The Resilient Live Up to Their Name

The Resilient wants you to hear them before you see them, to appreciate their music before you appreciate what they’ve been through. Of course, the sacrifices they’ve had to make — limbs, friends, opportunities — are a part of who they are and therefore a part of their music. But their music also touches into something universal that transcends the wars, the memories, the recovery. Their music, encapsulated on their brand-new debut album, “One More,” is about finding the strength inside to face the hardest things — it’s about resilience.

The story of their coming together didn’t happen all at once but over the course of a few years at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Greg Loman, a professional musician and teaching artist with MusiCorps, a program for wounded warriors, met two young men who had suffered devastating injuries in Afghanistan. Nathan Kalwicki, rhythm guitarist of The Resilient, hadn’t picked up a guitar in a long time.

“I used to play in high school,” he said, “but I lost my drive and connection to music when I joined the military and when I got wounded.”

Through MusiCorps at Walter Reed, Kalwicki started playing again, and he met other wounded veterans who were also using music as a tool for healing. That’s where he connected with Tim Donley, who started to come by to sing along with Loman and Kalwicki.

“We were pretty closed off in those early days,” Donley recalled. “The music brought us out of our own shells. That’s what we needed to reconnect to our emotions and vulnerabilities, to grieve.”

None of them bet on the fact that by the next year they’d find a drummer in Juan “Dom” Dominguez and a bassist in Erik Kalwicki, and the interest and support of musical giants like Roger Waters of Pink Floyd. But they did, and the band started to fuse into a cohesive unit.

“We have a common goal,” Dominguez said. “So other things are minor. We talk a lot. It’s become less of a friendship and more of a family.”

They can see (and hear) the development in their new album. Up to this point, they had released three original singles. “One More” is the first full album.

“A friend told me the first three songs sounded like we were finding ourselves,” Dominguez said, “but this album is us. I agree with that.”

Loman, who plays lead guitar, calls “One More” a “labor of love.”

“We all have an attachment to this album,” he said. “It’s a time capsule. We can always go back to the fall of 2023 in Baltimore. When I met these guys, we were all searching. We didn’t know what was going to be happening five years down the road. But this is where we are now.”

For Donley, who writes all the lyrics, the songs on “One More” represent a spectrum of emotions. They really tell the story of recovery, of getting back to basics — they are the living breathing embodiment of the healing journey these men have taken together.

“Some of the songs, like ‘Lost and Just Fine,’ take me back to when I was a kid, out at night in the summertime,” Donley said. “During my recovery, that’s part of how I reconnected to my own emotions and my own capacity for feeling after being deployed and being in combat, closing so much of myself off to do the task, do the mission. That song talks about feelings and memories and reaching for the best parts of yourself.”

What’s ended up happening, as they reach for the best parts of themselves, is they’ve become an inspiration for countless others. Dominguez, who is a drummer and a triple amputee, has started patenting unique extensions so that he can play the drums better. And he feels like every show he plays, someone comes up to him to say that they know someone with a disability who thought they couldn’t continue doing what they love, and now they feel like they can.

“I wanted to get past the point of being seen as a triple amputee,” Dominguez said. “I want people to see us out there every day saying, ‘Yeah, we are human, and we fall down, but we get back up and we’ll help you up too.’”

While The Resilient is focused on the music, and transcending any limitations that you might see at first, they also haven’t forgotten that music was the gift that got them past those limitations. And they want to give it back. So at their show at the Sag Harbor American Music Festival they’ll unveil The Reborn Project, a nonprofit with a mission to ease veteran suffering.

“We want to say,” Loman said. “Whatever it is you want to do with your life, go and do it.”