San Diego Reader

Light of Doom's members are all between the ages of 12 and 14. They got a huge boost on the Fox TV show The Next Great American Band, where judges advanced them through the first several rounds of voting. Though they didn't win, they made it to fourth place, boosting their MySpace site by tens of thousands of hits. On various episodes, they performed “All Along the Watchtower” (Bob Dylan), “Jailhouse Rock” (Elvis Presley), “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” (Elton John), “The Stranger” (Billy Joel), and "Jumpin’ Jack Flash" (Rolling Stones).

The band formed in spring 2005, when lead guitarist, Dillon Cahill (age 11) began taking lessons at Experience Studios in Escondido. Adam Bruck, music teacher and band coach at Experience Studios, instructed Dillon for just a few months. Before long, Dillon was playing rock shows around town with a group comprised of other students from the studio.

Soon after, Adam had the idea of organizing young players into dedicated bands, helping them write songs and having them perform shows around town. Some told him it was impossible because of their age. Adam disagreed.

His plan was put into action when Adam met ten-year-old guitar player Mitchell Wofford. Mitch was taking guitar lessons and hanging around the studio. Between lessons, Adam started showing him a few basic drum beats. He picked them up instantly and hasn’t put the sticks down since.

Eventually, Dillon, Mitch and other Experience Studios students were practicing together and began playing small shows around San Diego. No one wanted to play the bass full-time, so the boys switched off playing bass, drums, and guitar. Adam filled in on bass, but the band needed a permanent player in that position.

As luck would have it (at least for our guys), another band taking lessons at Experience Studios broke up and two of their players started jamming with Dillon, Erik, & Mitch. An amazing, Van Halen-obsessed guitar player named Daniel Futcher and a funky bass player named Lucas Canziani soon became part of the band.

To date, Dillon, Mitch, Daniel, and Lucas have played all around Southern California. Light of Doom has been seen at the House of Blues in Anaheim and San Diego, the Whiskey à Go-Go in Hollywood, Soma, and others.