Virgin Islands Featured Band: InStylez Band
Our latest feature is a local band Instylez Band, a young band that first originated from the St. Croix Educational Complex High School. The band came together during their high school days. Before the band they had no knowledge of each other, however they had something in common that would soon bring them together. Tevaun Ponce has been studying music since 2011, while his brother Jahsean Ponce (Bassy)played sports. Fast forward to his freshman year of high school, he overheard a conversation. Two people that would eventually be members of the band, were planning on starting a band Jonathan Hughes (Toasty) & Nakosi Prentice. Tevuan jumped into the conversation and asked "Ya'll looking for a keyboard man? That same day he approached his brother and suggested that he had to learn the bass guitar. The name of the band was established before the two brothers joined the band, they wanted to be the band that never ran out of style.
The best things about being a part of a band is going out there and giving the crowd, their parents, and friends a piece of how they feel through music. They feed of the crowd's energy and even their own. The band enjoys travelling and experiencing a different crowd. This is interesting, performing new people because no one has heard you live. Being part of a band has its advantages and disadvantages, the disadvantages of being part a band are, sometimes the people you begin a band with are not always the people that will continue the journey with you. There are egos, and also making sure everyone is on the same page, which is one of the major advantages of keeping a band together. Through the good and the bad, they never got to ahead of themselves. The hardships they shared led them to their drummer Lisandro Gomez. The members of the band each have different inspirations to what drew them to the band. Tevuan's inspiration came from listening to music from all over the world . The music were all unique in different ways, that he felt the need absorb them all and create his own sound with the intentions of bringing it into our culture. One of his role models that gave him the opportunity to flourish is Kevre Hendricks.
Instylez Band has had many crazy performances, toasty climbing on the speakers, roofs and so on. Jouvert where there was "Line man" hanging from the electric lines. In 2014 East Village Tevuan was called up on stage from Pumpa and had to play on the spot, there was no practice and didn't know anything about the keyboard in front of him. The energy from the crowd was enough motivation to allow him to kill the performance. After that experience he knew for sure he still had a drive for music. Leading up to the 6th year as a band, this pandemic couldn't have began at a worse time. There were travel plans at hand, to St. Thomas, Tortola, and Anguilla. They still try to put practice just in case they're hired to play for a live virtual event. The pandemic will eventually blow over and the clubs and events are going to be crazy, they can't wait to have that opportunity to be out again. Stay Tuned for more on Toasty ft. Instylez Band.
Written By: Minoca A.
Info Provided to make the article possible by: Tevuan Ponce
Pc: InStylez Band Facebook Account
