One Outta Ten

August 1st, 2024

Interview By: Militza Reyna

Photo Credit – Preston Maestri 

The Encore Nights had the opportunity to get in touch with the emerging indie rock band One Outta Ten for an interview. In this interview they share who they are as a band and give us a glimpse into their brand new album “Better Days”

Can you share a little bit about yourself? 

This is Tyler Lofftus, vocalist and guitarist for One Outta Ten. We’re a rock band from Glendale, California sharing info about our third album, Better Days. With me is Joshua de Leon, another vocalist and guitarist, and the rest of the band is David de Leon, JT Hamel, and Mark Marquez.

How do you work creatively together?

I think our biggest strength as a band is just the amount of creativity every member has. We have so many demos and snippets that enter the chat between Josh, JT, and myself (Tyler) and we know that Mark and Dave are gonna hop on anything we cobble together and just kill it. Whether it comes from a jam, or I’m modifying a part Josh wrote, or he’s modifying a part either of us wrote, we make everything our own to build up the song as best as we can.

You released “Down and Out” along with a music video back in January. Tell me, what was it like making the music video, how creatively involved with the overall process, were you guys?

The music video was a miracle. We sat down and pitched our idea to Preston who fleshed it out beautifully. We had planned the whole shoot with my (Tyler’s) friend from film school Preston, to shoot at Josh’s house. The week before is when his dad unexpectedly passed away, and we all had to scramble, we didn’t even know if we were going to shoot it at all anymore.

Everyone involved was extremely understanding, but a decision had to be made quickly with all the rentals we had locked in. I asked Josh if we could move ahead with it, changing the shoot to my house instead. I didn’t want it to be a thing he had to think about anymore and he said yes.

So we had to throw our whole plan out the window and make the new space work. It’s a party, but a melancholy one. And while it was a blast to shoot I felt that on set too. The song is about your friends moving away, and that felt a lot smaller in the moment, the feeling we were all having were a lot bigger.

I think it all put it in perspective for us, and that I think made its way into the music video.

Why’d you want this to be the first single?

I think at the time it felt like a logical next step from “Friends/Anyways” it was the bitter prequel. I think as my first song tackling lead vocals, it was the band showing that this next album is going to show all of our members at our best.

Tell me about your brand new album “Better Days”

It’s an album mostly about who we lost over the last year, with enough energy to keep ourselves going and still put on a great show. It’s our most fully realized album, full of some fast songs, some slow songs, some short songs, and a pretty long song.

Which song from  “Better Days” is your personal favorite and why?

It’s probably SCREAM!!! I think it’s us firing on all cylinders, songwriting-wise. It’s also the highest energy song and the one that is the most fun to play live. Guitars that dance around, making the song pulse forward with a momentum driven by the drums, and we even managed to fit a bass solo in there somehow!

What does this album mean to you? How does it represent you?

Better Days is One Outta Ten at our most collaborative. We had to be there for each other and we all wanted to see each other shine, and we all had an opportunity to do that on this album. We channeled all of the personal loss that we felt over the last year and a half into this album. It was originally going to be our “What’s Next?” Album after our previous releases kind of capping off our adolescence. And for us, this is what was next. The world feels a lot more real now and I think that’s reflected in this album.

Are there any songs or moments of songs you’re proudest of that you want to highlight?

The scream before the second chorus on Down and Out, JT’s harmonies on Michael Cera, the layered outro vocals on One Long Fog. Josh loves how the outro of SCREAM!!! came together during an impromptu jam session initiated by JT before a band practice. It blossomed into quite a beautiful bass solo for Mark, and really sets a mood for the ending of our live set. Dave has also gotten really good at drumming for being a self taught musician. 

Describe how we can encourage your career growth.

The best way to help us grow is by coming to a show! Come meet us! We want to show you our live set and give you our music! I promise we’re the nicest in the game. You can also share us with your friends and let them know how much you like us.

Anything else you want to share or add?

We just want to say thanks for giving us the opportunity to be interviewed. We don’t get that opportunity often, so it’s nice to tell people about us. Our album release show is August 31, 2023 at The Smell in Los Angeles, so come out and support and we’ll play you some beautiful music! Stream Better Days! We love you!

Thank you to One Outta Ten for the interview. Make sure to follow them on Instagram and YouTube. Listen to them on Spotify or Apple Music.

And if you are in the area of Los Angeles catch them at The Smell to celebrate the release of “Better Days”. Get your tickets here.