So, when we were asked to interview an artist, I was excited. I had a good friend of mine who just so happened to be a musician. He was self taught, and had an amazing ear for music. One thing he cannot do, however, is read sheet music. But for someone in a band, that’s not a real big issue. When I sat down with him I wanted to figure more how being in a band is different, and yet similar to being a classical musician. However, I still wanted to focus on his experiences with his band and how they do what they love and balance life. Here is the interview of Nicholas Rosado, the guitarist and second vocalist for “The Reboots”.

What is the name of your band and your members?

Our band name is “The Reboots!”. And currently the concrete members of the band are Alex Miranda, and myself, Nicholas Rosado. We both play guitar and sing for the band. We also have a lot of friends and people we know come on for specific performances or recordings.

Oh wow, and well I know you both met at High Tech High School, but what’s the story behind that?

Yeah, we all met in high school, I wanted to do a performance for a school show (I had just transferred into High Tech in my junior year) and I had seen him perform earlier in a prior school performance. I already talked to him occasionally because he was in my English class, so I asked him if he wanted to help me perform a song for the upcoming school show. He said yes, helped me set up a performance, and from there on in, I became involved in the music scene in my school and I was able to meet a lot of people who were very helpful- we’re all thankful for that. From then on we decided to hang out more and play some more music, and eventually the idea of getting a group of people to play together and make original music- the band- formed. And from then on we’ve been together.

See I never knew that. So what kind of music do you guys make?

We play all sorts of genres, we try to keep our minds open. We’ve written songs that we consider range all the way from indie to punk rock to reggae. Primarily however, most of our songs would probably be considered Alternative/Indie Rock.

So, like, do you have a musical idol that pushed you to make that kind of music, and could you explain why?

This is difficult, but if I had to choose one I’d have to say Kurt Cobain was the guy who really made me pick up guitar again. Listening to his guitar riffs and just how raw and uninhibited his emotion was really struck me. His guitar was as much of a voice as his own mouth was, and together they could really scream. His (what many people would call “unconventional”) method of playing guitar was really powerful to me- how it was complicated but not complicated at the same time, how it broke away from traditional scales and expectations, and just how LOUD and emotional it all was. His style basically said to me “do whatever the f**K you want.” It made me realize a new dynamic to music I had not realized before. In terms of emotions, it was like his songs played a sort of emotional outlet for me, and myself, in search of something of the same, really clinged on to that. The first song I ever taught myself was a Nirvana song.

Do you play any other instrument other than guitar? 

Primarily I play guitar, but I also can play bass, drums, and keyboard, I sing as well.

When and how did you ever teach yourself how to play the guitar though?

I first started out playing guitar when I was about 9, I played for a little less than a year and took lessons with a wonderful guy named Manuel. He couldn’t teach me after about a year and when he couldn’t teach me I stopped playing. I stopped playing for about 6 years. Then, when I was between 14 and 15, I started listening to more Rock n’ Roll, watching live performances, and listening to how the musicians actually made their music. When I started listening more and more, I asked myself “Why the hell did I stop playing guitar?” and from then on I began playing guitar seriously. Only thing is, this time I was all on my own. However, I taught myself more guitar in a month than I learned that whole year of lessons I did when I was younger. Not because Manuel was a bad teacher (he was an amazing teacher), but because now, I was completely invested in what I was doing and I fell in love with it. I started by teaching myself how to play along to some songs I really liked by watching other people play it. The learning evolved from simple songs to more and more complicated things as time went on, and here I am today, still learning, still practicing.

Wow wow good for you! That’s dedication. But how do you like the experience of being part of a band?

It’s difficult, and difficult to describe. It’s perhaps, “one of the hardest group projects one can do”. Being in a band is stressful, but fun and well rewarding. Especially since my bandmates are friends. When you are in a band you really need a synergy between everybody. Everyone in the band could be super great musicians but if you don’t have any synergy between people in the band you will sound terrible. People dance to music- but music itself is a dance. And just like dancing with a partner, the more you play with the same people, the better you get at knowing each others strengths and weaknesses, and evening it out on the field. It’s a team effort with us, and we strive to push each other towards improvement no matter what, through the bad times and the good times. For us, music really reflects a lot of our emotions and character, and things that affect us in our life, affects our music as well.

