By Amahli Vivian and Zane Bird Smith
In January 2026, MyVeronica visited KZSC while on their California tour. MyVeronica is based in Los Angeles and first formed in 2021. Initially a solo project, the band has formed a full lineup and is an active band within the DIY space. After giving a tour of the radio station, we sat down with three of the band members and discussed touring, the LA DIY scene, working on new music, The Beatles, where they find inspiration, and more!
MyVeronica is: Mia Lin (vocals/guitar), Tristin Souvannarath (guitar), Hovhannes Tamrazyan (bass), Rah Kanan (drums).
Amahli: I know y’all have been on tour for the past week or so in California, and tonight is your last tour–tour night. How has it been going so far?
Veronica: It’s been really fun. This is our first time touring. And, yeah it’s been super chill. We’ve been not driving very far and just got to hang out in San Francisco. So that was really nice. The shows have been really cool.
Amahli: Nice! Have you done anything else super memorable during the tour, besides playing of course.
Rah: I feel like yesterday was pretty fun. We hung out in the Mission [district], went to the park, ate food, and chilled.
Mia: Classic San Francisco Day!
Zane: Hell yeah, that’s so cool. I feel like your music kind of sits between indie and emo and shoegaze. What’s your thought process in blending all those genres together in your music?
Mia: That’s a great question. I’m flattered by you picking up on that too. We just love a lot of different kinds of music to begin with. And also, personally, my [music] tastes are always something I really get into, and then I write and it’s probably inspired by that and then I write something else and I feel like that’s been the arc in the past couple years a little bit. That natural musical change is also reflected in what we sound like. We just really love a lot of different kinds of music and I think we take our influences heavily, but I also don’t want to just sound like we’re trying to sound like a band from the 90s or one certain band. I’m always trying to filter all the influences and take bits and pieces of it, and then funnel it into something new that feels unique to us.
Zane: Do you have any specific influences you’re really pulling from?
Mia: Tristan and I always get on waves. Tristan really puts me on a lot of really good music, and we’ve been really into Mineral in the past year and a half. I was lucky enough to go see one of their farewell shows in Las Vegas too and that was the best night of my life. Ever since then, I’ve been imagining I’m playing in Mineral. They were just incredible and I felt like I was 14 again in the audience seeing rockstars for the first time. They just played so well and I love their music so much. We’ve been heavily inspired by that and a lot of that 90s alternative emo era more recently and I think that’s reflected in a lot of our new music. We got really into “Clarity” by Jimmy Eat World for a while too. We’re working on starting to track our album, so I think a lot of the production influence will be seen in that. Yeah, I don’t know, we just move music so much! Obviously there’s the niches that we’re really into, but also we just have so many different influences all the time.
Tristan: We love The Beatles.
Mia: We’ve been on a big Beatles kick this tour.
Tristan: We put on “Revolver” in the car today and we put on “Rubber Soul” the other day. And we were like, “this is amazing.”
Mia: It feels like a conspiracy that they made so many good songs. I don’t know how they did that.
Zane: Literally so long ago too…
Amahli: It’s pretty revolutionary.
Rah: In such a short amount of time. In seven years.
Zane: Yeah, I think about that, like how many such good albums they put out in that amount of time. It’s crazy. Also I was wondering because I feel like I’ve gotten a variety of different answers about this from different artists, but do you think about genres in your creative process?
Mia: I think so? I’m trying to think about if I think about it. But definitely certain songs, especially the new songs we’ve been learning and some that we’re going to play tonight, I’ll bring it to them [the band] and be like, “it’s this vibe” and that’s just distilling it to something simpler than what it really is. Sometimes it’ll be like, “this is the Sunny Day Real Estate song,” or the most explicit inspiration. They can kind of hear it and they pick up and play off of that.
I also feel like I think about defying genre too, though. I love shoegaze and our EP that we put out in 2023 was very heavily influenced by Slowdive and that sector of shoegaze. It’s become super popular now. And so now we’re trying to push away from that a little bit and I don’t ever want to be a band that’s just able to fit into one trendy label too. Being subversive of genre also inspires us in thinking about genre while we’re making music.
