Brett Hoover, the Cinders' marvellous vocalist, grew up in Sacramento, CA and Guam. He played drums as a kid but luckily for us he dropped the drums and took up singing. When I first saw him, he was singing with a band called the Blues Angels. When that band broke up I gave him no choice but to start a blues band with me. His natural, committedly soulful voice is what the blues is all about.

Paul Olguin grew up in Santa Monica. I first started playing with Paul 20 years ago on various honky-tonk gigs in L.A. He now lives south of San Francisco and for 15 years has been playing bass throughout the Bay Area roots music scene. Of late, he has worked with Shana Morrison, Angela Straehli, and Kenny "Blues Boss" Wayne, etc.

Drummer Dean Giles is a Red Sox fan and grew up in Boston. He moved to L.A., went to school for 2 years, and came to San Luis Obispo. We met him when he first came to town and, luckily, got him involved in the band before he got too busy. Now we own him.

I'm Dorian Michael and I play the guitar. I came up in Los Angeles but moved to San Luis Obispo County 11 years ago. I have a whole other life as an acoustic fingerstylist. But that's another Web site. And I have a duo with mandolinist Kenny Blackwell. Yet another Web site. I'm a jack-of-all-trades guitarist with blues as a foundation of everything that I play (sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious). When I met Brett Hoover I realized we had the same view towards a raw unpretentious honest musical endeavor. Be yourself, play what you feel, respect the music and the audience, and have a good time. We're the Cinders and that's what we do.