When it comes to major-based courses at San Diego State, individuals are surrounded by peers who share similar interests.
That’s the story for a group of five students who met in class and all had something in common: a love for music.
Saint Luna Band is an alternative, indie, psychedelic modern-classic rock band based out of SDSU, featuring Bradyn Jace (singer/guitarist), Max Katz (bass/singer), Charlie Black (guitarist), Paarsa Heidari (drums) and Wick Hauser (guitarist).
Heidari, Katz, Jace and Black all met in class in fall of 2019, well before COVID-19 had changed the world.
Katz, wanting a performing aspect on campus, started “Sunset House” where he and other musicians would play small “backyard gigs.” Katz’s idea inspired the other members to get involved.
Stuck in quarantine due to COVID-19, the friends started a group chat, sending videos of them playing music to one another. This is when they began to think of forming a band.
“Max, Paarsa and I just played one day when we had all of our gear in the studio and something clicked,” Jace said.
Having all been in bands before, they soon realized they needed another guitarist, so they invited Black to join. It didn’t take long for the newcomer to integrate into the band world.
“Our fifth member, Wick, we found him on TikTok, so we posted one of our songs and he covered it, ” Jace said. “Then we DM’d him a month or two later, like ‘you wanna come jam?’ and he said yes.”
The members said initially, it was just something to do, just to jam together and have fun. The musical capabilities of each member brought something new to the practice sessions.
After the lockdown was lifted, SDSU helped the band secure a gig at a bar in El Cajon in May, where they played in a corner of the room and students came out to support them. Since then, the band is grateful that they have the opportunity to have that “real band experience.”
“We just love live music and were happy for that to be back,” Heidari said.
Saint Luna’s unique sound has them eager to showcase their talent as well as experimenting and changing with each new song they produce.
“When we do play live, we wanna make sure that we’re playing things live,” Katz said. “We don’t play with backing tracks or anything fake, everything we do, we make it.”
The band has gotten opportunities to produce music in actual studios through school connections and record singles with professional equipment.
“Now that we’ve been to all these studios and we’ve gotten to work with a lot of really cool people and interesting equipment, we’ve been able to learn what we want and how to do things,” Katz said.
Saint Luna hopes to grow with the San Diego scene, however, they say don’t get too excited about an album just yet. The band said they have many singles in the queue, waiting to be released.
The band’s goal is to go on tour and to open for a more well-known band as a starter. Saint Luna already has a pretty massive following with 43.3K followers on TikTok and over 4K on Instagram.
“Not only were we making music but we were proud of what we were doing,” Jace said.
Their new single is coming out on Sept. 17 and a live show coming up on Oct. 2 at Soma San Diego for all ages to attend, tickets can be found on Saint Luna’s website or on Soma’s website.
