Dominique Atoigue cradles his coffee cup. It looks empty, but he’s still gripping it. He’s very animated as he talks about his band, The 1st Line, and it’s hard to know whether it’s genuine exuberance or the caffeine talking.
Later that evening, during band rehearsal, Atoigue goes at the drums with the same energy—arms flailing, head bobbing—so, nah, it wasn’t the coffee. It’s just Dom.
Justin Abernethy and brothers Danny and Kevin Levins round out “T1stL,” and the group just released its decades-in-the-making first album with Northeast Records—a guitar-driven collection of punk songs with catchy beats and ferocious drums. What’s New to the Old You? features a sound that Kevin calls “mid-core” punk: not too hard, not too soft. Goldilocks would be a fan, if Goldilocks sported a shock of bleached-blond hair and a few tattoos.
Atoigue is the energy, one could argue, so bass player Abernethy would be the coolness, the chilled-out, laid-back side of the band. Danny is the passion, with his eyes closed while he plays his guitar and sings from the heart, and Kevin is the guitar-wielding showman.
“I like a lot of room,” Kevin said. “I just feel the music, and I move with it. If I see people aren’t getting into it, I’m going to move around and get them into it.”
Abernethy and the Levins brothers contribute words, but Danny is the prolific lyrics writer in the band.
“In high school, you’d be eating a Snickers, and you’d say, ‘Danny, write a song about Snickers,’ and he’d write a three-minute song about a Snickers bar,” Abernethy said. “And he can still do that.”
“Danny will call and say, ‘Listen to this song I wrote,’ and then he’ll play it over the phone,” Atoigue added. “Then the next day, he’ll call and say, ‘Listen to this song I wrote,’ and we’ll be like, ‘We already heard it,’ and he’ll be like, ‘No, this is another one.’”
Though they’ve been playing as T1stL for just more than a year, the band members can actually claim a longtime presence in the local band scene. Their sound was born in the mid-1990s with a band called Custom Made Ear-Ache Project, known locally as Custom. The group started as a three-piece punk band, which originally united Danny and Atoigue.
Custom boasted all the elements that T1stL considers as its foundation: the classic Levins’ guitar sound, catchy lyrics, and drumbeats played with soul. Although Custom had a short lifespan, it saw the addition of Kevin and created an influence that would later serve them when they reunited as T1stL.
Between 1997 and 2005, Atoigue, Kevin, and Danny moved throughout the United States and started careers and families. However, their friendship remained strong, and they all continued to write music.
Then in 2006, Kevin and Atoigue started a new project with Danny contributing some music and lyrics for the band while living in Michigan. When he moved back to the Central Coast in 2008, he joined the group. In 2009, the lineup was complete when longtime friend and musician Abernethy took over the bass responsibilities.
Though the gang is together again, some aspects of the current incarnation are different from its 1990s punk version. With families and responsibilities, the members have had to pursue their lives as rockers a little more strategically.
“We’ve had to become more disciplined,” Atoigue said. “We’d just play wherever. Practice was like a hangout fest. If we did practice, it was rare. Now we have work in the morning. I have to put my daughter to bed. And now our communication is a lot better.”
Along with that communication is a camaraderie formed through decades of friendship. In short, they are each other’s biggest fans.
“Dom is the brains, he’s an incredible drummer,” Abernethy said.
“Dom is super animated,” Kevin added.
“Abernethy is a guitar guru just chilling in the back. He’s the soul in the group, the backbone, he totally knows what he’s doing,” Atoigue said.
“Kevin is just nonstop energy,” Danny said.
“There’s usually not a lyric I don’t like from Danny, so he can throw out the worst lyric in the world and I’ll say, ‘Wow, that’s great,’” Atoigue said.
Kevin credits his brother with helping out lyrically from time to time.
“Basically, I like to write about what we are going through in life situations. I do get stuck on the lyrics and then my brother jumps in and helps out,” Kevin said.
“And I feed off my brother,” Danny responded.
With the success of their latest release on Northeast Records, T1stL remains grounded—but they’re all ecstatic that their years of collaboration are finally paying off. The forward motion confirms for them their music was a good decision.
“The best thing I’ve done in my whole life is pick up that guitar,” Kevin said.
Arts Editor Shelly Cone is still waiting for her years of hard work to pay off. Send her Pulitzer to scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 6, 2009.