Amahli: That’s so interesting. I feel like you see that in your song, “Calf” where it feels like you’re really leaning into the guiet/loud dynamics that aren’t in shoegaze or slowcore or indie rock.
Mia: I was going to a lot of hardcore [punk] shows and watching screamo and thought, “that looked really fun. Let’s make one of those.” (laughs) I don’t know if we’re gonna continue down that route, but I feel like it all fits into my Veronica universe still.
Amahli: How do you think the quiet and loud [dynamic] creates this feeling of catharsis?
Mia: Personally it kind of reflects two sides of myself, I guess. I feel that I can be a pretty normal and quiet and chill person in my day-to-day life. But I also have big feelings. That to me is so fun to express through music because I don’t really have another outlet to express that in my regular day-to-day life. Like..I’m not yelling at people or really wielding these big feelings because I want to be considerate of other people. So it’s really fun to play with those dynamics and have a space to express that. But then in certain ways, I don’t feel like I’m like the kind of musician who has the capacity to be super loud and aggressive all the time, you know. I don’t think I could do that all the time. So I feel like it is this reflective, quiet side and then the more intense side all blending together. I just love that sonic device musically too. The Pixies do it so well or The Breeders or bands that I love do that really well. So I feel influenced by that. It’s also fun when we play live. It’s fun to have quiet parts and then have loud parts.
Amahli: How does the audience respond to that?
Mia: I think people like it. It can appeal to different audiences at different times, if that makes sense. There’s certain audiences who I can tell like the louder parts more and there’s certain audiences who are maybe older (like not an all-ages show) who respond more to quiet, meditative parts. But it just depends. We played this show, the first show, the tour on Monday. It was a super cool festival that just happened. We were playing with some bands from Texas, and then they invited a bunch of other bands to be on the bill, and somehow it turned into an eight band festival. We played right after aplacewevealwaysbeen, if you know them.
Amahli: Super chaotic [sounding] band.
Mia: They put on just the most insane, chaotic, heavy set. Like everyone was screaming and jumping and running around and like, everyone was sweating. Some guy got his forehead cracked and was dripping in blood. It was so intense and chaotic that we were like, “Holy sh*t. I can’t believe we have to play after them.” And we–or I was getting kind of nervous. I don’t know how you guys felt.
Rah: I felt nervous too.
Mia: Oh my God, I didn’t know if they would respond well to us. But I think it was maybe the needed catharsis after a set like that. We started with our song “Carousel,” which is very dreamy and I feel like everyone relaxed and locked in. It was cool to be heavy enough to work on a lineup like that, but also give some of that catharsis to that room.
Amahli: Were the Texas bands my point of you and at first, at first?
Tristan: Yes!
Mia: I was so excited to play with both of them. They both are making some really cool music right now, and they ended up inviting a bunch of other really cool bands to join us. It ended up being a really cool show.
Zane: That’s really cool. Also going into the different geographical scenes, how was the LA DIY scene shaped you as a band?
Tristan: There’s a lot of cool music coming out of LA right now, and I feel like going to all those shows all the time, just inspires us. Not in a competitive way, but in a very influential way. Just being like, “this is a very cool thing, I want to lean into this a bit more.”
Mia: Yeah, I agree. Totally.
Tristan: Bands like Punxsutawney. And who else would you say?
Mia: We play with this band called Faint fairly often. They’re from Ventura and come down to LA a lot though. They just went on tour with Punxsutawney too, but they have this beautiful earnestness to them that is super inspiring to me. We played with the band Hysteria not long ago too, and I felt like they just rocked so hard too (not in a competitive way but in a positive way). It made me feel like we gotta rock right now too, it was so cool! Seeing them play so well and so hard immediately inspired me for MyVeronica. [For that set] I pretended I was in Mineral and we had a really good show.
Tristan: I feel like whenever I’m seeing my friends’ bands play at a show, I’m like, “man, I want to go back home and play guitar.”
Rah: I feel like nothing’s more inspiring than watching your friends play.
