Trending Upwards: Meet Allston Band Dino Gala
(L to R) Miguel Aragon, Alex Massey, Christian Schmidt, Martin Kessler and Bailey Willetts make up DIY Allston band Dino Gala
All Photos Courtesy of Saffron Shoots // @saffron_shoots
Allston-based band Dino Gala is breaking the mold for Boston DIY artists, achieving a debut, an East Coast tour with Boston band Raavi & the Houseplants and the accumulation of over 30,000 TikTok followers since April. With their newest single, “British,” releasing on February 18th, the emo-indie band’s success is only trending at an upward trajectory.
Although Dino Gala released their first three singles “run it back,” “fire escape” and “Fun Fair” in 2021, Alex Massey (vocals and guitar), Bailey Willetts (guitar), Martin Kessler (vocals) and Miguel Aragon (bass) are no strangers to the music scene. The group originally formed while attending Berklee School of Music in 2017 and has since added Christian Schmidt (drums) as the newest member while their ex-drummer Veronica Bettio is currently operating as their manager.
The band previously went by multiple names, such as Roach War and Melk, but Dino Gala naturally stuck after serving as an inside joke between the members. “None of us are super good at naming things, like songs or bands or albums, whatever,” Massey laughs. “So we went through a lot of names that were all kind of bad.”
Out of their three singles, “run it back” received the most traction on Spotify, racking up roughly 323,000 streams. The fuzzy, abstract indie track discusses how communication issues had led a friend group to break apart while living together, with Kessler singing “Way too small to talk through / No one leave the room until we all feel closer”
“We were trying to cover an Alex G song like three years ago, and Miguel recorded the synth part that plays throughout the whole song, and then we just kind of forgot about it,” Kessler says. “When COVID started, it developed into a full song with my other roommate, Jordan, who helped produce and write that song, and we just kind of did it at home.”
With “British” contrasting the mellowness of “run it back,” the band stresses that they are not pinned down to one genre. This noisy, upbeat, pop-punk track is a sister-song to “Fun Fair” and features a scream-breakdown which is a guaranteed head-bopper.
“I don't know if anything we've written really calls back to that sound,” Kessler says. “It’s the thing we kind of do once, you know, and I don't know if we'll do that sort of thing again.”
Dino Gala’s experimentation will not end with the release of “British,” as they plan to branch out even further on their debut EP. Massey describes the project to be filled with shoegaze, pop-punk, indie and even 1950s and ’60s pop elements. “I wouldn't say that we're a very specific genre,” Massey says. “I think it's kind of hard with musicians, because you don't want to just be like, ‘Hey, this is exactly what genre of music we're playing all the time, right from the beginning.’” Although there is no set release date as of now, the band is planning to drop the record this spring.
The band is currently planning an East Coast tour that will feature local bands at each show, and hopes to extend their shows to the midwest and Canada in the summer. You can expect Dino Gala to perform in Atlanta, Charlotte, New York City, Richmond and more. Until then, be sure to check out “British” on February 18th and look out for their upcoming EP!