Biography - The Beginning
Mono Officio is comprised of two brothers, Jacob and Joshua Reese. Both were born in Portland, Oregon; but moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1993. It was there that they got interested in a local Peruvian band named "Wayanay." Joshua, the older brother (now 16), had always been interested in music, and tried to duplicate some of Wayanay's flute sound, and other world music sounds on his keyboard. In the summer of 1996, after he had written the song "Cherokee," he came to his brother Jacob (now 13), and asked him if he wanted to start a band. Jacob accepted but asked what the first song would be and what instrument he would play. Joshua had been looking for something to add to the song, and knew that the harp their mother had would work perfectly. Thus the Mono Officio Blues Band was formed, but they weren't playing the blues yet.

The Beatles and the First Guitar
After their first album was completed, the brothers bought a four track recorder which was quite an improvement over the GE Tape Recorder that they previously used. They also started looking for more instruments to buy for different sounds. On December 31, 1996, the brothers bought their first guitar. It was a $40 classical guitar, which they used both as a guitar and as a percussion instrument. It was around this time that the brothers got interested in The Beatles, and started to try to play their songs. During that time they recorded both world music and rock songs, but they were never very well written songs. The brothers then became interested in the electric guitar, probably because of The Beatles. On April 13, 1997, they bought their first electric guitar, a Fender Squier Stratocaster. The quality of their music went even farther down because they weren't used to the electric guitar at all. But, the electric guitar took the brothers out of world music for good and brought them to blues, jazz and rock.

The Blues
During the summer of 1997, the brothers became interested in the blues. Chuck Berry and B.B. King were the ones they became interested in first. Soon they were buying more and more blues records all the time, and beginning to record blues songs. During this time they also bought a guitar amp, an electric bass, an acoustic guitar, and a drum set, all of which they still use today. At this point they became interested in the music of Stevie Ray Vaughan, and played it more than anything else. Joshua took some music theory lessons from a jazz guitarist for a few months, which proved to be very beneficial in the brothers' songwriting. But what they really wanted to do was play the blues.

Their New Teachers
In December of 1997, Joshua's music lessons stopped, and the boys learned the rest from the best teachers of all time: B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and many others. Their music did not immediately change to blues, though, because they still felt inexperienced with it. Around that time they wrote one of their best songs, "Hangin' Out," which was more of a surf-rock instrumental than blues. But as their music collection grew, so did their musical knowledge. Now it was Freddie King, Johnny Winter, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Jimi Hendrix, Elmore James, and T-Bone Walker that taught them the blues. They recorded their best blues song in 1998, and named it "You're Gonna Get Hurt." In 1999 they recorded their 9th home recorded album, "Hangin' Out," which contained many blues songs that eluded to the styles of their mentors. In early 2000, they recorded their first commercially recorded album at a local San Antonio recording studio. The brothers laid down all the instrumental tracks in three days, then found Casey Cortez to do the vocal tracks. Casey's passion is singing the blues, and her voice was a perfect match. The album, entitled Cry Of A Falcon, can be purchased through Amazon.com. See our Albums page for more details.