Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonathan Robles.
Jonathan, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The band met after attending Olympian High School in Chula Vista. Brothers Jonathan Robles (lead guitar) and David Robles (rhythm guitar) started playing together as Oak Palace in 2012. Based mostly around folk compositions with mellow vocals. Then Osmar Gonzales joined on bass around 2014, evolving the sound to a more pop filled vibe. In 2015 Nathan joined on the drums after coming back from Berklee in Boston. With the four-piece line up established, we set out to spice up the dance floor and share our music with friends. We like to explore different themes and emotions through our sound and enjoy the freedom of being an independent artist. If we had to define our sound in one sentence, then we would say, “The Oak Palace sound is a dance floor ready soup of ADHD Rock&Roll, folk, wavy gravy beach vibes and soul-jazz voiced in melancholic charm.”
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Not a smooth road at all. We have been together for five years and still cannot come up with a collection of songs to put together into a cohesive LP. We finally agreed on 10-12 songs we want to make as our first LP, so that is encouraging. It has not bee smooth at all. Like anything else, you could do you experience peaks and troughs of energy, interests, finances, brawls between us. Till now, we seem to find a common denominator in music, so that keeps us together. We enjoy working out sounds together and try to deal with the rest that comes to being in a band. For example, some of us really enjoy the live shows and playing live every time. Some of us would rather just write music and play in the living room. Keeping schedules, being organized, being on time, talking to people before and after the shows, talking amongst ourselves, being kind and not dicks. All that comes with growing up and figuring what it means to be a human. It is really weird being a human. One big problem we recently identified is we create a lot of songs but we always feel there is a missing element in them and so we don’t release them. Now we are concentrating only on a handful and trying to make that our LP.
Oak Palace – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We play music for a bit, then we set up a gig, or we are invited to a gig. Playing the songs live is rewarding, especially when we see people are getting into it. We are really lucky to have really cool friends that basically share our music by word of mouth and suddenly, a couple more people pop up at the shows. We have a small but strong following. For the past three to four years, we have been very fortunate to be invited to most of the gigs we played. We hardly do any booking management ourselves, most gigs just arrive by word of mouth and we kind of have been riding that wave for a while. Now, for 220, we are looking to finalize our LP and share it with everyone that wants to have a listen. It has proved difficult for us to have a consistent sound; our songs vary a lot. It is a blessing and a curse. No two songs sound the same, yet it creates this identity crisis within the band. We address that by looking back at the catalog of songs we have written a picking only what might work well together.
Our sound is influenced most notably by The Beatles, The Whitest Boy Alive, Bombay Bicycle Club, Radiohead, Supertramp, ELO, Bee Gees, Kakkmaddafakka, Ray Charles, James Brown, CAN, Genesis, and recently Parcels and Babe Rainbow. And a bunch more really… we would just keep going wasting your ink.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
San Diego and Tijuana are really amazing! We love this city. It really is one mega-city, you know. You get the chaotic TJ energy and the beach vibe of SD. It is so lovely. The art community is really strong. A bit spread out here and there like in pockets but strong. There are so many cool new bands coming out. We plan on working with as many local bands to keep growing the community here in San Diego and Tijuana. Mix shows bring bands from Mexico to the states and vice versa. It would be great to grow the community and have more spaces for art and music.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://oakpalace.bandcamp.com/
- Email: oakpalacemusic@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oakpalace
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oakpalace
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1d9j9SpkLqfpmeo0sJFJLU?si=QVji4GAET86jU5j-9aAP2Q
Image Credit:
These images are cover art for two latest singles. ICNYL credit to artist Ap97_art and West Men. Now You Know credit to Westmen only. The band Photography by Gilberto Parada (photos emailed to Stephanie Hernandez).
Suggest a story: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
