According to their Twitter bio, San Antonio’s Pop Pistol is a “band from Texas looking for the world.”

The world certainly seems within their reach.

Alex Scheel, singer and guitarist, his cousin, bass player George Garza Jr., and Jorge Gonzalez, drummer, began playing together in high school.

When the band they were in with other members broke apart, the three branched out on their own, and Pop Pistol was born.

Four years later, the group has made not only an impact on San Antonio’s music scene, but in the community as well.

In 2008, Pop Pistol released a 10-track CD, “Angelus,” which they followed up with a three-song disc “Shadow” at the end of 2009. (read the San Antonio current’s review of Angelus here)

When asked during their video interview how they describe their sound, Alex said that it’s “based on the bass and the drum...and on top is this constantly changing paint. It’s rock-based...post modern...but takes from all the [music] genres. It’s spatial dance music.”

“It’s sexier than we are.”

Favorite songs of the band? Jorge and George both agree that “Evolving Doors” from “Shadows” is their favorite, and they get excited every time they play it. Alex hopes to “make more songs” like “Jealousy Dance” from “Angelus.”

Their song, “Urban Hope,” a crowd favorite, can be heard at the beginning of all NOWCastSA’s videos.

Flickr set of Pop Pistol in action

Community involvement

Through Local782, the San Antonio music coalition, the band has learned a lot about promotion and establishing a dialogue with the community.

Local782’s mission, according to its Facebook page, brings “awareness, support and innovation to San Antonio’s music community and unites musicians to create opportunity by organizing, education and performing...and raises the visibility if all working class musicians, media makers and culture in San Antonio.”

The members of Pop Pistol and their manager, Ernesto Olivo, are highly active in Local782, which holds meetings and workshops monthy to bring the community together.

“San Antonio has a unique setting and a unique culture. When you stay involved with the people around you, natural relationships will develop,” George explains.

"Since we became involved with Local 782,” George continues,” we’ve become a more focused and tighter unit. If you want to succeed in a band, you’re in the band 24 hours a day. Keeping in touch with your fan base personally and through social media, as well as establishing relationships with the media, takes an every day effort.”

As Jorge says, “Work for it, and people will come.”

Besides promoting Pop Pistol on social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, the band still recognizes the importance of face-to-face interaction and handing out flyers (that Alex designs) to give people something concrete and real in their hands.

The band also embraces the fact that there are many kids in the community who love music and who are fans, and so they try to play one all-ages show a month.

So what’s in Pop Pistol’s future? There has been some interest in them from an independent record label, Aardvark Records, based in England, and because they were able to raise money through community fundraisers for a van, they could be hitting the road soon and playing more out-of-town shows.

Until then, you can see them play in at least two venues in San Antonio a month, but you can also see their smiling faces out and about town because, as Local782 states, “you can’t spell ‘community’ or ‘opportunity’ without ‘unity.’”

Band of the Month is a regular feature that highlights bands in the San Antonio community. Is there a band you would like to see featured? E-mail us at news@nowcastsa.org.

Share and connect

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For more information on Pop Pistol, check out:
Myspace
Facebook
YouTube
Twitter
Video of entire performance from Jan. 15 at Jiggers

For more information on Local782, go to:
Twitter
Facebook profile
Facebook fan page