What started out as a hangout between guys with a common interest in music and playing instruments soon evolved into something bigger.
Ian Morran (vocals and guitar), Stone McDonald (guitar and vocals), Riley Romero (vocals, bass, ukulele) and Troy Adonis (drummer) all make up the band The Wet Possums.
“Everything kind of fell into place. We started hanging out as friends, we all happened to play instruments and all just kind of met each other through the timeline of interactions and we started jamming out together,” said Romero, a fifth-year at California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB). “Our music is definitely like garage punk, a little bit of funk and a little metal sometimes as well.”
McDonald, a fourth-year CSUMB student, defines the Wet Possum music “as a garage rock band that incorporates different genres and we all bring our own interest into the group.”
“This band is a form of expression,” said 22-year-old Real Estate freelancer, “and now that enough people listen we can motivate some of them and just have a good time. That’s all that really matters.”
Not only do the band members recognize their own growth, but so do the fans who have been with them since the beginning.
“I was there at their first concert and I’ve been to pretty much every single one of their concerts,” said second-year CSUMB student Garrett Hardin. “… it’s cool to see that they’ve grown their following from like literally a garage band to a band that people actually want to see.”
The name The Wet Possums came about from one of the band’s early meetings.
“We’re all in a barn at Stone’s friends house and there’s this big bucket,” Morran said, recalling the incident, “and we’re hanging out when we see a huge opossum, we thought it was a oversized rat at first but then it hops into the bucket and is drenched. Then Riley says out loud ‘dude this is a wet possum,’” said Morran.
There were also other names that were in the running for their band, including “The bags, the barns, the doors, the led zeppelins and more,” said Morran, Romero and McDonald.
With the rise of their fan base, the Wet Possums have been planning on releasing more things and have been working to creating more goals for themselves.
“We are going to be playing at the Catalyst in the future in Santa Cruz,” said Romero
That is something we are working toward and our name will be plastered on the front,” said Morran.
“The overall thing we want to do is spread our love through music,” said 26-year-old carpenter Adonis.
While all of the members enjoy being able to rock in their band, they all do other things throughout their daily lives.
“I am definitely able to turn on my kind of music personality, when I’m in the garage I’m ready to rock, but then when I’m out in the open I won’t be as loud and I’ll be more chill,” said Romero.
Morran said “like I said before it’s a form of expression this is how I feel, and so if I go to a job interview and someone has a problem with that, it’s like I’m just gonna try to be me and this is something I enjoy to do it’s fun so what I do here and what I do at other places is just who I am.”
The band wants to grow its fan base and book more venues in order to share their music.
The best way to listen to their music could be live at Troy’s garage or if you can’t make it to that you can also find the band on YouTube, and Instagram.
If you want to enjoy some more content from the Wet Possums look out for the EP they have coming soon!