Stay Out came together when the band’s singers, Grant Pack and Mason McGeorge, met at a party. “We had a lot in common.” McGeorge said. “I’d been searching for my musical partner. We started jamming Green Day and Misfits covers, and playing open mics. We had another drummer, who broke his collar bone, so we added Nate Reynoso.”
The band has a few albums listed on their Bandcamp page, but Pack said their new record, Broken Homes, is their official debut. “We finally learned what the word debut means,” he said, laughing. “I’ve been pronouncing it day-butt. It’s getting a wide release, but we still did most of the work on it—writing, producing, recording—on our own.”
Reynoso said, “We have help with advertising this time, but all the booking and merchandising is done in-house. We design everything we sell, book all the shows, arrange all the tours.
“We all come from the Gilman DIY scene,” he added. “We’re not afraid of hard work, doing whatever it takes to accomplish what we want to do. Last summer we went on a three-month tour, nationwide and into Canada, with no booking agent—and broke even. We rely on our friends and community to help accomplish our goals.”
Pack said Broken Homes is, more or less, a concept album.
“It’s a story of leaving chaotic households,” he said. “All three of us grew up with divorced parents, so it’s a roadmap for anyone finding themselves in similar situations. I didn’t spend much time at home after high school and took refuge in music. The lyrics we wrote are relatable, not only to folks in the band, but to those who have been reaching out to us since it’s been released.
“Not everyone gets a chance to speak their mind all the time,” Pack continued, “so the songs are for them, but selfishly, for myself as well. A lot of these songs are reminders for us to constantly be grateful and remember what life’s all about.”
The album was recorded in the home studios of Reynoso and Pack.
“We start by tracking guitar and bass,” Reynoso said. “I do drums after. We create the songs in their entirety, before I write drum parts that complement the song. We didn’t use real amps, just digital amps. It allows you to have more control of the tones. We have a small budget, so we can’t go back into a studio and tweak things.”
While the band’s sound is rooted in the propulsive tempos of classic punk, their rhythmic experimentation, strong guitar hooks and heartfelt vocals give the album’s 15 tracks a unique sound.
The title track nods a bit to prog rock. Reynoso’s dynamic drumming shifts tempos a few times, closing with a waltz, with catchy guitar hooks highlighting the chorus. Pack describes his dreams of packing up a car to escape from the discord of his family life.
Reynoso drops a pattern with a hint of samba in it to the driving backbeat of “Signs.” Distorted guitars augment the lyrics as McGeorge expresses his sense that this is not the first time he’s walked down the path of life, singing, “I know we’ve been here before …”
“Time To Go” closes the album, with Pack singing quietly, accompanied only by acoustic guitar. He mentions the moments that gave his life meaning, promising to wait for his loved ones on the other side, when it’s time to go.
Pack and McGeorge said they’re proud of the band’s East Bay roots.
“Not only punk, but East Bay hip-hop, like the Hieroglyphics,” Pack said. “Hip-hop made me think about music in a whole different way. The Bay Area is a melting pot of cultures, very diverse, always something new to learn. It shows in the diversity of our music as well. I wouldn’t have the energy to jump around the stage the way I do without eating Hotboys chicken.”
McGeorge added, “It’s great to come from an area that a lot of our favorite bands came from. Green Day, Operation Ivy, the Mr. T Experience—a plethora of bands out of this area that shaped our sound and the band as a whole.”
Stay Out will play at 7pm on Thursday, Aug. 27, at the Kilowatt Club, 3160 16th St., San Francisco; at 2:30pm on Saturday, Aug. 29, at an Oakland Ballers Game at Raimondi Park, 1800 Wood St., Oakland; at 7:30pm on Monday, Sept. 7, at the Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., San Francisco; and at 8pm on Friday, Sept. 11, at Eli’s Mile High Club, 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. Listen to ‘Broken Homes’ at stayout.bandcamp.com/album/broken-homes.
