Occults Is The Product Of Long Friendship And An Unending Love For Music
Life is to be lived, for better or worse, and if we’re doing it right it will take us on to many strange shores to meet many great people. The circles we travel in get wider the farther we roam from the lands we know, and the experiences we share will help us grow towards the versions of ourselves that we want to become, even through troubled times. If we’re truly fortunate, the connections we’ve made along the way and the bonds we’ve forged in our hearts will bring us back around to better days and brighter nights.
Or at least, y’know, make sure we have a hell of a time doing it all with some amazing people as the world falls apart.
For Emilio Hernandez and Patrick Lawrence of the band Occults, the connection they found with each other has carried them towards musical triumph on stages across the world and through personal tragedy. Meeting as teenagers, Hernandez and Lawrence became the singer and drummer respectively of successful St. Louis area rock band Nothing Still, an ever-evolving project that combined their knack for great hooks with good looks and the skill to regularly fill STL venues like The Pageant and Mississippi Nights.
Incredibly talented, professionally minded, and eagerly determined to keep climbing up after releasing their first EP, Our Cinematic Situation, Nothing Still “definitely had a few stops and starts,” says Lawrence. “I think we really hit our peak around 2006-2008. We released a second EP called A Black Tie Affair in 2006, followed by a full-length album I’ve Got a Feeling I’ve Slept Here Before in 2008. We added a few new members during that time and the band grew from a 4 piece to a 5 piece at our height.”
We’ve hit an early high in our story, so this is the part where something bad happens. Dramatic effect and all that. Sorry, there’s really no way around it and the only way out is through, but at least now we’re prepared, yeah?
“Unfortunately, everything was suddenly cut short in December 2009 when our guitarist Matt Kleemann was tragically killed in a car crash,” Lawrence recounts. “That pretty much stopped the band in its tracks. We tried writing some new music and played a few final shows, but we never fully recovered.”
Due to circumstances beyond their control, Nothing Still suddenly became nothing at all, and the band members went their separate ways while staying friends. Lawrence detached from playing music after he discovered a love for film making. He started directing and editing music videos for other bands he knew, building up a reputation for quality which led to him getting more work as an editor. He moved to LA to pursue work in the film industry professionally and has built up a resume that includes editing over twenty films, two of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
He’s really good at it too, has his own IMDB page and everything. Go check it out, we’ll wait. He even directs the videos for Occults, giving their cinematic situation its own flair. We’re getting ahead of ourselves though.
Emilio Hernandez’s first love is music. Like many great loves he couldn’t get it out of his heart but felt he had to make a departure from being a rock front man after the dissolution of his band. Hiding his seemingly endless font of charisma behind DJ decks and machines, Hernandez reinvented himself in the dance world both as a solo act and as part of duo Serbsican, where he found success in clubs and on the Billboard charts. “I spent a few years producing electronic music and DJing, which really helped hone the craft,” Hernandez says. “As fun as it was though, I missed playing live and missed having weekends with my family so COVID was a bit of a blessing because it allowed me to retire from DJing.”
‘And then the pandemic hit!’ starts no awesome story ever, but this is going somewhere, we swear. Let it cook.
After reconnecting musically from playing a few Nothing Still reunion shows, Hernandez and Lawrence were kicking around new sonic ideas for the band when the world shut down. Lockdown-related difficulties sent Hernandez, who had recently relocated to Denver, back to the start for construction time again. “I really wanted to write something different, something that was closer to what Patrick and I initially wanted to do with Nothing Still, but didn’t have the knowledge or technology to do when we were teenagers,” Hernandez continues. “Patrick and I have always loved everything 80’s, especially acts like Depeche Mode, The Smiths, and The Cure, so I decided to invest into more studio gear and wrote music that was way different than what Nothing Still was doing, a darker feel influenced by early goth and post punk. I sent the music to Patrick and he liked the direction, so Occults was born”
Having found the new sound they liked, the band was up and running but without a clear strategy forward. “The interesting thing about Occults was that Patrick and I never really planned to be a live act when we started,” confides Hernandez. “We just wanted to make the music we always wanted to make and if people liked it, that was a bonus for us. That’s still the way we write. The plan was just to release some singles we were happy with and see what people thought. The reception was surprising for us. I think it really clicked once we started seeing ourselves on a few Spotify playlists that we should keep doing it.”
Over 800,000 combined Spotify streams is a lot, we know because we counted. Had to take off our shoes and everything to do it too. The massive response showed that clearly people were into it and wanted more, but how would this popular project, designed for the studio, translate to a concert stage?
“We’ve gotten the live rig to a point where everything can sound just like the record,” proclaims Hernandez. “I’m very meticulous when it comes to fine tuning guitar patches and vocal effects, and can spend days recreating what I’ve done on a record. This way Patrick and I can focus more on giving the fans a show that entertains and sounds good.”
Lawrence is putting the film work aside for a while to pick up the drumsticks and resume the life of a touring musician, but he’s not putting too much pressure on what happens next. “I like to just go with the flow honestly,” he says, the bond the band mates share making the music they play together its own great reward. “Emilio has been my best friend and closest confidant for almost 25 years, I definitely could not imagine doing this project with anyone else but him. We have a shorthand together that doesn’t work with other people involved and we can speak to each other very openly without fear of hurting each other’s feelings.
“We have succeeded this far by not trying or pushing too hard. We’ve always operated on the belief that if we make music we love and write with a lot of honesty, people will find it and love it just as much as we do,” Lawrence continues, “and so far, it’s fucking worked!”
Hard learned lessons and bad luck tales from their time in the music industry have left the pair with the desire to do it differently this time around. “We spent 10 years together in one band where we did absolutely everything we were supposed to do, and it did not work out,” Lawrence laments. “I’ve known other bands that have gone above and beyond to try and fit into a mold or copy others’ successes to try and achieve stardom, only to come up with nothing in return. With Occults, we have been true to ourselves and in return, we have built a global fan base, secured licensing deals with two record labels, found placement on several movie soundtracks, and now we’re touring from coast to coast. So, whatever we are doing, it really seems to be working!”
Come find out what they’re doing this Saturday, April 26th when the Occults crew makes a triumphant return to STL as their national tour promoting excellent new record Rituals makes its first-ever St Louis appearance at JAVA in the Grove (4193 Manchester). Other performers include the multi-talented multi-hyphenate Natalie Huggins, the ambient excellence of Two Hands|One Engine, and the up-and-coming rock group Cazadores. Whether you’re reconnecting with a fond memory or connecting with your new favorite band to dance to, this show is the place to be. We’ll have a hell of a time!
