By Elyjah Morales
“THE ROYALES” is a band of students at Redwood and they are Damon Owen ‘25 is their drummer, Selena Coronado or her stage name “Selene Cherie” is their Bass guitarist, Ezra Renzi ’24 is their guitarist and their lead singer Josiah Valdez ‘24. They are still trying to find some places that are open to letting them play a few songs.
Valdez ‘24 was inspired by people like Michael Jackson who their lead singer, Josiah Valdez ‘24 called “The King of Pop”. Valdez ‘24, says another inspiration to making his own music was his cousin “Mose Lara”. Valdez ’24 talks about how he has played the Guitar, the Clarinet, Drums, and some Bass Guitar and has been doing music-related stuff for six years. He plans to keep pursuing a career in music and says “This is my life. Music is my life” A piece of advice Valdez ‘24 gives to people who are first starting is “For someone starting, keep going and don’t stop. That applies to anything you want to do if you want to be an astronaut, a firefighter, a football player, or whatever. Put in the work and don’t stop until you get there. You gotta be ready to work and don’t let anyone stop you from doing something you want to”. Josiah Valdez ‘24, says “I would like to thank my friends for always supporting me and loving me. I would be here without a band and I wouldn’t have any members to start one.”
Selena Coronado ‘24 says “I play one instrument which is my bass guitar. I used to play the viola in an orchestra, however, I found I wasn’t very passionate about it. I’ve only been playing the Bass guitar for 4 months but I’m progressing very fast”. Singers like Joan Jett, and Stevie Nicks, and her Grandfather are the inspiration for Coronado ‘24 to be into music. Coronado’s Piece of advice to people starting is “You need passion and ambition because music isn’t easy, however, it’s also not impossible. Advocating yourself/your group is extremely important as well.” She hopes to pursue a career in music because it is something Coronado loves to do.
Damon Owen ‘25 says he is the newest member of the band and says that bands like “KISS”, “Motley Crue”, “Metallica” and so on made him get more into music. Owen ’25 says “I’ve been playing the drums for almost a year and I have been progressing smoothly.” Damon Owen ‘25 hopes to turn this from a simple school hobby into his career as a drummer. His piece of advice to people going into the music career is “You need passion and dedication if you want to make it, try not to be too much like other bands because it will help you from being categorized as a copycat or a poser”. Owen ‘25 ends off by saying “ If you’re going into metal for the first time, the bands you should check out first are AC/DC or KISS since they are really good starter bands and then from them, you can learn from others”.
Ezra Renzi’s ‘24 is the second founder of “THE ROYALES” inspiration for being into music is because of People like “Michael Jackson, Steven Tyler, Angus Young and so many more”. He says “I play guitar every day and I write songs I play for at least a few hours because it’s just something I have to do for myself. I’m in this band called “THE ROYALES” and it’s the best decision I’ve ever made”. With going more pubic, Renzi ‘24 says “we’re starting to get involved. The lead singer Josiah and I have been at this for a long time trying to find the perfect members and stuff and now we’re finally where we want to be were too young to gig in bars but we’re working on convincing ppl to let us and we’ve played at like stores but that’s abt it so far.”
If you would like to learn more, they can be found on Instagram @Royal_boygal
Tags: arts and entertainment, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, The Royales, visalia ca