Benicia’s homegrown band Echoes in Absence will celebrate the release of a five-song EP, “Stories,” with a show Friday night at Red House Studios in Walnut Creek.

Though all the band members are under 21 — lead guitarist Chris Park is 18, vocalist and acoustic guitarist Jonathan Park is 17, bassist Hank Nelson is 16 and drummer Logan Cruz is 17 — they have already amassed an impressive list of accomplishments.

They have played house parties, and at ABC Music in downtown Benicia. And this won’t be their first gig at Red House Studios.

“We also play for many charity and fundraiser events such as Relay for Life and Step Out (Walk to Stop Diabetes),” said Chris, a sophomore at Solano Community College.

Echoes in Absence was formed by the Park brothers four years ago, when it was just the two of them playing in their bedroom. “We have since graduated to playing in Logan’s even smaller drum room,” said Jonathan, who, with Hank and Logan are all juniors at Benicia High School. His brother, Chris, is a sophomore at Solano Community College.

Though their age limits where they can play, music has been a part of all their lives from an early age. Hank, when he played clarinet in elementary school and the beginning of middle school.

Hank played clarinet in elementary school and the beginning of middle school before moving to bass; he now takes lessons from J Shelby at 851 Music Studios, and he also “dabble(s) in mandolin, guitar, drums and various percussion instruments.”

Logan fell in love with the video game “Rock Band” when he was 10. “I would wake my parents up early in the morning as I banged on the plastic drums to classic songs. I quickly formed an unbreakable bond with percussion and begged my parents to purchase a real drum set next Christmas.” He now takes drum lessons from Terry Branham, a teacher in the East Bay.

Chris started playing bass at age 12, “but somehow I became the lead guitarist in this band,” he said. He took guitar lessons from Peter Morley, who has been a mentor to him for seven years.

But Chris’s experience in music goes beyond guitar and bass. “I also learned drums when I was 16 and became a drummer in a few projects,” he said.

“Originally, I started as the bassist in the band, but Jonathan needed a guitarist and he basically taught me guitar from the ground up. I love playing guitar now, but it was an acquired love that didn’t appear overnight.”

Jonathan took acoustic guitar lessons from Stan Houston, owner of ABC Music. “I only sing, play acoustic, and dabble with the ukelele,” he said, adding that when he first started to play, he was less musical than his brother.

“He was the more spoken singer of the family and I was simply quiet,” he said. “He played bass in a loud rock band and I just stayed in my room writing melodies and lyrics for myself rather than an audience.”

Jonathan is also the main songwriter for the band. “In the band’s repertoire, I’ve written all of the main chord structures and lyrics for all the songs. All of what I write really just serves as a starting point for the others to expand upon,” he said.

Song crafting is a shared duty, however, and at first the band saw a split between Chris’s rock songs and Jonathan’s acoustic ballads. “What ends up happening is Jon writes a song and I’ll go in and change it to make it a rock song,” Chris said.

“When I write my guitar parts the song becomes dramatically different because Jon and I come from opposite genres. This combination between singer-songwriter and alternative rock gives us a unique style as Echoes in Absence.”

The band’s diverse tastes are revealed when they are asked about their musical influences.

Chris cites I the Mighty and The Foo Fighters. “I have always had a love for modern rock songs with unique accenting and pop choruses,” he said.

Jonathan, “being a singer-songwriter,” praises the work of Death Cab for Cutie and City & Colour. “These two bands are a huge influence on my writing style,” he said.

“My major influence in writing drum parts comes from The Jezabels and Saint Motel,” Logan said.

Hank’s major influences for bass playing are Jaco Pastorius from Weather Report, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin and Jack Bruce from Cream. “But for this record I really started to listen closely to the work of James Jamerson, a famed Motown bassist. His ideals of keeping a simple, driving line and locking in with the drummer really helped me craft my parts of this album.”

The band recorded “Stories” at Live Oak Studio in Berkeley, the same studio where Destiny’s Child recorded its first album. It was the second time in a recording studio for the Park brothers, but a new experience for Hank and Logan.

“I absolutely loved it,” Logan said. “I learned so much and had a blast writing and recording with such awesome musicians.”

“It was amazing,” Hank said. “Just to be in the same area where so many great artists have created beautiful music was absolutely mind-blowing.”

“We’d spend four days straight, eight hours a day, tracking this record,” Chris said. “Jonathan worked that entire time both singing and playing acoustic. No one worked as hard as him.”

If You Go
Echoes in Absence will perform Friday night at Red House Studios, 1667 Bothelo Drive, Walnut Creek. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $12 at the door.