The Lost Years

Eschewing genre pigeonholes and labels, The Lost Years has a powerful ethos for its music, Joey Reynoso, half of the duo explained.
He and guitarist Nigel Hamblin aim to sonically illustrate “how absurd life can be and how beautiful life can be at the same time.”
The pair, now based in Los Angeles, will return to Riverside, where the group started, to perform at the Mission Tobacco Lounge on Wednesday, Jan. 8.
For a band that has such a positive outlook, its origins stemmed from a dark place.
In 2006, Reynoso was trying to be an actor while battling an eating disorder and a family member who was a drug addict. He had to stop acting because he became so sick.
Back home in Riverside, he worked at a water store, where his boss encouraged him to read poetry and books.
As Reynoso discovered authors such as Sylvia Plath, he wrote in journals and had an epiphany that he needed to start a band.
“With music I felt like it was a thing where I got to accept and reflect on myself,” he said.
Loving the melodies of The Byrds and the Velvet Underground as much as the raw emotion of Hole and Nirvana, Reynoso found a kindred spirit in 2007 when he returned to King High School. Attending a musical showcase, he was moved when he saw Hamblin perform Brand New’s “Soco Amaretto Lime.”
“People talk about love at first sight, I feel like this was bandmate at first sight,” Reynoso said.
For Hamblin, he was nervous performing up on stage at the showcase, even though he and Reynoso had both been part of the theater department.
“It wasn’t until Joey came along that that confidence really built,” Hamblin said.
Even though they had known each other, it was after the showcase when the pair began hanging out and making music, first in a folk project called The Wishing Well, and then as The Lost Years, which Reynoso described as “folk-style guitar with punk abrasiveness.”
“I call our style a musical mutt,” Hamblin said.
Wednesday night’s show is part of Mission Tobacco Lounge’s acoustic night.
That’s the beauty of this band — Reynoso and Hamblin can give the same song multiple personalities, moving seamlessly between a rollicking post-punk, fuzzed out version and a melodic folk turn on the same piece of music.
“If a song is a work of art, it has a life of its own,” Reynoso said.
The other aspect that sets the duo apart is the thought behind the lyrics, whether the song is Reynoso reflecting on his sexuality or being homeless, or referencing the Bible and Greek mythology. The song could be a melodic ballad or an adrenaline-filled post-punk tune, but using powerful imagery and telling a relatable story is paramount.
“It’s all about a journey,” Hamblin said.
The band’s newest single, “I’m So High,” isn’t about drugs, but rather the story of Icarus, flying too close to the sun and the thoughts going through his head as he falls to his death in the ocean.
Up next for the band are two new singles due out before March, including a Sonic Youth-inspired song and another that’s more surf punk and tells the story of two star-crossed lovers separated by different galaxies.
After that, The Lost Years will release an EP in the spring or summer that has the influence of a 1960s Leonard Cohen album, Hole’s “Live Through This” and the Jesus and Mary Chain.

8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 8, Mission Tobacco Lounge, 3630 University Ave., Riverside,

951-682-4427, 21 and older only.

Visit www.facebook.com/thelostyears and http://thelostyearsmusic.bandcamp.com for more information on The Lost Years. - Press Enterprise

Members: Joey Reynoso, Nigel Hamblin.
Cities of Origin: Riverside.

Kindred spirits: The Velvet Underground, Hole, Nirvana and Sonic Youth.

Websites: www.facebook.com/thelostyears.

Frequents: Back to the Grind (Riverside), Worthington’s Tavern (Riverside) and The Blood Orange Infoshop (Riverside).



(WEB)botwAlthough their sound is post-punk, The Lost Years has some heartwarming, personal experiences to share with the world. After recovering from an eating disorder in 2007, member Joey Reynoso used this experience to write the latest single “I’m So High,” a song that deals with his post-traumatic stress and transcendence into his identity. Their EP entitled Revenge and Reincarnation, expected to drop in the summer of 2014, also deals with intense emotional experiences as means of influencing the audience to fight through struggles and enjoy life. This album has been in the works for the past year, including singles that are expected to drop early in the New Year. Not only is the band working on new material, as part of the queer community, The Lost Years will be participating in various queer and women’s rights festivals—promoting its music while simultaneously supporting a great cause. With a handful of shows coming up in the next month, there is no reason to miss such an inspiring and entertaining band in a live performance. Costumes, dancing and guest musicians all add to the vivacity of its shows, creating intense energy and fun vibes. Although the band is fairly new, The Lost Years is getting around quickly, and it is sure to become an IE favorite.

What are your influences?

Nigel Hamblin: ‘80s, ‘90s, punk and post-punk. ‘90s alt-rock, Sonic Youth, Nirvana and a ton ‘60s music. I take a lot of influence from Peter Tosh and Brand New as well as a variety of genres and periods.

Joey Reynoso: I would say a lot of ‘60s music for me too. Especially with the use of melody, and the way things were recorded. I like very romanticized atmospheric music. I adore Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood, The Mamas and Papas, The Grass Roots, The Everly Brothers, The Ronettes, all things Phil Spector, all things Lou Reed. And then of course you got “the god father of punk” Iggy Pop. Then we got our punk, post-punk bands and poets: Hole, Beat Happening, The Wipers, Henry’s Dress [and] The Raveonettes.

Tell me about your song writing process.

Reynoso: It works in a number of ways.

Hamblin: There is no one way we write our music. Sometimes Joey writes lyrics and I come up with the riff for it.

Reynoso: Sometimes I write the lyrics and a general idea of a chord progression, and Nigel will perfect it, and other times Nigel comes up with a riff, and I’ll write lyrics to it. As far as writing lyrics though, I journal a lot and pour out many of my ideas there and sift through them later. Two of our more recent songs “Bad Boy” and “Honey Bee” happened very naturally—Nigel was playing guitar, and I had some rough versions of lyrics that I had written just the day before. He just kept playing, and I wrote and re-wrote, and in about an hour we had two new songs. We’ve also done this thing before where we write in journals separately and then swap them with one another. Then we make a variety of creative responses to each others journaling—sometimes it’s pictures, drawings, poems or relative anecdotes.

Hamblin: It’s a very interconnected process.

Reynoso: For us, being a band is largely about being great friends to each other, being a support system, having clear communication and understanding each others emotions and experiences. I’ve opened up to Nigel about some crazy life experiences I’ve had, and when I explain to him what my lyrics mean I think it bonds on a deep level that helps the song come to life. - IE WEEKLY