Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to The Hit List. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have The Hit List with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
Honestly just our deep love for music…as a band, we want to continue pursuing music professionally and it takes a lot of work, a lot of consistency and loyalty to make it full time. Our band members are either previous music students, current music students, or future music students. It’s important to all of us to be well educated and well trained so we can be the best we can. We love playing live, playing live music is one of the greatest experiences in the world! It’s an honor to be able to bring people together to sing and dance along to some of their favorite hits, old and new, and just have an amazing time dancing the night away.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
We are a group of talented musicians working towards being one of the best variety cover bands in LA, The Hit List, with an expansive set list covering numerous genres and time periods. Our set list is always growing and we mainly focus on hit songs that people know and love, with a little sprinkle of slightly lesser known songs to mix things up. We are a dynamic and exhilarating band of skilled performers with a guarantee to get you up on your feet! We’ve played at the Hard Rock Cafe here in Hollywood, Back Alley Bar & Grill down in Fullerton, and our next gig is at B’s Cocktails in Long Beach on February 7th. This year we will continue to play at fun bars and live music venues, but we will start to focus on playing at more festivals around SoCal, corporate events, casinos and weddings! Our current members are Tyler Lenertz (drums and band leader), Monica Remes (vocals and social media), Yunan Liu (vocals), Ridge Dawson (guitar and vocals), Dan Bauman (keyboard), and Ting Han Lin (bass). Our band leader, Tyler, was in a variety cover band back in the midwest called Shirts & Skins which inspired him, so he brought his expertise to Los Angeles and was the one who gathered us all together to create The Hit List.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Like in many creative fields, networking/people skills is one of the most important! Not just for booking gigs, but for finding talent. Getting to know people in the music scene is so helpful when you need to switch out a band member, either temporarily or permanently, and of course its great to learn about potential gigs and learn about people to get connect with through who you already know. Being kind, professional, and charming goes a long way when creating connections. Once again, like many creative fields, performance skills is an absolute MUST for live music. Even when you don’t really enjoy the song yourself, or you made a small mistake, or you’re really nervous, you continue to perform like your life depends on it. Honestly, sometime “faking it ’til you make it” really works. If you’re not in the mood to give it your all, give it your all anyway and you will end up having an insane amount of fun and it will be genuine. Lastly, having multiple skills in other areas is always going to be helpful. Especially as a band just starting out, we didn’t have the funds to pay a graphic artist or video editor or anything like that. We created our own materials, website, socials, logo, and everything ourselves, with the exception of a photoshoot with a professional photographer. Those side hobbies and past experiences will always find their way back into your life to help you creatively and professionally.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
We would LOVE to have a photographer and possibly a videographer attend a couple of our shows this year to get some professional photos and videos of us playing live! We always take video ourselves, but obviously we cannot capture the full audience experience since our cameras have to be set to the side away from the crowd. If you’re a live music photographer and/or videographer, you can DM us on Instagram @thehitlistband where we can chat and talk rates.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thehitlistofficial.wixsite.com/thehitlist
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehitlistband/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehitlistofficialband
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHitListofficialband
Image Credits
Professional Photos by Kendra Michelle Marquez
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
