My City September 2022

MYMUSIC

lyrics for the first time. “They were the worst,” he admits. Next, came the band The Transatlantic Sail and its off shoot, I Am the Sky. “With those early bands, I had no idea of monetary success. We didn’t care about money at the time. We were so naïve – we thought success would just magically happen,” he states. After high school graduation, his parents began to question the path he was on and wondered about his future. Solis was begin ning to wonder, himself. “I had no idea what I wanted to do or where I was going,” he says. “I went to college for a little while but that didn’t last long. So, I decided it was time to get serious about music.”With friends, he formed nu metal band 1876 and began to set immediate goals. He and his bandmates thought they had it all figured out; they had a plan and felt as if stardom was inevitable. It was during this time that Solis got married and had a daughter. “I had a family and I was working a job while traveling with the band,” he states. “We were doing well and filling venues, or so we thought. It still wasn’t working and we kept pushing back our goals. We were getting frustrated.” Solis soon realized that his time with the band was a strain on his marriage and made the tough choice to step away. “I told the guys that I had important things to attend to at home and couldn’t go on. I felt like I was letting them down.” Although his marriage would eventually end, Solis cherishes the time he spent with his wife and still maintains an amicable relationship. “She loved the Beatles and I heard them nearly every day. I started to listen to how they wrote music,” he says. While separated from 1876, Solis finally found the time and place to write the kind of music he needed to. “The whole time, through all the early chaos, I was learning to be a musician but I wasn’t learning to be the singer/songwriter I always wanted to be,” he says. He picked up his acoustic guitar for the third time, dusted off an old MacBook given to him by his uncle for college, and began to write and record music that was closer to his heart. He released a collection of songs under his full name and complete with music video. 

for the first time and I was blown away,” he shares. “The energy was incredible and being there, I felt like I was really a part of something. Everyone was so welcoming. The show featured a lot of punk and ska bands and one had a bassist who was having the time of his life. He looked so cool. From then on, I wanted to play the bass. I was hooked.” Solis, who was beginning to learn acoustic guitar at the time, immediately put it down and asked his parents for a bass and, although they didn’t understand why, they indulged him. “They got me a black Squier brand bass that I still have somewhere, all beat up,” he laughs. From then on, Solis made it a point to attend as many shows at the Flint Local as possible and even began volunteering there.Through a magnifi cent loophole, he was able to use his time working at the Flint Local to meet the community service requirements for the National Honor Society in school. “I still can’t believe that worked,” he says with a chuckle. Working at The Local and meeting other musicians gave him confidence and soon enough, he was in a band of his own: Offing Ingus.They played nu metal and high-energy shows and enjoyed a small amount of local popularity. “While growing up, I always felt apart from other people in a way,” Solis remarks. “Being in that first band made me feel valued and connected.” He finally became devoted to music full-time and he dedicated the majority of his time to the wild thrash scene. “I loved everything about it,” he adds. Still, something was miss ing. “I was having fun but the music we were making didn’t sound like me,” he explains. “There was something about myself that wasn’t being explored.”When Offing Ingus began to dissolve, a friend introduced Solis to a band called Bright Eyes. “It was exactly what I need ed at the time,” he explains. “It was a different type of music that showed it was okay to explore mood and emotions and following that, I picked up my acoustic guitar for the second time.” He just as quickly dropped it again when he and friends formed the indie-rock band Remember Me, and Solis tried his hand at writing

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