CAL PRESLEY BAND

ARTICLE BY VANELIS RIVERA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW BAILEY

Calvin “Cal” Presley is a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy. A quick scroll through his band’s Facebook page portrays an easygoing 34-year-old with an affinity for wearing single-tone baseball caps backward, dark aviators, and a plethora of sneakers. His preferential style may make it easy for him to blend into any crowd, but he lives for the moment that he can step onstage and stand out. He and the four band members that make up the Cal Presley Band are keeping it simple and delivering a diverse assortment of cover songs that will make you want to get up from your seat, do a little dance, and get down. 

“So, I’ll just go from the beginning,” says Presley with an assertive tone, revealing that as a military kid, he was born in California where his grandparents, who raised him, lived for about nine months. They then moved to the Philippines when he was five, and finally settled in Bossier City, where he graduated from high school. Becoming more involved at church around 16 years old led him to join the worship team. “It was quick learning for me, you know. I’m that type of person on one side, when I decide I want to do something, I’ll try to put everything into it to learn it,” he says. His music know-how kept evolving, particularly when the family moved to West Monroe, enrolling Presley in a “bible school.” 

Initially, his motivation to learn instruments was so he could be good enough to fill in for bands. Though some of his development got stunted momentarily when he joined the fire department full-time, he still continued playing at churches “every now and then.” It wasn’t until 2016 when a couple of his buddies got together with the intention of starting “a little band, a little rock band,” that performing became a bigger part of his life. The band was called Chosen Stone, which focused on playing “positive rock.” He jammed with them until close to 2018. “We really didn’t go anywhere. We recorded a couple songs. We had a fan base that was more down south than it was locally because we were doing more originals, and playing in some festivals,” says Presley. At a given point, the band realized the significance of catering to your home crowd, so they decided to “rebrand” and start trying to play at more local venues. That’s how the Cal Presley Band was formed. They shifted from alternative rock to rock country, more of the local flavor of Northeast Louisiana. “We got into it, and it was a fast rise for us.” Locally the first venue they played was Hooks Marina, a picturesque lakeside hangout on the shore of Caney Creek Reservoir. “And from there we just started booking pretty quickly,” continues Presley. Growing their popularity locally has also extended into more gigs in Mississippi and Shreveport, some of which have been at the swanky Horseshoe hotel in Bossier City.

“Oh, that was a big launch for us,” says Presley, considering the last year and a half to have been a “big uptick,” not just in the number of gigs, but also the band’s sound. “Since about a year ago, I would say that we’ve done a lot of trial and error,” he says. He credits his former drummer and band manager Ryan Carr with establishing a solid foundation. Currently, he and the other band members–currently Sky Board on vocals, Ian Smith on keys, drummer Nick Donald, and bassist Garin Hatch–have made sure to focus on songs and music that bring people together, adding their own spin, and then “going from there.” His versatile bandmates play a major role in the route their covers end up going. For instance, Hatch is known for his “hard rock metal vibe,” which has increased that element of their sound. In other words, they end up giving a pop song like Rihanna’s “Umbrella” or Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” a rock edge, taking their sound away from what used to be more “country pop” and letting it “evolve to be more raw.”

As for Presley’s originals, they tend to get more intimate. “I’ll try to write what people are gonna feel. You know what I mean? And what I’m feeling,” he says. When he writes music alongside his band, the goal is to strike a balance between what he is going through and what an audience can connect to. This year he released “I Want to Know,” a relatable ballad for any lovesick listener wanting to dive further into ‘the feels’: “So tell me, can you bring me back to life? / It’s like we’re swimming in the ocean in the middle of night.” Another single, which he wrote a year ago, was just recorded for release later this year, titled “I Think I’m in Love.” “It speaks about seeing a woman dancing and just knowing, Okay, she doesn’t know it yet, but I think I’m in love with that girl,” explains Presley. The song traverses an imaginary relationship, one that Presley seems to believe in, the good ole story of boy-meets-girl, finds out more that he likes about her, and strives to create a life together with her: “Every time she goes somewhere / I fall in love more and more.” Though no personal story is attached to his new single, Presley seems to appreciate the magic of idealized romance, recognizing perfect love isn’t real, but not letting that stop him from wanting to write about it. “Maybe it’s something that I want,” he says in passing, but really his songs are just thoughts he has in a given moment. “Something that hit me that maybe people deal with, you know.” 

Love ballads may be Presley’s momentary muse, but ultimately the band aspires to keep growing their versatility. “I’m terrible at figuring out what genre something is,” Presley says, asserting that his music is more about “feeling the vibe out.” He wants to be able to reach as many people as he can, whether they are 18 or 70 years old. At any of his shows, you can see the young, old, and older finding something they like from their set. They play covers from Harry Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar” to Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues.” One time, a show he’ll never forget, a man in the audience had a veteran hat on. His wife was visibly digging the music, but they were just sitting down, until the moment he played some Cash, and the gentlemen perked up, more attentive to the set. “Anything we do, we always change it,” says Presley, considering the band’s covers, regardless of musical artist or original genre, something that can grab just about any audience member. “We want to capture everybody.” 

The current times have greatly limited live music, but for the Cal Presley Band, “music doesn’t stop.” Miro’s restaurant has become one of the band’s regular weekend venues. “We almost have a neck and neck relationship where we feed off each other.” They’ve also established a strong relationship with Enoch’s Pub & Grill. The last time they played there, there was nowhere to sit, as the indoor and outdoor areas are adequately socially distanced. Presley understands that for many the decision to go out is a difficult one still, but he credits the pandemic with allowing his band to create relationships locally they may never have been able to make otherwise. The establishments welcoming live music have become more than a venue to play; they’ve developed into partnerships. From his experience, there is a stronger connectivity between business, musicians, and customers, that wasn’t there before. At times, if Miro’s gets busy and backed-up, they help out serving, taking orders, seating people, and cleaning tables. They’ve even extended that kindness when they play weddings, having helped parking cars if there is valet parking. “We just want people, when they see the Cal Presley Band, to see a band that loves their fans, loves everything about the community,” he says. After all, they are already accomplishing that with their music. 

The Cal Presley Band is a family. “We don’t just play to get paid,” says Presley, adding, “We just care about doing something, as a family. We travel as a family. We eat every day, you know. We hang out as a family.” There have been times when Presley has gone to some of his guys with their share, and they’ve forgotten about the night’s payment. “That really brands us and helps us with our chemistry.” While everybody in the band has a “nine-to-five job,” Presley is his own boss, owning a wedding entertainment business and recently beginning a sound installation company. With that said, financially he has taken a hit since the pandemic. At one point, his band members approached Presley offering to give him their share of gig payments. “You just take whatever you need until you’re good,” they expressed. Ultimately, who they are as a band speaks to what an audience will get in a live performance–music from the heart.

Follow the Cal Presley Band on Facebook and Instagram. Their music can be streamed on all online music outlets.