Kevin Bronson on September 20th, 2010

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How Vanaprasta has rocketed from the rookie leagues to the precipice of being an All-Los Angeles Guitar Band in just over a year and a half seems preternatural. “Sounds funny,” singer Steven Wilkin says with quiet confidence, “but I really think the universe opened up and gave us a gift.”

Even more of a wonder, however, is how five guys with such disparate tastes can even share PBR tallboys in the same Silver Lake clubs, let alone occupy the same practice space for hours on end and make an album, “Healthy Geometry,” that, when it’s finally released, is likely to vault Vanaprasta to bigger stages.

• ||| Download: “Minnesota”

Can we just sketch the characters for a second?

— Wilkin, the bearded, diminutive dude with the big pipes: Former child opera singer in Utah. Studied voice. Likes R&B, Michael Jackson, Robert Plant and Thom Yorke. Had to be coerced into doing the scream/wail in the song “G-.”

— Collin Desha, guitarist: Reared in Hawaii with a foundation in slack key guitar (the late Helen Desha Beamer was his great aunt). Fed a steady diet of Saves the Day/NOFX/Guttermouth in his youth before discovering Led Zeppelin, Neil Young and Bob Dylan and “figuring out who the songwriters are.”

— Cameron Dmytryk, guitarist: Reared in Oregon on hardcore punk and later took a shine to Modest Mouse, Built to Spill and Radiohead. In Vanaprasta, his guitar work is kind of the fork to Desha’s spoon.

— Ben Smiley: Like a lot of drummers, admired the big riddums of John Bonham and then Dave Grohl. Can often be spotted cuddling his Led Zeppelin boxed set.

— Taylor Brown, bassist: SoCal native who loved “Dookie” and Weezer’s blue album, admires Flea’s Chili Peppers and gets mystical over how “angular, heavy, driving and big” basslines can be.

Through synchronicity, the fivesome found themselves in the same creative pot in late 2008. They stirred. “We finished our first rehearsal,” Wilkins remembers, “and just looked at each other, with smiles on our faces.”

They knew they had something – but what, exactly? Their music, which they cheekily call “guitarwave,” can flash to prog, math, arena and space rock in a single set, sometimes in a single song, and amid all the shifting dynamics are elements of danceable R&B and keening folk. (“A more technical Mew,” a friend suggested the other night.) With no small amount of pyrotechnics, however, Vanaprasta (the name derives from the Sanskrit word for a forest-dweller who has given up much of his worldly things) somehow stitches it all together.

Even if it seemed just plain weird at first. “At the beginning,” Desha says, “I didn’t know what the hell I was bringing to the band, because there were so many different influences in the same room.”

The album the band is shopping, “Healthy Geometry,” has some vaguely mystical themes – think patterns as they might apply to one’s direction in life – and a few choruses some emo bands would kill for. It was pieced together from various recording sessions with the help of producer Manny Nieto (the Breeders, HEALTH), and the first music from it will be released next week via a 7-inch containing the songs “Minnesota” and “Skinny State.” And, Wilkin intimates, there could be another album not far behind.

Suffice to say ambition is not a shortcoming here.

“You see great L.A. bands like Eastern Conference Champions and Red Cortez,” Wilkin says, “and we wanted to get to that level as quickly as possible.”

They are not deluding themselves about how much work it will take to get to the next level, though. “We push each other very hard,” Brown says. “You look at successful L.A. bands like Silversun Pickups and Local Natives, and you see how long they’ve been at it …”

Left unsaid: Vanaprasta knows it still has a lot of work to do.

||| Live: Vanaprasta plays the free residency tonight and next Monday at the Echo.

Photo by Mikey Caldera