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Being discovered in high school by one of the biggest names in ska in the mid-’90s catapulted Slightly Stoopid’s career.

“That was around like ’95, and it just hasn’t stopped,” Slightly Stoopid drummer Ryan “Rymo” Moran said of being discovered by Sublime’s Bradley Nowell.

“We’ve just stayed on the road and worked as hard as we can. It’s been really good for us. We’ve never had major label support or a marketing or a publicity team. We just did it the old-fashioned way, just getting out on the road and working as much as we could, and fortunately we’re able to continue today.”

Naturally, over time, Slightly Stoopid has been influenced by more musical genres, which has altered its sound over the years.

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“In its early years, it was really pretty punk-based and punk and ska and a little bit of reggae,” Moran said. “In years past, we’ve gone more in a reggae direction. The last couple of years, we’ve stretched out beyond that to playing some punk, some world and more rock stuff. We still have punk and reggae as still the main musical genres that we explore, but things have evolved and grown tremendously in 20 years. We’ve been staying on the road and working on the music. A lot has changed. I definitely look at those early years as somewhat a passing of the torch for sure.”

The band members’ musical tastes have molded and shaped the band’s direction. In addition to punk and rock, band members listen to a variety of music, including reggae, rock, jazz, soul, funk, hip-hop and R&B, according to Moran.

“I think it allows us to go a lot of different directions and still sound authentic because we have studied all these different things,” he explained. “Most of the guys in the band have played in all kinds of different groups to get them to this point. A lot of us are really comfortable in a lot of different situations and a lot of settings. For us, we’re doing so many gigs every year, we like to keep it fresh and push ourselves. When we’re at sound check, we’ll explore and rehearse and try different grooves and different ideas like, ‘Hey, let’s try this funk thing or let’s do this punk rock thing,’ and try to turn it into something else and see what happens. We’re always working on the music whether it’s brand-new or a song that we’re reworking after 20 years. Everything kind of has this sort of process where it can breathe and grow. Nothing is set in stone necessarily.”