THE SUNSHINE GROUP:

Generation 1

Started in 2011, The Sunshine Group was just a two-piece rock band from Worcester, MA. Started by Brandon “Sunshine” Esteves and Ryan Scott on drums, the band mostly revolved around playing tunes Brandon wrote or playing covers. The boys moved to New York for college and kept playing together in both Ithaca and Rochester, NY. There, the band started becoming more focused on improvisation and the use of guitar pedal dancing techniques. After many bar gigs and house shows, Ryan decided to start a more professional life and moved away to Wisconsin, leaving Sunshine and his group alone in Ithaca.

MACH 2

The sun kept shinin’ when freshmen soul mates Nicky Young and Jonah Bobo met Sunshine in an experimental improvisation course at Ithaca College in 2016. Sunshine was becoming more electronic, and these boys seemed to be diggin’ that wave. Soon they became the next Sunshine Group, deeming themselves “MACH 2”. They were joined by Guitar Center Drum Off 2011 champion Spenser Forwood and focused SOLELY on musical improvisation. It was funky, it was trippy, it was ethereal. Sunshine on vocals and Bass Synth, Nicky on guitar and effects, and Jonah on Keys/Synth. When Sunshine moved out of Ithaca in 2018, MACH 2 was seperated.