Once upon a time, many moons ago, there was a struggling drummer in a local high school band named Steve Klingler. Steve wasnt much for practicing the usual sheet music that the director put in front of him but what he did enjoy was beating on that old drum set and jamming out old Metallica tunes with a few other band mates. There was never an official line up for a band, just a bunch of musicians that got together and tried to play the songs they knew from their favorite cds. Mostly they just jammed out for fun at lunchtime and a few times after school but nothing ever came of it. After graduation, Steve worked a full time job and went to college where he received a scholarship for playing percussion in the school choir. It got him through the day but he knew it wasnt what he wanted to do, but with his busy schedule he didnt have time to pursue the music that he loved. Well after completing college he purchased a house out on Big Hill Road and like the song goes it is where it all started. Steve had been dating a girl that he knew for a while named Jesika Jeffcoat. Over a period of a couple of years he became closer to her and her family as well. But there was always one person that he could never figure out himself. There was always another guy there that was always hanging out and never went home. This person was Tom Kuwamoto. Tom and Jesikas brother Michael were best friends and to this day the Jeffcoat family still says that Tom was there adopted son. Well come to find out that Tom had just started to learn to play the guitar. He didnt know much but he was learning. In fact about the only song he did know was Enter Sandman by Metallica. So on Steves 21st birthday Tom and Michael brought Toms guitar and amp over to Big Hill Road. to try and jam out a few songs. Well little did anybody know but it was the beginning of something beautiful. Tom and Steve jammed for about 3 hours that day and both of them loved every minute of it. For the next 6 months they played everyday just sharpening their skills and learning multiple songs. Well things happened and Tom decided to get a job. Which for all of you that know Tom, you know that he likes to sleep at least 12 hours a day. So his guitar playing did slow down a bit but he did meet some interesting people. Tom came to Steves house one day and said that he works with a couple of guys that are in a band. So naturally he invited them out to jam. Well come to find out two of the guys in this band called Sin Division were guys that Steve used to jam with in high school. After the jam session was over they approached Steve and told him that they didnt have a place to practice and had a few gigs coming up so they wondered if he could help them out. So Steve thought it over and they worked out a deal where they would play in his basement on Mondays and Wednesdays and that would leave Tom and Steve time to jam on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Well those couple of gigs came and went and all the guys decided that the situation was working out so well so why not keep it going. See this was a good situation because it gave Tom and Steve the opportunity not only to go to all of the parties and gigs and drink for free but also gave them the experience of jamming with a full band. After about 8 months of multiple parties and endless practice sessions Steve and Tom decided they wanted to move up in the world and really concentrate on their band. Well Steves brother knew a guy that he went to school with that was interested in joining a band. His name was Joe Taylor. Steve had met him about a year or so earlier but never really liked him, but he thought what the hell he would give it a shot. So they invited him over to jam. Joe didnt know too much but he was very eager and willing to learn. Basically, he wanted to learn to play the guitar. The three of them hit it off immediately. Joe knew some chords and a couple of songs but Steve saw more in him. From the first day Joe got to Big Hill Road Steve saw a front man. It was just the way he looked. He had the talent and the will to be a great singer and rhythm guitar player, but he had the look of something more. Time went on and Joe started coming over just about everyday. This was quite a jaunt for him because he lived in Athens and worked in Battle Creek. It was a lot of miles but he didnt care he wanted to play and play he did. The hardest part was definitely Toms teaching skills. Tom has very little patience for teaching. Joe was a quick learner and it was a good thing because Tom had a short fuse in that department. After a couple months of the three of them jamming out the covers they new and learning a few more they decided to try and find a bass player. Sin Division helped in this department. They knew a guy named Nick that was pretty good and looking to find a band to jam with. So the guys decided to try him out. Things went well for a couple of weeks, but Nick wasn't happy with their relentless practice schedule nor were they happy with some of the choices of songs that he wanted to play. Not that they didnt like the songs he did. They just didnt want to play them. So after a couple of missed rehearsals Tom, Joe and Steve decided to fire Nick and look for a new bass player. Tom mentioned a guy that his sister was dating named Dave Parsons. Tom said that Dave was a guitar player and actually taught him quite a few things and that he was interested in switching to