Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Gonzalez.
Hi Brandon, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My love of music and my desire to learn to play guitar kind of go hand-in-hand. As a young kid I hadn’t really paid much attention to music in any capacity, not even the occasional song on the radio that would get stuck in my head. Then I heard Metallica and Van Halen for the first time when I was like 9 and had a “this is what I wanna do for the rest of my life” type of epiphany, just blown away by the sound of heavy, distorted fast guitar playing. So I spent my earlier teenage years doing all I could to copy those early guitar heroes of mine to get over that beginning hump of sucking at the instrument; I briefly played in a few bands during high school that never ended up doing anything but it wasn’t until I hit adulthood–I use that word loosely, I was like 19–that I began to see the fruits of my labor when my previous band The Oathbreakers started to gain a reputation as a ‘technical’ metal band locally gigging on a regular basis. We hit a kind of hiatus after some lineup changes and split, but since we’re all homies in that band it was hard to not make music together. So we just rebranded as The Dethroned with a slightly different lineup, although from that aforementioned hiatus it’s been an uphill battle getting back out to the forefront of the local scene with a new name. The greater SoCal scene outside has begun to embrace us some; we’re landing gigs in Orange County and Imperial Valley more than we are at home lately.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I think my biggest setback as a musician individually was not putting myself “out there” earlier on as much as I should have; spending every night in high school holed up in my room practicing guitar rather than going to shows and meeting people in the scene may have worked against my own interests. Hindsight is 20/20 though, and self-admittedly I’m still a shy person when trying to meet new people and make friends or connections.
On the whole of being in a band, the biggest struggle I endured was the world halting for the Covid pandemic. All this momentum you’ve begun to generate comes to a complete halt, and the lasting effect of it is this reluctant, stop-and-start mindset as a group. Reluctance to act was the factor that kept pushing my previous band into small hiatuses every few months, like sitting on recorded or half-recorded song ideas without releasing them, or forgetting to reach out trying to play shows. No one will think your music is good if they never get to hear it. When you’re sitting on the desire to release music, constantly tweaking it to make it “perfect” for an extended period of time like that, it’s easy to subconsciously slip back into a similar idle frame of mind.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Outside of my own band, I’ve worked occasionally as a session musician and engineer for other creatives in San Diego, including writing guitar loops for RnB and hip-hop beats produced by Thomas Platt and producing the now-disbanded Ten Til Dawn. I may be out of practice on the production side of things, but being on the other side of the creative process inspires me to consider that aspect of recording while still in the writing process. Session work is a different kind of fun than working on your own stuff! I’m always open for session opportunities.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I think people take for granted how beautiful San Diego really is as a city. It’s not overly urban, there’s still plenty of greenery all throughout. It strikes a balance between the “big city” vibe closer to downtown and how relaxed the attitude of most people are here relative to the rest of the state. I think most of the rest of the country has a certain preconceived notion of all Californian people–this kind of “better than you” attitude for living in the state, maybe being kind of rude–and I think, for the most part, people in San Diego are more “normal” or maybe even “reasonable” than they may be elsewhere in California. Plus, I’d rather be a Padres fan than any other team.
Can’t really say I’m a fan of the cost of living right now though. I mean, I manage, y’know? But it’s ridiculous that even people I know who work for the damn city are barely getting by. That salt air’s intoxicated the utility companies’ brains for too long, I guess.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/branbreakers?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/dethronedclan?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Image Credits
Digital Witch Photography; Charlie Cisneros; RCCJ Photography; Nite Owl Photography
