Oakland's Still Ruins joined BFF.fm DJ Sweet T on a recent episode of Casually Crying to chat about how the band got started, their debut EP, return-to-stage jitters, which branch of government each member most resembles, and what’s coming up next for them.

Still Ruins members Frankie Soto, Jose Medina and Cyrus VandenBerghe have been in sooo many beloved bands, including Surf Club, Craft Spells, Welcome Strawberry, Baseball Gregg, No Vacation, Pink Breath of Heavens, Proud Parent, etc. etc. etc. Their new EP has seen them winning acclaim and appreciation from the artists they admire, including Kip Berman from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Choir Boy, and of course, Cyrus’s mom. “It’s the first thing she’s liked, I think,” Cyrus told Sweet T.

Listen to the full interview here, and enjoy some snippets from the conversation below!

Sweet T: How did y'all land on the name Still Ruins?

Frankie: I thought of it in 2015, like right after our old band broke up. I grabbed the email, the Bandcamp…just about everything that you can grab band-wise.

Jose: You would’ve bought the domain name also.

Frankie: I didn't grab stillruins.com. I'm sure it's already gone. But I grabbed everything that I could. Like, even before me and Jose decided to make music again, I was just like, I'm gonna take it. It sounds kind of cool.

What’s the backstory of Still Ruins?

Frankie: We first decided we were going to actually do the band when Cyrus joined in 2020. Before that, Jose and I did, like, two songs and then didn't do anything for two years. “Perfect Blue” is an older song, and after Jose re-structured that and reworked it, we did “Silhouette.” Then I went to Chicago in 2019 and did demos with Justin from Craft Spells. After that we were just like, okay, we got these demos, and then that was it. [laughs] Like, we didn't do anything until Cyrus joined. Then we were like, we should probably write songs and maybe try to be a band. [laughs]

Jose: Frankie was trying to motivate some urgency into me. He's like, we’ve got to get going on this or Cyrus is gonna tell us that nothing's happening here and be like “I'm just gonna leave.” [laughs] So, yeah, we needed Cyrus in our life.

Frankie: Before Cyrus came, it was just me and Jose, like, riding together for so long. Even with Surf Club, a lot of times it was just me and him. I would go to his house before work or after work and be like, “Okay, I got a song idea. Let's try to lay it down now.” That's how it was most of the time, just me and him at his parents’ house when we were, like, not even 21, writing music together. We've been writing music together for a long time.

Are there differences or similarities between writing songs for Still Ruins versus the other projects you’ve been in?

Frankie: I feel like we're definitely more open to each other's ideas; it's more collaborative. I used to just write the lyrics by myself in my older bands and then we’d just go in and record them. But now, we're all including each other in our processes of what we're doing. Like, I’m showing Jose and Cyrus the lyrics and then me and him are figuring out harmonies and stuff together for recording. We all get together with Jose and, like, fully do the structure of the song. So it's more collaborative for sure.

Smoking Room works with a lot of artists that I love, and I feel like they've really created such a strong community. What was your experience like working with Smoking Room for this release?

Frankie: Sam’s great. He heard the first demos back, and he told us that he wanted to release whatever we plan on releasing, like, that long ago. So he has been kind of just in on it, scheming with us or whatever you want, from the very beginning. I remember me and Jose went to his house and showed him the EP, and he listened to it once and was just like, “Let's do it.” We weren't even sure if he was still going to be into it because so much time had passed.

Cyrus: And if it was going to fit in aesthetically with the other bands like TAGABOW and Hotline TNT…TONER. Like, is this gonna fit?

Frankie: Yeah, we were kind of nervous at first. Like, what if people are mad that we don't rock?

Cyrus: “This guy’s sensitive that’s singing!” [all laugh]

Do you have any favorite parts of making the EP or any parts that were maybe more difficult?

Frankie: Recording with our friend Daniel Baylis was really fun. He had this really cool studio. It's like in between Modesto and…some other area. [Laughs] All you see is orchards and stuff and then his house. Like, that's all I saw on that road. But that was a lot of fun. He helped Cyrus record the first Welcome Strawberry EP and LP. All of us going to the sessions, doing the vocals, even though I had to go back so many times to redo stuff because I wasn't happy with it, but it…it ended up working out and getting the songs together, together was the most fun, I think.

Cyrus: Yeah, that part's fun. Recording is not fun sometimes. [Laughs]

Frankie: Yeah, but putting the songs together was fun and hearing Cyrus's harmonies on the songs for the first time was really cool and other guitar parts that he added to the EP.

Are there any types of media, other than other musicians and bands, that inspired the sound of this EP in particular?

Frankie: Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue and Paprika really influenced me a lot.

Cyrus: I’m just the biggest Gregg Araki stan there is.

Frankie: I didn't know about him until Cyrus showed him to me, and I'm like, okay, I get why you like this guy. This guy's fuckin sick. Just that Nowhere soundtrack alone.

Jose: 80s horror movies. I guess more specifically like a lot of the anthology-type of stuff. Tales from the Dark Side. Creepshow. Creepshow 2. I just really liked the music scores to a lot of those paired up with the grainy film cinematography of that time. I feel like it did actually effect the kind of music that I want to come up with.

What are some of your current favorite Bay Area bands?

Aluminum, Torrey, False Figure, Sweet Trip, Non Plus Temps, Buddy Junior, Parallel, Wander, topographies, Sympathy Flowers

Listen to the full episode for more on how these bands influenced Still Ruins' sound, songs from the EP, news re: new music, and lots more laughs. Still Ruins is out now via Smoking Room. Their next gig is at Bottom of the Hill on May 31. Tickets and details here.