Heya photographer friends! We’re writing to ask for your support of Weston’s band Spero Lumina. As many of you know, on the day that we arrived in Paris for our workshop this year, we were hit with the horrible news that Weston’s bandmate and lead singer Aaron Rowan had passed away unexpectedly. Aaron was a dear friend to Marissa and Weston (and SO many other people here in San Diego), and the news of his passing was incredibly heartbreaking and left quite a void in their huge community of childhood friends.
Aaron and Weston and the other band-members have been playing together for 13 years with all of it starting in Aaron’s garage in the small town of good ol’ Ramona, California where Marissa (me!) and Weston grew up. These guys were the home-town heroes. The ones that were always going to live the dream and create music for the rest of their lives (not to mention the whole famous rockstar thing). They practiced three to four times a week as teens and even 13 years later into adulthood. It was amazing to watch these guys write a song together. It was seriously like they could read each others’ minds. What’s funny is they could pretty much come up with an overall killer song and only utter a few words to each other in the process. Along the way these boys came so close to sealing the mega-rockstar deal. They had Virgin and Atlantic both ready to bring them on but they each requested that they bring them one more song, one song to really illustrate who they were as artists and what direction they wanted their band to go. Being more about the passion of the music they hit the drawing board at full steam, and as many artists are, they weren’t satisfied with the songs they created, one after the other, they continued to believe they could create something better. It is safe to say their mad-scientist, you can’t rush art approach, lost them their record deal. But that didn’t phase them, these guys were never in it for the fame, as only a TRUE MUSICIAN is, theywere in it for the music…and as a “make sh** happen” kinda person you can imagine how much this frustrated me 😉
But God’s timing truly is perfect . The “really close to a record deal” record deal was about five years ago and now as I have watched these guys slowly perfect each song, change it a million times only making it that much better in the end, I see that it was all worth it. After every song was scrutinized and made their masterpiece that they could really be proud of and that would affect people, they searched and found a producer who could capture the exact sound they wanted in a full length album. Then they recorded. A grueling six month process that was worth every second of every weekend I lost with my hubby, because days after those last important tracks were laid down, Aaron Rowan passed away. The pain that those who loved him felt was indescribable.
But again, God’s timing is perfect and he will be faithful to complete a good work. I know that God still has huge things in store for this band. The artistry that went into every bit of this album is the legacy that Aaron and the rest of the band will leave behind forever. The band’s name, “Spero Lumina,” means “to hope for light” and their lyrics walk you through the mind of someone who had every reason in the world to be nothing but dark but fought for the opposite. When he sings, “I’m alive although I am dead,” the words had never held so much meaning as they do now.
To my hubby and his band brothers, I am so proud of you guys. Cheers to your impending success as new listeners fall in love with your music and sing your praise as your good ol’ faithful following always has.
For those of you who like Incubus or Muse (which are two of these bands influences) please go pre-order the Spero Lumina CD today! We would seriously REALLLLLLY appreciate the support from our community of photographer friends. Thanks you guys! xoxo, Kimberlee & Marissa (and Weston, and the rest of the Diva Team). 🙂
