I.B. Strong

“We recorded our first EP in May at King’s Ransom Studios in Lakeside with Jeff Sers, who’s been fighting cancer for the past couple years,” says Adam Baez, one-third of the grungy goth rock trio Abner. “For a moment there, I thought I would never have a chance to work with Jeff again, which is partially why this project means so much to me.”

Baez was still a teen when he joined the student-manned Fuzz-Huzzi, as well as playing with a later spin-off group called Freak the Mighty. “I started writing songs when I was around 19, and a mentor of mine at the time came to me one day super-excited, as if he had some news. He was a very tall Italian gentleman in his later years of life who was passionate about the ideas he would come up with. He was ecstatic to tell me about a dream that came to him. In this dream, he saw me on a big dark stage with a bright spotlight on me performing as the singer of a band called Abner. He was insistent on trying to persuade me to front a band and call it Abner.... Since I was playing second guitar in a band already, I promised him that if I were to ever start singing in a band, I would name it Abner. It saddened me to later learn of his passing, but I never forgot the promise I made to try and make his vision come true.”

The EP-release party at Lestat’s on September 3 will be the band’s second gig. “Since we’re from Imperial Beach, we invited Allen Camp’s current version of Fuzz-Huzzi to join us, so I.B. is going to be representing strong!”

Baez has fond memories of touring with Camp’s ever-evolving ensemble. Mostly, anyway. “One of the worst gigs we ever played was in a small town in northern Idaho. Some of the locals weren’t too fond of us because we were from California. Also, some of the locals were openly racist and adamant about making it known.

“Though we did make some fans that night, a brawl ended up breaking out, forcing us to throw all of our equipment in the van and head out of town.” Abner’s new track, “Early This Morning,” can be streamed exclusively on their Reader band page through September 3.