Amid Bob Marley posters, sound equipment and various musical instruments sits a 6-foot-6 man with more energy than his body can hold. It’s unreal. Skyline graduate Aaron Singh, also known as Aaron Amor of the band The Genres, smiles from ear to ear as he sits in his fully stocked studio reflecting on what got him to where he is now.

Amor had a rocky collegiate start. Like most college students he didn’t know where his life was heading when he first attended Skyline, but a year and a half and business degree later, Amor is on track, harmonizing his career with his passion for music.

That union of work and play came during his tenure at Skyline when he met Music Instructor Kymberly Jackson, his most influential teacher. She taught Amor from the class The History from Jazz to Hip Hop, where she began including live performance requirements such as the Expressions Through Black Music Project which allows students to express their arts freely. It was during that meeting that Amor discovered what he wanted to do with his future.

“When I met Mrs.Jackson, she changed my life, my thought process, and my view on the world,” Amor said. ” After that I started really producing music and really excelling.”

According to Amor, she took him away from all the negative aspects that plague current hip-hop and opened his mind to conscious hip-hop. As a result, his music took a positive turn, focusing on love, unity, and freedom. This, in turn, would win the approval of his of family.

As with any other post-college endeavor, any bit of success has a price and The Genres pay that price every week. The band spends at least five to six days a week in the studio. A typical studio session for The Genres can run about six hours.

“I made this thing my lifestyle.” Amor said.
What do they have to show for all of that practice? Amor, along with Steven Tan of The Genres, starred in the music video for the first single off of their upcoming album Diversecity, “Palette of life.”

The Genres also had the opportunity to perform live. Amor said that the vibe, during live performances, is amazing. “There is nothing like playing with a live band behind you and the people in front of you… they can’t miss a heartbeat in the drum.”

The Genres have a tendency to excel at live performances. For Example, lead guitarist, Taylor Bickel “adds the ‘rockness” Amor said. “When he’s on stage … all of sudden he’s this other guy … he gets that high on stage and just becomes this crazy guitarist.”

Having performers like that only help keep the band focused even when things go wrong, according to Amor. Like when The Genres performed at the House of Blues in Hollywood.

“We were in the middle of my verse, the second verse and all of a sudden the drummer’s kick pedal broke… and basically it was our opportunity to say alright we’re in the middle of the house of blues in Hollywood, are we really going to shut up? Hell no, so I drop down and pointed at my lead guitarist and he started shredding and throwing it on his head. And the energy in that whole place was amazing,” Amor said.

Performances like that only inspire a young band such as The Genres.

The Genres, a fitting name for a band that combines Rock, Reggae, and hip-hop, creating a sound that transcends any one genre and is simply music. The band features six members and growing. On top of the previously mentioned “Amor,””Shiesty,” Bickel, and Tan, the band also features drummer Hisham “Shem” Dahud, who blends styles of rock and hip-hop; and Bass guitarist Ronnie Rosado, or as Amor calls him, “Ronnie Lott, hit em’ hard with the bass rock.” The group even travels with their own “sound guy,” Bryce “Shiesty” Graven, to make sure hiccups don’t happen during live shows.
If the genres stopped performing today, they would do so knowing that they’ve already changed someone’s life. In the Tenderloin, at a block party with the entire street shut down, with a diverse audience, from the business crowd to people struggling with drug addiction, The Genres performed “Temptations.” One woman, who had struggles of her own, approached Amor after a show.

“That song (“Temptations”) really pushed her life, and it made her see her temptation and how to fight her temptation, how to get over her temptation, and that it’s just a temptation in the long run. And it’s the smaller decisions we make that make the biggest impact on our future.” According to Amor that’s what “Temptations” was all about.”

For more information on the The Genres, check out TheGenres.com and Youtube.com/HowYouFeelTV.

Update: this article has been replaced with the newest version available. 1:47 p.m. 5/4/2014.