For seven years, Bountiful native Kimi Ward-Encarnacion has been playing in a Los Angeles mod-ern pop band called Moon-pools & Caterpillars.
A couple of years ago the band - which consists of singer Ward-Encarnacion, guitarist Jay Jay Encarnacion, bassist Tim DePala and drummer Gugut Salgado - was discovered playing at its favorite haunt, the Whiskey-A-Go-Go, by an Elektra Entertainment publicist.While this story parallels the way the Doors were discovered back in the mid-1960s (the same record company and the same club!), there is little similarity between the Moonpool and Doors sounds.
Ward-Encarnacion will return home with Moonpools & Caterpillars for a special two-night Utah stop Friday and Sunday, June 16 and 18. Friday's show will be at the Zephyr Club, and Sunday's will be a special X-96 Family Reunion concert (for Ward-Encarnacion at least) at Lagoon.
"We really started the band as a hobbie," Ward-Encarnacion, a grad-u-ate of Viewmont High School, said during a telephone interview from California. "I had moved to L.A. to study fashion design at Los Angeles Trade Tech and worked with Jay Jay's sister. He'd always hang out with us and told me he was in a band that needed a lead singer. We didn't think we'd be as successful as we are now, but there was always that little space inside that hoped we would make it. The nice thing about the situation then, as it is now, is we'd all still be hanging out even if we didn't have a band. We're just doing what we've always wanted to do."
When the band decided to get serious, it needed a name, recalled Ward-Encarnacion. "We just sat down and started throwing out words. We came up with Caterpillars and a little later Moonpools came around. I do admit I feel silly sometimes telling people our name, but the music speaks for itself."
Meanwhile, Moonpools & Caterpillars played shows unnumbered and auditioned for various spots until the Whiskey asked them to do a recurring gig.
"That started the ball rolling," Ward-Encarnacion laughed.
Since Elektra spotted the band, things have been moving quite rapidly, she said.
"It seemed everyone heard the single" ("Hear" from the new album "Lucky Dumpling") "before I did," Ward-Encarnacion said. "I just heard it for the first time last weekend when I was in town for my sister's missionary farewell. She's heading off to Albania. Anyway, my mom would always hear the song and call me up in California to tell me it was on. When I finally heard it, I couldn't really believe what I was listening to. It's like a dream, but as time goes on, reality is setting, in and I'm saying to myself, `Yea, that is us.' "