by Katie Arons

A year ago, I attended one of the best events our town has ever seen - the inaugural Rhythm and Resin Festival. Held in the old industrial neighborhood now aptly named the “Surf Ghetto.” Not an area where you would expect a crowd of 10,000 to assemble for a street fair, it was a gathering celebrating music and surfing designed specifically for the Rhythm and Resin residents of our community. 

The driving force behind the festival is my friend Damian Brawner, who embodies its spirit through his life and multiple business ventures. A local boy who made it big in Hollywood’s music scene, he eventually returned home to raise his family and inject fresh innovation into our town.

When I say local, he is the real deal. He and his family are as San Clemente roots as you can get. He and his three sisters, Jan, Deanne, and Danielle, all graduated from San Clemente High and both sides of his family have been here since the ‘40s. His parents, Danny and Sharon were raised on the same early Capo Beach stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway, but ironically didn’t meet each other until years later, in Hollywood. Damian’s paternal grandparents owned Buck and Ruth’s Cafe (near where Olamendi’s Restaurant is now) and had a real estate office down the road, selling plots of land in the Palisades neighborhood for $300 and $400. 

 His mom’s family moved here from Chicago when she was a baby. Her father owned gas stations in San Clemente and Dana Point, and they lived in a mobile home in Doheny beach. Damian’s father, Danny, grew up at the beach playing drums and was a lifeguard at the old Capistrano Beach Club (which washed away in 1970). Danny made his name in the surf community for being a renowned board builder with a career that has spanned half a century working behind the scenes for Velzy, Lighting Bolt, and others before his decades leading the team at Hobie. He is also known for being the drummer of The Sandals, the group that wrote and performed the music for the iconic surf movie Bruce Brown’s Endless Summer.

Danny Brawner is the inspiration that started the Rhythm and Resin Festival. Damian felt the behind-the-scenes craftsmen who make the surfboards should receive some recognition, so he created the Board Builder’s Hall of Fame. He partnered with Roman Krecu and Shawn Haven, owners of Los Molinos Beer Company, to create an event to honor the builders, and put their names in cement with a “walk of fame” along the sidewalks of the Surf Ghetto. Damian explains, “I wanted to do something on the sidewalk to honor these guys. To honor the board builders on the street of my dad’s & Dale Velzy’s first shop in 1956 and where I glass boards today.” 

 

What began as a simple ceremony quickly blossomed to into the Rhythm and Resin Festival, with 85 vendors, food trucks, and multiple stages featuring local musicians and a main stage that headlined with local funk band Slapbak’s famous ‘80s band, Missing Persons, and San Clemente’s own Tunnel Vision band.

How did it grow from a small ceremony to a large festival? Damian channeled his rich history as a musician, talent buyer (the person who books the bands to play at venues) and event producer to enlist the help of friends and former colleagues, and the word quickly spread.

When I say rich history, it really is a cool story. Damian started playing drums and creating bands in his high school days in the early ‘80s. I remember all of them: Secret Service with Paul Pontius (in honor of Paul’s dad, who worked in the Secret Service for President Nixon), The Movement (I think I had their album), Goldfish, Sweet Polyester, and Super Fly.  He made a living as a musician for a time and then moved to LA with Pontius, another San Clementean who’s had great success in the music industry and is currently the Executive Vice President of A&R at Epic Records.

In LA, Damian began managing bands until he was asked to play drums for Donovan Frankenreiter’s band Sunchild and traveled the country and Australia with the band on the Warp Tour in 1997. After the Warp Tour, Damian returned to LA, where two talent-buying friends referred him to become the talent buyer for Billboard Live’s new Key Club on the Sunset Strip. He was 27 years old and brought with him his new friends and connections from the Warp Tour, like Blink 182, Sugar Ray, and others. 

He approached Kevin Lyman, the producer of the Warp Tour, and made the Key Club the home for the tour’s press and promotional events. Once the band Pennywise released their ‘Live from the Key Club’ album, everyone wanted to play there. It became one of the top venues in Los Angeles, and Damian was booking the biggest names in the industry, including Van Halen, Tony Bennett, Prince, and more. Young Damian was at the top of his field, living large when he met his beautiful wife Karina, the bookkeeper for the famous Rainbow Room next door to the Key Club.

After a couple of years at the Key Club, Damian got restless and eventually left the club to return to managing bands. That was until a colleague offered him an amazing opportunity to create a new club. Damian was told to pick out any location he wanted, so he went to the emerging scene of the revitalized downtown Long Beach and found an old bank building. He named it ‘The Vault 350,’ and after a $10 million renovation (with a three-million-dollar sound system), the 3,500-capacity, 4-level the Vault quickly became a top club in Southern California, hosting the likes of BB King and Marilyn Manson.

Unfortunately, a few years later, the club life took its toll on Damian, and he realized he needed a break and to get sober. He says, “My job became drinking – entertaining people and drinking. When I first moved to Hollywood it was the typical ‘3 martini lunch,’ and then it became breakfast. I got the best of Hollywood, more than I could ever imagine and met so many killer people. I am grateful that it went the way it went, and that I went into rehab and figured it out. I didn’t get it on the first try, or the second try, but I did get it on the third try when my wife and kids were leaving. So, I did it. I am sober for 15 years this month.”

After rehab, Damian and his family moved to Cabo San Lucas for a short time before returning home to San Clemente to make surfboards. He says he knew how to make a living with music, and music is his love, but surfboards are in his DNA; he grew up making surf and skateboards with his dad. Feeling it was time for his father to receive the recognition he deserved, he created their brand, ‘Brawner Boards,’ and opened a retail surf shop. Soon, he integrated his love of music with his local surf shop and built a stage for friends to come in and jam, then he built a recording studio in the back. Hometown friends like Damian Collins of the club Stillwater called upon Damian to help book talent for their venues and events.

As he dove into the local music scene, Damian began discovering great new talent, so he formed his record label, ‘Rhythm and Resin (R&R) Records.’ Most recently, he produced an album for a young artist named Pearl, who is on the rise; the video of her song ‘No Man’ went viral with over 1 million views in the first week and over 600,000 downloads of the song on all streaming platforms.

But that’s not all. Damian also has a big presence on the East Cape of Cabo San Lucas, with a second Brawner Boards/La Fortuna surf shop, and he produces an annual longboard surf contest called “Escape to the Cape” with global competitors. His son Haze and daughter Sunnie love spending time at the family Cabo home and helping dad with his many ventures.

With all that he does, the entrepreneur says what he likes best is producing things, like events - things that have a beginning and an end. And he still drums! His newest band is called “Skateway,” which plays a new genre of music called “Nu Disco” – a modern take on fun dance music. Watch for Skateway in the lineup at this year’s Rhythm and Resin Festival on September 7th, where nine new local craftsmen will be getting their names on the sidewalk with their induction into the Board Builder’s Hall of Fame (see sidebar).  

As the Rhythm and Resin Festival continues to grow and evolve, it remains a testament to Damian Brawner’s vision and dedication to his hometown. His passion for blending music, surf culture and community spirit has created an event that truly embodies the spirit of San Clemente.