Rock and roll, baby

As we reported in today’s story on the Winery Music Awards, the guys from Machine don’t have visions of rock stardom.

But that’s not to say they never did.

Lead singer Rolf “Machine” Gehrung pursued a music career vigorously when he played with an L.A. band during the 90s.

Gehrung, who has had songs played on TV shows like “Dawson’s Creek” and “Diagnosis Murder,” was in an up-and-coming band called Mission Delores. At one point, the band played an event put on by the Album Network in Lewiston, Idaho. The Album Network, Gehrung said, was a vehicle labels used to get songs in distribution.

“So we got to Lewiston, and it’s 4 in the afternoon, and there are people waiting there for us -- photographers and everything,” Gehrung said. “And they assigned some weird bodyguard to us. . . We tried to ditch the guy, but he kept reappearing.”

Fortunately, they didn’t ditch the guard – which might have saved their lives.

Sometime during the night, a woman in the crowd asked Gehrung to sign one of her breasts. And when that woman went home, the autograph didn’t sit well with her husband.

"Later on the husband came with a gun,” Gehrung said.

Now that’s rock and roll. Luckily, the bodyguard helped defuse the situation.

Gehrung, who works in sales, eventually cooled on his rock dreams, though he was still committed to playing music. When he became engaged several years ago, he even warned his future wife: “You know I’m gonna rock all my life – it’s my softball league.”

At 39, Gehrung is older than most of the performers at this year’s WMA’s. But band mate Mike “Buzz” Buzzetti (pictured above) is older. While he’s still younger than, say, Mick Jagger, he is nearly two decades older than his drummer, 28-year-old Trent Lochridge.

During the band’s previous WMA performance, one of the judges noted Buzzetti’s seniority.

“Love the older guy in there,” quipped judge Diane Steinberg-Lewis. “Crossing the demographic. Love it!”

Buzzetti, who founded Nanometer Technologies, which makes fiber optic polishers in Paso Robles, laughed about the comment.

Like Gehrung, the 47-year-old once hit the music scene hard. But eventually his business took priority.

“I didn’t really play music for 15 years,” he said, “and then this (the business) came along, and then I retired and went, ‘I want to play music again.’”

Machine, which is sponsored by Jagermeister, hopes to get songs placed in movies and television. Gehrung, who still gets royalties from previous songs used on TV, is the driving force behind that goal.

“I’m the motivated one,” Gehrung said. “So I’m the one that’s out getting us sponsorships and stuff. Buzz is the sugar daddy. And Trent kind of sits back quietly, and one day he’s going to go crazy and kill both of us.”

***



While Machine pursues TV work, Dominic Castillo and the Rock Savants is looking to relocate to Portland, where the music scene is a little larger.

The band will still retain the San Luis Obispo studio it shares with the Damon Castillo Band, though, so they won’t be gone for good.

“I think we’ll always be a band with two cities,” he said.

It’s difficult to mention Dominic Castillo without also mentioning his identical twin Damon, who, like Dominic, is a fixture of the local music scene. Dominic is the indie guy, Damon the R&B guy. Both are graduates of Berklee College of Music, and both are often mentioned when people around here discuss local acts that could hit it big.

Being twins who play music, though, often leads to confusion – especially when Damon’s band JND changed its name to The Damon Castillo Band. Dominic’s pending move to Portland will help the brothers better distinguish themselves. Meanwhile, both are working on new albums.

“We’ve been slaving away at this album for months now,” Dominic said.

It doesn’t have a title yet, but he thinks it will contain some of his best work to date. You can hear some of his band’s work, plus watch some of their videos, on the DCRS web site.

His band includes Jonathan Barker on guitar, Nate Szytel on drums and newcomer Kelly Ann Mesigat on vocals, keyboards and guitar.

Adding Masigat to the mix, he said, gives the band more dimensions.

“We have all these options now,” he said. “Not just with background vocals, but, okay, what voice should be saying these lyrics?”

Dominic also has a side project with Mesigat called Giantess, which features more coffee house-style acoustic music.

Dominic, always a supportive twin, is also excited about his brother’s next project, which will include a song he wrote.

“I’m blown away by it,” he said. “I’m really excited about his album.”



--Pat P.