In their early 30s, married (except the drummer), and all holding down day jobs, the members of Cardiff's the Morning Riot don't fit many stereotypes of an aspiring rock band.
But the dream still burns bright ---- although as Tony, the lead singer (the band members only go by their stage names in public, even when speaking with a newspaper reporter), pointed out in an interview, the dream for most bands has changed in the past few years.
"The ultimate goal would be to make a living playing music ---- that's what we are all trying to do; that's our dream," he said by phone Monday. "We're not trying to be rock stars; we're not trying to make millions of dollars. We just want to make a living doing what we love to do."
With the decentralization of the music business with the advent of social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, more bands than ever are trying to carve out a niche among an increasingly fractionalized fan base. Tony said he and his bandmates ---- Josh (drums), Fuzzy (lead guitar) and Slick (bass) ---- have noticed that San Diego is particularly competitive, with several hundred local bands all competing for a limited set of ears.
"We're trying to build a fan base, but it's really hard these days. It seems like there's no one music scene in San Diego anymore. It's kind of frustrating sometimes. there are so many bands around town that are so good and there's nobody there to see them. They'll play every week, and there's still nobody there to hear them, and they're better than anything on the radio.
"It's tough. It's one of the things that make it really hard to make it as a band in San Diego."
One of the things that makes it rewarding is being nominated for a San Diego Music Award for Best Rock Album for "Carmenita." The winners will be announced Sept. 10.
Still, Tony said it was nice being recognized for what was the band's first CD.
The band was only formed two years ago, and grew out of a previous informal project he and Josh had put together four years ago.
"I met Josh through mutual friends ---- he was playing drums for my friends' band, the Ropers, and then the Ropers kind of took an indefinite hiatus and I was looking for someone to play with and I convinced Josh to start playing with me.
"At that time, we didn't really have a name. We played a few shows, but we mostly played parties.
"We never really took it seriously until we started coming up with decent songs and people started to listen and pay attention and come out and see us. We thought, 'Maybe we could make a go at this ---- maybe do it for a living. Let's do it seriously and for real and work at it and see what happens.'
"Fuzzy came to one of our shows and he really liked us, and he asked if we were looking for a lead guitar player, and we asked him to come to a practice and he never left.
"Josh knew Slick through his girlfriend at the time ... some weird connection. We asked him to come out and see what he could do for us, and he was amazing right away. We latched on to him and we won't let him leave.
"When we decided to get serious, we're like, 'We have to call ourselves something.' ... The Morning Riot sort of encompassed the style of our live show. Pretty high energy, pretty intense. And we always get pushed back in our time slots to midnight or even 1 o'clock. ... We're supposed to go on at 11 or 11:30, but we get pushed back to the morning."
As for the band's sound, Tony said it was simply an organic result of the four men plugging in and seeing what results.
"We don't even listen to the same kinds of music ---- but somehow our four different styles work together, and create this weird, unique mix of what it is. It's kind of spontaneous.
"I guess that's why a lot of our songs are not that similar to each other. We have a lot of songs that are all over the map ---- which we think is cool. You can't pinpoint us or anything. Categorizing every song into one genre, I don't think you can do that for us."
The Morning Riot
When: 8 p.m. Aug. 21
Where: The Cow Shed, 502 E. Mission Road, San Marcos
Tickets: Call for cover
Info: 760-471-2939 or myspace.com/themorningriot
