About Us

Never Too Late was one of the best things to come out of the pandemic, at least for us!

Back in high school, Matthew Jonas always wanted to be in a rock band, but never learned to play guitar, so he spent his life watching his favorites from the audience. At 55 years young, he saw his 9-year old twins Dylan and Becca performing a Tom Petty song at a showcase for SoundLife Music Academy in Los Angeles and he decided if they could do it then he could, too. 

His friend Tony Greene was a lifelong tapper, but never picked up a pair of drumsticks until a friend was giving up his drum kit. Tony grabbed the kit and decided to give drums a real go. You can check out his drum covers at Tony on Drums. When Matthew found out they decided to try jamming in Tony's garage with Chris Vazquez, Co-Founder of SoundLife Music Academy, and so the journey began. They promised to jam regularly. Unfortunately, their plans were interrupted by the lockdown. 

Three weeks later, still determined to play, they were on Zoom trying to master new songs with Matthew’s wife Katie Chin handling the vocals.  Katie also recruited her longtime friend and Karaoke husband Steve Patscheck to join as well. What they needed was an experienced musical mentor and band director to step in and help them learn songs and come together as a band. 

They turned to Chris Vazquez, a multi-talented musician trained at the Berklee College of Music, and co-founder of SoundLife Music Academy in Los Angeles. Chris is a working musician who regularly performs with several nationally recognized musical acts including Air Supply, Andre Simone, and Dueling Pianos with Jeff and Rhianon. Chris's direction and his bass guitar serve as the backbone and 

solid groove at the core of Never Too Late.

The five of them rehearsed together during COVID and even recorded some songs remotely.  In two short years, they went from never having played with other musicians to performing together live for SoundLife Music Academy’s Winter Showcase in 2021 and launch events for Katie's latest cookbook, Katie Chin's Global Family Cookbook.

Other friends wanted to join them. 

Tom Koh hadn’t played guitar in years, but decided to dust his off and get back into the rhythm (and lead) of things!

Paul Hemstreet is a classical pianist who thought it would be fun to sit down behind the keyboard and lend his fingers to some classic rock.

Then when Steve moved to Barcelona, fate brought Matthew and random park guy Nate Sciacqua together over an acoustic guitar. Nate, who regularly rides dirt bikes and leaps off of cliffs in a hang glider, had never sung in a band before, but he enthusiastically stepped in to lend his gritty vocals.

We have since played fundraisers and private parties as we build our set of songs from the '70s, '80s, '90s, and even the present day. We have also added some original songs to our play list. We play for fun and because we can. We hope our audiences will enjoy our music and more importantly find inspiration to go for whatever it is they have always wanted to do in their own lives, but have never made the time and the leap.  

We are all from different Woks of life (see Katie Chin’s Instagram for more on that), and arrived on the music scene a bit later in life for a reason.  Our band is a democracy, everyone picks songs to play, and we don't always agree. But one we never dispute is that it's Never Too Late, and we are so grateful for that.