upcoming east coast tour to chat about a number of things, roll tape.

Daniel Kohn: How did you the band form?

 

Sand Section: We first began playing together as kids growing up in Manhattan Beach about 10 years ago. It was nothing serious at that point, mainly just the four of us jamming punk rock covers in a garage. Through the years our group transformed in many different ways with members coming and going. We finally settled down in high school as a band called MOSS and played many gigs around the South Bay and in Hollywood.

Once college came around, we parted ways with our lead singer at the time and settled on the band name Sand Section, referring to the area of Manhattan Beach where we were all born and raised. At this point in 2008, we were juniors in college with Tony Gonella (Bass, Vocals) at UC Santa Cruz, Jeff Nisen (Guitar, Vocals) at UC Santa Barbara, and Sam Mandelbaum (Drums) at Cal State Dominguez. We would play gigs at all of our different colleges, and slowly began developing a following in our college scenes.

When we all graduated, we headed back to the South Bay to focus full time on music. We recorded our debut album, Truth Over Harmony, in May of 2010 and followed it up with a summer tour. After we toured, we parted ways with our drummer and added Stefan Partelow into the band to play keys and percussion. We then went into the studio to record our new EP with Mike Sutherland filling in on drums.

That pretty much takes us up to right now, having just released the EP; our core group is Tony Gonella, Jeff Nisen, and Stefan Partelow with a few people in rotation on the drum kit.

 

DK: Of all places, why did you choose to live in Hermosa?

SS: We originally all moved back home to Manhattan Beach, but then Jeff moved to Hermosa. The move to Hermosa basically had to do with the fact that a room at a friend’s house opened up, and the house is equipped with a music practice room. It is also the house that several of the original members of Black Flag used to live in, so it was worth moving in just for the awesome punk rock history. Plus, Hermosa is the perfect city for people in their early 20s. It’s affordable and it’s fun.

 

DK: What’s your sound like?

SS: Our sound is a culmination of many different styles of music. Our influences range from punk rock, to blues, to folk, to country, to reggae, and even to classical so it is really hard to put us in a genre at the moment. Our new EP has 5 songs on it that are all distinctly unique in-and-of themselves. The first song is hard rock/reggae, the second is pop, the third is reggae/rock, the fourth is folk/rock, and the last song is indie/rock. I guess there is a basic rock undercurrent to most of our stuff, but every song sounds different from the others, which is basically our sound.

One main element that you hear in our sound as well is vocal harmonies. Tony and Jeff have been singing harmonies together for several years and have really polished them into the Sand Section style. Tony’s bass playing has punk rock edginess to it, while Jeff’s guitar playing often has a more metal and blues influence, which you can also hear in most tracks.

 

DK: Who does most of the songwriting and what’s the typical songwriting process like?

SS: Tony and Jeff have for the most part done all the songwriting, with slightly more of it being done by Tony. Usually the songs are written separately then once most of it is complete, Tony and Jeff get together and work out the complex vocal harmonies, instrumental arrangement, and so on…

Stefan has recently begun contributing as well and he actually wrote the title track from the new EP called The Gun.

 

DK: How were the recording sessions for the EP? Where did you record?

SS: Recording sessions were great. It was a long process because we like to really take our time and make the sound as big as we possibly can. We couldn’t be happier with how the tracks turned out.

We recorded at Total Access Studio in Redondo Beach. The album features Mike Sutherland on the drum kit. Mike also engineered and co-produced the album.

 

DK: Who are some of your favorite groups and some of the influences that translate into your work?

SS: Early on we were really influenced by groups like Crosby, Stills, and Nash, The Eagles, and Dispatch, which helped us develop our vocal harmonies. We have also been hugely influenced by South Bay bands like Pennywise, The Descendants, Black Flag, The Deviates, and Slackstring to name a select few.

Guitar playing influences for Jeff range from Stevie Ray Vaughan, to Randy Rhoads of Ozzy Osbourne, to Eddie Van Halen.

The busy bass lines created by Led Zeppelin, The Deviates, and Cigar influence bass playing for Tony.

 

DK: Are you touring this year?

SS: We are in the process of getting a tour organized for later in the summer and early fall. Still have a lot of details to work out, but we definitely want to hit the road as soon as possible. We spent a lot of money getting this EP finished so we need to wait for some of those residuals to come in before we can do a full-scale tour. We are confident that it will happen soon!

 

DK: What are your goals for 2011?

SS: Our main goal is to get our music to as many people as we possible can, whether it’s though touring, Facebook, word of mouth, or whatever the medium. We know we have a lot of great music and we are excited for the opportunity to share it with people who appreciate good music. We just wanna keep playing for as long as we can live the dream. We have a big festival we are playing on July 9th that is headlined by The Dirty Heads who have really blown up lately. We played several shows with them in Hermosa a couple years ago, and we are excited to share the stage with them again.

We are also getting a concert on the beach in Hermosa some time in July or August so we are also extremely excited about that. Sand Section is always happy to be playing on the beach.

 

Check out Sand Section’s website for more info on tour dates.