NFV Song Spotlight: Danny's Song by Seko

Seko was the first band up during Pretty But Wicked's night at Zebulon. I was impressed as soon as the first notes were played of their opening song "Say Hi To The Son." While writing this blog post, I had to do some research on the band (I had never heard of them before). To be honest, my first observation was that their band name is very similar to the long time Los Angeles band Sego. 

Seko at Zebulon

The trio includes Justice Vaughn Ott on lead vocals and guitar, Brandan Reid Dyer on drums, and Marlon Mara Lenoble on backing vocals and bass. Dyer is in the band Milly. I covered Milly for US Rocker Music back in 2024, which  you can read here. Back in June of last year they played Genghis Cohen with Kora and Jawdropped. I covered both of those bands on this blog. You can read about my Kora encounter here and Jawdropped here. Both played Zebulon on the same night -- though I did two separate write-ups on each. I love when there are all these connections between bands. I'm just going to assume that they're all friends with each other.

There was also another cool connection that happened during their set. Two members from the headliner (Host Family's Spencer Stange and Zac Hernandez) joined the band at different points of the set to add additional heft to their sound. 

Seko at Zebulon

During the set, Ott mentioned that Walnut Records was in the crowd to scout the band. Walnut Records is known for signing . . . The Squirrels. 

Second amusing moment of the set: for their final song of the night, it took so long for Ott to tune his guitar (which included a brief start and stop of the song so that more tuning could be done) that Dyer yelled out, "Someone tune it for him!"

The band's most recent release is "Danny's Song." Ott introduced the song by saying, "I probably should have asked this during sound check, but is anyone from Zebulon around? I'm just trying to see what the insurance policy is on this roof." From the audience, the response was, "Blow it up, man!" Of course, that is a big boast and so the question is: did they meet expectations? The song is an instrumental that is fierce on guitar play with minimal lyrics 

Seko at Zebulon

The music video (you can watch it here) has the three band members just hanging out together in various music settings. Playing a gig at the Resident. Listening to CDs in the car. Listening to records in a living room. Jamming away. This is, hopefully, the time of their lives. 

I'll try not to
Be the one to
Say it

Luckily for us all, the roof of the Zebulon did not collapse upon us, though one might suspect the rafters did get a workout holding it together.

Noticed: the band is more than just a guitar, bass, and drum kit. They had a couple tape recorders and a mini-keyboard as well as another toy or two. 

Setlist: Say Hi To The Sun, Danny's Song, Claire Hates Me (Lilys cover song), Cale, Barrel Connector, Marlo, Untitled New Song.