Music is a universal language, and many students at Calabasas express themselves through music. From Marching Band and Jazz Band to different acapella groups such as Unstrumental and Bare Rhythm, there are many ways for a student to involve themselves in their musical interests. However, some students go the extra step and engage themselves in bands outside of school.
One of these students is senior Carlos Blanco, lead guitarist and singer of the band La Haine. Blanco is accompanied by Liam Doyle on guitar, Adrian Mayo on bass, and Max Gilbert on drums, and the four kicked around the idea of creating La Haine for some time.
“Around last year, around December, we formed the idea of being in a band,” said Blanco. “It’s been in the talks for a while now, but only recently have we really started doing shows and promoting ourselves.”
The group’s origins lie at A.E. Wright Middle School, where Blanco, Doyle, and Gilbert all met. Mayo was introduced to the group through a connection with Gilbert at the music education program, School of Rock, and from there, the group started to hang out and practice more and more. Blanco says everyone being good friends is very important for their creative process.
“Not only are we in a band, but we’re also good friends,” notes Blanco. “We’re able to bounce ideas off of each other, and once we start bouncing more ideas, coherent songs are starting to be made off of these band practices.”
The band takes influences from a myriad of other musical acts, including Fleetwood Mac, Black Sabbath, and Turnstile, and this variety reflects the individual music taste of each member of La Haine. These differing interests sometimes make it hard to reach a musical common ground. However, despite moments of compromise, the band finds its footing in live performances, and Blanco notes that La Haine’s first show showed him all their work had paid off.
“It was at this place on Ventura called The Milkroom, and we’ve heard a lot of people play shows there before,” said Blanco. “We were like, ‘We should get this show because we want to promote ourselves a little bit more.’ When we had that first show, I kind of realized that we were playing separately but all together. All our work came to fruition.”
Elie Samouhi has been playing music for nearly his entire life. As a freshman, Samouhi had previously been part of the band PRIMI, alongside alumni Brody Gage, Darius Baharlo, and Sirus Cammack, as well as current seniors Zach Rifkin and Oliver Benson. Samouhi quickly developed a strong relationship with Baharlo, and over the last summer, the two began to make music together as the band, stance [sic].
“During COVID, we got together, and that was the first time we sort of jammed,” said Samouhi. “Periodically, from COVID to freshman year, we got together, but it was really after we spent the year in jazz band and being in PRIMI together that we felt as though we liked each other’s playing.”
Samouhi’s creative process begins with the smallest detail, and he slowly builds a song from there.
“For me, if I’m writing a song by myself, it always starts with me sitting down and doing this thing called noodling, where you don’t really play anything focused,” notes Samouhi. “There could be a little melody that I sort of stumble upon, and I build upon that, or I hear something, and I try to play that on guitar, and I make a little song out of that. At this point, I have the melody and chords, so let me start making it an actual song.”
On Oct. 20th, stance officially released their first single, ANGEL. This also marked Samouhi’s first officially released single. With Baharlo’s input, the creative process runs smoother than before.
“With me, I haven’t released anything before this because if I wanted to release something, I wanted to make sure it’s good,” says Samouhi. “What’s good about our relationship is that I’m a huge perfectionist, to the point where it can delay a release because every little thing has to be perfect. Darius is there to control that.”
Ultimately, whenever Samouhi begins to make music, whether that be on his own, with Baharlo, or with anyone else, his most important objective is to set small goals, and he sees it as the best way to achieve not only a satisfactory creative process but progression as a musician.
“I think a big thing for anyone who’s creating or trying to get better at an instrument or producing music is setting small goals because when you set more reasonable goals, those will be achieved quicker, and you’re not looking towards the absolute end where you’re exactly where you want to be,” said Samouhi.
