Keep your eyes, and ears, on the two young men with the guitars.

Sam and Luke Remedios have the gift of music in their hearts and voices – and at their fingertips.

In performances at such venues as The Wired Monk, Crescent Beach, they are beginning to impress local audiences with focused and disciplined music making, plus inherent talent, to match their ‘soul-pop’ sound and their classy on-stage predilection for dress shirts and ties.

“We don’t always wear ties, but we’re usually in dress shirts,” explained Luke, youngest of the two brothers. “We saw somebody in a band wearing the look and we thought it was cool – and the Beatles are also a big influence of ours.”

Sam and Luke made it into the finals of the B.C. Junior Talent Contest this weekend at the Cloverdale Rodeo, following up on being accepted into the contest on the strength of a demo DVD, and advancing from semi-finals at the Cloverdale Agriplex and Semiahmoo Centre.

Sam is usually the lead vocalist, although Luke is adding more vocals and they are working on harmonies, and they usually trade lead guitar roles.

But because the contest is geared to solo performers, Sam was the front man for the semi-finals and finals, while Luke was relegated to a guitarist-accompanist role.

“But I was okay with that,” Luke said.

He noted the two work well as a team – unlike many other siblings, the brothers have always been close.

“We’ve always gotten along really well,” Luke said.

Where the two Earl Marriott Secondary students placed in Saturday’s final was not available at press time.

“I still think we don’t really care about winning,” Luke said.

“While it would be nice to win, the most important thing for us was getting exposure and having fun.”

The brothers were born and raised in the Sacramento, California area, and moved to White Rock in 2005 with parents Jude and Ken.

And although music has always been in the background for them – among the guitars proudly displayed on stands in the practise corner of their living room are acoustics that belonged to their grandfather and father – the turning point came around two and a half years ago.

That’s when Luke received his first electric, a Squire, as a Christmas present.

“I haven’t been able to stop playing since,” he said.“I was really inspired by my brother,” said Sam, whose newly-awakened interest in the guitar was so manifest that a few months later he received his own Squire as an early birthday present.

Close as they are, the presence of the guitars initially threatened the relationship of the brothers, Sam admitted.

“We were both playing in different rooms on different sides of the house and we got on each other’s nerves. Dad suggested we try to play together – and it’s worked well.”

Just over six months ago they started getting really serious about turning their musical efforts into an act – learning songs and working on vocals. And they took the all-important plunge, playing in public for the first time at one of the open mic nights hosted by Mike Villeneuve at The Wired Monk in Crescent Beach.

“There’s nothing more nerve-wracking than playing music in a room full of other musicians,” Luke said.

But they were well received, and grateful for the easy introduction provided by Villeneuve.

They’ve come a long way since then, they said.

“We’ve improved so much it’s amazing,” Luke said.

“Now whenever we’re playing we can tell what the other one is going to do. It’s kind of like you grow together,” said Sam.

“Any situation that comes up, we’ve got each other’s back.”

He said he likes the term ‘soul pop’ to describe their music, which draws from several genres, without being heavy rock or blues.

Their influences include John Mayer, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn and, vocally, James Morrison, they said.

“I think it could appeal to everybody,” said Luke.

For their first round B.C. Junior Talent Contest performance, they chose to cover the Beatles’ While My Guitar Gently Weeps, while, for the performance at the semi-finals, they moved on to an original composition by Sam, White Ocean.

Now there’s no holding them back – and, armed with new American Stratocasters, they’re always on the lookout for new venues and performance opportunities.

“It’s so great to play in front of an audience,” said Luke.

“To hear the applause after the performance is such a great feeling.”