San Pedro’s Own

By Garrick Rawlings, Music Writer

San Pedro resident Vanessa Kaylor Phillips, lead singer of Hermosa Beach band One Square Mile

(1SM), a cleverly named band referring to the geographic size of Hermosa performed a killer opening set at Alex’s Bar, Long Beach’s legendary punk venue on May 12. She performed along with metal/punk trio Zig-Zags, another stunning punk chanteuse-led band, The Side Eyes (Astrid McDonald), and hardcore skate-punk legends JFA.

Phillips is a truly motivated and massively talented renaissance woman, along with her lead singing and writing duties with 1SM, she employs her life-long honed and professional dancing skills in The Hollywood It Girls, a flapper-clad, roaring twenties dance troupe who perform the classic old-school swing like the Charleston, the Lindy Hop and the Jitterbug all over the southland. She’s also an in-demand hairstylist at Long Beach’s Sophisticuts Salon (2985 Pacific Ave.) and is co-owner of Pedro-based Kaylor Industries, “Specializing in all aspects of live sound, studio engineering, talent management/booking and artist styling.”

I caught up with the band the day of the show at Koos Rehearsal Studio in San Pedro (1300 South Beacon St.), a huge, sprawling lock-out rehearsal studio right on the Pedro waterfront where their studio window looks right out to a beautiful view of the harbor. That night’s show was the first time this lineup of 1SM performed at Alex’s, forming something of a full circle as the genesis of the band coalesced at Alex’s back in 2009. Founder/guitarist/writer John McCree explains, “The old bass player and drummer [Mark Vidal, Rob Holzman, respectively] and me went to see OFF! [hardcore punk supergroup led by Circle Jerks/Black Flag singer Chris Morris and Burning Brides frontman Dimitri Coats] at Alex’s and we watched that band and started talking and we decided to do that ourselves. I was in other bands but 1SM started here. We started the band by learning how to play together, making up easy parts and just playing them, and none of them ever ended up being songs — for a month. Finally, we got some rhythms together and started to gel and we were off and running. We made an EP within four months  [Kicking Rocks]  (“Damn good EP at that!” interjects bassist Todd King) then a full record a year later, almost back to back [The System – see artwork for full effect of the title] and did a bunch of gigs, and it was fun. Then there was inner turmoil — this, that, and the other like so many bands. I had to do everything then, it’s a lot easier for me now.”

King describes the band’s personnel dynamics, “One thing I’ve never had in a band is everyone doing their part. In other bands, it was like herding cats, not this band, which is what is so great about it. Vanessa tried harder in the beginning than anyone, some [during auditions] would show up barely knowing two songs.” Phillips, upon her first exposure to 1SM’s music, “When I first heard it, it was hard for me to get used to because, to me, it’s complicated. I really had to work at it but now when he sends me something I get it, but it took a while. They helped me a lot [the band], they gave me a lot of direction.”  McCree interjects, “She stuck around through a lot of shit, she weathered the storm, she deserved every part of this” — hearty, agreeing laughs all around the room erupt. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was a little kid,” adds Phillips.

Phillips joined the band about a year and a half ago and recounts that journey, “Terry Davidson [drums] and me are the new additions, I used to manage the bands, Albatross Overdrive and Seven Dirty Words, out of Huntington Beach, and I was looking for more bands to put on a show and found 1SM. It never came to fruition, but we remained friends on Facebook. Later John posted that he was looking for a songwriter for an acoustic thing, and at the time I was doing some blues stuff with my husband and looking for more creative outlets over the COVID. I looked them up [1SM] and thought oh, I don’t think I could do that because their old singer [Noel Neville] is phenomenal. I did punk when I was younger and I had stepped away for a very long time. It didn’t hit right away, it took some time for us to get in sync with one another, I needed to know more of what they needed, and then when we got Terry it really took off, his dynamic added another layer that helped us build with one another.”

Born in LB, 10 years in SP and running a salon in LB for 30 years, Phillips reflects on her local roots, “I went to Marina High School in Huntington Beach (1992). Before my husband was my husband, he was my bandmate. He lived in Pedro and had a music studio. We recorded our album “Third Fret Blues” there. We got married shortly after, I lived in Long Beach, he had a dog in Pedro. I moved to Pedro with the intent of getting them to move to Long Beach because my salon is there. But I fell in love with Pedro. Have been here ever since. I love the small-town feel, the community and fellowship, my neighbors, the art, history, Cabrillo beach, music and dance.”

Back to the show, it was a great night at Alex’s, all four bands nailed their sets and the eclectic crowd of enthusiastic, loyal fans brought plenty of energy and there was only one broken foot reported from the mosh. This venue is a Long Beach treasure and world-renowned for its punk rock ethos and the high level of talent they book. It’s historical now, 23 years in business. I caught up with Nick Aguilar, assistant talent buyer for Alex’s for more than five years now. He first met Alex (Hernandez) as a drummer performing there and got hand-picked by Alex for the talent buyer gig; Nick currently drums for the band Neighborhood Brats as well. In regards to what make’s Alex’s tick artistically, Aguilar illustrates their mindset, “We always try to think outside of the box, we always do our best to put together a bill that isn’t thrown together just for the sake of it. We want a well curated bill, we want to pull a crowd from a little bit over there, pull another crowd from over here, putting great acts and crowds together. Our ultimate goal is to do our absolute best to book the greatest events we can, whether it’s the best new bands in town, the best DJs, or classic veteran acts.”