Upper-middle-class families populate the sprawling Westchase neighborhood in northeast Hillsborough County. The majority of the residents are married and nearly half have children. The average household in the master-planned golf course community pulls down almost $100,000 a year.
It's not the kind of area you typically find young, local musicians cranking out original tunes.
On a recent Wednesday night around 8 p.m., joggers and walkers move along the sidewalk. Only a few cars traverse the streets that wind through the subdivision at this hour. For the most part, all is quiet. Except for a certain home where the calm is shattered by a rock 'n' roll roar that can be heard from the driveway.
It's the strains of Soulfound ripping through another night of rehearsal. The quartet practices in one of several spare bedrooms three or four times a week here at the home of 26-year-old guitarist Jonathan East. The other members of the group are singer/bassist Ivan Pena, 27, drummer Dan "Disqo" Cano, 27, and guitarist Sam Register, 23. Tonight the band is rehearsing for its "album release concert" scheduled for Sat., Sept. 20 at the new Gasoline Alley in Largo. The quartet will perform a first set of older songs and then return to play the new disc in its entirety. Free copies will be given out to attendees. The freshly minted CD is titled Soulfound Is a Rock Band and will be issued on Pena's own Mohawk Bomb Records.
"It's our attempt to shatter the taxonomy of rock 'n' roll," says Pena in about the CD's name.
"We've always joked that we're 'domestic punk' or 'post job-core," adds Cano.
Soulfound Is a Rock Band is a collection of guitar-driven songs earmarked for modern rock airplay. The 11 cuts clock in at just less than 40 minutes, making each one a potential single. Power-pop-informed, uptempo numbers are offset by grunge-leaning power ballads. Pena, a big Pearl Jam fan, sings with the brawny intensity of a vocalist who grew up admiring, and, perhaps to a certain extent, aping Eddie Vedder. He also writes all the lyrics. The music is created collaboratively, usually at rehearsal.
"We play loud-ass rock 'n' roll with the occasional sex-you-up song," Pena says. "We're well aware that our audience is 70 percent women."
The album was recorded at three separate locations with as many producers. They cut the first three songs in Atlanta with Jeff Tomei (Melissa Etheridge, Matchbox 20), who also worked with fellow locals Knowing Stu. Then there were sessions back home with Brian Merrill (The Ditchflowers) at his Studio B in St. Petersburg and then at Steve Connelly's Zen Recording Studio in Pinellas Park. "We wanted to record at different places to give the album that diversity," Pena says.
Soulfound has done van tours in the past, but to promote the new record, the band is skipping the road and heading to the skies. They'll be flying to California for a couple dates in October. "I've been around long enough to know better than to go on the road for 250 shows a year," Pena says. "My [day] job is secondary to the music, but it pays for the gear — although the band does produce money. It would be nice to just say 'screw it' and tour but …"
"Speaking for myself," says East, the newest member of the band, "that's my ultimate goal: to tour." He gestures to the interior of his clean and tastefully decorated home, then adds, "To sell it all, and just do it."
"That's because you haven't been in the band for nine years," Pena says to East. "But if you want to do it, I'll follow."
The others agree. Or at least say they do. There's nervous laughter. Everyone has relocated to the dining room and grabbed a beer from East's well-stocked fridge. A handle of vodka sits on the counter but no one touches it. Each member of the quartet has a successful day job in marketing or consulting, save for Register, who is a full-time student at USF St. Petersburg, completing his degree in marketing. He started out as Soulfound fan.
Pena and Cano formed the group in 1999 while attending the University of Florida together in Gainesville. Pena arrived from Ft. Lauderdale via the Dominican Republic, while Cano came from Pinellas by way of Chicago. What brought the two young men together? "A love for getting wasted," Pena says as he raises his beer bottle.
By 2001, Pena and Cano had graduated and decided it was time to get out of Gator Country. They found separate places in Clearwater. Over the years, the two men have steered Soulfound through several well-received CD releases, tours and four former guitarists. "We finally have the right lineup," Pena says, smiling at Register and East.
Unlike other bands, no one in Soulfound has any notions of being a starving artist. They all have solid careers (or are preparing for one) and plan to maintain their current lifestyle — unless the Big Break comes. "Like Sam [Register] said, there's nothing like being on stage," Pena says. "And then there's the power and fame potential. As cheesy as that sounds, the potential of that is kind of cool."
This article appears in Sep 17-23, 2008.