The true state of San Diego\u2019s music community is possibly best judged by the amount and quality of new young talent emerging. If so, then the kids are all right, with bands like the Bassics and singer-songwriters like Raelee Nikole, emerging into the spotlight recently and with events for under 21s increasing. One such up and coming young group, with some band members still attending Canyon Crest Academy, is the Santana Brothers B.A.N.D., performing at the Ocean Beach Farmers Market at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 26.
\nThe group first got together in December 2011, built around the core of brothers Brendan (guitar), Alexander (drums), Nathan (vocals) and Daniel (bass) Santana, with the actual size of the group varying up to eight members, depending on the job and budget of the client. Joining The Santana Brothers are Ryan Faison on rhythm guitar, sax and keys; on vocals, either Stellita or Andrea Blea; keys James Ferguson, and sometimes a percussionist is also added.
\nThough all loved music since an early age, the actual formation of the band was a way of family bonding. “The band was formed by the brothers to support Nathan, who is autistic and has epilepsy,” explained mother and manager Gabriela Santana. “Nathan always enjoyed singing; he tried bass but found that it was difficult because of some of his fine motor delays. Nathan’s dream was to sing in a band, so from a young age Nathan was always singing. Living with him was like being in a musical,” she said. The family had also been told that music would be good therapy for Nathan. “Incredibly the seizures that so dramatically affect Nathan’s everyday life do not affect the part of the brain where music is stored thus allowing Nathan to memorize lyrics without any difficulty.” The band is a family affair, top to bottom. “Our parents are great; they support us in everything, they are the drivers, the roadies, and our mom books the band as well as manages a lot of the paperwork,” Brendan commented. “The balancing act is very difficult because we have school, work and we are all competitive swimmers. Two of us take it really seriously, and this next year is an Olympic year, so it will be extra challenging.”
\nSo far the band is primarily performing cover tunes, though they have written a pair of original songs. According to Alexander, “If we had to pick (crowd pleasers), it\u2019s probably Stevie Ray Vaughn\u2019s tunes, some of the classic rock like \u2018Separate Ways\u2019 and \u2018No One Like You.\u2019 Right now \u2018Uptown Funk\u2019 is huge.” As might be expected considering their surname, Carlos Santana has been a big influence. “I tried several instruments but immediately gravitated to the guitar,” Brendan said. “I grew up listening to Carlos Santana and he was always a big inspiration. My favorite song in our set is the Santana medley, which includes; \u2018Smooth,\u2019 \u2018Corazon Espinado,\u2019 \u2018Black Magic Woman\u2019 and \u2018Oye Como Va,\u2019 because artistically it gives me more freedom to express myself, I can jam more.”
\nThough they are in the fledgling stage of their musical career, The Santana Brothers are thrilled with things so far. “We would love to get discovered like any other musicians, but realistically we see it as a great way to spend time together,” Brendan said. “We will always have the love of music to share. Our favorite thing about being a musician is bringing the gift of music to people and watching the enjoyment they get,” he continued. “Music changes people\u2019s lives. We see how it helped our brother.”
\nThe Santana Brothers B.A.N.D.: Wednesday, Aug. 26 at Ocean Beach Farmers Market, Newport and Bacon Ave.. 4 p.m. All Ages. www.oceanbeachsandiego.com\/events\/farmers-market-wednesdays<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The true state of San Diego\u2019s music community is possibly best judged by the amount and quality of new young talent emerging. If so, then the kids are all right, with bands like the Bassics and singer-songwriters like Raelee Nikole, emerging into the spotlight recently and with events for under 21s increasing. One such up […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":260723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Santana Brothers B.A.N.D. to play Ocean Beach Farmers Market","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11559,12360,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-beach-bay-press","category-duplicate","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}