Breach The Summit is a hot new local pick at this years OC Music Awards.
Breach the Summit is a local Orange County band from Irvine who will be playing the Yost Theater on Tues, Jan. 7 for the annual Orange County Music Awards.
The band was put together in 2012 by members, Olen Kittelsen (vocals, drums), Sam Beresford (keyboards, piano), Jacob Berger (guitar, keys, backing vocals) and Kody Buxton (bass, backing vocals). With only a year of being a band they have managed to dominate the local music scene, winning various battle of the bands in the local area and score some local gigs at The House of Blues in Anaheim.
Breach the Summit has been previously nominated for the OC Music awards for Best New Artist and Best Live Band. Entering the OC Music Awards for the second time Breach the Summit plans on putting on a memorable performance. With their release of their newest LP Breach the Summit will be showcasing some new material at the House of Blues for the release of their newest LP.
OC Concert Guide chatted with Sam from Breach the Summit to chat a bit about the OC Music Awards and the bands future plans with music.
OCCG: How does it feel to be chosen for this year’s OC Music Awards?
Sam: It’s a huge honor to be a part of the showcase series. There were a ton of submissions and it’s great just to be a part of the top 35 along with so many other great bands. We’re really excited to get to play our showcase because the series is promoted so well and always very well-attended at a great venue in the Yost Theater.
OCCG: Other than the OC Music Awards have you been in any other music showcases?
Sam: We’ve been in several battle of the bands in the past which have tremendously helped us financially and given us the ability to record all the music that we’ve recorded thus far but the OCMAs is the only formal Showcase Series that we’ve been a part of.
OCCG: What are some good sites you recommend for finding new music? Or how do you find your music?
Sam: We usually spend a lot of time looking through upcoming festival lineups because they typically have some of the hottest artists and best up and coming artists. We also browse through Spotify often because of how easy it is to navigate by genre.
OCCG: What are the top three albums we should be listening to right now?
Sam:
1. Mechanical Bull – Kings of Leon
2. Vessel – Twenty-One Pilots
3. Evil Friends – Portugal the Man
OCCG: How often do you play shows in Orange County? Is there a difference in the Orange County scene as opposed to anywhere else?
Sam: The majority of our recent shows have been in Orange County. OC is really great because of the diversity of genres that have devoted followings in the area. It doesn’t always get as much attention as the LA scene however there’s a long history of fantastic artists coming out of OC including No Doubt, The Offspring, Young the Giant, and many more.
OCCG: Give us a brief description of how the band got started?
Sam: Jacob and I (Sam) were put in a band about 6 years ago by our mutual music teacher, Todd Larsen. Todd later was diagnosed with cancer and eventually passed away. At one point, we needed a drummer and found Olen through a mutual friend, and he soon became the lead singer as well. Kody came on as our bassist recently. He shoots acoustic videos for bands in his spare time and offered to do some videos for us. We soon became friends with him and asked him to play bass with us a few months later.
OCCG: What does the band have planned for the future? What steps are you going to take to execute the plan?
Sam: In 2014 we’re looking to play a lot of shows outside of Southern California. We were fortunate enough to win a contest to play at Firefly Music Festival in Delaware, which takes place in June of 2014. Starting then, we’re going to look to expand out of Southern California and play shows around the country using Firefly as a bit of a launching pad.
OCCG: How does the band handle mistakes during a performance?
Sam: One of our policies is to over-rehearse for all of our shows to minimize the chance any of us will make a mistake. Because of this, we never get upset with one another about a mistake because we know that we’re not perfect and everyone messes up once in a while.
OCCG: What advice would you give musicians that are just starting out?
Sam: Write as much music as you possibly can because each song will be better than the last. Also, something that really helped us early on was accepting every show we were offered. We’re a little more selective now, but playing a lot of shows early on helped us to become better performers and tighter as a group.
OCCG: How does the band find time to balance their music alongside other daily obligations?
Sam: The only way to do this is to prioritize. Next to school/jobs, music is our number 1 priority and we devote a significant amount of time to it every day.