How San Diego’s Love Angeles came to be

David Wilson can explain how his San Diego band, Love Angeles — opening for O-Town on April 25 at the Music Box — came to be. But you’ll need a scorecard.

“My friend and I wrote a bunch of songs,” says Wilson, “but neither of us could agree who should be the singer, so we looked for someone else to sing. We found Anthony Catalano who is the lead singer/guitar player for Little Hurricane now. Then I asked my friend Ed Larson, who is now the drummer for Reel Big Fish, to join us.”

“I then wrote our first song, but I didn’t have any lyrics/vocals to it, just the music. Anthony then put lyrics and vocals to it, and the song was about him picking up his long distance girlfriend from LAX to move in with him. They broke up about a year later and he dropped her off at LAX, he called the song ‘Love Angeles.’ Ed said we should name the band that.”

The saga continues.

“Well, Ed left to go do drumming for USC, and then Anthony left to go form Little Hurricane. I decided to continue the band as the lead singer and formed another group of people. We lasted about nine months then it just dissolved. I joined another band called Good Morning Orbit, but after years I had all these songs I wanted to play but I wasn’t the songwriter in Good Morning Orbit.”

“So I left to start Love Angeles up again. I recorded a record and did a music video, then got my friend Eric [Russo] to play drums. We then got Conor [O’Brien] on lead guitar, and Daniel [Clasen] on bass. Played a couple shows, then Daniel and Eric moved away. We quickly found Jules [Stewart] on drums and Andrew [Murguia] on bass. That is our current lineup now.”

Wilson assembled one Love Angeles album, The Hero in Me, and stays busy at work on a follow-up. He’s busy, but he’s not afraid.

“After I released the album,” he recalls, “I played at a tiny bar in La Mesa. There was a cover band on before me, had a decent crowd. By the time I got on, every single person left, I mean everyone.”

“Even the bartender left to go outside to talk on the phone. I guess the silver lining is it can’t get any worse than that.”