San Diego band Messy Hera share their favourite head-banging hits that have inspired all of their upcoming music
Messy Hera, made up of Ronin Cianciosi on drums, Talia Aziz on bass and backup vocals, and Maddie Jones on guitar and vocals.
Emerging from the Southern-Californian coastline, Messy Hera are a perfect mashup of distorted guitars, gnarly vocals and sickening drumming.
Coming off the release of their latest single ‘Put it to an End’, the band shared what tracks they couldn’t live without, and the ones that have impacted their unique style.
With strong roots in the Riot Grrrl scene of punk, Messy Hera has a one-of-a-kind sound that blends heavy-rock with harrowing and meaningful lyrics.
Check out their playlist below and make sure to have a listen to “Put it to an End.’
Destroy Boys – Crybaby
This song is an early influence of Messy Hera. This was the first song we discovered of theirs and we immediately fell in love. Before them, we were writing our songs as just the regular structure; verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, end.
But seeing how well they transitioned and did so many experimental things when it sounds like an iconic punk song opened us up to a whole new side of our ability.
Red Fang – Painted Parade
This specific song was the soul inspiration for our song “Fuck You Flaker”. The drum intro to this song was so intriguing and inspired us to create our intro.
When they hear our intro live, the audience knows what’s coming and gets instantly excited. Red Fang is also a key factor in the shift of our sound from being straight punk to adding a heavier element with lower tunings and breakdowns.
Queens of the Stone Age – Song For The Dead
This iconic song off the album, “Songs For The Deaf” is a Messy Hera member favorite. The intro of the song gave us the inspiration of the intro into our newest single, “Put it to an End”, with the pitch harmonics driving the audience to curiosity and excitement.
“Song For The Dead” vocals with the harmonies and eerie sounds inspired the melody and slow section of the song, since we also wanted to have that similar eerie and uncomfortable feeling in our song.
The Side Eyes – Cat Call
This song is a deep-rooted Messy Hera favorite. The first year of us playing shows we had this song be one of our covers. Our drummer Ronin Ciancioci introduced me and our last bassist to the song and we fell in love with it.
With Ronin being a natural metal drummer, this was an introduction to incorporating that style into the punk style the string instruments adapted to, and from then on we have created the pieces we did that made us who we are now.
Dazey and the Scouts – Nice Nice
This song was a turning point for Messy Hera. After briefly covering the song at live shows, Maddie Jones, the singer and guitarist, and bassist and backup singer Talia Aziz loved the sassiness and somewhat spite that came from the vocals and how they would go back and forth.
From then, we wanted to include that same style in the songs we write, which has gotten great reviews. Our song “In the Ruins” being about the events in Syria, includes both singers an equal amount of time, which is very fun to do at shows!
Suicidal Tendencies – Cyco Vision
This is an early cover Messy Hera used to play at shows. Playing this song and discovering more and more about this band revealed to us that metal and punk DO clash.
This was our introduction to the early hardcore punk genre which influenced our writing. We have been told we have some metal influence on our songs, and if it is true, it comes from this song.
Bikini Kill – Lil Red
This classic punk band is a deep-rooted inspiration for Messy Hera. Bikini Kill was the very first Riot Grrrl band that Maddie had first discovered and is the band that made me realize that she wanted to be in a band.
This song is her personal favorite Bikini Kill song, it is a big influence in her life and a song that she will always be thankful to exist. It was the band that led Maddie to form Messy Hera. If Bikini Kill didn’t exist, neither would Messy Hera.
Minor Threat – Straight Edge
Despite Messy Hera being a more modern style, we still value the ethics of punk rock. Minor Threat along with Fugazi, both led by Ian MacKaye, are straight-edge bands.
Messy Hera, after learning about this movement, wanted to join in and keep it alive. We promote “Straight Edge” through our songs, an example being our song off our EP Crash and Learn titled “New Best Friend”, a song about someone leaving you to use drugs.
We stand with the “Straight Edge” movement both for our own lives and to make others who don’t drink or do any drugs feel comfortable enough to still enjoy the music being produced and not have to feel the outside pressures of those substances.
AC/DC – Back In Black
This is the first song Ronin learned on drums and the first song that he ever improvised on, which led to more freedom and ways to figure out his own style of drumming.
Twenty One Pilots – Pet Cheetah
This was Ronin’s introduction to Twenty One Pilots. When he was a young drummer, playing to Twenty One Pilots helped him exceed in his drum playing ability.
Slipknot – Psychosocial
This is the first heavy song Ronin learned on drums, and it introduced him to a whole other perspective and drumming which he decided to take on.
40 Below Summer – Snakecharmer
Ronin’s uncle played drums on this song and it has such a cool drum part, he never gets bored playing it. Plus, it’s from a really cool underground band from New Jersey, where he used to live.
Herbie Hancock – Chameleon
This song also introduced Ronin to a whole different side of drumming, and music in general. The fact that the old hip hop groups such as Mobb Deep sample some parts of different songs from Herbie Hancock make it so much more cool to listen to them.
Red Fang – Humans Remain Human Remains
Talia takes a lot of bass inspiration from this band, however this song is especially one that she admires because of how all of the instruments flow together so beautifully.
You really don’t feel that the bass is in the background, it shines just as much and even more at times which she admires a lot.
Sublime – Seed
This is a song Talia had dedicated hours to learning and helped her expand my other skills in bass aside from the songs Messy Hera played, but the new skills and sounds she learned from that song opened my eyes to new possibilities and play a role in how I choose to write bass lines in newer Messy Hera songs now.
Jack Off Jill – Nazi Halo
Talia fell in love with this song from the first time she heard it, and then it became a huge inspiration for her when it comes to Messy Hera.
The bass tone is incredible and the instrumentation of the song along with the sassy vocals really just hit the spot. The overall vibe of the song is very similar to how she sees our band.
Rotten Blossom – Not HXC Enough
This more underground band based out of Hawaii has produced this kick-ass song. The riff is so catchy and she loves the rawness of the vocals on top of the instruments.
This song was her practice song for when she was learning to scream in the car driving down the highway and it’s still the song she listens to when she needs to practice again.
