Spiralus fronts local alternative rock group Just Gorilla, and he's here to save us all

Alexandria, VA — He lives just blocks away from the Shirley Highway, and a hop skip, and a jump from the nearest community college, the highrise apartments reach out toward the sky like a forest of fat rectangular rectangle trees. At the main lobby entrance, a buzzer rings up to a room on the top floor, where Tony Hamin, steps into his private recording studio setup at home and becomes Spiralus of Just Gorilla. 

Just Gorilla is an alternative hard rock band led by Hamin's original character Spiralus Kong, the stage name under which he drives his concept. Spiralus is a space-faring gorilla who left a war-torn home planet in search of peace. He stumbled across what he describes as “a perfect, blue gem,” which we call Earth. 

His former home broke out into their own advanced ape society consisting of former test-subject animals. The civil wars and unrest led Spiralus to our homeworld, in spite of his turbulent past, as the prince of his old homeworld. “He wanted to find a new planet whose artistic expression was the foray of their society,” Hamin, said. He says Spiralus just wanted to find an audience. Now he has.

Back here on Earth, Spiralus founded his band as a songwriter, rhythm guitarist, and some leads. Rohan Enamandra (rhythm guitarist and the lead vocalist of Waters Deep, and formerly of Infinite Solutions) works as the drummer and producer. Robert Herald performs bass under the alias Alyx Ryon. Elijah Martin is the lead guitarist and is a prolific metal guitarist from Infinite Solutions and other metal groups. 

“Our drummer Matt became a father,” Hamin said. “[A]nd we decided to put a bow on that perfect memory.” One door closed and another opened up with Spiralus leading the charge as frontman of their new group — Just Gorilla.

Hamin drives original hard rock sounds and some metal interpretations of older music through the story. He spent his formative years as a content creator on YouTube, directing and acting in comedy shorts. He worked with creators on multiple channels until expanding his content as he grew as an entertainer.

“I want to save people’s lives with my music,” Hamin said. “That’s the most important thing.” He put music aside to focus on other things and came across a Buckethead EP, Hold Me Forever, which he said saved his life. The song is a 36-minute piece about Buckethead’s mother and how he loves her. “It ignited my desire to play guitar again.” “I express my sadness and feelings through it.”

We took a break to play through part one of the EP. Spiralus slashed on the air guitar to the hook. That’s his favorite section of the song.  

Just Gorilla's album, Memories of Light, was inspired in part by Hold Me Forever, but also by his own creativity. It started as many good rock stories do with a love story and a breakup. He said some of the songs on his first album he originally wrote for his ex-girlfriend. Later, he would revisit those songs and the pain.

“It’s like a version of you dies,” he said, as he recalled a breakup before the start of the pandemic. “All these songs I’ve had in my soul, I wrote a few of the songs for her.” But, he said “if you attach too many of the things about you to the person you love when you lose that person, you lose that also. When you revisit those things, you revisit them too. So, I wrote this album to reclaim those songs for myself.”

“You have only one life, and you have to have your own back,” he said with a deep sigh. Then he laughed and fired up some recordings.

Coming soon, we’ll hear from Spiralus of JustGorilla, and he’ll share some Jems right here on a little podcast project I call Jimmy Jems — where I find little gems from your hometown to mine, right here in the DMV.