Garage rock band SunGhosts will shake Gainesville in a full-throttle performance today.
The Miami-based band, consisting of Nik Olas on guitar and lead vocals, Luis Estopiñan on drums and background vocals, Arminio Rivero on guitar and background vocals, and Jared Steingold on bass and background vocals, is known for putting on an unforgettable show.
“We’re all best friends, and you really see that on stage when we start rocking out,” Olas, 25, said. “We really have fun with the audience.”
The band will perform at 9:45 p.m. at The Jam, located at 817 W. University Ave. Doors will open at 9 p.m. and tickets can be purchased for $7 at the door or for $5 in advance at squareup.com/market/the-jam-gainesville.
Good vibes are in the air for these rising stars, who have just released their first-ever single, “Polterguy.” The release, which is available now on iTunes, is just one of many recent breakthroughs for the band. They are currently working on a full-length album after signing with Orchard House Music, a startup label in Miami.
The band formed when the four friends started to jam together and decided that they wanted to assemble a band of their own.
“We created a giant list of band names,” Olas said. “SunGhosts was one of the ones that stood out…it paints a picture about the beauty of life.”
“The ‘G’ has to be capitalized,” Rivero, 21, said. The band often encounters a frustrating mispronunciation as people read their name as “sung hosts.”
From picking out strong names to working with two-time Grammy winner Joel Someillan, hard work and dedication to their craft seems to have paid off. This month, the band will entertain the masses at Summerfest, named by The Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest music festival.
“No matter where we go we seem to draw in a big crowd,” Rivero said thoughtfully.
Their inspiration? Aggressive positivity. They play for any age, standing by the principle of diversity in their music. The band draws inspiration from all the great rock stars they grew up listening to.
“Music overall is my passion,” said Estopiñan, 21. “It really drives me.”
[A version of this story ran on page 10 on 6/11/15]
