Night Light is a new yet accomplished rock & roll band from Orange County, California. They are still looking for a recording contract but have managed to put out their own CD with virtually no help at all from anyone outside the band. The following biography is partially quoted directly from the band's press packet.
Jabi Shriki, the singer/songwriter and guitarist for the band was born in Rabat, Morocco. As a Child, he and his family moved to Toronto, Canada where Jabi lived until the age of fifteen when he moved to Arizona. At sixteen he left home to travel the United States for the next three years, hitchhiking from California to Texas. It was at this time he began playing guitar and writing songs. At nineteen Jabi began college at the University of Texas studying biochemistry. At the age of twenty-two Jabi was accepted at the medical school of The University of Texas Health Center, School of Medicine.
Currently Jabi is studying radiological sciences as a physician at the University of California at Irvine Medical Center. His many other accomplishments include the recent publication of his novel, The Suicide Chronicles, which is currently availble at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.
Jabi is also and accomplished artist. You can see his drawings on the band's website.
If a fledgling, unknown band without a recording contract wants to be discovered what should they do? First, record an independent CD all on their own, without a producer or the help of a recording studio, and place it for sale on their own website. Then contact other websites that feature music reviews and invite their writers to listen to the disc, gambling they will like it. Southern California’s Night Light has rolled the dice with their self-titled, self-produced, CD and I am glad they did.
While lead singer and composer, Jabi Shriki describes the music as “alternative” I will suggest, for lack of a more accurate label, that the band plays modern mainstream rock with assorted alternative influences. Please do not take the “mainstream” label as a reason to skip this CD. Sometimes music appeals to a wide number of people because it is good rather than commercial. Such is the case with Night Light. Let's hope someday soon this disc acquires the audience it deserves.
The group frequently employs didgeridoos and exotic percussion that give their sound a slight world music identity while still embracing rock and roll. The best examples of percussionist Brett Barrett’s unorthodox usage of drums and offbeat percussion instruments are the tracks, “Soliloquy,” “Change,” and “Where Is Lucifer.”
Night Light can also play straight ahead hard rock as the electric guitar dominated “Mexico” and "Static" prove, and they are diverse enough to come up with completely different sound textures on “Your Voice” which leads one to believe that Shriki and the band were influenced by REM’s more recent work.
Despite the lack of recording experience the band, spearheaded by Shriki’s original compositions and arrangements, demonstrate they have the talent to come up with a great major label debut with the help of a seasoned producer who is willing to enhance their sound without smothering their personality. All they need is experience and exposure. It isn’t easy today to find a CD that doesn’t repeat itself track after track but Night Light easily succeeds in avoiding monotony. There are many redundant sounding artists that have been recording for years that should step aside for these newcomers.
