The History of OCML & The Music League
July 14th, 2022
Orange County Music League was founded in December of 2013 by John Safari and Kevin Martin. Both had been giving local talent the opportunity to play on stages around Orange County, as well as a camp out music festival by the lake called Bradstock, in Lake Elsinore. Kevin and John had grow tired of watching bands have to pay to play on even the smallest of stages around OC and decided that they were going to be the "sight for sore eyes" in the Orange County music scene. They started OCML with the idea of bringing together the "Superheroes of OC Music" to reshape and rebuild a thriving music scene that benefits everyone from venue to promoter to artist.
In the beginning of 2014 OCML launched DOWN Tuesday's at The Copper Door in Santa Ana. This event is free to the public every week, and always consists of a widely unknown line up of up-and-coming bands. This quickly grew into more and more shows, adding The OC Art Walk After Party into the rotation. With audiences and artists flocking to OCML events, there were two different BOTB's held to get on their May festival, Cinco de Bradstock, and from there it has never slowed down.
OCML has helped not only expose new talent, but a handful of new venues in Orange County. These venues include The Copper Door, Diego's Downtown, Native Son Alehouse, Santa Ana Farmers Market, and Fuzion HB. This comes with OCML's knack to jump on everything new and unknown and expose these treasures to the general public. After just one-year OCML has grown from 4 shows to 10-15 a month, 3 members to 15, and has already started to manage a few artists.
With hard work and tireless networking, John and Kevin have started to unite the Orange County Music Scene and have brought the good promoters together to throw bigger and better local shows. Unifying the ideals of Gig Boss, Twisted Soul Entertainment, Slater Alligator Entertainment, Top Notch Productions, OC DIY, and CindyLu Productions to better serve our talent and to help the scene blossom!
Teaming up with R.A.D. Music, OCML has come out with two sampler CDs with 31 songs between the two. All of these bands are frequently booked at OCML shows. OCML & RAD have also booked their first tour up the California coast in December '14. These samplers are available for free download at www.radsampler.bandcamp.com
OCML didn't stop with local bands, as they have expanded to cover local producers and DJ's! They have worked with companies such as Socal Clublife, Upgrade, White Rabbit Group, Undercurrent, and Pinnacle Group to bring the best OC DJ's in to play after the bands in an effort to bridge the gap of music in the OC scene!
Just into 2015 and DOWN Tuesday's are back up and running as well as other venues and shows! OCML has secured yet another new venue. This time in South OC! Orange County's music scene has already started to change for the better, and OCML is glad to be on the forefront of that revival!
As 2017 began, they dropped most of the free weekly events and began to look for nicer venues, do more street festivals, host tour packages and get more involved in community events. They launched multiple online video series showcasing local talent, The OCML Podcast, OCML Records and were continuing to help the homeless communities in OC. The first Full release on OCML Records was Gravler’s, Give Up the Ghost releasing June 22nd, and hosting their first show at the new HOB Parish to a sold-out crowd. Shortly after they began a newly branded event in the HOB Foundation Room called, DSCVR. Ending the year out, they hosted their first solo local festival, The Monster Mash, at The Garden Amphitheater in Garden Grove just before Halloween.
Heading into 2018 the group decided to scale back on OCML Records, Digital Network Content, and all of their weekly events to ever continue to grow the opportunities they can provide for artists while upping the experience for music fans and venues in regard to local shows. The group has been acquiring lighting and sound gear over the years and you can be assured to never see a plain stage at an OCML event. After putting all the focus back into the live events, they expanded again to the Inland Empire to create IEML. IEML launched in April 2018 with a two-stage local festival, Be A Hero Festival. The festival was co-produced by the band From Zero 2 Hero, a group that Safari manages.
Towards the end of 2018, the group re-organized as The Music League LLC and stopped doing their multiple recurring shows to focus on bringing bigger tour packages through. These shows included a few sold out nights for locals at The Parish in HOB Anaheim, Unleash the Archers at Tiki Bar OC, and a packed night at Soma SD with Escape the Fate and Slaves.
Turning the page to 2019, the focus again shifted to becoming self-sufficient for pop up events. After all of the block parties and multiple stage events that The League had been a part of, they wanted to upgrade the set up. In June John bought a 32-foot enclosed trailer that is a stage. They used this stage a month later with Live Nation for Knotfest.
As the story goes for the entirety of the entertainment industry in 2020, everything is on pause until it is safer.
Is it safer yet? Was it ever safe? Anywho, it’s 2022 and we’re finally back! Ready to entertain some fans and new ideas. Want to create some magic with us? Hit us up and let’s create!