Mia: Totally. And I just love my friends so much that I watch them play and feel so proud. And that inspires me too. There’s a whole circle of LA bands between the three of us and all of our friends interweave and are connected. Rah plays in this band called Faetooth, and Tristan plays in Friend’s house. A Brighter Summer is another connected project. I play in another band called Grand Prix and sometimes a band called Tunnel. There’s kind of a whole universe of everyone trading off and playing in bands together, which is really inspiring.
Rah: Giant chart.
Mia: I’m working on this giant chart…I wanted to make it for a zine but I started it and it got way too complicated. There’s just so many people. The Charlie, the Andrew…
Rah: The one person in five bands…
Amahli: And it’s always the drummer.
Tristan: That’s the thing about LA. There’s just so much cross-pollination between all these scenes and you’re eventually just going to get lost in it. If you’re trying to figure out who’s in what band and what scenes there are, it’s just…You could say that the emo and the shoegaze scene which are very insular, but at the same time there’s a sh*t ton of cross pollination of all those scenes.
Zane: That’s beautiful.
Mia: I’m so grateful to be a part of it. I really don’t know who I’d be hanging out with or who would be in my life without it. I think largely who we meet are so awesome. Everyone’s so intense in their bands but then is so down-to-earth and supportive, which is pretty cool.
Amahli: I feel like that sense of community is so important. Have you noticed a difference between hometown shows and out-of-town gigs, or are they similar?
Mia: I think so. One cool part is that people have been really supportive to us as the touring band and have come and bought our merch and done that. I feel like when you play around your hometown a lot, that’s less common. It’s funny because when you go to other places, it is kind of the same. You even see some of the same faces almost in there. There’s like these archetypes that you meet and just the styles overlap in a certain way. And that’s super comforting because it’s so fun.
Tristan: You see doppelgängers.
Mia: We’re not that far from home on this tour, but on other tours, it’s kind of familiar and you still understand it and see the way the circles move the same. But I also feel that LA is a different breed of a place. I feel like people–not that their fake in LA–but they tend to be more about the music rather than the aesthetics.
Rah: LA can be a little jaded at times. The crowd can be a little…
Mia: A little cool guy sometimes.
Rah: Yeah.
Tristan: That’s a thing in LA, though. A lot of people say LA is just not genuine and I feel like it’s more of a thing because like the music industry is centered in there.
Rah: I feel like it’s mostly transplants that aren’t genuine.
Mia: I know, it’s never Angelenos.
Rah: It’s never people actually from LA.
Zane: Definitely. I was wondering what the furthest places you’ve toured either individually or as a band and if you’ve noticed a difference in the music scene?
Rah: Well personally, I’ve toured in Europe with Faetooth. The people there are extremely into the music and really friendly. They want to buy lots of merch and support, so that’s really cool to see. They also want to talk a lot after the show. They’ll ask so many questions, which is fine. Sometimes I’m a little tired after a show.
Tristan: I went on tour in 2024 playing drums with Can-Can. We went to places like Maine and Columbus, Georgia. We went to random towns and we were so excited to see there were little indie scenes in towns across America. It all felt so similar and we were able to get along [with the other bands] because we were making similar kinds of music. That’s something about the tour that we talked about too. Everything’s similar.
Mia: We find the pockets everywhere. And it’s so cool to be able to tap into that for a night and be welcomed into that community. That was something that inspired Tristan’s band, Friend’s House and MyVeronica. We put out a split EP called Farewell Skylines. We were both writing about our experiences touring for the first time and seeing what’s out there. There’s this feeling of being familiar with it and also feeling far away from home and experiencing that whole slew of emotions we feel when touring.
Zane: Do y’all get a lot of like creative flow from touring or is touring like more of a purely output kind of thing?
Mia: Well this is our first time doing it with MyVeronica. We’ve been workshopping some new songs that we’re going to go back and track drums for right away. We’ve also been changing our setlist every night too and experimenting with that, so I guess we are being creative. These things are all interweaving. I feel like we’re simultaneously touring for the first time right now and planning for more in March [2026], and also like working on the album, trying to get as much stuff done before Rah leaves for the Faetooth tour. We’re in a creative period right now where we’re trying to finish or get as much done as we can.
Tristan: I do feel like we’ve been getting creative energy from touring, just from being in different cities, and experiencing different regional cultures. We might not think about it right now, but we’re going to internalize everything that we see and work on it and make a new piece of art that is inspired by everything that we’ve experienced.
