1 of 3
The band is jammin’! Pictured left to right: Kyle Lorenzino, Rob Pittman, Justin Burke, Ricardo “Ricky” Carrillo.
2 of 3
The local, alternative band Soul Grind members left to right: Kyle Lorenzino, Ricardo “Ricky” Carrillo, Justin Burke and Rob Pittman.
3 of 3
For a group of Northern Neck childhood friends who bonded over street skating and “rad music,” music is salve for the soul.
For alternative band Soul Grind and members Ricardo “Ricky” Carrillo, Kyle Lorenzino, Justin Burke and Rob Pittman, music unites them. It feeds their creativity. Music also feeds their dreams.
Carrillo, Soul Grind’s bass player, is a Texan by birth who relocated to the Northern Neck 27 years ago. An electrician, he sampled Richmond for a year before coming back to the Northern Neck.
“Your friends and your family bring you back home,” he said.
Lorenzino, plays lead guitar for Soul Grind. He grew up in Middlesex. He works for Visiting Angels, a senior home care provider, as a client liaison.
Burke plays guitar and is the front man for the band as lead singer. He’s a jewelry designer and third-generation family member of Burkes Fine Jewelers in Kilmarnock.
Burke attended Coastal Carolina University in Myrtle Beach for two years before transferring to Radford University. He lived in the Charleston, S.C., area for six years, then spent two years as a dairy farmer before joining his family’s business.
“Every step I was always playing music,” Burke said. “The entire time, from 18 until now.”
Pittman is Soul Grind’s drummer. He, Burke and Carrillo all went to school together growing up on the Northern Neck. He was, let’s say, an energetic lad.
“My ‘complex energy’ caused a lot of trouble,” Pittman said. “I got shipped off to military school in sixth grade.”
He attended Longwood University, a community college and a variety of schools in Virginia. He later went to golf school and moved to Myrtle Beach, attaining a business degree and becoming a Professional Golf Association golf pro.
He lived in Charleston, S.C., for about a decade before becoming the golf pro at Indian Creek Yacht and Country Club.
“You don’t need a degree to rock,” Pittman said.
Soul Grind is a reference to the band members’ street skating days that began in the early ‘90s. A “soul grind” is a skating move.
Pittman described their songwriting and production process as a collaboration. From lyrics, to music, to engineering and producing, Soul Grind works as a team. Their musical influences range from alternative rock, to heavy metal, to hip hop and everything in between.
As a group, they decide what they can add to or take away from songs. From a construction office in White Stone converted to a music studio, the band produced its recently released “Summer Dreams” album. Soul Grind had 22 original tracks, but for the album they worked it down to 12.
Carrillo said their mindset was, “What else can we add? What can we change? What can we take away?”
For Soul Grind, music is always their link.
“We all did our own thing, but also pursued music,” Burke said. When they all met up again on the Northern Neck, a band took shape after Burke pitched the idea.
“We said, ‘We’re all here’ and it seemed like the only thing to do,” Burke said.
While the pandemic slowed their big year, it did get them in the studio when they couldn’t play shows. That led to Summer Dreams. Now they see bigger things ahead.
“We’ve always done special things in our life and this is one of those special things,” Burke said.
Online at soulgrindband.com · On Facebook · On Instagram @soulgrindband