Meet Despïa Despïa | despïa
We had the good fortune of connecting with Despïa Despïa and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi despïa, every day, we know how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
The origins of despïa date back to 2020, when Jon Ramirez, Christina Marenco, and (former) drummer Aidan Sanchez would spend their time collaborating musically. Since this was at the peak of the pandemic, much of the jamming, guitar riff sharing, and demo tracks were all done virtually at home.
After years of loose jamming from home and trying their hand at rough demos, despïa really came to fruition when vocalist/rhythm guitarist Damian Melara joined the trio, finally providing the band with the vocal melodies that the tracks needed. Just months later, they officially added drummer Ryan Ohanessian and played their first live shows in 2023 and released a collection of first official singles in 2024.
despïa collectively writes all their songs together, with Jon, Christina, and Damian contributing guitar/bass/lyrics/vocal melodies and Ryan on drums.
Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I feel like the cool thing about this band is the diversity you get and all the various styles and quality we bring to the table. It’s very unique in the sense that there’s so much variety of sounds and vibes you hear when listening to our songs. Some of us grew up listening bands like The Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Mineral but also the more heavier stuff like Deftones, Slipknot, Linkin Park, the list truly goes on. People tell us all the time like “Oh man I love that Deftones vibe on this song but I also could hear some like Basement in this part too!” I feel like when you take into account all these bands we grew up listening to, we try to incorporate all of our respective influences together to create our own kind of art and what you get from that is this band called despïa and it just works somehow!
One lesson and challenge that I can think of right off the bat is if you’re trying to start up a project by yourself or with your friends whatever that may be, be prepared to put the work in on other stuff you didn’t think you’d be having to do aside from just writing music haha like when we first started this band we were focused on just writing the best possible songs we could write and put them out. But the work that comes after that is what a musician rarely ever thinks about until you have your songs written and ready to go. You have to think about what kind of artwork you want tied to your music, how will you be putting it out, what kind of media do you want to be putting your songs in (cd’s, tapes, vinyl, etc) taking new photos/music videos, creating merch, and most importantly: having a social media presence. This is all stuff I feel like new bands do not think about that much when starting a project and I think it’s very important to just have that in the back of your mind when starting a band. It’s a lot of work but it’s what comes with being in a band but I mean, we love it (sometimes haha) and enjoy being a part of this world! One piece of advice is just have fun with it and enjoy it as much as you possibly can.
We’re excited to announce that our debut EP has been fully mixed and mastered and will be coming out sometime this summer or early fall but definitely shooting to have it out by summer.
Also, for you vinyl heads out there, be sure to keep your eyes peeled!
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
First off, we’d very much love to shoutout our wives/fiancée’s for the endless support since day 1 from when we first held talks about starting this band.
We’d also like to shoutout all of our friends who truly believe in our band and to those that had the pleasure and want to collaborate with us with their talents. Whether it be from creating artwork, taking photos, filming music videos, giving feedback, coming out to shows, and so much more. Thank you Lupe, Michael, Robert for your collaborations with this band. Forever grateful for you all. Thank you to Alex Estrada for the guidance on our debut EP and making it sound as incredible as it does. Be sure to check out his recording studio in Juniper Hills, CA. called The Pale Moon Ranch! Last but not least, thank you to anyone who has ever stopped and checked us out at a show, bought a shirt, gave us a follow, told your friends about us, all of it. Thank you so much.
As cliché as it sounds, this band wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for you all.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/despiaband?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
Youtube: https://youtube.com/@despiaband?si=MPoF31HvvnzXolKu
Image Credits
Guadalupe Bustos
Jay Melara
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