ToneDrones are a native born & bred San Francisco quartet of 3 brothers & a good childhood friend. The 4 of us went to most of the same schools as kids from the 1st grade on. Curtis & Alex were mischievous classmates (we received an "F" or two in conduct together!) since kindergarten together. To this day, 3 of us live in the sunset district of S.F. & the 4th is just minutes away.
The Rosset bros. spent many an hour jamming @ home, @ the old Secret Studios & TimeandSpace studios in San Francisco, & @ AML studios in East Palo Alto throughout the early to mid 90's. East Palo Alto happened to have the 2nd highest murder rate in the country when we drove through in Dad's, gear loaded Chevy station wagon every Friday night! What were we thinking, Paul?!?! Haha.
In 1996, we moved into DRS (Downtown Rehearsal Studios) in S.F. with our pals, then fellow drummer & bassist Curtis, guitarist (he also designed our ToneDrones logo!) Tommy Abbate, & guitarist/keys player Jak Marquez. Our 1996 configuration @ DRS was 2 Roland digital drummers, 2 guitarists, & brother Chris on bass. The 2 drummer approach was quite a mess, thanx (in large part) to my chronic overplaying. LOL! That zany arrangement lasted about a year & DRS was shut down soon after along with the dot.com boom in S.F. We continued to jam & practice on & off for the next decade.
From early 2000 to late 2004, the Rosset bros. were jamming with a close, longtime friend & frontman, Charles (Chuck) Austin. We improvised our own parts & brought a number of Chuck tunes to robust life. I believe we did very few gigs during that 4 yr. period. Brother Chris branched out on his own to play with a few original & cover bands during this time. And a few of us prioritized & ramped up our instrument lessons, myself included. On a personal note, Peter Magadini as my drum instructor has been the best thing for my playing. & I believe brother Chris would say the same of Michael Wilcox, though I do not yet know the fellow. ;)
As of June of 2006 we've moved into Hitwall Studios in South San Francisco with our childhood friend Larry DeSouza of Mad/Love & Damage The Dream. I (Alex) was moved to purchase my 2nd acoustic drumset ever. (The 2 Roland digital drumkits I've owned & still practice on just don't offer the same dynamic musicality that real drums & cymbals do, I've realized.) Shortly into our move in we invited our old friend of 30 years, Curtis (a drummer [26 years]/bassist[22 years]/guitarist[4 years]), into Hitwall to round out our melodic sound with his eccentric, unorthodox approach on a second guitar. It's working out quite nicely. Also, it's given us greater inspiration to jam & fully create our own complete tunes out of thin air for the first time. And all this improvisation, something we've always done, is a ton of fun. ;) Bro. Chris is creditied with arranging all 4 of our above tunes. He did the bulk of that work, setup our recording dates, & helped get our asses in gear!Our tentative intention is to play monthly, Bay Area gigs before the year 2007 ends. We'll be in need of a talented, local vocalist, male or female, who may be inspired to add to our existing sound! If our rough tunes here appeal to you or anyone else you know, please contact us! Also, notice we have no "official" band photos because: a) we're not yet gigging & b) someone always seems to have to hold the camera whilst taking random pics. Feel Free to leave us a greeting or comment. Thanx!~ Alex of TD.