![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/kaleid_santa_cruda.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMost bands found themselves taking a hiatus when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With venues closing, opportunities for bands to play in front of audiences vanished virtually overnight. But some musicians found creative yet responsible ways to bring music to the people. Guitarist Bruno Proal recalls that he and fellow guitarist Shawn Yanez \u201cstarted jamming outdoors at the corner of Rockview Street, right in front of the ocean.\u201d The duo would return every Thursday, playing to the socially-distanced audience.<\/p>\n
But while popularity is usually a good thing, in this case it had a negative effect, at least in the short term. \u201cThe police came and shut us down,\u201d Proal recalls. \u201cThey had to, because of the number of people that were showing up.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That could have been the end of things, but Proal and Yanez knew they had a good thing going. \u201cSo when things opened up,\u201d Proal says, \u201cI started booking us as a duo.\u201d Soon they added a third musician, Nick Disalvo. \u201cAnd then the band formed,\u201d Proal says. \u201cNow we\u2019re a five-piece, full band.\u201d<\/p>\n
They playfully named the band Santa Cruda, which very loosely translates as \u201choly hangover.\u201d Proal describes his band\u2019s sound as a feel-good mix of \u201cCali reggae, mashups, hip-hop and even some rock.\u201d He says that the group\u2019s set is divided between original songs and covers. \u201cBut the covers we play, we make them our own.\u201d And the band adapts to its surroundings: a brewery gig might feature a duo or trio format. \u201cThe trio sounds amazing because of our vocal harmonies,\u201d Proal says. \u201cAnd the full band plays bigger shows at places like Moe\u2019s Alley.\u201d<\/p>\n
Santa Cruda\u2019s highest profile shows to date have been a set at the 2023 Ink at the Bay Tattoo Festival with Eli-Mac and a sold-out show at The Catalyst. In between gigs, the group is hard at work creating new songs. \u201cWe\u2019re in the collective process of writing new material,\u201d Proal says. He emphasizes the band\u2019s original music\u2019s message of unity. \u201cMusic brings people together,\u201d he says. \u201cWe put aside our differences, and hopefully the music brings understanding and love to people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Studio work is in Santa Cruda\u2019s future; they look forward to making their first album. \u201cBut we\u2019re a gigging band,\u201d Proal says. \u201cOur intention is to work and actually make a living performing. And it\u2019s happening. We love what we do, and the response and support from the Santa Cruz community has been filling our hearts.\u201d facebook.com\/santacruda831\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most bands found themselves taking a hiatus when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With venues closing, opportunities for bands to play in front of audiences vanished virtually overnight. But some musicians […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,41,63],"tags":[5393,5390],"class_list":["post-27290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indie","category-interview","category-reggae","tag-santa-cruda","tag-santa-cruz","cat-39-id","cat-41-id","cat-63-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27292,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27290\/revisions\/27292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}