Young rockers generate large local fan base
Meet the brains behind Melted Minds
By Kevin Gate Special to The Acorn

IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers FAN FAVORITES- Melted Minds' lead singer Eddie Flores, 18, and guitarist Criss Callow, 16, rock out for the crowd at the annual Royal High School Band talent show on Friday. The local metal/hard-rock band, which won a best crowd response award at last year's Simi Valley Days Battle of the Bands, is made up of five Simi residents, four of whom attend area high schools.

The success of local band Melted Minds has Simi's youth wondering if alternative metal music might be on the rise once again.

"We're 20 years ahead of our scene," proclaimed lead guitarist Criss Callow.

Callow and his four longhaired band mates- Eddie Florez (vocals), Alex Espiritu (rhythm guitar), Mike Gorecki (bass) and Andrew Hodges (drums)- comprise Melted Minds, a five-piece onslaught of heavy rock and metal.

"Nobody else out there sounds like us at all," Hodges said. "We're trying to bring music back, you know?"

Mostly fast-paced and distorted, with vocal subjects ranging from death and destruction to the love of making music, the band, made up of three students from Santa Susana High, one from Royal and one '06 graduate, avoids screaming and growling, deeming it unoriginal and overused.

Criss Callow

Highpitched hammering guitar solos accompany the songs when the loud vocals aren't present.

The drums are always moving, and the bass is rhythmic with the second guitar's power chords.

Though they have a reputation as being hardcore, the group has a softer side, as demonstrated in their song "Brother," dedicated to the late Dimebag Darrell Abbott, famed guitarist of heavy metal band Pantera, who was gunned down in a Columbus, Ohio, nightclub in late 2004.

"It took us a long time to find our sound," Callow said. "Pretty much our first year (we were) switching between different funk and metal. We've come a long way to settle on our metal sound because it's different."

Melted Minds found recent success when they made it to the last round of a contest held at B.B. King's Blues Club in Los Angeles.

"We lost, but it's OK because we lost to a bunch of 45-year-old and 50-year-old people. All the other bands were our age," Callow said.

The group also attracted the attention of onlookers and judges at last year's Simi Valley Days Battle of the Bands, taking second place but receiving the first-place award for best crowd response.

Still, the band said, booking shows in Simi Valley is becoming frustrating.

"It's going be hard from now on, especially if you want to play somewhere local for people who want to hear you here, because the Carpe DM closed down," said Callow, referring to the popular allages bar on the east side of Simi.

"Mainly we're just trying to get this demo finished, and then we'll concentrate on booking some more shows," Hodges said.

The band is currently producing and recording their four-song demo by themselves at bassist Gorecki's home.

"It's like 70 percent done," Gorecki said. "What we have now is on our website."

You can listen to Melted Minds at www.myspace.com/ meltedminds.