bass. So the guys decided to give him a shot. They brought him in and things worked great. Dave meshed really well. It was like it was meant to be. Dave brought something else to the table though. He had been in a band before called Nothing and he had lots of ideas. At first the other three guys didnt know what to think of his ideas, therefore a lot of them were shot down, but eventually it all worked out. So then it started. The countless hours of rehearsals. Not only teaching Dave the cover songs that the other three guys already knew, but also learning new covers and attempting to write some songs of their own which none of them had any experience in at all. The only thing that was missing was a name. They searched for months on the perfect name. Nothing that any of them came up with would really set the tone for them until Joe had a revelation. He was at a movie in Battle Creek. Sometimes before movies they have questions and answers on the big screen. Well at this particular movie there was a question about a particular tattoo that Janet Jackson had. It almost looked like a tribal symbol. Joe couldnt really remember the question, but the tattoo meant Sankafa. Which also meant wisdom through learning from the past. When Joe got home from the movie he thought repeatedly about how to spell Sankafa. He couldnt quite figure it out but in the process he came up with his own spelling and SonaKofa was born. There is no actual meaning to the name SonaKofa except what you make of it. The band has had several different meanings that they have come up with on their own over the years but you will have to ask them about those. Now that they had a name and quite a few songs under their belts they decided that they needed to get out and play some shows. With Sin Division still practicing there on Big Hill Road things looked good for the future. The two bands booked a few shows together and decided to work together and share equipment and have a good time doing it. They played quite a few shows together until things got too hectic. Egos were flaring and not everyone was happy with the way things were being handled so Sin Division made the decision to walk away and find a different rehearsal studio. Both bands still talk and get along good but to this day they have not booked a show together and there are no definite plans of any shows together yet. This was a big let down for SonaKofa. Not knowing which way to turn, the band decided to return to Big Hill Road, work on their own music and concentrate on their own shows. So thats what they did. Over the next 9 months they played over 20 different shows ranging from private parties from Michigan to Illinois and back again. They found themselves in bars in such towns as Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Holland and Grand Rapids. They were building a following everywhere they went but all of these places were asking for cds. People liked what they heard and wanted to buy their music but SonaKofa hadnt even thought about recording yet. At this time they only had about 6 songs of their own that they had written. Well in late August 2001, a producer for a local studio approached the guys. Oddly enough he was the drummer in Daves old band Nothing. His name was Jarod Mayer. Jarod and his cousin Kevin owned this small studio called Loophole Studios out of Bronson, Michigan and they were looking for bands to record. SonaKofa did not believe that they were ready for that step yet. They thought it would be better to wait until they had about 10 or 12 songs of there own done before they went in to record. Well to make a long story short Jarod worked his magic and talked them into coming in and trying it out. Before they knew it a great friendship was born and they had an album to celebrate with. SonaKofas first cd was recorded in just 2 short weeks in September of 2001. Which was good because with their never-ending show schedule they didnt have much more time than that. Things were changing though. All four guys were still in love with what they were doing but other things were starting to peak their interests and pull them in different ways. For instance, Joe got married and started a family, Dave already had a son with Toms sister Casey and they were working on their family, Tom had hooked up with one of SonaKofas long time friends, Dianna, and Steves 7 year relationship with Jesika was very rough and coming to an end. The end of 2001 and the beginning of 2002 was a very rough time for the band and no one knew what was to come of SonaKofa. They went from the tightest band in the world and the best of friends to very different people all within a couple of months and no one knew what to do. Then they got a call from Jarod in January 2002. He wanted SonaKofa to come back in the studio and record a couple more songs for a compilation cd that he was putting together. So they did. They had already finished two more songs so the guys decided to go ahead and go in the studio and record them for the cd. Before they knew it the compilation was finished. For those of you that have a copy of it be sure and cherish it. There was only about 100 copies made and they went pretty quick. After the guys were finished recording they took about 2 months off to take care of their personal lives and think about what it is that they really wanted. Everyone spent time contemplating their lives without SonaKofa and all four of them came to a quick decision