On Mar. 16, Excuse Me, Sir brought the house down while opening for the local student experimental rock band, Krooks. Formed by Cal Poly students, the band debuted five months ago.
Booming guitar riffs reverberated off the vaulted ceilings of downtown San Luis Obispo’s Aviary, and an array of guitar pedals mounted on skateboard decks at each guitarist’s feet created a heavy, fuzzed-out sound — one that is rarely heard in the San Luis Obispo music scene.
It all started with a chance encounter in the early months of fall quarter when computer engineering sophomore Simon Shulevitz decided to say hello to architecture sophomore and drummer Andrew Bernard at a Music Production Union (MPU) house party.
“I started making music last year… and then when I came back to school this year, I wanted to start taking it seriously,” Shulevitz said.
From this night when he approached Bernard looking for a drummer, the duo then found three more bandmates — biological sciences freshman Audrey Nicholson, graphic communications freshman Omar Sanchez and English freshman Max Schrayer — to join their group.
Excuse Me, Sir’s lineup was born with Shulevitz on guitar and vocals, Sanchez on lead guitar, Nicholson on vocals, Schrayer on bass and Bernard on drums. For many of the members, this is their first official band.
“I feel like we all have slightly different backgrounds though, so we can collaborate effectively and in a novel way,” Bernard said, attributing this to the band’s unique feel.
Having similar tastes in music allowed the group to come together, and mesh several genres including shoegaze, emo and alternative rock to create a distinctive sound.
“Sometimes when somebody asks, we’ll just say it’s loud,” Bernard said.
“They have a very different sound for SLO and that’s what really attracted me personally,” Tanner Price, the guitarist and vocalist of Krooks, said. He invited Excuse Me, Sir to open for them.
When looking for openers, Krooks often settles on bands within the same vein as their own music, because of the common audience it brings. The bands are similar in their fuzzed-out, heavy guitar and experimental approach to creating music.
“It was cool to meet other people that have the same morals and values that we want to have in the music scene,” Krooks bassist Aidan Dillon said. “Just keeping it a nice, respectable, safe place for everyone to enjoy [is important].”
After their first show in early Dec. of 2023, Excuse Me, Sir has played eight gigs, performing nearly every other weekend. Because of the number of live performances and the development of collaborative songs in such a short span of time, the band has seen vast improvement from their beginnings.
“When you come up with the music together — for example the new song we played today we came up with it in practice spontaneously — I made the riff and then [Shulevitz] added to it, and everyone just added their own style to it. I feel like that’s a perfect example of learning how to collaborate more than just playing our parts,” Sanchez said.
Excuse Me, Sir has done two shows so far in collaboration with local promoter Channel Frequencies, an organization created with the intention of making music more accessible to those in the SLO area, according to head promotor and booker Reau Kummer.
“I think that they’re probably going to be one of the more popular bands [in SLO], if they aren’t already,” he said. “We had them [play a house show] in my living room and had them headlining that show and everyone stuck around for them, and everyone was just enjoying the f*** out of it. It was really cool to see that much support for a new band.”
As a band, Excuse Me, Sir hopes to play more house shows, which is a staple part of the San Luis Obispo music scene.
“The smaller the venue the better because everyone is so packed,” Schulevitz said.
Nicholson said this also creates a unique atmosphere.
“It’s [also] kind of risky and I feel like that just adds a layer to it when everyone is like ‘Shhhh! The cops are here!’ The vibe is kind of unbeatable,” Nicholson said.
The five-piece band agreed that making music is a process in which a person must be authentic and let their creativity flow naturally.
“I feel like growing up singing, I would find artists that I really like and would try and sing just like them, but that’s not genuine to my voice,” Nicholson said.
Bernard said “there’s no right way to do it” because “music is art.”
During spring quarter, local music lovers can expect the band to be in full force.
“I genuinely don’t have as much fun doing anything else other than playing music,” Sanchez said.
To follow Excuse Me, Sir’s music, you can find them on Instagram @excusemesir.band.
