Orange County’s new post-hardcore band Sorry Baby is amped for their big debut

For post-hardcore rockers Sorry Baby, who haven’t shared any of the group’s music with the world, or performed live as a band, their existence to outsiders was beginning to sound like a myth.

“I feel like I’m describing my imaginary friend,” drummer Colin Strahm said on a recent Google Meet video call. “I’m telling people, ‘I swear it’s fun, cool, and it exists,’ and telling my lady that I’m going to band practice on Monday nights, and she’s like, ‘I don’t know about this.’”

Despite any doubts, Sorry Baby is, in fact, real and a new group based out of Orange County, who will perform for the first time together at The Hawk in Long Beach on Saturday, Aug. 17. The band consists of Strahm, vocalist Jordan Salazar, bass and backup vocalist Danielle “Chip” Lehman and guitarist Chad Yanagisawa. Although they’re collectively new on the block, each member brings OC local music circuit experience, including Salazar, who was a part of Vultures United; Lehman, who played bass for Well Hung Heart; and Yanagisawa, whose last musical project was Rosewater Foundation.

It’s been several years since each musician left their previous bands for different reasons, including life changes or burnout. Salazar was ready to form another group after the disbandment of Vultures United in 2017, and he began recruiting musicians in 2022 based on their personalities and affiliation with the local Orange County music scene. He first teamed up with Yanagisawa and invited Strahm, who had experience as a roadie, and Lehman, with whom he had only interacted on social media.

When the musicians came together to practice, the chemistry between them was electric and felt right. Everyone was having fun and contributing to making music they loved.

“It’s probably the most democratic band I’ve ever been in,” Lehman said. “Everyone has something to say, and we take it into account. That has always been a part of all our songwriting.”

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The group had their first practice in February 2023. Although they were recording songs, including some from their recently released 4-track EP “Coward,” they wanted to finesse Sorry Baby’s long-awaited debut.

“With this band, everything has been very intentional and planned,” Salazar said. “No one even knew the name of the band outside of us. There are so many bands online, and you’re going against an algorithm, so we thought, well, when we tell everyone about this band, we should already have an EP recorded, a shirt available and a show booked. Part of the fun has been testing our patience because when you have a band, you want to show everyone, but we’ve been sitting on the songs for over a year.”

The group, whose previous projects spanned a prepandemic era, acknowledges that the music industry has changed drastically. More acts must be social media savvy and know how to drive viral moments to create an engaged fanbase.

For any punk rocker, all those things are the antithesis of what the music stands for. In the past, booking shows was contingent on building a band’s brand at the local level, meeting people face-to-face and spreading your art organically through word of mouth and ultimately landing onto more prominent lineups. Sorry Baby is hoping to do those things along with experimenting with the new social media strategies of today. Because things are still fresh, Salazar said the group has to remind themselves not to get too caught up in the number of streams and early follower counts and instead focus on why they set out to make music in the first place.

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“What’s important is that we’re making something we’re all proud of, and I know that the four of us are proud of this band and the songs we have in our back pocket,” he said.

“We’re fortunate that none of us are really after the money or the glory,” Strahm jokingly added. “We want to share the music; the more people we can get it to, the better. However, that manifests itself, I don’t care. We’re fortunate not to be fully part of the industry just yet. We’re just having fun and getting the music out there right now.”

The musicians’ influences vary from the first punk rock bands they listened to, including Green Day, The Offspring, and The Jesus Lizard, to more contemporary tastes, such as Militarie Gun, Destroy Boys and Pup. The EP also echoes sounds from the late ’80s and early ’90s. Traces of Nirvana‘s “Bleach” can be heard reverberating through the distorted guitars and heavy riffage on “Three Hearts,” while “Now You Bloom” carries the pop rock subtleties of Sonic Youth and Pixies.

Salazar, who the group said is the leading visionary, characterized their first EP as having “a negative energy,” and the album cover also emphasizes that with its eerie art. It showcases a man who appears to be wearing a Black leather executioner mask with a gray button-up shirt while holding a sliced orange. Most of the lyrics reflect Salazar’s outlook on an uphill battle full of highs and lows. He said the impact of being a father and a person entering their 40s has guided his perspective in a way that he can feel shifting, not just in himself but with others in similar situations.

“There are a lot of themes that people can relate to, from simple things such as heartbreak to the different political undertones,” Salazar said. “The overall thing for me was fueled by the cost of living, especially in Orange County. I don’t know how it is in the rest of the country, but it’s difficult here. That was my fuel (to write about) just how hard it is to be alive every day. But also, with all the negativity that the EP might present, there’s positive stuff in there too, like picking yourself up and moving forward and growing from negative experiences. At the end of it, it’s also about asking yourself, ‘Are you a coward?’”

Sorry Baby

Where: The Hawk, 468 W Anaheim St., Long Beach.

When: 9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 17.

Tickets: Free