Amahli: Has there been an especially memorable show from this tour?
Rah: Last night was really fun.
Mia: Last night was awesome. Also the first show we played was kind of unbeatable. It was crazy. That festival at The Haven in Pomona was awesome.
Tristan: It was packed.
Rah: It was so packed. All the kids came out.
Mia: I think people were locked in too, so that was fun.
Mia: Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect from all the shows when booking this tour. I’ve never booked a tour before and it’s a big learning curve. But there’s been pretty much full houses everywhere we’ve been and people have been really receptive, so that’s great! The worst case is that we tour and nobody cares. So at least we’ve been playing to good crowds and meeting nice people every night.
Zane: That’s sick. I was wondering in your opinions, how your sound and creative process has changed throughout your history as a band.
Mia: Well, initially this band started as my solo project, so I was just writing songs in my college bedrooms and putting that together. This is also my first band. So I’ve definitely learned so much, both in terms of getting so much better at my instruments and singing and learning how to play shows for the first time and learning how to use all your gear and learning how to record. I am incredibly proud of how far like this project has come since I started it. And then we went through a bunch of different lineups and we’ve had this current lineup for a year. And with this lineup, I feel that this is it. This is a great version of this band that everyone’s really understanding the vision and helping it work towards that. We’re definitely collaborative with our songs now. I’ll make demos, bring them to the band, and we’ll jam on them. That’s been our new process rather than me writing every single part in my room and then being like, “play this!” It’s been a lot more open-ended and collaborative. Everyone put their own spin on the sound. There’s the landmark influences, but then everyone brings their own thing to it.
Amahli: That’s a fun dynamic.
Mia: It’s really fun. I’m so grateful too because I feel like my bandmates both see my vision and help push it towards it. They add so much that I wouldn’t even think of adding. Rah’s drum parts are so much cooler than anything I could come up with. Tristan just gets the guitar so hard our bassist gets it too. It’s really cool to have a team working on all these songs like that.
Zane: Awesome. Also, I was wondering where the name MyVeronica came from?
Mia: We get that question a lot. It’s an amalgamation of things. I really love the show Veronica Mars. That’s part of Veronica of it. There’s also My Melody from Sanrio and I liked that format and liked the My Bloody Valentine homage. It’s a possessive, it’s my Veronica, but it’s not really clear who it belongs to. It can be mine. It can be yours when you’re listening. It can be everybody’s. I liked that and it also kind of sounded like a cool 90s alternative rock band name
Zane: I love that.
Amahli: You touched on it a little bit, but are you working on anything new?
Rah: Mhm.
Mia: The long fabled album. We’ve been working on this album. Or I’ve been writing songs for it for the past year. But now it’s finally getting to the happening stage.
Tristan: Big things coming…
Mia: Big things coming in 2026!
Zane: Big plans.
Amahli: The world is not ready.
Rah: We recorded some drums a little bit and are going to record some more. And that’s where we start, kinda!
Mia: A lot of the work has been pre-production. I’ve been writing and we’ve been playing the songs. We’re thinking about how we’re going to record them all, but it’s both a beautiful and daunting process. Even though we’re finally starting to record, I’m like, “Oh my God. There’s going to be so much work to do to get to the other side of it.” But it’s all worth it.
Amahli: That’s really exciting. I’m excited to see what it sounds like.
Mia: We’ve learned so much every time we do anything. We have a new wealth of experience every time we go into a new project.
Zane: Do you have anything you’d like to say to the KZSC audience and our listeners?
Mia: Oh, man.
Zane: Very open ended question, I know.
Rah: Stay in school (laughs).
Mia: Love music, take care of each other. Treat people with kindness. F*ck ICE. Free Palestine. I could go on and on and on. But really, just thanks for having us. Anyone else got anything to add?
Rah: You kinda touched on everything.
Tristan: Rock n’ roll.
Mia: Peace and love.
Rah: Peace…and love.
Tristan: Peace and love.
Amahli: Awesome, well thanks for joining us!
This interview audio and transcript has been edited for depth and clarity.