Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
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14 KEYFRAME "Everything is Fine" may sound like an anthem against the challenges of coronavirus but it's also the first song by band QBomb, where all the members collaborated together, each adding their own personal flavor to the performance. The band of six features three Animation Guild members—Gene Goldstein, Jordan Rosato and Ari Castleton—who bonded over music while working together at Nickelodeon. Goldstein had been writing songs with his good friend, Jeremy Ropp, the band's only non-artist, since 2009 but while working on background layout for Nickelodeon's The Loud House, he met Rosato (a storyboard artist) and Castleton (a storyboard supervisor), who shared both an office and a love of music. "Jordan and I would play instruments during break time at work," Castleton says. "She was trying to pick up the bass and I was trying to socialize and make new friends." When Nickapalooza, the annual in-house party for Nickelodeon staff featuring live bands, was announced, Goldstein felt inspired to gather a group of musicians to perform. "We only needed to have a six-minute set," he says. Goldstein had toyed with the idea of starting a band since high school and now was his chance. He and Ropp wrote three original songs and enlisted Castleton to perform in two separate bands, one that would feature original music (QBomb) and another that would perform cover songs, called Force Quit, which included Rosato, initially on keyboards. After Nickapalooza 2017, the bandmates continued practicing as both QBomb and Force Quit but, says Goldstein, "I wanted to take QBomb more seriously. There was one night where I asked everyone, 'Can we combine these two things? We can keep doing covers but learn and write new music and perform and actually make it a thing?'" The answer was an enthusiastic yes, resulting in QBomb's sextet of Goldstein, Ropp, Rosato, Castleton, writer Jacob Strick and storyboard artist Sam Cowan. "We bonded at work through music and kind of had similar pop-punk alternative tastes," says Rosato. Creating a visual brand identity for the band was easy for the group of talented artists and it was important to reflect the band's style of music visually. "I always think of it as an anime version of a punk band so everything is really bombastic and electric and over the top and our music kind of reflects that, hopefully," adds Goldstein. Music is also a complementary artistic outlet for the band members. Rosato, who is now a director for Warner Bros. Animation's DC Super Hero Girls, says, "I think the reason I started picking up bass was because I needed another outlet that wasn't visually artistic. I draw all day as a storyboard artist, and I just needed something to get me moving but also keep me creative." Currently a storyboard artist on Warner Bros.' Jellystone!, Goldstein agrees: "It helps me flex my creative brain to do other things. When I'm going through things with my career, I can funnel those feelings into the music, and then the music can funnel back." Castleton, who has continued as a storyboard supervisor on The Loud House, feels that having a visual background also enables the group to better express what's in their head as the ideas flow into songs. "And if somebody has a critique," Rosato adds, "we're all used to that. We don't take it personally, and we're pretty good at communication in a generous and polite way." "If there's one word to describe QBomb, it's polite," Goldstein says, and Rosato jokes, "Yes, that's us, polite punk rock." Fans of punk (polite or not) will be happy to know that QBomb is loud, raucous and in your face when they perform as their alter-egos. They play what Goldstein describes as "the kind of music that I wanted to hear when I was a teen." Along with recently releasing their single, QBomb filmed a video for it and held a Kickstarter campaign to fund their first album, Hyperpunk. The project is on hold right now, because of the pandemic, but that doesn't mean the band has slowed down. They're composing a song from scratch over Zoom to keep their skills honed, but they're eager to get together and play again as soon as possible. While waiting for that day, their music and animation talents can be found at www.qbomb.band. NICKAPALOOZA INSPIRED THESE ARTISTS TO CREATE A BAND KNOWN AS QBOMB SIX PUNK PALS 14 KEYFRAME A F T E R H O U R S