Southwest Florida band DONEFOR celebrates over 100,000 streams on Spotify

A Southwest Florida band has surpassed 100,000 streams on Spotify for their anthemic “You’re Welcome,” which was mastered by a two-time Grammy award-winning engineer.

DONEFOR is a pop-punk metalcore quintet based in Fort Myers and founded by former Florida Gulf Coast University students.

Frontman Parker Shogren, also a teacher, started the band. Once he had songs recorded, he signed up for Eagle Radio Music Festival in 2022, an FGCU-centric concert where any accepted bands can perform on the library lawn in the heart of campus.

Though Shogren had recorded songs, he didn’t have a band, so he assembled a few fellow classmates. The next thing he knew, he was fronting a band.

“It was probably the coolest feeling in my life,” said Shogren, “because it was just all my friends and everyone, and that was always something I wanted to chase, and then we ended up with all the music I had written, and I’m like, OK, let’s just write it as a band.”

It took the band just over a year to release their breakout hit, “You’re Welcome,” released in March of 2023. The song ended up making their album, “Sleep on It,” released in August of 2023.

The song ended up making it onto local radios and soon amassed 100,000 streams on Spotify.

Shogren credits the song’s success to support from local radio stations and even Grammy award-winning music engineer Vlado Meller.

Meller has mastered songs for the Beastie Boys, Johnny Cash, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, Shakira, Weezer, Metallica and many more.

“It was really cool as an accomplishment that people are actually listening and enjoying a song, which is something that is kind of hard to do in today’s music world,” he said. “Because there’s so much content and music out there that people aren’t necessarily looking for it. You’ve got to find it and throw it at them.”

DONEFOR plays “You’re Welcome” at shows all across SWFL, particularly in venues such as Ollie’s Pub and the Ranch. The “Sleep on It” album release party was held at Ollie’s in 2023.

To Shogren, “You’re Welcome” is DONEFOR’s anthem, which can be traced to its catchy hook and familiar pop-punk sound.

It’s one of the many songs played at their show at The Ranch in Fort Myers on Feb. 10.

Being a band in SWFL

Shogren noted the difficulties of being a band in SWFL. He stated the struggle of getting a promoter for local music here and how DONEFOR took matters into their own hands and became their own promoter.

“Years ago, we stopped relying on promoters or venues to try to get us. We said we’re going to make the venue, we’re going to make the shows, and we would promote it ourselves,” he said.

He said that being a local band in Southwest Florida, you have to fight for your spot.

“You’ve got to be able to really be able to show that you’re a quality band first of all and that you’re able to sell an experience or give an experience to people that they’re going to remember,” he said.

DONEFOR tries to play shows all across the state, but Shogren said it’s difficult for local bands to earn their stripes.

“It’s hard to land these national shows because they want to bring bands from other things. Especially in Orlando, they’ll take the opening bands there that live in Orlando, but down here, they’ll take bands from other states and bring them down, so local bands here don’t even get the chance to be a local band and an opening spot anymore. It’s a small market,” he said.

He also said that a local band’s success isn’t just measured by the music but by the ability to promote shows and songs on social media while selling and restocking merch and making sure the band can come together and practice in between work and life responsibilities.

He said that the band has members scattered throughout SWFL and even one who lives in Jupiter who commutes to shows and practices.

Despite difficulties, Shogren believes that the local music scene has strengthened over the past few years and is optimistic for its future.

The band’s future

Shogren wants to continue to play shows in SWFL and all over the state but also expand DONEFOR’s reach and recognition.

“The idea is to be based out of Southwest Florida and East Florida and to branch out to other areas a little bit more,” he said. “We’ve played shows and Broward, Orlando, Tampa, in West Palm and that little radius. We hope to keep pushing out and find shows that are worth it.”

An example is Sunfest. DONEFOR is in a competition right now to get a show at the music festival in West Palm Beach. The competition hopes to give a local band a chance to open at the festival (Click here to vote).

“The idea is to branch out, especially [with] new music, and try to reach out to new fans in person online, through newspapers and news interviews,” Shogren said.

Shogren believes the best way to find bands is to expand your outlook and explore what Southwest Florida has to offer.

“We can do a call to action for people to go out and see the local bands because there’s a lot of talent,” he said, “support these local businesses that help support these local bands is so important and helps people get their dreams,” he said.

To learn more about upcoming local shows, click here.

Click here to learn more about DONEFOR.