Artist description Wayside is an Orange County based group with a distinctive brand of melodic power-pop rock music. With its two lead vocalists and collaborative style of songwriting, Wayside delivers a breadth of musical style while still maintaining its hard pop, guitar driven, beat-laden sound.

Music Style Rock and Roll

Musical Influences The Beatles, Nirvana, The Police

Similar Artists Squeeze, Matchbox 20, Goo Goo Dolls

Artist History Brian, Donovan, and Todd have known and been playing in various bands with each other for over twelve years but until recently had not played together since late 1991. Wayside was formed in early 1998 after Brian Maas returned from a poorly timed move to Seattle. When Brian had originally moved to Seattle in 1996, Kurt Cobain had been dead for over two years and the Seattle rock & roll scene was running on fumes. By 1998, only a few of the old grunge style clubs had not converted to a techno-pop dance format. Donovan Whitworth had also recently returned from a stint in Santa Barbara, where with several bands of his own, he found that the Santa Barbara rock scene had met a fate similar to that of Seattle. Todd Ebert, whose drumming credentials include some local bands, snare drum in the University of Southern California Marching Band, and part time Laker band drummer, had put his drumming career on hold until Brian and Donovan returned and talked him into coming out of retirement. Scott is the newest member of Wayside, having joined the band in early 1999. After toiling for several years in anonymity, playing in and out of various bands, Scott decided to study classical guitar to help broaden his musical palette. Scott’s fresh approach and diverse background has helped round out Wayside’s distinctive musical sound.

Group Members The members of Wayside are Brian Maas (guitar and vocals), Scott Kahawai (lead guitar), Donovan Whitworth (bass guitar and vocals) and Todd Ebert (drums).

Instruments Guitars, bass and drums

Albums First Time, Last Time

Press Reviews Excerpt from the Orange County Register "OC Pop" column by Robert Kinsler (July 9, 1999):"Take equal doses of strong melody, solid musicianship and intelligent lyrics and you begin to appreciate the strengths of Wayside. Fusing the well-crafted pop of Squeeze and crunchy tunefulness of vintage Smithereens, the quartet joins a growing list of local acts that have more in common with '60s and '80s pop than the grunge and punk movements of this decade."Rich Kane of the OC Weekly (January 1999):"Wayside [has] lots of hooky, sunshiny power-pop grooves to latch onto and a singer who sounded like both Difford and Tillbrook from Squeeze."

Location Costa Mesa, California - USA

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