Cleveland Ska-Punk Band SABON To Play Release Party at Grog Shop

Though she’s only 16, Sophia Parke, who fronts the local ska-punk band SABON, says playing and recording music is a priority in her life. A junior in high school, she’s not certain she’ll attend college right after graduating since it might disrupt the momentum the band has picked up since forming two years ago.

“Three out of the four of us don’t have any plans to go to college,” she says one afternoon from Six Shooter Coffee in Collinwood. SABON performs on Aug. 16 at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights at a release party for its debut album, They Call Me. “If we do go to college, it’ll be in the local area so we can still play shows. College doesn’t lineup with my life plan right and the band is really picking up traction. We’re hoping we can start to do that on a national level.”

The band first formed a couple of years ago when members met at a music camp.

“My sister and I just knew we wanted to be in a band,” Parke says. “We were on a mission. When we met our bassist and drummer, we thought they were perfect. They matched on style, and it worked out because we got along as friends too. We talked about [the ska band] Buck o Nine and wanted to be Scant a Buck o Nine. That turned into SABON, which is the acronym. We thought it was cool enough. It’s really stupid, but it works for us and it’s a good trademark because no one around here has a name like that.”

Horns are an important part of ska-punk, and Parke and her sister provide that aspect of the music, delivering Fishbone-like songs that translate into visceral punk anthems onstage. Sophia Parke plays saxophone and her sister Sylvia plays trombone.

“I was forced against my will to learn alto saxophone for middle school band,” says Parke. “When I quit band and didn’t have to learn the classic music, I discovered ska and decided I really liked it. I switched to tenor saxophone because my alto got broken at a show. I like better. I think it suits our band better.”

Parke cites ska-punk bands from the ’90s as influences simply because they made up the bulk of her dad’s record collection.

“I adopted my dad’s music and his love for Warped Tour bands. He indoctrinated me into that music,” she says. “There aren’t a lot of these types of bands in the area, and our guitarist listens to reggae.”

The band’s first gig was trial by fire. Last year, the group played at the Beachland Tavern, where it opened for the local metal band Olathia.

“We follow Olathia around and was talking to their singer Chris E. Olathia,” Parke says. “They’re super-nice. I was talking to Chris and told her that we were ready to play shows. She let us open for them. A lot of friends and family came because it was our first show. It was a decent turnout, and I felt like the audience did enjoy us. They gave us a lot of energy, but it was a lot different than playing punk shows.’

After opening for acts such as Catch 22 and CATBITE earlier this year, the group got onto the radar of local venues such as the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights and Mahall’s 20 Lanes in Lakewood.

“I don’t know if it was luck or persistence,” says Parke. “We were lucky to have both of those opportunities.”

Prior to They Call Me, the group hasn’t released any music other than live performances.

“Some of our earlier songs we had for two years maybe longer,” she says. “The album has been along time coming. It was a matter of accumulating all the music. And then, our drummer quit two weeks before we were going to record, so that was a big obstacle. But we got it corrected and started with a new drummer. The album really reflects our nostalgia for early 2000s and late 1990s ska-punk. Our songs are upbeat and inspiring. We really want to connect to the community.”

For the live show, the band plans to play the new album in its entirety in order. It’ll also tease new songs from it what it hopes will be its second album.

“We have amped up the ska for the live show,” says Parke. “Our first album was a lot of punk. We wanted to include more horn parts. I honestly sucked at saxophone when we started, but the music has become more complex as we’ve gone on. We aspire to be like Less Than Jake since everyone is having so much fun on stage when we play live.”

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