Built in 1927, the historic Roosevelt Hotel still exudes old Hollywood glamour: An antique-style chandelier hangs from the lobby’s patterned ceiling, casting a soft yellow light over colorful velvet chairs and an indoor fountain, and several palm trees fill the space.
And for the better part of six years, La Romme has used the decorated space to entertain hotel guests and Los Angeles residents.
The band, comprised of guitarist Zach Sokolow, bassist Jake Faulkner and percussionist Nicholas Baker, was initially hired to be part of the hotel’s immersive environment, and while the band members saw the job as just another source of income, they soon realized it was the perfect place for the instrumental group to hone and fine-tune their sound.
La Rom stands for “Los Angeles League of Musicians” (pronounced “la-lo-ma,” after the bulldozed Chavez Ravine neighborhood where Dodger Stadium now stands) and pays tribute to the city’s influence on their music. The band plays a lively mix of Latin music and classic folk, and has released several EPs and covers to date. On August 9, La Rom will release their debut album on Verve Records.
“When I first got involved in this show, I was thinking about doing a lot of covers of ’60s pop and soul songs,” Sokolow says. “Since I didn’t have a singer, I came up with the idea of arranging the songs so I could play the melodies on guitar.”
Sokolow and Faulkner began playing at the Roosevelt in 2018, accompanied by a rotating group of musicians for the first few months. Their early performances focused on mellow, soulful instrumental covers of Roy Orbison, Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin.
It wasn’t until Baker, a college friend of Faulkner’s, began performing regularly with the duo that he decided to bring in the conga, an instrument he had played since childhood. The introduction of the Cuban hand drum changed everything.
“When I was a kid, my dad gave me Trio Los Panchos albums, and when I first started playing guitar, I learned a lot of how to play the requinto parts, so when Nick brought out the congas, we were like, ‘Oh, let’s try this,'” Sokolow said.
As they began to experiment, the atmosphere in the Roosevelt lobby began to change; what was once a serene atmosphere became more fast-paced. La Romme began to infuse their previously melodic Americana style of music with the lively sounds of cumbia and the romantic atmosphere of bolero.
Raised in families that valued music and the arts, each member draws on a variety of influences: Socolow played a lot of country and bluegrass and spent his early years busking with his violin; Baker grew up surrounded by Latin music; his grandmother was from Durango, Mexico, and was a popular host on a Spanish-language radio station in Tucson; Faulkner picked up his father’s guitar and learned all he could from the “Stoner Beach People” while growing up in Venice.
“I’ve noticed that no matter what we play, there’s always a certain cohesion to it, and when it goes through the filter of our instrumentation and the way we play it, it always sounds cohesive,” Faulkner said.
“It’s always been us,” Baker says. “We really know what we’re doing and we all have a very clear idea of what we like and what we don’t like. We all have different influences from our upbringings and grew up listening to different kinds of music, so we’re pretty open-minded.”
Their diverse influences gave way to jazz-like improvisations. Throughout their three-hour set, they frequently tried new chord combinations and incorporated more Requinto-esque melodies. With each performance, they felt their sonic identity take shape. Hotel guests took notice, and began dancing while they played. More than just regular patrons, the three musicians had become focal points in the lobby.
“We’ve built up a really great repertoire and we’re starting to sound like a real band,” Faulkner said.
The band would travel from venue to venue, sometimes playing for up to nine hours a day, playing different setlists, sometimes rearranging covers, and sometimes playing freeform or taking requests from the audience.
In 2021, they decided to make the band official by releasing a self-titled EP and posting videos of their performances online. One night, they were supposed to play at a bar in Atwater Village. They thought of the performance like any other gig, but the size of the audience was different. They continued to make the rounds in the Los Angeles nightlife, eventually selling out Zebulon in Frogtown and the Lodge Room in Highland Park.
La Rom’s extensive understanding of musical history plays a key role in the band’s layering of rhythms and melodies, drawing on the environments they grew up in and the styles they’ve admired for decades. The tracks on their 2023 EP Angels Point & Figueroa are as original as they are referential. The song “Angels Point” opens with a guitar riff that evokes electric Peruvian chicha and Southern California surf rock. On “Figueroa,” Faulkner’s bass line is similar to cumbia sonidera and is striking yet steady. Socolow’s guitar brings a more Western bluegrass feel while Baker’s Latin rhythms remain soft and echoey.
Transcending time and genre allows the trio to freely draw on inspiration and create a sound that is uniquely Los Angeles. Nearly all of their song titles are dedicated to different neighborhoods and locations in Los Angeles. Their first EP of 2022 features tracks such as “Santee Alley,” which has a smooth, mystical sound; “Cafe Tropical” has a more gentle, harmonious texture.
“The music always comes first. I think about what it makes me feel when I hear it. What area of LA does it fit in?” Baker said.
“The first time I did something like that was with ‘Alvarado,’ and I remember thinking it was funny because it reminded me of ‘Corcovado.’ [a bossa nova song written by Antônio Carlos Jobim in the 1960s]”We thought it would be fun to make it ourselves,” Sokolow said.
As well as tying their tracks to different areas of the city, they also see their sound as a reflection of the diverse music found in the city.
“I don’t feel like I’m playing anyone else’s music at all. This is L.A. music,” Baker said.
Recording their first studio album was a new challenge for La Lom, and with the help of producer Elliot Bergman, the band members were able to approach the studio as another instrument, capturing the feel of a live performance.
“A lot of these songs came from playing them live in front of an audience, where we could mess around and expand the sound a lot more in the studio than we could live,” Faulkner says. “We overdubbed a lot of stuff, so there’s organ and different sound effects. Nick added more percussion, and other musicians played piano and steel, which really pushed us.”
La Romme will open for Vampire Weekend in the Southwest starting Thursday and will play jazz festivals across the U.S., Canada and the U.K. for the rest of the summer.
“We just do what we want to do. We feel like it’s kind of inclusive. People who come to our shows feel like they’re a part of what we’re trying to share. We reach the audience in a way that a lot of cumbia bands can’t because there’s no language barrier,” Baker said.
“It’s got great melodies and good rhythm,” Sokolow added.