Today we’d like to introduce you to Lunar Reverb.
Joshua Hanson, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
To start off, we have to go way back to when I was just a young boy. My family has always been apart of music. My dad has played over 30 years. He’d set his band up in the living room and my little brother and I would bounce around on the couches headbanging to a mix of different music ranging from AC/DC to Nirvana. Around my teenage years, I really got into the blues and blues-rock. Zeppelin and Stevie Ray Vaughn were constantly playing. I played in band all throughout school. I played every instrument in the brass section and many different styles. In high school, I absolutely loved marching and jazz band. It was my reason to get up in the morning. I still had not taken up guitar, but that was about to change. After high school, hard times came to pass. I was forced to sell my trombone. This aching for music sparked a fire in my soul to pick up the guitar and spread my word. After a short time, I joined a Fort Worth band named The Electric Dreamers. We all got along great, but unfortunately, we had creative differences, which lead me to call up a couple of old high school friends to start up my own band we would name Lunar Reverb.
Lunar Reverb started as a jam session back at my parent’s place with my dad filling in on drums. We were struggling to find a singer and a drummer, but that wasn’t going to stop me. After months of searching, I had a random message from Lizzy saying she just moved to Texas and was missing singing badly. She was also trained in Jazz so naturally, we hit it off. After Lizzy came in to audition, there was no looking back. She absolutely stunned us. I mean goosebumps and everything. It was a sign.
As time went on, we began playing open mics and shows as much as possible, including Dr. Jeckyll’s Beer Lab, The Old Cocktail Lounge, and Reno’s Chop Shop. Not long after we started recording and mixing our Younger Days EP in our drummers living room. Lunar Reverb began gaining traction and building a name throughout the DFW area. We were booking gigs left and right before the COVID-19 situation. Unfortunately, shortly after my high school friends, the Singh brothers, had to leave because of different paths in life. Luckily we filled out our band almost immediately with Zack, Cody, Victor, and Daniel.
After everything settled again, I thought long and hard about our financial aspects. Recording studios and audio engineers require a lot of money so I taught myself how to do everything independently and released our singles ‘What Can You Do?, ‘Einstein’, and ‘Take Your Time’ with the help of my buddy and current rhythm guitarist Zack Bryant. It also sparked the idea of making the Lunar Reverb name for my own production company. Since our first gig, I have been booking, managing, running social media, and networking with some awesomely talented local DFW bands and artists. It’s my goal to get all of the local DFW talent working together and boosting each other up. I’m also working on a plan to collab with local artists on merch in order to support them and get their work out into the world. My first show under Lunar Reverb Productions will be at the Peppermill Lounge on June 20th with a bill including Lunar Reverb, Clutch Cargo, Revolution Band, The Electric Dreamers, and Fifth Phoenix. It’s also my first show selling merch with a design from local artists Sara Manning who we would love to give a shout out to for designing the Younger Days EP cover art.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It really depends on how you look at things. I believe you can manifest your beliefs. It’s about how hard you work and sacrifice for your goals. Life has thrown us a bunch of curveballs but we have been pretty lucky as well. We had to overcome the obstacles of little money and bandmates, leaving as our success was starting to show from all of our hard work. Although you could say, we’ve been lucky to find great musicians to make us even better as a group. We’ve also been lucky enough to have our music played around the world, get interviewed for a magazine, and generally just having people want to listen to our music. In the words of AC/DC, “It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll.”
Can you give our readers some background on your music?
Lunar Reverb is a product of a bunch of different music influences from Sublime to Led Zeppelin. Alternative rock and blues will always be the core of the group with a goal creating a more modern classic rock sound. We are also proud to be a group of weirdos just spreading good vibes, putting it all out there, and happily rolling through life playing our music.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over, I would say I would have taught myself to record, mix, and master way earlier in life. It will save you a ton of money. While it gives you no excuse to hide behind, it also gives you artistic freedom as you can make sure your music sounds exactly as it does from the thought in your head.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://linktr.ee/LunarReverb
- Phone: 6822080424
- Email: lunar.reverb.2019@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lunarreverb
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lunar.Reverb.2019/
- Other: https://lunarreverb2019.bandcamp.com/
Image Credit:
Marisa Rosales
Joshua Casarez
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