HILLSBOROUGH: Band of buddies break through

Small Town Scoundrels playing bigger venues

By Andrew Corselli, Special Writer
  Neil Young was right. Rock and roll will never die. At least it won’t if the Small Town Scoundrels have anything to say about it.
    The band, comprised of five Hillsborough High School graduates from the early-to-mid 2000s, just finished playing big-time shows in the area.
    “We played Nassau Coliseum for the Warped Tour and we played Bamboozle at the New Meadowlands,” said lyricist Chris “Oz” Salvatierra, who graduated from HHS in 2003. “It was definitely an honor. We played a battle of the bands for both (concerts) and won. It was surreal because we went from playing a high school to that.
    “We opened up for Automatic Loveletter at Warped Tour. Then, at Bamboozle, Lil Wayne, Bruno Mars, A Day To Remember and Motley Crue (among others) played.”
    Despite not getting together and playing until late 2007 or early 2008, guitarist/vocalist Eddie “Eddie P” Patten (class of 2002), keyboardist Ithamar “Ith$” Francois (2000), drummer Josh Toth (2002) and bassist Kevin “Fro” Hannum (2000), they had been friends since their high school days.
    “Everybody knew each other,” Mr. Patten said. “We’ve all been in bands and played shows together. I used to play basketball with Ithamar when we were in middle school. Oz and I used to live on the same street. We’ve all known each other for a long time.
    “We were all graduates of HHS and we linked up years later. Everybody was not in a project or between projects. It slowly formed with Oz, who does the rapping, and Fro on bass; they were jamming for a couple of months. Then I joined, then Ithamar joined on piano, and we’ve been through a string of drummers, but we got a new guy, Josh, who got linked through a friend of a friend. We’re just moving forward now.”
    Mr. Salvatierra said that there are no hard feelings between the band and the former drummers, percussionists who are “good people and good friends that just didn’t have enough time to commit to the band or had too many side projects.”
    The band describes its sound as indie rock meets hip hop. Mr. Salvatierra said each member has a lot of influences from different kinds of music so the sound is a “big melting pot,” which makes for a unique sound.
    “The best thing we have going for us is every time we play a show, managers always say that we’re very good and very different and that’s what they like about us,” Mr. Salvatierra said. “That’s always nice to hear and a confidence-builder.”
    It’s not all fun and games for the band, though. Each of the five members works a full week in addition to practicing with the group. Mr. Salvatierra said, “We all pretty much work 40 hours a week and do this 20 or 30 hours a week. It’s hectic but everybody does it. We’ve got a bartender, a waiter, some retail managers and a construction worker. Everybody’s really busy but we usually get together in the wee hours of the night and play.”
    The guys, who have played close to 100 shows, all locally, write the music collaboratively and Mr. Salvatierra said, “We all throw in our own idea. If a solo or melody comes to us we put it in and let it develop on its own.” He added that although the group has “roughly three albums worth of material,” they have not signed with a record label.
”We are small town, but there’s nothing small about us and the goal we’re going after. We’re trying to make a career out of what we’re doing.”
    News, music and concert dates for the Small Town Scoundrels can be found at the band’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/
smalltownscoundrels.