He boasts a four-octave vocal range and has written more than 300 original songs. In just one year, he has led his band through nearly 60 performances in more than 30 venues. When he holds his15-second falsetto note, one wonders if he just might one day soon rival the long note of soul great Bill Wither in “Lovely Day.” Yet, there is one more reason they call this young musician “gifted.” Twenty-five year-old Scott Siegel lives with autism.

“He has an amazing gift and I think a lot of it is due to his condition,” Siegel’s father Michael said.

Siegel is the “gifted frontman” of Arrest My Sister, an independent band that has jolted onto the local Los Angeles music scene in the last year. With this month’s release of their debut LP, Make Your Move, the band is poised to make its move from local sensation to national renown.  So what’s their secret? Simple: inclusion. Through a sister campaign to unite communities that would not typically interact, AMS seems to be riding a wave of success built upon diversity – or Diversity Dances to be exact.

“Bringing together disabled and non-disabled people… we’re doing it one community at a time,” Siegel said. His father further explains the DD social events:

“We’re trying to promote the concept of what’s called ‘inclusion,’” he said. “Not just being in the room, but feeling like you belong, like you’re part of the social fabric… focus on an activity that both populations would be attracted to. Music is a natural… once the music starts, it’s invisible. It becomes invisible.”

This initiative is more than just a father’s heart-warming show of support for his son, however. Michael said America needs to prepare itself for an imminent influx of a disabled adult class.

“The statistics are there,” Michael asserted. “One in a 110 born today has autism. One in five people walking around, rolling around, or whatever they’re doing have some form of disability. That’s 20 percent of our population. And what’s really scary is, in the case of autism, 80 percent of the population that has autism is under the age of 21. There’s a huge transition of people coming into adulthood who are people that have disabilities. And to compound it, 70 percent of people with disabilities are unemployed.”

As the disabled population grows and becomes more prevalent in what’s referred to as the more “typical” population, DD and AMS aim to help bridge the gap that currently exists between the two communities. With Siegel as an outspoken representative of the disabled class, he has proved to be a most inspirational poster child – demonstrating that a disabled person can participate as a highly-functional citizen of the typical society.

“We’re people first,” Siegel’s father affirmed. “We’re not the labels of what we may have.”

As Siegel prepped his band for an evening performance at the popular LA venue The Joint – referring to his set lists, leading sound check and more – there was not anything out of the norm to witness. Siegel appeared to be every bit of typical, perfectly capable of everyday tasks. Siegel’s father explains, however, that he and his family worked to achieve his son’s now “more typical” behavior:

“I’ve had to teach his teachers how to teach him,” he said. “I’ve had to teach his employers how to train him… you’ve heard the expression ‘the light’s on but nobody’s home?’ In their case, they’re home. It’s simply our job to find the light. They’re hard-wired different. That’s all.”

The big “light” to turn on for various disabilities is social skills, such as holding a conversation, being responsive, giving eye contact, etc… While people with certain disabilities do not seem to pick up on typical social cues on their own, they can be taught through therapy and social skills training.

“What’s really interesting is, I believe that the same screen that holds back the ability for a person with autism to [naturally adopt social skills], is also a screen that keeps out the negative things that we learn – like being toxic, being judgmental, having a tough heart,” Michael said. “Scott and a lot of kids with autism, or disabilities in general, they just have the most amazing hearts.”

Plus Michael added, most disabilities come with “a certain savant quality.”

“When he was younger, he would hear a song on the radio and he would tell you who the artist was, what year the song came out and what album the song came from,” Michael said.

Now, Siegel is performing those same songs, along with original tracks, on stage. Fittingly, the band that aims to bust social barriers also obliterates any sense of performing within the confines of just one music genre. Fusing blues, funk, reggae, rockabilly, alternative and more, AMS’s eclectic mix of music appears to have a bit of something for everyone.