Blueshift | Bands We Love

At first listen, Sonoma County alternative band Blueshift, holds similar styles to retro Red Hot Chili Peppers, Primus, and Cake.  Describing their music as a blend of grunge rock, hip-hop, soul, and funk, the band has taken everything we loved about 90′s alternative and 70′s funk, and have created a tasty mash-up for a musical treat.

All hailing from west Sonoma County, former elementary classmates Jared O’Connell (guitar/vocals) and Waylon Nicholson (guitar) have been playing together since 6th grade. But it wasn’t until high school when the band begin to take shape.    Through a few band shifts due to life changes, the band is now made up of Jared and Waylon, their friend Alex Izzarelli on bass, and Alex’s friend Anthony Garcia on drums.

The band has been making waves in both the local scene and on sites like ReverbNation where they’re ranked #1 on the local alternative charts.  And while the band has been in high demand among the local venues, it’s their music that caught 707′s eye and made them a Band We Love.

The band plays at Maverick’s (397 Aviation Blvd) this Sunday, March 10th at 7 p.m. The all ages music event is free, but don’t forget to tip the band!  maverickssantarosa.com

Before they perform, we caught up with Blueshift’s Jared O’Connell and dug a little deeper into the band:

How did you come up with the name “Blueshift”?
I was looking for band names in an astronomy text book from a class I was taking at SRJC. I turned to my friend Jeremiah and said, “What about Redshift?”  He said, “Blueshift is better.”  I agreed. Blueshift is what happens to light waves when they come from an object that’s moving toward you. The light is shifted to a higher vibration and becomes slightly more blue. I thought it was a neat metaphor.

What have been the highlights your band has experienced?
We recorded and released a song with one of our heroes, Gift of Gab from Blackalicious. We opened a show for Salvador Santana. We performed at IMS, Interfusion Music Summit, and will probably be featured in a documentary made about the event, which will air on Netflix at some unknown date. We were recently featured on undergroundcolumbus.com. Other than that, we’ve released an album and a couple of music videos, and we’ll be putting out new material later this year.