RICH GIRLS Gaining Bigger Salt Lake Fanbase

If you happen to be passing by Laird Ave. on a Tuesday or Thursday night you’ll most definitely hear the roaring sounds of the stupefying, fuzz surf band RICH GIRLS practicing.

RICH GIRLS is a local band growing with popularity; with Ruben Abeyta on drums, Ethan Shaw on bass guitar and vocals, and Crosby Lloyd on guitar and vocals, the trio brings that edgy, garage-rock to Salt Lake City.

“I’m excited,” Lloyd said before their first live performance together as a band.

They recently killed it at the well-known Kilby Court on Sept. 30. More than 120 people showed up to watch them perform the only six songs they had. The crowd was so enthusiastic they uproariously chanted “one more song” leaving the band no choice to play their most popular song, Rich Girl, again. They left the stage humbly without any sort of self-promotion and hugged their proud friends and family members. Bringing in such a large crowd Kilby Court none essentially paid the band $200 for its performance.

RICH GIRLS has plans to move forward from their five songs, and not to mention their “Black Lips” cover of “Stranger”. The band is certain to finish their first album by the end of the school year.

The band’s challenge is to produce more material for their audience while being full-time students instead of full-time musicians. Nevertheless this new, young band has big hopes for its future.

“Our reach goal is to do a tour next summer,” Shaw said.

From the sounds of it, there’s much more to come from them. A west coast tour would be an enormous opportunity for the band and for the member’s lives individually. An opportunity the band would have to put in all their effort for, but as seen in the bands dedication it’s definitely possible.

Although they remain students, their devotion to the band never seems to get in the way.

“School get in the way of practice,” Shaw jokingly said.

Abeyta manages to take AP language arts and Shaw studies at the University of Utah. All in all they manage to keep their school and music lives separate.

The band was brought together by Shaw who knew both Abeyta, and Lloyd; he knew both of these talented boys were into the idea of creating a band and getting shows.

“We kinda just came together that way,” Shaw casually said.

The name RICH GIRLS came from Lloyd, who was originally in a ski crew named rich girls. Those are the types of girls the boys in the band have never really felt associated with.

“But we still love you guys,” Shaw said while the other boys laughed in agreement.

Every band and its music has an influence. Tones of “FIDLAR” and “Ty Segall” are its major influences. The influences on the band are made up of psychedelic rock, skate punk, and new wave scenes, which is what RICH GIRLS is mostly about.

Abeyta, the incredible drummer of RICH GIRLS, is a junior at Highland.

“His skills are crazy,” Lloyd said.

Abeyta has been playing drums for six years with the help of his drum teacher, Joey, who has become an influence on him. His father has also been a huge influence on him since a young age because his father is a sound engineer and he would sometimes take him to work with him.

“He would play music throughout the house and I would listen to it and really pay attention to it, I wouldn’t just let it slide by my mind.”Abeyta said.

The dedication Abeyta puts into the band has paid off and will continue to with his high expectations for the band. Being the drummer it’s hard to help write songs but that doesn’t mean he can’t tell when a song is good. Die Again is personally his favorite song.

There aren’t any upcoming performances for the band but their music is on Soundcloud and you can stay updated with the band through their Instagram.