Monk Turner [Flickr]

Nick and Pete waiting for the rest of the collective to show up.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Silverlake has become synonymous with indie rock. As the scene was taking root there, a similar scene was getting its start in Downtown.

Known as the Central Second Collective, a cluster of indie rock groups sprouted from 2nd Street Jazz in Little Tokyo. I recently met with Nick Ceglio and Pete DiBiasio to chat about the past, present and future of indie rock in Downtown L.A.

MONK TURNER: Tell me a little bit about the collective.

NICK CEGLIO: The collective formed about four years ago. The core members of the collective were Death to Anders, The Happy Hollows, The Transmission, and One Trick Pony. We all met here at 2nd Street Jazz where there used to be an event every Sunday called Cocaine. Over course of a month or two we ran into each other and learned about each other's bands.

MT: What was the common thread that united you guys?

NC: Musically we didn't seem to fit in anywhere and there wasn't much of a scene we were playing so we decided to make our own. It ended up working. We eventually found out about the Silverlake scene and branched off into that. It was a common ground of coming together with the love of each other's music.

MT: Do you think Downtown could ever be home to a Silverlake type scene?

PETE DIBIASIO: I wouldn't rule that out. I could see it spreading this far and being a continuous part of the same whole. People didn't feel comfortable coming to this place initially because there wasn't foot traffic. It was that way in many parts in the east side earlier on. I saw that transformation myself, so I wouldn't rule that out.

MT: So what in on the horizon for the Central Second Collective?

NC: The function of the collective now is a lot different from what it was before. Back when we started it was to create a vehicle for something that wasn't there. Now we've integrated ourselves. We still play with each other, we still come to each other's shows, but now it is branching off the farther and farther as we get away from the roots of the collective. I play with One Trick Pony and the Happy Hollows on occasion. We have other collective members who have been in other collective bands.

PB: It's a cross pollination.

NC: For sure. What I always wanted the collective to be was for us to put a stamp on our own little piece of history. The farther and farther we get from out beginnings, the more the collective will be useful to us.

You can see this cross pollination in a local live music venue near you. Keep an eye out of the above mentioned bands and learn more about the collective at http://www.myspace.com/thecentralsecond