Santa Barbara–Grown East Valley Road Band Talks Beginnings, Inspirations, and Their Upcoming SOhO Show

Community-based and founded on supportive collaboration, East Valley Road is a Santa Barbara–grown band with Americana, Soul, and Blues influences. The band will perform at SOhO on Thursday with a local lineup featuring Plastic Harpoons, Pocket Fox, Jacob Cole and The Contenders, and Val-Mar Records. 

Although East Valley Road has been working together for two years, drummer and backing vocalist Maxton Hunter says that the “concept of the band has been around for a little bit longer.” Each bandmember is from the Santa Barbara area and grew up in the local music scene. They describe their shows as feeling closely knit, where familiar faces and loved ones come to support their growth and talent. This year, the project has been officially relaunched with a new array of songs and shows to showcase in Santa Barbara. 

“We all started playing really young; all of the bands we were in started around the age of 12. It’s so long ago, and pretty early on, we were in many different bands and rock camps. Our shows have always felt like a little family reunion with people,” Hunter explains. “Santa Barbara has gotten more like a tourist town over the years. It’s still small and sleepy in its own way, but the music scene has really grown like in the Funk Zone; we didn’t have that growing up. The Funk Zone was actually quite sketchy. It’s cool that now, it’s our version of Beale Street or Music Row. We now have our strip of different venues and breweries that we have and play in that circuit. We meet a bunch of people from around the world who are coming through, and then we can simultaneously catch up with an old teacher who might be in the audience.” 

East Valley Road took off with guitarist Cameron Nichoson and the Santa Barbara Blues Society, which later took them to Memphis, Tennessee, as contenders in the International Blues Challenge. All of their recent music is recorded at the ParSonics Studio in Goleta, which was “founded by Alan Parsons, who worked with the Beatles and Pink Floyd and some great, phenomenal groups,” Hunter said. Since 2024, the house engineer of the studio, Noah Bruskin, has been producing all of their music, shaping their sound and producing over 10 tracks. “We’ve recorded 13 songs there so far, and six of them have been released. There are many, many more to go. We already have around another 15 tracks in the bag — that’ll be for the full album later,” Hunter adds. 

Bassist and backing vocalist Jack Keough explains that in the band’s creative process, “We tend to write in our ‘rehearsal time,’ or writing time. However, it’s interesting to see how, over time, especially with the songs that haven’t been released yet that are still being workshopped, when we’re playing live, I notice how the songs are molding and shaping over time. It’s always slightly different, just slightly improvised. Things are shifting over time when we play live, which is cool to see.”

The style of the band is unique because of the members’ unique and individual influences. Lead guitarist Fabio Rodriguez notes, “The cool thing about us is we all have different influences, and we all bring it together and try to mesh it. For instance, mine, growing up, was pretty heavy blues, R&B, and Americana. … I like the Allman Brothers Band, Tedeschi Trucks Band, the Temptations, and the Eagles, so it’s a mix of everything for me.” He elaborates, “I think it’s also helpful that we all have different backgrounds with what we enjoy listening to in our free time. … We can get pretty weird and creative with our influences, but that’s the fun part about it — we dive into some really outlandish stuff. That’s a part of the relief and therapy about the band.”

The whole band is excited to play at SOhO and to have the opportunity to curate their night alongside favorite Santa Barbara musicians. Brandi Rose, the band’s main vocalist and rhythm guitarist, said, “One of my favorite parts is seeing people in the crowd who have watched me grow up. I’ve been performing in this town since I was like 12, and a lot of the people that have been following us since then are still following us now. And to be able to perform for them in a whole new, evolved way is one of my favorite parts of performing and being able to genuinely connect with them. I don’t think there’s anything like playing for your hometown; everybody’s seen you grow up.” Rose wants to bring original artistry and songs to a community that fosters a lot of cover bands. “As a group and as a collective, we all want to try to normalize original music in this town, and try to normalize just being an artist in general. I think there’s true artistry in doing covers, but I think there’s a lot of amazing stories and amazing original music in this town to be told, and we want to share that with our hometown.”

It takes a village! The band is appreciative of their supporters behind the scenes. Some of these people include David Rojas and Roberto Johnson, who they noted as essential in making their music possible. “Stella Jane, Maxton’s wife, helped us with our social media and music videos at the very beginning to help us get our visual content out, which is huge and not an easy task, and she did it out of the kindness of her heart, because she believes in us and wants to see us succeed. Also, I want to shout out to our parents, too. I would not be where I’m at without my parents and their support,” Rose notes. 

East Valley Road will perform along with Plastic Harpoons, Pocket Fox, Jacob Cole and The Contenders, and Val-Mar Records at SOhO on Thursday, August 28. Tickets ($8 presale, $10 at the door) can be bought here.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated to correct Stella Jane’s last name.