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Two decades ago, a 12-year-old Cody Chavez locked himself in his Hollister room for the summer to teach himself to play guitar, dreaming of a rock star life. This year, those fantasies will be fully realized as he and his band, DRAIN, take to the Sonora stage on April 12 and 19 at the prestigious Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
“I don’t know what to expect,” he said. “I know we will be meeting a lot of cool people, and I’m sure everyone will enjoy our set. But I really want to represent the 831 area because this is home, and it means everything to me to be able to do that.”
Latching on to his cousin Lori’s love of rap and hip-hop when he was four, he graduated to an appreciation of rock music when he was 10. But his cousin Lori’s gift of an Ibanez guitar when he was 12 was a major turning point in his life.
“Lori was a punk-rock chick,” Chavez said,” and I really idolized her. She played guitar, so I wanted to play guitar, too. I played along until I kind of figured something out and looked up YouTube videos of other people playing. I just naturally kind of made it all work.”
Latching on to bands like Motörhead at first, he was heavily influenced by the music his parents played in the family car, including the Scorpions. He started exploring on his own, haunting Best Buy for heavier sounds.
“The first song I learned fully was ‘Seek and Destroy’ by Metallica,” Chavez said. “I was really into James Hetfield, and at that time, my favorite part of music was hearing the riffs. A little later, I started getting into things like the shredding solos.”
At 14, he joined his first band, “Immortal Demise,” a name dripping in teenage angst. Surprisingly, his main instrument in the band was the drums and, less surprisingly, the band really never went anywhere.
“It was just one of those little kid bands,” he said, “and we never played a show. We stayed in the garage. We were just too young, and we didn’t even know how to book a show.”
The next year, he moved on to a Cheap Trick-styled band called The Barones, out of a desire to play live somewhere, anywhere. The band collapsed after a few shows, and it wasn’t until he was about to graduate that he found more stability in a band called “Garden,” though once again as a drummer.
“I preferred to play my main instrument,” Chavez said, “but I just really wanted the experience of playing live. I was young and hungry, and, you know, drums are really fun.”
He finally got a chance to play guitar in 2016, when he joined DRAIN, a band he had been following since they first appeared two years earlier.
“They posted a demo,” Chavez said, “and it was very much what I wanted to hear: thrash metal and Metallica mixed with hardcore punk. I would go to see them every chance I could. We started to become friends, and one day, they said, ‘You want to be in the band?’”
By 2018, DRAIN was successful enough to mount its first headlining U.S. tour, attracting more attention than the band had ever seen before.
“We’d get in the van and drive to Arizona,” Chavez said, ”and then only play to four or five people. The next time, it might be 20 or 30. We just loved being on the road and playing, and the numbers kept going up. That helped us get to playing 500 capacity venues as headliners.”
Chavez said that the dedication to constantly playing on the road has been key to their success.
“You just got to put yourself in people’s faces,” he said, “and, you know, they might not like you at first, but they’ll respect your live show.”
DRAIN’s current tour, which started March 19, has been crisscrossing the United States and will extend beyond the two dates at Coachella to a show in Mexico on May 9 and a June 5 leap to Europe.
The band will return to America on Aug. 29 to the Mystic Lake Amphitheater in
Shakopee, MN and is scheduled through at least Oct 20 for a performance in Birmingham, AL at the Coca-Cola Amphitheater.
The dedication to the craft has attracted Chavez and DRAIN considerable attention from major music publications like Revolver and Guitar, as well as a recent article in Guitar World that described Chavez as “the hardcore hero who isn’t afraid to shred.”
It has also brought them the admiration of fans, including San Juan musician Dan Clifford, who said he met Chavez at a party and had no idea of his talents until he heard him perform a karaoke version of a George Strait song that evening.
“He just killed it,” Clifford said, “and his voice was so good, and I was impressed by his range. It’s great to have a hometown celebrity take his music to the world while still loving hanging out with his friends here. I know that he won’t leave us behind because he’s such a humble guy.”
DRAIN tour dates can be found on the band’s website. DRAIN is also on Instagram, Facebook and X, with music available to stream on Spotify and Apple.
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