"We just wanted to make music." Hometown Losers strive become
Photo courtesy of The Sleeping Sparrow Photo for Backroom Sessions.
“I live for the pain,” said Sebastian Crow, drummer of South Florida band, Hometown Losers. The rest of his members laughed and continued to joke after their dynamic performance at The Fish House on March 2.
Hometown Losers is a pop punk band originating from Miami, FL. The band consists of Crow(drum), William Ramirez (vocals), Alejandro Pasada (bassist), Yardley Dominguez (guitarist) and Jose Abad (guitarist).
The pop-punk band began their journey two years ago. Hometown Loser’s first performed in a backyard show with other local bands such as Common Luck, Cool Guys, Minor Setbacks and Top Tier.
Abad and Dominguez were friends before Hometown Losers, yet never came up with the idea of starting an actual band until they met the others. Pasada, a junior majoring in psychology, and Ramirez knew each other from high school and were involved in a short term side project, Two Dollar Shot Glasses, that eventually ended before the two began at the University.
After meeting each other at Warped Tour, Pasada and Dominguez connected over their favorite bands and became quick friends. Crow has only been a member for two months now, but was the missing piece the band was searching for.
Through time, the four boys began hanging out together more and jamming to their favorite Blink 182 songs, and months later created Hometown Losers.
Pop-punk bands are known for rebelling against the status quo within their hometowns. Hometown Losers had this same attitude and wanted to incorporate it into their name.The name originally started off as a joke among the band members and their friends, but eventually the name stuck.
“We were basically coming up with names and I was like, screw it we’re just a bunch of losers,” said Pasada. “And then I was like, what is the most pop punk thing I can think of? It was either pizza or hometown. Pizza losers didn’t make any sense, so we settled on Hometown Losers.”
The members of Hometown Losers were inspired by bands of different genres. Crow was inspired by the likes of Jank and Death Grips. Pasada and Dominguez admired the stylings of Remo Drive, Sorority Noise and Real Friends. Jose listened to heavier rock bands like Avenged Sevenfold, while William is influenced by Drake.
“It was a little hard at first,” said Pasada. “It was a big crock pot until we were able to fine-tune our sound.”
William had the most trouble relating to the musical stylings of the rest of the group. But over time, William began to understand and process the differences for the benefit of the group.
“We learn to compromise and we’re like ‘okay let’s try this idea,” said Ramirez, a junior communication arts major. “Over time I was like okay, I can mess with this.”
Crow is the band’s second drummer, with the first departing the band due to musical differences. The band struggled searching for a replacement member, but the band lucked out with Crow, according to Pasada.
Songs are created in a group effort among the band members, rather than having a designated lyricist and producer. Whenever the group can come to a collective agreement on a track for a song, they’re quick to jump onto the opportunity.
Their first EP, “Space Girl,” featuring their most popular track with the same name, was released back in 2017. The band’s most popular track was created in the back of a truck with Dominguez, Ramirez and Abad. “Space Girl,” according to the band, was the band’s first step into finding their identity.
Seeing success with their music can motivate a band to great heights and challenging themselves into becoming better artists. Seeing the positive feedback of “Space Girl” injected the band loads of inspiration to push forward.
“It was crazy seeing people know the verses and sing them,” said Pasada. “Like, how do you know it? You never get that far, people only sing the chorus...It was just a really killer moment because wow, people actually kind of like us.”
“Tulips” was released on Feb. 13. The band’s latest single tackles dealing with the depart exit of a former lover, and realizing how toxic the relationship was in the first place. Funnily enough, the song wasn’t about a particular situation between any of the members.
“[Dominguez] actually started with the riff,” said Pasada. “And out of nowhere, we put two and two together and we just started meshing together. [Tulips] was just a big crockpot of us throwing ideas around.”
The band first performed their latest trajc at a charity show on Feb. 16. Hometown Losers, as well as other bands performed in a charity for the victims of the school shooting in Parkland, FL.
All the members felt the emotional impact of the recent tragedy. Having such an event strike so close to home, the members felt compelled to help out.
“We wanted to support the people who were affected by the Parkland shooting,” said Pasada.
The tragedy struck so deep within the members, it caused them to change their stance on the nation’s current status on gun control. Abad was interested in purchasing a rifle until he heard the news, which he said, is not going to do after such an event.
The show was the band’s third charity show, with their first one raising funds for autism awareness and second being a toy drive.
“It’s nice to lend a hand out there,” said Ramirez. “At the end of the day, we’re artists and we lie to express ourselves and our music is a representation of us expressing ourselves in what we feel emotionally and what we want too contribute to the world. Playing music is our way of expressing our sincere condolences on the matter.”
On a lighter note, the band is expected to release an EP later this year. The band plan’s on taking a slightly different route with the EP by adding even more emotion and energy into their tracks.
Pasada hopes to be at a much different stage with their music releases and strives to release more high quality content. The band plans on pump out more concise and the best music they have written.