Escondido

Jessica Maros and Tyler James (Courtesy: Facebook) 

Listening to Escondido is a welcome trip to the Wild West. Lead singer Jessica Maros' voice is sweet, sexy, and seductive with an old-school Spaghetti Western-theme and a hard rock mash up playing in the background. Most of the songs are guitar driven and heavily influenced by Ennio Morriocone, famous Italian composer known for providing the soundtrack for the Dollars Trilogy starring Clint Eastwood.  Jessica along with her colleague Tyler James' (from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes) penchant for Wild West themes, energetic on stage persona, and some banter between the two makes their live act performance a unique experience.

Jessica likes to describe the band's music as "desert rock". It makes sense regarding how Escondido got started. Jessica is originally from Vancouver, Canada. At age 19, she had a record deal with a major label in Nashville.Things didn't go smooth for her. The label that she had signed with pressured her to be someone she wasn't. Eventually she dropped out, felt dejected, and decided to take a four year break from music. During that time, Jessica started her own successful fashion label. But in the end, she found her calling, sold her business, and returned to one thing she loves: music.

(Courtesy: Facebook)

At a friend's place one night, Jessica met Tyler and they started jamming after she shared with him a couple of songs she wrote. Coming away with demo tapes, she and Tyler decided to form Escondido. "There is something barren about where to go," says Jessica. She adds, "it's okay if you don't know where you are in life." That's how Jessica felt. After a disappointing record deal at 19, it seems like Jessica "wandered in the desert" for four years, starting her own fashion label and even getting married. She realized that's not where she wanted to be and her music reflects that. Her lyrics talk about losing love and new beginnings. But most importantly it contains autobiographical themes.

There is nothing sexy about how they came up with the name Escondido. Tyler had the name for a long time. Despite that, Escondido has started to taste success. Already the band has performed on Conan and their song "Cold October" was featured on the hit show "The New Girl". Even former president Bill Clinton digs their music (okay there's a photo of him with an Escondido record but it looks like it's been photo shopped!)

Bottom Line: Their shows are energetic and fun. They do what they like and because of that, they are enjoying fame and success. In this day and age, it's pretty rare. So go see a band that writes and produces their own music independently.

Jessica Maros: Lead Singer/Guitarist/Song Writer
Tyler James: Back-Up Singer/Keyboardist/Producer