Detoure rocks Samo

Samo is well known for its fantastic music and art programs, which have produced many talented and successful individuals. For this reason, it is no surprise that an up-and-coming young band in the musical world holds a member currently attending Samo. This band, which many Samo students and staff had the pleasure to listen to at the Homecoming carnival on Oct. 4, is known as Detoure.Detoure is a young powerhouse band composed of three members: Samo freshman Jersey Sullivan (’22), St. Monica Catholic High School sophomore Niko Nicholas (’21) and Wilson High School junior Sam Edelman (’20). The trio know each other from performing together in music school, long before they founded Detoure in 2014. Inspired by their favorite bands, which consist of Led Zeppelin, Soundgarden, Queens of the Stone Age and Highly Suspect, the group predominantly plays grunge rock and classic hard rock. Sullivan, the bassist in Detoure, is proficient in many instruments and has even done some acting. While he plays the bass in the band, he is also a fantastic drummer and guitarist. In fact, he played the drums and guitar at the Dallas International Guitar festival in March 2018, and played multiple shows in Atlanta and New York with Brandon Niederauer. He was also a member of the cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit show, “School of Rock,” and had the opportunity to live in New York for two years and perform on Broadway. Nicholas is the lead singer, lyricist and guitarist in Detoure. He began playing guitar about 10 years ago, and had not planned on being a singer. However, his voice and knack for writing lyrics are a key component of Detoure’s success. “Our singer and guitarist, Niko, writes the lyrics for our songs, but the music is a different process,” Sullivan said.While Nicholas loves playing rock with the band, he also is a big fan of other genres of music, such as rap, alternative, heavy metal and indie music. Detoure’s drummer, Edelman, began playing the drums when he was just seven years old. He loves playing many styles of music in addition to rock, in particular jazz and blues music, and is in his high school jazz band. The trio also writes their own music. Some of their original songs include “Hunted,” ”Hard To Tell,” “Outrage,” “No Control,” “Take Me,” “Disconnected" and “On Your Own”. Like many bands, Detoure has a unique way of coming up with the instrumentals for their songs.“Someone usually gets the jam started and we all come in naturally, but other times one of us has a vision of what we want the song to be like and the rest of us carry it out and give our ideas. The music can take months to finish, or it can take 15 minutes,” Sullivan said.Detoure often plays live and has had the honor of performing in some of the most iconic clubs on the east and the west coast, including The Whisky A-Go-Go, The Troubadour, The Mint, The Iridium and The Bitter End. They have even opened for such renowned bands as Missing Person and The Alarm, as well as Steven Adler from Guns n’ Roses. If you haven’t heard them yet, be sure to catch them at any of their upcoming gigs in Los Angeles. It will be an experience you won’t forget.