Behind The Houses

Many children who take up a musical instrument fantasize, as they hone their skills in the school band, about someday playing for crowds of fans as a professional musician. For one group of talented Hollywood men, that dream has become a reality.


Formed about a year and a half ago by longtime friends, Behind The Houses is an original surf rock and funk band inspired by the beaches they grew up on and named for their favorite surf spot off Hollywood Beach at Franklin Street. The five members of Behind The Houses, who range in age from their mid-20s to 33, even include a Hollywood Beach lifeguard. All but one member have day jobs.


By night, Behind The Houses plays at hotspots throughout South Florida, including DP’s Beach Bar, Mickey Byrne’s Irish Pub & Restaurant and Shenanigans Sports Pub in Hollywood and Tobacco Road in Miami. As the Official Tailgate Band of the Miami Dolphins, they’ve performed for thousands of people at home games. Wherever they play, they attract a loyal following of music lovers who appreciate the band’s unique sound and repertoire of catchy original tunes, including fan favorite “Hollywood,” which alludes to the “dead presidents” for which many local streets are named.


“We play pretty much every weekend, and we bring a crowd with us,” said sax player Josh Bishop, whose “real” job is as the band director at Nova High School in Davie since 2008. “It’s not every day that you get an original band that plays that often.”


At 33, Bishop is the oldest member of Behind The Houses and the only one who’s married with children. Many of the group’s ties go back to their band days at Olsen Middle School in Dania Beach and South Broward High in Hollywood.


After graduation, Pete Thompson, the band’s rhythm guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter, became a lifeguard on his familiar Hollywood Beach, where on rainy days he would write a few songs. When Thompson and Jason Ellison, a boat refurbisher by day and the band’s drummer by night, became roommates in 2007, the two would always jam after work. The idea for the band began to take shape when their old friend Dan Bishop, Josh’s younger brother, started joining them on bass when he wasn’t busy working in the plumbing trade with his father. Nowadays, Dan Bishop, 29, works for an architectural firm that designs bridges.


His brother Josh caught one of the band’s shows on Hollywood Beach in early 2010. “I saw them play and thought it was great,” he recalled. “There was just one thing that was missing.”


And so, Bishop and his saxophone joined the band. The newest member of Behind The Houses is lead guitarist Daniel Infante, 25, formerly part of a duo that would open for the band. Another product of the Olsen Middle music program, Infante also was in a punk rock band with Ellison in high school. Through the years, Infante has played with more than 20 bands in a range of musical genres from jazz to rock to metal.


Josh Bishop’s prior band experience differs somewhat from his bandmates. Progressing from the school band in sixth grade to a rock band in high school, he pursued his dream of playing professionally by joining the Marine Corps Band in 1996. During his seven years serving in the Marines, Bishop performed for foreign dignitaries and traveled throughout the U.S and abroad. He relocated to Georgia, where he worked in law enforcement, earned a degree in criminal justice and played bassoon with the Albany Symphony Orchestra before returning to Florida in 2004 and making a major career change to music education.


These days, Bishop is “teacher by day, musician by night, daddy and husband the rest of the time.” He acknowledges that the members of Behind The Houses, with their repertoire of about 35 original songs, strong fan base and steady gigs, are already living out their childhood dream. But this group of longtime friends has aspirations of national or even world tours.


“Every single one of us believes that we can definitel - Hollywood Gazette

Many children who take up a musical instrument fantasize, as they hone their skills in the school band, about someday playing for crowds of fans as a professional musician. For one group of talented Hollywood men, that dream has become a reality.


Formed about a year and a half ago by longtime friends, Behind The Houses is an original surf rock and funk band inspired by the beaches they grew up on and named for their favorite surf spot off Hollywood Beach at Franklin Street. The five members of Behind The Houses, who range in age from their mid-20s to 33, even include a Hollywood Beach lifeguard. All but one member have day jobs.


By night, Behind The Houses plays at hotspots throughout South Florida, including DP’s Beach Bar, Mickey Byrne’s Irish Pub & Restaurant and Shenanigans Sports Pub in Hollywood and Tobacco Road in Miami. As the Official Tailgate Band of the Miami Dolphins, they’ve performed for thousands of people at home games. Wherever they play, they attract a loyal following of music lovers who appreciate the band’s unique sound and repertoire of catchy original tunes, including fan favorite “Hollywood,” which alludes to the “dead presidents” for which many local streets are named.


“We play pretty much every weekend, and we bring a crowd with us,” said sax player Josh Bishop, whose “real” job is as the band director at Nova High School in Davie since 2008. “It’s not every day that you get an original band that plays that often.”


At 33, Bishop is the oldest member of Behind The Houses and the only one who’s married with children. Many of the group’s ties go back to their band days at Olsen Middle School in Dania Beach and South Broward High in Hollywood.


After graduation, Pete Thompson, the band’s rhythm guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter, became a lifeguard on his familiar Hollywood Beach, where on rainy days he would write a few songs. When Thompson and Jason Ellison, a boat refurbisher by day and the band’s drummer by night, became roommates in 2007, the two would always jam after work. The idea for the band began to take shape when their old friend Dan Bishop, Josh’s younger brother, started joining them on bass when he wasn’t busy working in the plumbing trade with his father. Nowadays, Dan Bishop, 29, works for an architectural firm that designs bridges.


His brother Josh caught one of the band’s shows on Hollywood Beach in early 2010. “I saw them play and thought it was great,” he recalled. “There was just one thing that was missing.”


And so, Bishop and his saxophone joined the band. The newest member of Behind The Houses is lead guitarist Daniel Infante, 25, formerly part of a duo that would open for the band. Another product of the Olsen Middle music program, Infante also was in a punk rock band with Ellison in high school. Through the years, Infante has played with more than 20 bands in a range of musical genres from jazz to rock to metal.


Josh Bishop’s prior band experience differs somewhat from his bandmates. Progressing from the school band in sixth grade to a rock band in high school, he pursued his dream of playing professionally by joining the Marine Corps Band in 1996. During his seven years serving in the Marines, Bishop performed for foreign dignitaries and traveled throughout the U.S and abroad. He relocated to Georgia, where he worked in law enforcement, earned a degree in criminal justice and played bassoon with the Albany Symphony Orchestra before returning to Florida in 2004 and making a major career change to music education.


These days, Bishop is “teacher by day, musician by night, daddy and husband the rest of the time.” He acknowledges that the members of Behind The Houses, with their repertoire of about 35 original songs, strong fan base and steady gigs, are already living out their childhood dream. But this group of longtime friends has aspirations of national or even world tours.


“Every single one of us believes that we can definitel - Hollywood Gazette