Force Multiplied rocks at Sunset Strip Music Fest

What Does Marilyn Manson, The Offspring, Steve Aoki, Bad Religion, Black Label Society and El Dorado County hard rock band, Force Multiplied, have in common?

Playing the Sunset Strip Music Festival 2012, Street Fest, on Saturday, Aug 18 in Hollywood.

Force Multiplied is one of Cameron Park/Sacramento’s hardest working and fastest growing hard rock bands.

Band founder Parker McKee at 14 picked up his first guitar and never set it down.

After many hours, days and months of playing and learning the guitar, Parker started creating his own sound and music.

He started to record his music, playing all the string instruments with his dad, Doug, playing the drums.

“My dad was just learning to play the drums and his beats were very basic. But having him on the drums helped me with creating music,” Parker said.

Parker wanted to share his music with the public. He had all the gear, an in home studio, a great sound and the dream of starting a band. In late 2010, he started looking for musicians for Force Multiplied.

Putting ads on the Internet, talking to fellow students at his high school and with months of searching, he found his rhythm guitarist, bassist and drummer.

Thirty days later on Aug. 4, 2011 Parker and his band, Force Multiplied, hit the stage at Orangevale’s The Boardwalk and the group took off like a rocket.

“We ended up being the headliner, due to selling the most tickets. The night was amazing. We left our mark on the Sacramento music scene,” Parker said.

After that night, Force Multiplied was booked to open for world-famous bands such as Saxon, Kill Devil Hill, Anvil and MSG, as well as national bands.

They were on the fast track to stardom and things couldn’t be better. Force Multiplied even set up a show for Halloween to help bring some awareness to the Food Bank of El Dorado County and to help collect food for the holidays.

“It hit me like a ton of bricks,” said Parker. The band members, at that time, decided they didn’t want to stay in the band and chose to move on.

That was Jan. 3. Force Multiplied was booked to play Sacramento’s Ace of Spades, for the second time. Parker only had three days to find three new members and get them up to speed with the music.

“I wasn’t going to let this stop the band from going on. We have never missed an obligation to perform,” Parker said.

That’s when Parker made a call to his friend Christian Bower.

Bower, a guitarist, never playing bass, had three days to learn the bass tracks to five songs and get them down.

Not able to find a drummer in the same three days, the two were hard at work. Teaching and learning the riffs to five songs for the show. Parker had some drum tracks from recordings from a recent EP they were working on. He knew he had to use the tracks and hope for the best.

The show started with a bang. Three quarters of the way into the first song, the computer crashed. The show wasn’t the best but Parker and Bower and Force Multiplied picked up new fans and major props, from the other bands performing that night.

Parker had his new guitarist, but no drummer or bassist. Force Multiplied’s next big shows, were only a month away, opening for Anvil and MSG.

He found Steven Martin, a young drummer that has been playing drums since he was 7. He also found Tim Kaltsas (Tim Savage), to play bass, who had been playing bass for more than 10 years.

“I couldn’t have found any musicians better than these guys. Any band would be lucky to have any one of these three great, hard-working musicians,” Parker said.

Force Multiplied just ended its On TAP Tour 2012, in June. That took them all over California, playing venues such as the Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood, on the Sunset Strip.

After the last show on the tour, the group received a call from the Key Club, in Hollywood, and they were asked to open for The Moby Dicks. A Tribute to Led Zeppelin featuring Brian Tichy: (Whitesnake, Billy Idol, Lynch Mob, SUN) Drums. Brent Woods: (Brentwood Forest, Vince Neil) GTR. Michael Devin: (Whitesnake) Bass. Chas West: (Bonham, Lynch Mob) Vox. Stephen Leblanc: (Jason Bonham Led Zep Exp.).

After the performance at the Key Club, Force Multiplied was asked if they would like to play the 2012 Sunset Strip Music Festival. The festival was honoring Sunset Strip legends, The Doors with headlining acts, like Marilyn Manson, The Offspring and Black Lable Society.

The three-day festival was a huge success closing the Sunset Strip to traffic for the fourth time in history.

“We thought we would be performing on Thursday or Friday, not the Street Fest on Saturday,” Kaltsas said.

“Seeing our band name on a billboard in Hollywood, on the Sunset Strip with Marilyn Manson and The Offspring, is off the hook. That was unexpected,” Martin said.

The festival was created by the Sunset Strip Business Association, music venues and member businesses to promote, preserve and perpetuate the live music scene on The Sunset Strip.

Each year the festival has continued to grow — expanding from performances in the venues to an all-day street festival featuring outdoor stages and performances from more than 70 artists in the venues.

Check Force Multiplied out at force-multiplied.com, facebook.com/forcemultiplied, or reverbnation.com/forcemultiplied.