Sego

The music scene has long been the soulful underdog of culture in southern Utah, with the potential of being more always lingering under policy, lack of a central local music hub, or simple fan disinterest.

St. George is a tourist town — its busiest streets lined with chain restaurants, locally-owned car dealerships and a stale sense of familiarity. Let's dust the famous red dirt from our shoes for a moment to focus on what has always been yet rarely seen. Or, rather, heard.

The retirement-turned-college-town is growing up — or perhaps growing younger. During the August 2017 Georgefest in the historic ancestor square, the Jazz/Beer Garden hybrid became taken over by a crowd of a different persuasion: the young adult. The headlining band of the evening, Sego, spiced up the scene a bit with its indie-pop, electro-grunge sounds, catering to the ears of people all ages in attendance. Even with grumbles of there not being actually jazz in the Jazz Garden vaguely heard by few.

The band, originally from the Provo area but took up roots in Los Angeles eight years ago, is made up of four musicians. SUC Mag spoke with the original two members, Spencer Petersen and Thomas Carroll, in regards to local music in St. George: what is is, what it could be, and why they keep coming back.

SUC: How did Sego start? Spencer: Tom and I began just like other band, we were in different bands together, and that took us to Los Angeles. As the typical story goes, that band kind of dissolved and we found ourselves just kind of the last two. We were in a warehouse down there and these songs found their way out of the sort of disillusion or whatever. We just continued on down there ― the thread that carries through … and now it’s fours of us, our bass player, Alyssa Davey, and our keyboard player, Brandon McBride.

SUC: I saw you guys live last summer for the first time. Why do you keep coming back to St. George? Spencer: To northern Utah, St. George is a bit of a Palm Springs, where it’s far enough to get away but not quite California. So I grew up coming down here all the time as a youth, and I have this nostalgic connection to the area. In combination [with that] through the years we’ve played shows and we’ve made a lot of friends here. A kind of local legend, Ryan Groskreutz, he’s always been good about inviting us to do stuff around here.

Tom: It’s the perfect middle stop [between LA and Provo] and it’s always been the perfect place to play. Great crowds, great people.

Spencer: It’s got a unique little scene here.

SUC: What do you think of the music scene down here? Tom: I’ve been pleasantly surprised. When we first started playing here the creativity and the kind of small, little culture that started to grow ― it’s always been really rad.

Spencer: Yeah, I don’t really want to say support, but there is this cool little group pf support network, or fans, that I think maybe get shafted by a lot of bands that just pass over [St. George]. Local touring bands get a lot of love here because it’s a little more of an event.

SUC: How many albums do you guys have? Spencer: We put out our first full length a year ago. We had a couple EPs before that.

SUC: Are you working on another one? Tom: … It’s done.

Spencer: We’re getting ready to release that here in the next few months. There’s been no formal announcement, but -

Tom: This. You heard it here first! We’ve got the new album, and then a tour in September for about a month.

Spencer: We’re going out with this band called El Ten Eleven. We’ve done some runs with them before and they were kind enough to invite us out for another national run.

SUC: What do you guys think could contribute to building the music scene here? Tom: I think getting promoters and bookers, people who care about it most of all at events like this, to bring in more bands.

Spencer: Seeing towns that have a lot of success, especially small towns, it usually sprouts out of a central hub everyone rallies around.

Tom: Kind of like Jazzy’s was.

Spencer: Yeah, it really just takes on really good hub and a promoter to make a scene start to sprout. Because otherwise bands don’t know what to do. There’s only so many house shows you can do … This is beginning to be a decent size town. There’s going to be a lot of people with the university here, so there’s resources to draw from. Having a specific place where people can rally, I think that’s the most important.

Listen to Sego’s music and check out their touring schedule at segomusic.com.