The Sunday Music Drop is a weekly radio series hosted by the KQED weekend news team. In each segment, we feature a song from a local musician or band with an upcoming show and hear about what inspires their music.
Childhood friends James Miranda, Anthony Franceschi and Gabe Monnot make music you can feel in your bones. With a self-described “West Bay fuzz rock” sound, their band, Murvyns, has a particular blend of blown-out, rock-and-roll and sludgy pop songs that take influence from a small but mighty cult hardcore scene in Millbrae.
“Me and my friends have been repping Millbrae forever,” said James Miranda, bassist and singer for the band. “It does get a little bit of flak, because it’s like a random little city. But if you think about it, it’s like a kind of a hub of San Francisco and the Bay Area in general. It’s the last stop on the BART line. We’re not ashamed of our roots.”
Miranda’s love for Millbrae and its music scene is evident in the band’s name, which is based off Mervyn’s, a defunct department store that once had an outpost in the city’s downtown.
“We were trying to think of something quintessentially Millbrae,” he recalled.
Murvyns carries on a tradition of representing the “West Bay,” a name for the Peninsula that originates from the Bay Area punk rock scene. One of the champions of the West Bay moniker, Millbrae’s Tony Molina, is among the influences Miranda cites, as he does Dinosaur Jr., Guided by Voices and Black Sabbath. He also points to Franceschi’s jazz drumming background, and his history playing in deafening grindcore and powerviolence bands, as elements of the Murvyns sound.
“We just want to play as loud as we possibly can,” said Miranda. “Every single flyer says, ‘Bring your earplugs.’ I want you to feel it, not just hear it.”
Though the bandmates grew up playing music, Miranda is open about how daunting it feels to get back into the local music scene. He credits “Back on Track,” the first song on their record, as the song that gave him the confidence to start putting music out again.
“For me it was huge, because it was sort of my reentry into making music that’s not just for me in my basement to listen to — to get back out and play, and try to make records, and do the whole band thing,” he said.
Miranda is also forthright about the “bummer” nature of Murvyns’ subject matter. “Back on Track” tells a story of redemption, of being deep in a struggle with dependence or addiction, and trying to make things right.
Likening the experience to getting choked up during a relatable movie, he said, “I don’t think that’s a bad thing, to be reminded of maybe some more unpleasant times in life, because sometimes a little gratitude will reset you, whether you’re choosing it or the universe is choosing it for you … It’s a little bit of a reminder of how it is now and how good it can be.”
Murvyns will be performing at The Knockout in San Francisco on Saturday, April 22, 2023.