Greetings from Ocean View - Just like Mozart

When Steve DiFilippo's Ocean View garage isn't flooded or housing a car in mid-repair, he offers it up as practice space. On hot days when it heats up like a tin can, he'll give the guys the living room.

"People around here are pretty cool. They don't mess with us much," The Dunes trumpet player Chris Leonard said about the neighbors.

"Better to deal with the band than the cops," lead singer Daniel Pravda laughed.

They'll bounce around practicing "wherever we won't get kicked out of," said Daniel. The same goes for their performance spots. "We are venue whores for sure." And they're clearly excited about an upcoming show at the NorVa on the 24th.

Political and energetic, The Dunes' songs often reflect, like their name, the area they live in. "The beach is what brought us together," Daniel said.

An inquiry about their genre provokes discussion but doesn't really lead anywhere. "'Original rock.' That's what I've been saying lately," said drummer Joey Proffitt. People often come up to him and say, "you guys sound just like Mozart," joked Daniel.

During weekly practices, they one-up each other with bad jokes and pass around cans of Budweiser. It's a release.  And it's fun. "That's why we pour all this money into the band and never get any back," Daniel said, "That's alright."

Photos and text by Preston Gannaway | The Virginian-Pilot

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