That’s great guys, so I’m guessing this, “synergy” helps “The Reboots!” play actual gigs?

Yes, we’ve played several gigs, and it does help a lot. We’ve played at bars, festivals, school shows, and on the street in “garage gigs”, where we play songs with an open garage door and just let people watch us as they go down the street. Sometimes people stop by and come to watch us.

How do those usually go?

There’s good gigs, bad gigs, alright gigs, and everything in between. It’s tough to judge whether something went objectively right or wrong- but there’s always an adrenaline rush to performance that sometimes turns to a level of comfort once things get rolling. We’re still quite new to songwriting, covering, and performance. It’s almost like riding on a really fun roller coaster that you want to ride on again and again and again. Feeding off of the audience’s reaction is really great.

Ok, so what is your favorite performance to date?

My favorite performance was probably our performance for a Jersey City Festival on Grove Street. Simply because it was probably our largest crowd we had ever played, getting everything set up for this show in particular was extremely stressful- but once we got things rolling seeing little kids dance to our original song and having such a crowd applaud us and ask for an encore was a really really uplifting and sort of  “high” feeling.

In the midst of all the actual work/gigs and practice, do you have chill jam sessions where you just unwind?

Yes, a lot of times really, that’s how we even make some of our songs.

Do they do anything else, other then help make songs, those jam sessions?

They go really well, they’re extremely fun for us and our improvisation has improved immensely because of it. Sometimes we do this exercise where we play a certain instrument for a set amount of time and then we switch instruments with all our band members so that we are all playing different instruments, and we do this over and over again until we rotate throughout the whole band.

Ooo, so, do you have a favorite bandmate? And who if so?

Well, that’s a secret.

Aww, boo, you’re no fun. Well, do you ever have any issues with any bandmates?

Well, that’s also a secret. Issues arise up often in regards to lots of things. Song direction, lyric selection, how we should play this, should we play that? How should we produce this? How should the settings be for this? Hell, even band direction as a whole. However we usually deal with it rationally and in a civil manner. If there’s a division, usually we take votes. On the occasion that a full on argument begins, we usually discuss it out in the open and, once things calm down, address whatever situation may have happened. We try to be completely and utterly honest with each other and not leave anything left unsaid. We’ve had people leave the band because they had other interests and we’ve had to drop some people who wouldn’t show up to practice or would neglect things that as a result, would hold us back as a band.

Does all that take a toll on your love of music?

I love playing music, I will admit- playing the same song for 5 hours straight just to get that song down or that perfect recording done can be really tiresome, but that’s part of the process. In the end, songs can evolve from what it begins as, and playing it allows you to see how you can mold it in clearer ways for us. I don’t mind playing the same song everyday, especially if it makes other people happy.

Ok, because I already know the answer, but love it, I have to ask, do “The Reboots” have a logo? And how did you guys ever come up with that?

Yes, it is a old fat television screen with our name in the middle like if it was your grandpops favorite evening broadcast. The antennas on top of the television are eyeballs, one is open normally and the other one is dazed like a swirled lollipop. Funnily enough, it was a joke for a project for my Rock n’ Roll Ethnomusicology Class, we had to come up with an idea for a band, logo, and name. I drew it up on a poster board with the name “The Reboots!” In a sort of ironic way because it sounded cheesy, and implied we played some sort of music in the past. I showed Alex my drawing as a joke because I thought it was so sh*tty and he liked it almost immediately- we started showing other people the logo and name and although it was admittedly eccentric, and kinda cheesy, it was oddly charming. From that day on we were officially “The Reboots!” And we used that logo for our band ever since.

So, that was just a short little peak inside Nick’s band, “The Reboots!” Although they have not released anything, if you ever want to contact them for booking them for a gig, let us know! That will be greatly appreciated from them. And we can see, being in a band offers a lot more freedom for creativity and technicalities than classical musicians, but it takes just the same amount of time, practice and dedication. “The Reboots!” hope to make it big one day, but for now they do what they love, with people they can have fun with. And I think that is the best part of being in a band.