WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – “There’s vets out there who kind of want the help as well, but just don’t know how to ask for it, you know? So there needs to be more conversations had,” said Juan Dominguez.
And that’s exactly what Dominguez and his bandmates, known as The Resilient did on Friday night: speak with visitors at Jefferson Community College about the band’s story.
The group was formed through Walter Reed Medical Center. Three of it’s members were severely wounded in combat, rehabilitating through their love of music.
Greg Loman was one of the facilitators.
“Instead of listening and talking about music, we were actually physically doing it despite whatever hurdles we had to face,” said bandmate Greg Loman.
The Resilient would go on to become a well renowned rock band with start up help from rock and roll legend Roger Waters of Pink Floyd.
“And then moving into original songs kind of taking that classic rock and adding in a little bit of each of our own influences,” said Nathan Kalwicki, also in the band.
Some of those influences go beyond just music genre. Some of their music fueled by the hardships and inspirations some of them experienced while being soldiers.
“Finding a way to come back from that, finding reasons to come back from that. We can all find it, and we all have the strength to be able to do that and that’s a big part of it,” said Timothy Donley.
The band hopes that through their music they can provide answers to civilians who want to help out veterans who are going through the rehabilitation process.
The group will be performing a concert Saturday night at 7:30 PM in JCC’s McVean Gymnasium. Admission is free and open to the public.
Masks are required.
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