Teenage garage band Guytano makes waves with album release

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Every high school garage band dreams of becoming rock stars, but a group of teenagers in Central Minnesota is hoping to make those dreams come true.

On a hot summer day in a garage in Sartell, Minn., the sound of the future fills the air.

Lead singer Grant Hamilton,18, along with his brother Eddie, 17, on bass and their drummer Isaac Hesse,19, have been in tune since they were kids.

Even though they are only in their teens, this is no ordinary boy band.

"We keep it all in house," Grant said. "Boy bands have like 300 people working on a song. It's just us." 

Grant and Eddie have a lifelong love of music.

"We've been in a band since we were 9. [Eddie] was 7," Grant said. "We started finding other members because we realized we couldn't just do it ourselves." 

By the time they were in middle school, they'd started their own band The Grizzlies, playing covers of punk rock songs for family members and neighbors.

"We were just playing music to make noise," Grant said. "I think it was fun. Finding our identity. It was kind of the cool thing around the neighborhood."

In high school, they graduated to writing their own materia--and even performed at that age old rite of passage, prom.

But now their part time hobby is becoming a full time passion.

They changed their name to Guytano and came up with enough songs to put together a full album "I Am Inside My Body" without the help of a record label.

"The best way to capture the current sound on our album is kind of like adults contemporary vibe that Coldplay has, but also 1975," Hesse said. "Some of their dance funk influences." 

The first single "Fall Back In Your Arms" got some airplay on St. Cloud radio stations and a few others across the country.

It now has more than 150,000 streams on Spotify.

"It's kind of surreal. Not saying anything crazy is happening, but its an exciting time," Grant said. "On social media we have people all over just liking our music, wanting T-shirts. This guy in Malaysia wants us to come play. It's cool. It's fun." 

Even though their brand of pop is polished, the boys are more interested in making music with meaning both for themselves and for their fans.

"A lot of the last album there was some mental illness stuff about family members dying. Love stories. Big existential questions about what is your purpose," Grant said. "Its all in there I think." 

And they hope the only thing they'll be falling back on in the future is making their teenage dream become a reality.

"Not many people are fortunate enough to do what they are passionate about," Grant said. "I feel blessed and I am going to try to do it, make it my day job I guess. We'll see what happens." 

A couple of record labels have shown interest in the band. Their music is available on I-Tunes and Spotify.

If' you'd like to learn more about Guytano, click here.