After the end of the 2023-24 school year, second-graders Dilla Jackson, Ralph Nguyen, Luke Blumm and Douglass English formed the punk band “Sum Yung Guys” (SYG) and began their journey to the top.
Nguyen, the band’s lead guitarist, said the idea of forming a band came to him unexpectedly.
“I first got the idea when I was watching an anime called Bocchi the Rock with (Blumm),” Nguyen said. “When he said, ‘Dude, we need to be in a band,’ it just happened.”
Nguyen said it wasn’t difficult to recruit members for the band, but getting them to meet in person was not an easy task.
“Since we had the idea to form the band towards the end of the school year, we didn’t have time to meet in person at the beginning of the summer due to scheduling issues,” Nguyen said. “We didn’t meet until mid-June.”
The idea was met with great enthusiasm by the new members, especially Blumm, who had been looking forward to this opportunity since his childhood.
“When (Nguyen) came to me with the idea, I said I always wanted to be in a band because my dad was in one when I was a kid,” Blumm said. “(Nguyen) found the rest of the people and we had the band.”
Although the band was slowly gaining momentum and working out the details of their idea of forming a band, they had a hard time deciding on a name.
“When we first started, we were all making up band names,” Nguyen said. “We were between ‘Green Weekend’ and ‘Ralph and the Dirty Mustaches,’ but we finally settled on SYG because we saw a clip of my dad’s old band, which was also called SYG, so we decided to steal the name.”
While most of the band members have only been playing their instruments for a few months, Jackson has been playing the drums since his early childhood.
“I started playing drums when I was nine and joined the middle school band in sixth grade, so I have some experience performing in public,” Jackson said. “In my religion, I play drums in parades and marching bands.”
When the band first met to rehearse, they covered songs by well-known bands such as Green Day and Metallica. Eventually, the group wrote their first original song, entitled “The Police.”
“Originally, (Blumm) could only play simple chords, but now he can play barre chords, move faster between frets and strum faster,” Nguyen said. “I’ve figured out how to tap and improvise better. (English) first played bass when he joined the band, and now he just has to play faster and less choppy. (Jackson) has always been good, but I’m sure he’s improved, even just a little bit.”
Bob Nguyen, Nguyen’s father, was a regular spectator at the band’s rehearsals and watched their development throughout the process.
“It’s very loud, but I had a band when I was younger, so I don’t have a problem with the noise,” said Bob Nguyen. “However, I think they’ve improved by at least 200%.”
Since the band was formed, the young group of high school students have written several songs that they plan to release along with an album.
“In a perfect world, we’ll finish our first album and a few more songs by the end of the year,” Nguyen said. “Knowing the guys, we’ll probably only finish four or five.”
Although the band has written their first song and plans to write more, they can’t wait to get their music out there for everyone to hear.
“I have the whole story of releasing an album and singles planned out, and it has to happen in a certain order,” Blumm said. “We’ll write a few singles completely and then record them so they can be released.”
Jackson’s father works in the music industry and has agreed to spend some time working in the studio for the band so that they can record their songs.
“My dad is a Grammy-winning recording engineer and sound engineer who has a very busy schedule, so we have to plan ahead,” Jackson said.
Although the group has already made significant progress, they are looking forward to the next big step.
“We’re looking to release our first single called ‘First Girlfriend’ in late September or early October,” Nguyen said. “We’re not quite sure yet because we’re only halfway through the whole song, but we want to get it out as soon as possible.”
