Teenage Wastrels

The four members of the Four Kings attended Point Loma High when they got some unexpected attention in 2003.

Singer/guitarist Andrew Bent says, "A friend of a friend told us that he really liked our band [then named Innerlimit], that his father owned Signature Sound, and he was starting a record label and he was interested in meeting us."

Signature Sound is the Kearny Mesa studio that has recorded blink-182, P.O.D., Switchfoot, and Jewel.

"Our producer was Joe Marlett. He's worked with the Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl, and Queens of the Stone Age." Bent says the band's five-song EP "...was a really good record. But we didn't know what we were doing. We were 16 and 17. We had no idea of the business end of things....

"Our productivity was crap. We acquired girlfriends. We got lazy.... [Signature Sound owner Luis Arteaga] is a very conservative Christian man. We're kind of a bunch of partiers. He dropped us. Last year we started gaining our senses. We knew that we had a good thing, but we were wasting our time and not doing anything with it.

"If you want a top-of-the-line recording, you have to spend at least $10,000. We got that the first time, but because we had a hookup, we only had to spend a sliver of that. The main reason we didn't go back to Signature Sound [last year] was because we couldn't get the same deal, and it was out of our price range."

So the band (by then renamed Four Kings) turned to Love Juice, a bargain studio in Riverside.

"We got 124 hours for $600. But we ended up with something adequate. I'd say you get a good bang for your buck at Love Juice. It's literally a mom-and-pop operation. The studio is in their home. They brought us in their house and gave us a home-cooked meal."

The nine-song product from Love Juice is titled Classic Masquerade.