Randall Sena: Lompoc’s Music Man

One cannot speak of a Lompoc music scene without mention of Randall Sena. Though the Goleta-born Sena has always felt like a bit of a foreigner in Lompoc, where he has lived since the 2nd grade, he has certainly made it his own.

Known as the go-to music man in his town, Sena is the cofounder of Certain Sparks Music, a Lompoc music-lesson and recording-studio hub founded in 2006 with friend Brandon Bridge. Since it opened, Certain Sparks has been a high-gravity body around which the Central Coast’s musicians revolve — Dante Elephante, Tall Tales and the Silver Lining, King Cole, and Royal Suns are among the bigger-named acts that have recorded there. “These days, I’m just setting up a situation for a band to sound their best, using my experience to keep things moving, and staying out of the way,” said Sena.

A modest man, Sena has a knack for humor and a bounty of kindness. There’s a reason some call him the Musical Mustafa. “I try to be the dude I wish I would have met when I started making music,” he said.

Sena started writing music upon the urging of a friend in high school, who suggested Sena pen his own tunes after he learned to cover every Nirvana song. This year, he released A Form of Prayer, an absolutely beautiful collection of dramatic power-pop and thoughtful soft rock. It’s a stirring record fit for Cat Power to some day cover, meant for nocturnal listening. “I like to walk around Lompoc very late at night, and I’ve never seen another person walking around when I do. That gives you an idea of the kind of solitude that leads to an album like mine,” Sena said. Though Sena may be in a state of relative solitude, a songwriter this strong will not go unrecognized for too long.