The Sunday Music Drop is a weekly radio series hosted by the KQED weekend news team. In each segment, we feature a song from a local musician or band with an upcoming show and hear about what inspires their music.
Many of the lyrics on Drought’s debut LP, “Souvenir,” are about finding home.
Says lead vocalist Viggy Ram, “a home is something you build. It’s something that you carry with you wherever you go.”
The band formed in 2022, when the members began revisiting music during the pandemic. The band includes guitarists Eric Nakano and RJ Rabe, drummer Ray Avila and vocalist Viggy Ram.
The cover of the EP is a diorama of a house, symbolizing a home that you built for yourself and can take with you. Ram envisioned being in that house when working on the song “An Invitation.”
“I imagine this is like, you’re sitting in one room and you hear a calling from another room,” says Ram. “And it’s this idea of, hey, I’m gonna explore this.”
That same feeling of home and belonging extends to the Bay Area hardcore punk scene that Drought is a part of.
Guitarist RJ Rabe says that when he moved to the Bay Area over a decade ago, he found it very difficult to find community. He wants others who feel similarly to continue searching for local music scenes to join, even if they aren’t necessarily part of a band.
“This scene doesn’t just exist for the people playing music, it exists for everybody that’s hungry to be a part of something.”
Says Ram, “Everyone has something to bring.”
