Ten West has a beach vibe
By ROBERT KINSLER
Special to the Register
There has always been something about the sea that inspires musicians.
From the sea chanteys that predate recorded music to the influential sounds of the Beach Boys and Dick Dale, songwriters and instrumentalists have tapped into the mighty power and hypnotic calm of the ocean to create their best work.
Ten West is the latest Orange County-based band to use the vibe of life along the Pacific to connect with an audience. The band, which recently released its self-titled debut on Blue Label Records, will headline a show celebrating the new season of MTV’s “Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County” at the House of Blues in Anaheim on Sunday night. Cast members from the show will be at the concert, and Huntington Beach-based 7K will also perform.
Ten West’s first single, “Amazing,” sounds like something that might have been written if Dave Matthews and John Mayer got together for a seaside songwriting session. But it was actually penned by 19-year-old Ten West guitarist Josh Itano. “You shouldn’t look at life like a glass half-empty,” Itano said in a phone interview last weekend. “I want to look at life as a great thing.”
In addition to Itano, Ten West features lead singer-songwriter Jon Ogden, bassist Alex Balderston and drummer Sam Brawner. The quartet’s rise has been fast. Since Itano and Ogden first began writing and playing together in October 2005, the acoustic duo has grown to a four-member rock band that was signed to Blue Label Records – a venture founded in 2006 by producer-musician Ronnie King and Ten West manager Sean Couevas. King is kind of like a modern-day Billy Preston, having played with the mainstream likes of Mariah Carey, KC & JoJo, rap and hip-hop stars (2Pac, Coolio, Thug Law) and rockers such as Rancid and the Offspring (he was the Huntington Beach band’s touring keyboardist 2003-05).