Scenic Byway

Basically, we started out in November of ’07. Originally we were group of four, Kiel Palmer, Nick Romer, David Richeson, and Tyler Reese. It took two years to integrate the final two members of the band, Wade Smith and Doug Overly.

We have opened for such acts as Slightly Stoopid, The Crown City Rockers, Zion-I, Sweatshop Union (three times), The Flobots, Planet Asia, Heiruspecs, Pigeon John, Knobody of Heiro Emporium, The Sollilloquists of Sound, Devin The Dude, Lucky.I.Am PSC (of The Living Legends), Forrest Day, and headlined several shows in different Salt Lake venues. We have played in Steamboat, Colorado and ripped it for the shredders out there. We just got back from a really cool music festival in Moab, Utah called Desert Rocks, which was amazing. We absolutely killed it up at Harryo’s in Park City two years in a row for the Teton Gravity Research (TGR) ski-movie premiere, which by-the-way we are headlining next year. The Monster Cirkus invited us to play at their snowboarding rail jam this year at the Gallivan Center. Shit, we even played a show at seven in the morning on Channel 2 News for all of the early birds out there.

We are all about supporting the Dank Squad and Lifestyles Projection Movement (LPM) by providing our music as a showcase and example to how the squad and its supporters live their lives. We are also stoked on the local company Discrete for those same reasons. We love supporting local first and Utah is our stomping ground, so we let it be known that this is where we grew as a band and will not shy away from calling it our home.

It is very interesting how we came to be who we are today. The starting four all went to high school together in the small-ass town of Kaysville, Utah. It wasn’t till after we all graduated though, that we became close friends and shared a common love/obsession with music. Nick played the trumpet throughout his school years and excelled at his instrument. He and Kiel graduated the same year so they had a pretty close friendship already established. They would get together with different musicians in Kiel’s basement and jam out some fresh and impromptu songs, just to have fun and vibe with one another. Kiel kept progressing and polishing his drumming style while Nick would jam his horn until his face was white and his lips turned blue.

Nevermind (Reese) had previous experience with beat production and songwriting and he gained recognition by showcasing his lyrical prowess by simply freestyling raps at parties. It was simple at first; just absorbing different emcees and collecting different preferences to what he chose to listen to. After a while, he would be at parties and would freestyle with his friends and when they started to notice his uncanny knack for stringing words together and to not only rhyme, but to also tell stories, his reputation kept expanding. Sometimes his quick delivery and immense vocabulary made people ask “What did you just say?” and not wanting to explain he replied, “never mind,” which led to his emcee title. At first, he combined his RadioShack-beat-machine composed instrumentals with his written words, and recorded some raw, yet very witty, songs.

Genetics, (Richeson) came into the picture and was always heavily influenced by music and it was hip-hop that he felt the most connected with. He would refuse rides home from school as long as he had his CD player and headphones and would sometimes walk several miles to different places as long as the music was playing. After high school, he would be at those same parties that Nevermind was at, and would be amazed to hear the quick-wit of his freestyling friends. Although he doubted himself at first, he embraced it and started joining in on the ciphers. As time passed, he grew more and more comfortable with his talent and started becoming good friends with Nevermind. Dave would drive to his house 2-4 times a week just to hear the new beat that he had made. Finally, he thought he should write his thoughts down, so one night in Lake Powell wrote his first hip-hop verse. It came so easily for him that he figured he was born with the talent to write and that it was in his genes, hence the name Genetics or Gene for short.

At a school event at Salt Lake Community College, Nevermind and Genetics entered an open mic contest and each laid down their respective verses. With the 25 people present cheering afterwards, Nick was kicking himself for not bringing his horn. It was decided to combine forces and make music as one. Nick had played a couple shows at the local bar, Monk’s House of Jazz, and was asked to pick a date to play. He randomly chose and by coincidence he picked the same night that hip-hop heavyweights Sweatshop Union were scheduled to play. The four had a five-song set that they were prepared to play on the night. With nothing to call themselves, Gene remembered a road-sign turned into coffee table that said Scenic Byway. So the group brought the sign to the bar and