“As a kid, I loved music and vinyl records. I still have the vinyl records from my childhood and I am always buying more! My lifelong ambition was to someday make an album that I was a part of.” Lead band member Steven Semeraro continued; “This was my dream and I get to share it with people I love. We [band] are a tight group and this album is very special to me. I get choked up because this is a big thing for us. The LP is out now digitally and the vinyl should be ready by spring; We just need to finish the artwork”!
The Innocent Bystanders began their musical career as a band made of attorneys. Drummer Steve Berenson, and Semeraro had known each other for several years. In their early 20’s, they had established a few bands here and there but in 2014, The Innocent Bystanders, made the decision to finalize their dream! Initially, performing was just for fun. The attorneys performed for a good year around the San Diego area while making a name for themselves. They had written a ton of songs and enjoyed performing them for their audiences.
By 2017, The Innocent Bystanders were on a roll! They released their First EP entitled, “Attractive Nuisance”. This EP is all about the things you love that are dangerous but for some reason, you are still attracted to it. The band craved more! They began to spill their creativity on paper, creating songs derived from personal experiences. They utilized friends who were G’s at songwriting to help them create more songs and then, the unexpected happened. Steven explained; “In 2018, our lead guitarist Chris, passed away. We were all very impacted by his passing. Chris is the inspiration behind some of the music on the album”.
“We started to record ‘Book of Life,’ in 2019. Covid slowed down the release a bit but, this also gave us time to make sure everything was done right. All of the songs on this album are personal songs. ‘Call of the Wild,’ was inspired by the difficulty of losing our family dog. He got away while we were on a family vacation. ‘Call of the Wild,’ captures the idea of a relationship between a dog and the owner. What must the dog feel while on his own?”
The Innocent Bystanders have been going strong for eight years!!! They are currently working on yet another LP. “Realistically we are looking at releasing this LP in 2023. We have 8-9 songs in rehearsal now. Two are written by Debbie, two by Ben, one by a close friend, who contributed songs to our prior releases, and 2 or 3 are mine.” Semeraro continued; “We are toying with the idea of recording in Ireland. There are lots of logistics needed to get everyone there. I have gotten this far with my dream so why not fulfill the rest of my dreams? This LP has a similar kind of music, all meaningful and not a lot of fluff, young love, or party songs. Very meaningful songs on this album! Very personal”.