Some call it a Sling band

Paul Saitowitz

Bass players tend to spend their time in the background, servicing

the songs and helping the drummer move the beat along -- just a cog

in the machine.

For Ginger Sling -- former bass player for Orange County

pop-rockers the Halo Friendlies -- being a cog got old.

After seven years of cross-country tours and writing and recording

songs as a collaborative, she was ready to break out and assume

creative control and pursue her own musical vision with no input from

anyone but herself.

On her solo debut, a five-song EP called “The Room,” the petite

rocker, whose bass is about as big as she is, eschewed the bubblegum

girl-power gusto of her former outfit for a more introspective,

singer-songwriter approach -- but there’s still plenty of sunshine to

go around.

Think Elvis Costello in his happiest moods, with Belinda Carlisle

helming the vocals and a touch of Elliott Smith’s melancholy singing

backup.

“I wrote about half of the songs when I was in the Halo

Friendlies, and that was a great experience, but I get a lot more

satisfaction writing by myself The songs are exactly how I want them

to be,” Sling said.

Growing up in Orange County ingrained a predilection for pop in

her writing style but also nurtured a fashion-forward image that’s as

tied to the county as anything else, thanks to the success of No

Doubt and its front woman, Gwen Stefani.

Sling’s blond locks, bright red lipstick and knee-high boots with

jeans tucked in paint a picture of what you would expect her to sound

like.

“My music isn’t really like hers [Stefani] at all,” she said. “If

I’m compared to anyone, it’s Letters to Cleo.”

She doesn’t sound at all like Stefani or write songs in that vein,

but for the narrow-minded, the sentiment is still there based on her

appearance and locale.

Her songs are enough to trump any of that, and her genuine love

for songwriting puts any ideas of another image-first musician to

rest.

“My only goal in writing music is to be able to do this

full-time,” she said. “I’m drawn to the craft of writing songs, and

that is all I want to do.”

Already a veteran of the Warped Tour, the summer punk powerhouse,

with the Halo Friendlies, she played a few dates on the traveling

festival as a solo musician last summer. She hopes to set up some

more dates for this summer, and there is a full-length album in the

works.

“I’m working on getting back in the studio to record my record,”

she said. “My cycle is to play shows and save enough money so that I

can afford some studio time.”

Sling and her band are the Monday night residency act at Detroit

Bar in Costa Mesa. Catch her Monday with the Model Airplanes at 9

p.m.