San Antonio indie band Inoha — Keanu Bicol (from left), Christian Young, Ricky Juarez and Gavin Gonzalez — will release their sophomore album “This Might Be Useful” in September.
Jacob Glomboswki/Jaccob Glombowski
The guys in San Antonio indie band Inoha know there’s nothing slick about the viral video for their single “Seventh Heaven,” and they think that might be why it broke through.
“It’s not shot on a high-quality camera — 4K, high HD,” said lead singer and guitarist Keanu Bicol. “You can see the pixels in that video. Not only did it show our authenticity, but I think it also put more power into the music, because it’s like, whoa, what is this really cool song that’s attached on this 16-bit video?”
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Keanu Bicol and Inoha made their Austin City Limits Music Festival debut last year.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
The propulsive song, which was included on the band’s debut album, “Aloha Inoha,” has been viewed more than 28 million times on YouTube and streamed more than 132 million times on Spotify.
Inoha is now is preparing for the release of its sophomore album, “This Might Be Useful.” The album drops Sept. 4, and they’ll kick off the tour for it Sept. 19 at Paper Tiger.
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Bicol, a Holy Cross High School alum who set aside his nursing studies when the band started to take off, said the new album is a little edgier.
“We wanted to experiment more, toy around with what can we do for sound,” he said. “How can we not put ourselves in a bubble – ‘Oh, we only make this one type of song, we only make this one type of thing.’ We want to show we can make multiple types of things because at the end of the day, we’re musicians. We’re always growing and learning.”
The band – Bicol, drummer Ricky Juarez, bass guitarist Christian Young and lead guitarist Gavin Gonzalez – was initially something of a lark.
Bicol and Juarez were playing together in a different band when Bicol suggested they branch out a bit.
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“I told Ricky one day, you know what? Let’s start a completely unserious side project,” Bicol said. “We’re probably going to release a single or two, we’re going to play a couple of open mikes.”
They played around a bit and caught Young’s attention. He was playing in a few bands and liked what Bicol and Juarez were doing. He shot them a message, asking if they needed a bass player. Gonzalez was playing drums in a bunch of other bands but wanted to play guitar. Bicol and Juarez were game, and he came on board, too.
Inoha’s full lineup launched in 2022, and the band released “Aloha Inoha” in 2024.
The viral success of “Seventh Heaven” was shocking, Bicol said.
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“You’re scrolling on Instagram and you’re noticing all these DMs, and every time you scroll, it’s an extra thousand or 2,000 views a second,” he said. “It’s like, this is not real. There’s no way this is happening to us. It’s a surreal feeling. It’s really crazy.”
A key to their success, Gonzalez said, is that they understand the game.
“A lot of bands now don’t realize that making music is not just about the music anymore,” said Gonzalez, who went to John Jay Science and Engineering Academy, where he played in the mariachi program. “It’s also about the marketing that goes beyond it.
“I would venture to say it’s probably 90 percent marketing, 10 percent music. Which is the hardest part. You’re no longer just a creator of music, you’re almost like an influencer. And that’s really hard to do.”
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It helps to have a distinctive sound to sell in posts and videos. The members of Inoha all come from different musical backgrounds, Young said, and he thinks that blend helps set them apart.
“Gavin has a background in pop punk, that’s his main thing,” said Young, who went to Southwest High School and started playing bass because his musician father needed a bass player for his band. “Ricky has a lot more classical influence, like classic rock and also classical training. Keanu was the indie side that I had had, but also I had country and rap as a background.
“So I feel like that individuality is what made our chemistry good. We were able to come in and go, ‘This is what I like, what about you? ’ And then go from there.”
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They don’t necessarily push the fact that they’re based here in their marketing, but San Antonians who pay attention to the lyrics will spot nods to their hometown.
“We’ve thrown in references in our music, like, for example, ‘Papaya Man’ referenced Marbach,” Gonzalez said. “All of us were born and raised here and we’re proud of that.”
They’ve played across the country, but playing to a hometown crowd is special.
“It’s the best feeling ever,” Gonzalez said. “Those will be the most fun shows. It’s always great, especially when we’re about to leave for tour, seeing all your friends and family show up. Because of that, there’s a different energy.
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“We’ll be seeing people that have been going to our shows since day one, when there were maybe four people, and now, we’re close to selling out Paper Tiger, the main stage there, and its kind of a full circle moment.”
Long-term, the band members want to keep playing together and they want to have a good time doing it.
“We want to make music that’s fun for us, and this album was kind of a step into what we are, what we’re going to be, and kind of getting people used to this sound that we’re going to make,” Young said.
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They also want to make sure their sound continues to develop, said Juarez, who went to St. Anthony Catholic School and started playing music when his mom put him in piano lessons when he was about 4 years old.
“It has to be fun for the four of us, and we need to constantly find ways to keep it stimulating,” he said, noting that they all changed between their first and second albums. “When the band started, I was 19; when the first album came out, I was 20 or 21, and now, I’m 23. So things have changed. And so the sound needs to mature as well.”