Quick Hit Band Interview: Desert of Talking Shadows

Desert of Talking Shadows at the Whisky a Go Go

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What's the story behind how the band started? Mikey Qubti has been playing guitar locally around the scene for a good number of years now. After a while, Mikey had no projects going on and decided to try singing and being a frontman in a band because a lot of people had suggested it to him. So he tried that and decided he liked singing but wanted to play guitar at the same time since that is his first love. So he then got asked by a good friend of his, Jared James Nichols, to open up for him at an upcoming show at the Viper Room in April of 2018. At this time Mikey had no band, so he quickly assembled a new project for this one special show with Jared. He had been in various bands with a bassist named Jack Thomas for about 4 years so he was the first to join. Along the way they had met Kyle Vellanoweth at some jam sessions in Orange County (where the band originates from) and Mikey called Kyle up to play guitar with him to fill out the strings section and fullness of the band’s sound. And then finally they had then recruited another drummer but unfortunately he wasn’t able to commit to this new project so he recommended another drummer by the name of Detrick Forster. Mikey and Jack had met Detrick once at a recording session but never knew he played drums as well as he did. Mikey called Detrick to jam and they did 4 new songs within 2-3 hours and immediately was in. Once all 4 of them got in a room and rehearsed the sound and chemistry was there. Ever since then, they have been playing nonstop on the world famous Sunset Strip in LA and quickly becoming noticed in the City of Angels as one of the best new young rock bands out there.

What motivates you to write your music? What motivates us to write music is Life. Life and death and everything in between. We only write songs about truth, and true things that happen around us or to us directly. So when you hear a specific pissed off lyric or guitar solo it’s usually directed at a specific person or situation that we’ve gone through or are still going through.

Own Q&A: There’s lots of different questions we think would be funny to answer but keeping it music related I’ll just say some unique or interesting things about the band. Mikey and Detrick are both only 20 years old. Mikey didn’t start singing till March of this year. Jack and Mikey have been playing together for years before this band. Everyone in the band has similar taste such as how all 4 members enjoy Tool, Primus, Fleetwood Mac, and Led Zeppelin.