Meet Nights Like Thieves

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nights Like Thieves. Them and their team share their story with us below:

Nights Like Thieves jumped onto the San Diego music scene in October of 2016. When Mario J. Rivera (Guitar/Vocals) had moved to San Diego from Albuquerque, NM and was looking to start a band. He posted some of his demo songs on the Craigslist community board. In the same night, two friends Steve Smith (guitarist) and Franky Guzman (bassist) independently (and unbeknownst to each other) both replied to Mario’s ad. After a few emails back and forth within a couple hours, a song materialized with music written by Steve and Franky; and a second guitar and vocals laid down by Mario. The track was titled “Distraction”.

With a song ready to be played, the guys set a date to get together. However, one thing was missing. A Drummer. Steve hit up his friend and at the time drummer of his band, Aim For the Engine, Scott Ingenito. With everyone on board and down to rock, they met up and practiced together, officially forming the band.

After writing a collection of songs, the band then was ready to record and play shows. They posted demo songs on social media and caught the attention of San Diego label “La Escalera Records” who then signed them on a handshake deal. With minimal knowledge but great determination the band self-recorded, mixed & mastered their first E.P.: “Light the Fuse and Run” featuring songs that remain on their set to this day.

The first venue to feature the newly formed band was The Tower Bar in April of 2017 at La Escalara Fest 6. Gaining some momentum and with the first show under their belt the band continued playing through the year earning some minor notoriety within the San Diego scene.

In mid-2017 the band would return to the studio to start recording their second E.P. “Sophomore Slump”. Having roughly half the E.P. recorded the band suffered their first stumbling block with the departure of drummer Scott. Undeterred the E.P. was finished and released in December of 2018 on Orange Whip Records receiving great praise and even being nominated for a San Diego Music Award.

With the loss of a drummer, the band set out to find someone to fill the void left by Scott. After playing with a few different drummers and using some connections gained over the years the band found, Chris Floyd. A young talented musician of the San Diego scene, Chris brought a style that continued helping the band evolve.

Wanting to build a larger audience the band set its sights on touring. They booked a little run of shows and called it “The Southwest Getaway tour”. With dates booked in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas the band hit the road in April 2019 and was well received outside of their hometown.

A few months after, unfortunately, the band had to put the brakes on when they received the news that drummer, Chris Floyd, was to be taking his leave. The band was bummed and struggled over the next few months to find a suitable replacement trying out many drummers with little success; and when it rains it pours. The band was also having internal conflict which ended with the loss of founding bassist, Franky Guzman.

Finding themselves in limbo, Steve and Mario blindly stumbled around in band purgatory for months. In early 2019 a breakthrough came with the addition of Scott Szikla on guitar and Steve moving to bass. Still needing a drummer the trio continued auditioning, unsuccessfully, until welcoming drummer and friend of Scotts, Keoki Lanza to the band in late 2019. With two great new additions the band, once again, found themselves on a path moving forward. Using that momentum, the band had enough songs to record their third E.P. “The Forgotten” featuring some talented and notable voices in the industry, including Sonny Sandoval of P.O.D., Scott Sellers of Rufio, Jared Woosley of Fivespeed and Angel Flores of Painting Promises. However, that was to be short-lived as the onset of the ”virus” put the brakes on that forward momentum in 2020.

With the outbreak of the pandemic the band suffered yet another loss with the departure of guitarist Scott Szikla in late 2020. Feeling as if this band is cursed. They then went on hiatus during lockdown. But you can’t keep a good (or at least stubbornly adequate) band down and in March of 2021, the band welcomed Matt Ainsworth on guitar. Another veteran of the San Diego scene, Matt added yet another layer of progression and songwriting to the mix.

Playing their first show with the current line-up in May 2021 at OC Sellout Fest, the band has been moving full steam ahead ever since. Releasing their fourth E.P. “Better Late Than Never” in October of 2021 featuring guest vocals from, Kody Templeman of Teenage Bottlerocket and Nathan Leone of Madina Lake. The band is currently working on and releasing new music for 2022, content like music videos, live performance videos, a YouTube animated video series in the style of Beavis and Butt-Head, touring, and more!

Nights Like Thieves has overcome a slew of obstacles and to this day continues to bring melodic, emo, punk, rock bangers to the ears of willing listeners…

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

Thanks for taking your time to read this and thanks to VoyageLA for having us. We’re stoked to be a part of this!

If you’re not already following us on social media, Spotify, and all that good stuff, please do that now!

Feel free to reach out to us if you ever wanna say hi, go out to lunch, be in one of our videos, hang out and party, or… yeah, you get it… seriously though, we’d love to hear from ya!

Stay Rad and much love to you all!

Contact Info:

• Email: nightslikethieves@gmail.com
• Website: https://linktr.ee/nightslikethieves
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nightslikethieves/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nightslikethieves
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/NLTbandSD
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/nightslikethieves
• Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nightslikethieves
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/nightslikethieves
• Other: https://nightslikethieves.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits
@mjr79
@theburritowhisperer
@gabesglobe
@catatonicmisery