that the band is what they really wanted. So back on the road they went. Before they knew it Steve had booked shows every weekend until the middle of July. They played everywhere. Multiple biker parties, graduation parties, and even bars that no one had even heard of. July came and went and the schedule never let up again until Halloween 2002. Halloween weekend the guys ended up booking 3 different shows, all in one weekend, and burnt themselves out. They loved it but the road had just got to be too much. The SonaKofa train was tired. Over the next 2 months the guys only played 3 shows and then they decided that it was time for a long well deserved break. Not only were they strung out from the non-stop gigs but personally they all had so much going on as well. Between all of their full time jobs and their lives at home it left very little time for shows. Not including the 2 rehearsals a week that they were still pulling off just to learn new covers, keep the old covers tight, and write new originals for a new cd. But sometime in the middle of January 2003 they decided to take some time off of the SonaKofa train and spend time in other interests. In fact most of the time was spent sleeping. In February Tom, Dave and Steve reconvened to continue working on material for the new album. Joe and his wife Kellie were expecting their first baby together so everyone decided that he needed more time at home and that the other three had work to do. Even though Joe wasnt in the mix physically there were many of rehearsals spent on the phone running ideas through his head as well. Before you knew it the full band rehearsal schedule started up again and the train was going down the tracks just as fast as ever. Gigs were lining up and they were ready to go. Refreshed and fully charged. But something was different. See in the last three years SonaKofa only had ever played one bar in their hometown of Sturgis. Things were changing. A little hometown notoriety was needed. They decided it was time to come back to Sturgis and blow the doors off. The guys had been playing everywhere but their hometown. So that is where the concentration went, Sturgis. Before they new it there was six bars in that little town that wanted them, but they realized that it wasnt possible. If they were to play all of those places with the same schedule that they were used to playing then they would burn their audience out quickly. There was no way that they could play every weekend in Sturgis and still expect people to show up. So they cut it down to only three bars and alternated them. In the mean time other shows were still presenting themselves in other places. The train had sped back up to full speed and the guys were looking for extra time for recording. There just wasn't enough hours in a day. They couldnt juggle full time jobs, rehearsals, gigs, home lives, and recording. It was not possible. So they had to eliminate certain things. The gigs and the rehearsals stopped. The whole month of July 2003 was set aside for studio work but there was only one problem. The band was not ready. It was hard for SonaKofa to understand but Jarod could see a different band. See when they went in the studio the first time SonaKofa was a tight well oiled machine. Reason being is that they practically lived together back then and all they did was play music. Somewhere over a period of 2 years things changed. The people were the same. SonaKofa was still there but they were more individuals instead of a band. They were not as tight as they once were. When their lives got too busy the things that suffered were the rehearsals and the friendships between the members. It took a while to realize what had changed, but when it was figured out everyone worked hard to bring it back together. Jarod had a big part in this process. He has seen SonaKofa at their very best and he has seen them at their very worst and this was not the first time that he pulled them out of a huge slump. Basically, what he did was crack the whip. He sat down and told them exactly what they needed and the five of them worked very hard to bring that band back on top. Before they knew it the whole month of July was gone and the gigs were piling up that were already booked. So back on the road they went with out one solid thing done in the studio other than figuring out what they need to do. And the answer was to play. Play everywhere and thats what they did up until September 6th. That was the final night at the Sturgis Toy Run where SonaKofa played in front of 3,000 people and had a standing ovation. They knew that they had retrieved what they had lost. So all they had to do was rehearse their new originals and record the new album. And this brings you up to where they are now.
It is amazing to think what four guys from a little town in rural Michigan have accomplished in the last 5 years. Multiple sold out shows, joining and winning 3 different battle of the bands in three different cities, selling over 600copies of their first original cd, opening up for 5 national acts including: Ratt, Monster Magnet, Dokken, The Blue Oyster Cult and Warrant and by far the most rewarding thing would have to be playing their music in front of thousand of their friends.
For those of you that read all of this SonaKofa thanks you. This is our dream. With out you it would not be possible.
Thank you so much
See you soon
SonaKofa
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