Formed out of the primordial creative ooze of the San Francisco Bay Area, Oakland's Once & Future Band is Joel Robinow (keyboards, guitar, lead vocals), Raj Ojha (drums, recording / mixing engineer) and Eli Eckert (bass, guitar, vocals).  For over a decade, Joel, Raj and Eli had worked together (in various combinations) with several bands and projects, including Drunk Horse and Howlin' Rain. Throughout those years, they often spoke of forming an outlet into which they could combine their love of 60s and 70s psychedelic pop, jazz-rock, fusion and progressive rock, in addition to their myriad other musical fascinations.

In 2012 word finally became deed and Once & Future Band was born, taking inspiration for their name from T.H. White's Arthurian classic.  In 2014 they released the "Brain" EP on Mouth Records, drawing comparisons to ELO, Queen, Steely Dan, Yes and The Beach Boys.

In 2017, the band released their self-titled LP on John Dwyer's Castle Face records, garnering rave reviews from MOJO, Uncut, Modern Drummer and Shindig among other publications and landing a spot on The Wire and The Guardian's Best of 2017 list. Their songs have been featured on Henry Rollin's KCRW radio program as well as the BBC Radio shows of Gideon Coe, Jon Hillcock and Marc Riley (whose show they have performed live on multiple times). They've made their way across the US and Canada as main support for Tool and Chris Robinson's "As The Crow Flies", toured the UK and have shared the stage with such diverse acts as Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Chris Robinson Brotherhood, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, White Denim, Mild High Club, King Tuff, Dungen, !!!, Battles, Foxygen, Red Fang and Metronomy. They were also personally selected by Flying Lotus and Wire to play their curated festivals.  In 2019 The Black Crowes announced live on Howard Stern’s show that Joel Robinow and Raj Kumar Ojha will be part of their new band, backing them for a 2020 US / UK reunion arena tour.

With 2020 comes the release of their 2nd full length LP, “Deleted Scenes” which has been years in the making.  The self-produced record comes out on April 10th, 2020 via Castle Face Records, featuring another iconic cover by longtime collaborator Christopher Appelgren.

We're not the best, but we're pretty good.

B. Hamilton is songwriter Ryan Christopher Parks and drummer Raj Kumar Ojha (Once and Future Band). They cut their teeth in the warehouse days of Oakland around 2010 and recorded ramshackle records in flophouse attics, former army barracks turned Mills College noise musician housing, and their rehearsal space in Jack London Square that looks like an early 80’s accounting office, and a set from one of the “Saw” movies. 
 
Existing before and after tech created complete chaos in Oakland is the subject of a number of their songs. Other songs are about other things. Like cancer, John Wayne, and buying lottery tickets after church.
 
2024’s “The Freest Speech Ever Attempted Without Disintegrating” is about Elon Musk, kind of. 
 
“I tried to write a bunch of stuff about him, but ended up writing about the same loneliness and lack of connection that everyone has experienced at some point in their lives,” said Parks. “It’s the same loneliness that humanity might be leaning into as we go toward whatever the future is.”
 
I wrote this entire bio like you can't tell it's me writing it. I even referred to myself as "Parks," in the last paragraph like I'm a Naval whistleblower on "60 Minutes." Writing these things is the goddamn worst. Alright, have a good day.

VVD WNDWS explores the intersection between sound, field recordings, immersive performance art, and projections with an extended group of collaborators.

Two old buddies, Winston Goertz-Giffen and Andrew Macy make music with their appendages.  Recorded in various homes and practice spaces over the years by Winston.  Collected 2002-2019

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