Kmway & Co. Music and Art's Band of the Day

What genre would you describe your music?

Sage: In my opinion I think The Mystery Club at the end of the day is a great little garage rock band that is punk FAST and metal LOUD and KICKS ASS!

Devin: To me that’s a question that’s dogged us for some time. To me, we are just a rock and roll band. We play in abandoned houses and garages, we listen to metal and adult contemporary, and at the end of the day we just want to play our instruments loud. 

Why venture into music?

Sage: I think as friends Devin and I have a very strong musical connection which to me is a greater reflection of our friendship which spans back well over a decade at this point. And being inspired by a lot of great bands that we love that came before us we have always been enamored with the indie rock myth of starting a band from scratch and being able to play music anywhere and for anyone in the name of making genuine art! 

Devin: Basically it all starts with Guitar Hero 2 on the PS2 if I’m being honest. I distinctly remember Surrender by Cheap Trick being the first rock song I ever was interested in because of its lyrics and instruments, and of course it was one of the first songs in that game.

What was the moment this band became real? (The Beginning)

Sage: Ever since we were in college our goal was to play in a band of some kind. We’ve played with other people and tried to make stuff happen but for one reason or another those early projects never took off or consolidated. Us trying to do a two piece was our way of committing to an idea by writing a few songs around the concept of being a bass and drums duo and sticking with it. And eventually the three original songs we wrote expanded into our set list with about 12 originals and few covers. When we did our first show back in 2024 at Meowmeowz in Pasadena it became apparent to us that the practice and preparation along with the chemistry we have built with our previous projects has given us something that was very genuine and meaningful. It hasn’t always been easy but the more we push on the more real this band feels to us!

Devin: College and COVID was really the genesis of all of this. I played guitar as a kid, but stopped taking instruments seriously while I was in High School. Come college time, six months into my freshman year the world is shut down. Me and Sage started f-ing around playing music with random young musicians from Fullerton, and that spark of “oh shit playing music with other people really loud is a ton of fun” got the juices flowing. Since I was the worst guitar player of the bunch, I naturally moved to bass, but that instrument really took hold of me. I went back to school out of state, and spent three years playing the bass guitar alone in my room with headphones on. To fill out that empty space, I started running my instrument through pedals and tried playing power chords like I was used to from my basic guitar days, and by the time we were both graduated and back in California, we found a ragtag formula for a band that we didn’t really hear other people doing.

Has your sound changed since you first started? What pushed that evolution?

Sage: I think that the formation of The Mystery Club itself was a big musical turn for the both of us. For me I had played my guitar my whole life and ultimately switched to drums because we never could find a drummer that was really into what we were doing. And honestly I think learning to play drums and being in that role has expanded my abilities as a musician and songwriter. I don’t claim to be a good drummer or anything of the sort but I will claim that I probably play with one of the most dynamic and creative bass players/vocalists in Devin who in my opinion can give a lot of guitar players a run for their money with just his bass.

Devin: Our sound has changed as we both have grown as individual musicians playing off one another.  Any evolution that has happened, began by myself and Sage constantly playing together and finding what works and what doesn’t. We’ve experimented with songwriting in the style of all kinds of bands we both love and appreciate, and through that process we’ve been able to pick out specific techniques, sounds, and song structures that work for us in our capabilities as a band comprised of heavy distortion bass, drums, and vocals.

What are your musical influences? 

Sage: I think for me and Dev to an extent a lot of our influences come from the great bands that are from Southern California and beyond are a huge influence to us. From Agent Orange and Social Distortion from our native North OC, the SST era bands from the 80s LA scene like the Minutemen and Hüsker Dü, and the 90s desert stoner stuff like Kyuss and Sleep. These bands have been very influential on how we want our band to sound and operate. I think the Minutemen's “jam econo” philosophy in particular has a big influence in our two piece set up in the sense that we make the most of what we have. We also love a lot of classic rock and it’s made its way into our setlist as we do a back to back cover of The Byrds “You’re Still on My Mind” followed by Buddy Holly’s “Cryin’ Waitin’ Hoping” which makes people want to sing along during our sets which is great!

Devin: Like a lot of twenty something Socal natives who play music, I’m the son of two parents who got to be a part of the final glory days of rock and true independent bands being on the world stage. Despite that, I never truly “got it”, because I was never able to see any of those bands play a club, or play a party before they “made it”. There’s a difference between hearing “Santeria” on KROQ, and getting to see Sublime play a backyard. Through my friendship with Sage, I’ve gotten exposed to what live music truly can do to you as an audience, in a way that makes me love, understand, and appreciate music and bands in a whole new light. So in a sense, my musical influences have changed drastically the past five years or so, to where bands like Thin Lizzy aren’t FM shlock, but rather a machine gun of energy, whose records take me to a place of excitement and raw power that invoke the incredible experiences I’ve had seeing tremendous bands play live in front of my own eyes. I hope that made some kind of sense.