history of The Los Dos Bros

The history of The Los Dos Bros goes back more than 15 years.
In the spring of 1992, three musicians (Tommy Becker, Louis Caverly, and Derric Oliver) attending the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA formed the group, Phacehead, drawing people toward a new, positive sound. They began exploring many of the musical and lyrical ideas that would later become the basis of their "Adventure Pop" sound.
Louis and Derric both grew up in San Diego enduring formal classical training while also absorbing a world of musical styles and genres from Bach to Rock. Despite having both grown up in the same town, they didn't meet until one fateful day hanging out in a garage on Rosemarie Lane (just right off campus) playing music with four other monkeys. In 1993 they recorded their first studio-produced demo that was released to mainly sorority girls who turned it into a work-out tape.
In 1994 the band relocated to San Francisco and started recording and playing out in clubs. In 1996, the band produced a self-titled EP (at Found Sound in South San Francisco) and officially became The Formers. The session captured the interest of several San Francisco club promoters and received airplay on Berkeley college radio. After another year of playing clubs, in the fall of 1997, the band decided that time off was necessary for them to individually refine their sound and rediscover sanity, or in some cases, insanity.
In the summer of 2002, the original three (Tommy Becker, Louis Caverly and Derric Oliver) reunited and resumed rehearsing and recording new material while assembling local musicians for live performances. The recordings here mark this time period between 2002 and 2005.
Prior to 2002, Derric started working with pro-tools and was writing and recording under the name Holiday. He was living in San Diego while Louis was abroad working and living in London. They would see each other in airports and Derric would hand Louis his latest songs. Louis quotes, "We would literally run into each other in airports and Derric would hand me his latest demo as we were running to catch our respective flights… it was surreal. The demos sounded hot… I knew there was something there." Louis moved back to San Diego in early 2002 and the two sat down and came up with a plan. They knew this time things had to be different. They made a pact to do at least one thing everyday to further their careers. They changed the band name to Holiday and the Adventure Pop Collective (HATAPCO), marrying the idea of taking a holiday, the "Adventure Pop" sound, and the influence of everyone that left their bloody mark on the band, respectively, the collective. Please see "timeline" for this period in blog above
Good, released early June 2003, was quickly followed by Start All Over again (EP), Wide Open (EP) and Potential is a Dangerous Thing (EP), all released before the end of 2003. Some songs from these albums would make the cut and appear on Become, an album that again reshaped the band and continued a force known as "adventures in extreme optimism".
Oliver and Caverly produced Become (starting October 2004) with Ben Moore at Big Fish studios in their home base of Encinitas, California. Striving for an organic, live sound, the album was recorded and mixed in 21 days on 24-track analog tape. The album included several local shredders including Dennis Caplinger (banjo and mandolin), Andy Powers (electric guitar), Billy Watson (harmonica), Nucci (drums), and James East (bass). They also collaborated with photographer and graphic designer Kevin Bishop (Bishop inspired through film the idea of adventures in extreme optimism and the spirit of adventure pop music) on a video for “Out On A Limb,” which is featured on the enhanced portion of the album.
Steve Malone (pedal steel) who also recorded on Become, joined the live line-up along with Jory Lyle (electric guitar), Takashi Saito (bass), and Michael Taylor Hahn on drums. They started touring relentlessly in June 2005 but one-by-one dwindled to three, morphing the longest running, consistently solidified line-up featuring Derric Oliver ("Russell") singing and playing guitar and horns, Louis Caverly ("Gunner") singing and playing fiddle and keys (Gunner) and Michael Taylor Hahn ("Chips") playing the drums. They played more than 200 shows to date before Hahn departed the band late in 2007.
March 6, 2008, Dallas, TX, day two of Holiday and the Adventure Pop Collective’s first U.S. tour (supporting Atlantic Records’ Louis XIV), HATAPCO’s new drummer goes AWOL in the middle of the night, quitting the tour without a word or note of explanation. The trio quickly became a duo facing a choice: quit the tour and go home, or continue without a drummer. The decision to continue took about four seconds, and their second decision took about four more seconds… to officially change their band name, once and for all, to The Los Dos Bros. They release two new albums in 2008, Songs for Feeling Strong (EP), and Greek Gods in the West (CD + DVD ‘Live from the Henry Miller Library, Big Sur, CA’). Both were recorded in June, 2007 (as HATAPCO with drummer, Michael Taylor Hahn) at Al Jardine’s (Beach Boys) Red Barn Studios in Big Sur, CA.