Music is an incredible foundation for creating a strong community. It brings people together who can then create music together, resulting in a powerful, community-building feedback loop. This is what makes the DIY music scene so enduring, even as money gets tougher for venues and concertgoers.
9FiftySeven embodies this more than any other band I know. They initially formed because of their collective love of music, without any particular plans about what the band would become. Then, as they spent time together and in the larger DIY community, they created a distinctive style, discography, and community based around their music. This strong sense of community is obvious at any of their shows since it is clearly, for the 60 minutes that they are on stage, the only thing that matters to the people in the crowd. People are belting out lyrics they only learned a couple minutes prior and dancing as if no one is watching. This continues past the end of the set, with an online community as well as a set of regulars (myself included!) who go to every 9FiftySeven show.
As a result of the connection I felt to the band and those around it, I wanted to discover as much as I could about them and share it. To uncover their complete story, I talked to them after a couple of their shows around Pittsburgh, asking about their current experiences performing and the development of the band over the past three years. Through these conversations, it illuminated the importance of all types of community for this band and, truly, any band.
Humble Beginnings
9FiftySeven had humble beginnings, starting with something any freshman in college can relate to: the struggle of trying to meet new people. However, while some may meet people in a club or class, Aaron Kibler had a different approach. What if there were some people he could play music with?
So, in the late summer of 2022, Aaron planted the seeds for the band with a simple Reddit post.
“It was a Reddit post … that Ryan [Ali] responded to initially … I made (it) because I was a freshman and I wanted to meet friends.”
Yanny Figueroa then met Aaron through their freshman dorm’s Snapchat group with a similar message. Yanny recalled,
“You asked if anybody played music, and I was like ‘yo, I play music!’ And you were like ‘oh, shit really?’ And then we made our own group chat.”
Aaron, Ryan, and Yanny then ran into their last member, Owen Roth, in their dorm. From Aaron’s memory, “He just lived on our floor, and he had a Led Zeppelin shirt, and because of that he got invited into the band.”
However, it was initially not clear what each person’s role in the band would be. As Aaron explained,
“We just knew we wanted to start a band. So, we didn't really know who's going to be the singer, who's gonna be the bass player, who's gonna be the guitar player.”
Eventually, the band decided Aaron would be on drums, Owen on guitar, and Ryan and Yanny would both sing for different songs. For the bass and second guitar, Ryan and Yanny would trade off. However, as Yanny explained, this was not perfect for them.
“I know one of us was always unhappy to play bass because it wasn't our main instrument and we were always shoved there.”
Yet it worked well enough to play together and do some smaller shows at the end of 2022 and start of 2023, which, at the time, consisted mostly of covers for a variety of different genres the band enjoyed. They also created some original songs in this time, though they lacked a clear direction.
“We didn't really have a clear, set sonic instruction from the beginning,” explained Aaron.
“I think a lot of bands start with a clear songwriter. That's not really how 9FiftySeven started. So, it's kind of a hodgepodge of what we were all listening to at the time. Our first song we ever wrote was Vampire Kiss, and that one, compared to the rest of the songs we've written, is probably one of our heavier songs. And that's got some MCR influences into it. And then you got stuff like Will You Allow It, which has some more of Yanny's influences from like Wallows, indie rock kind of stuff.”
The Band Develops
Throughout 2023, the band continued to write songs, some that would end up on the first record, such as Nervous Freak and My Friend, while others would be permanently lost to time. They also started to do more shows around Oakland, where they built connections with many people in the DIY scene. Through these connections and a lot of work on their part, the band was able to reach new heights in production and songwriting.
One key moment in their development was when they produced their first single. “The process in which we recorded and released ‘My Friend’ was probably the moment in which we solidified the project,” said Aaron. “Because we worked with this guy, Alex Fallon, who was in Pitter Patter, and he helped us really refine the song and showed us some ways to approach writing music and making and releasing music that I think altered how we went about the band. And I feel that was probably the key moment when we started to get more serious about it. It was the first song we ever released.”
It was also during this time when Frank Mileto, the current bassist, heard about 9FiftySeven.
“I saw you guys at Echo Chamber with Trip Lotus, and I loved all the covers and stuff. But I kind of forgot about you guys until the other 9FiftySeven shows, where I was like ‘these guys are really good.'”
He remembered fondly that during these shows, “I was talking to you guys for so long, and there was just an instant connection there.”
Then at the end of 2023, as the band’s discography and the community around them had grown large enough, they decided to put together their first album.
“We wanted people to actually hear our music, and a lot of our friends and people who usually come to our shows were really anticipating it,”
explained Yanny.
“So we wanted to get all the songs that we've ever made into an album so our friends, our family members, and everyone who listens to us can have it.”
Now the band needed to find a producer, so they decided to call up a friend from the community to help them out, Frank.
“I got a DM from Yanny being like ‘yo, can you help us record our album?”
recalled Frank.
“And I was like ‘I’m so down.’ I was honored and I had to call up the best in town to help me out” — Yanny interjects — “Benito (Countoris).”
The band, Benito and Frank then worked on the album throughout 2024, and while it was slow going, that was not a bad thing.
As Frank recalled,
“We were in the basement, Aaron's basement, recording for months, and we just became really good friends over that time.”
One reason that the album took so long was that working with Frank and Benito on the album spurred creativity in the band.
As Frank explained,
“We would go in for recording, and you guys were like ‘we wrote this one last night, do you think we should put it on the album?’ And I was always like ‘yes, more.’ It was just more work to do, but it was so fun; I didn't want it to stop.”
In the summer of 2024 while they were still working on the album, the original guitarist Owen transferred away from Pittsburgh. Suddenly the band was down a member and needed to find a new one quickly.
“Owen told me, ‘you should ask Frank to join the band.’ And I was like, ‘I do want Frank to join the band,” recalled Aaron. “And I remember I sent Frank a really vague text like, ‘hey, we're looking for a bass player. Do you happen to know anybody who would be interested?’ Like, wink, wink. And he responded with, ‘me’ and then a crying emoji, and that’s how Frank joined.”
While it was sad to see Owen go, a fresh perspective and voice was good for the band, which was approaching its two-year anniversary.
“I feel like we had gotten to a point where we were having a lot of in-band disagreements over stupid things like: ‘should this verse be here,' ‘should this drum part sound like this,’ that sort of thing,” explained Ryan. “And his [Frank’s] personality meshes so well with the three of us that it became so much easier to come to agreements on those sorts of things. He also brought fresh ideas because we had been playing together for two years at that point.”
This new perspective produced immediate results for the band.
“That first month Frank was in the band, I think we wrote arguably two, at least my two favorite songs, ‘Will You Allow it’ and ‘Said and Done,'” Aaron remembered. Also, as Frank was able to play bass, it finally allowed for Yanny and Ryan to play guitar, their preferred instrument, full-time.
Finding Their Sound
This period of writing music, recording, and community collaboration allowed 9FiftySeven to find their songwriting niche. This development was only further solidified when Frank joined the band, allowing for a new era of creativity and stability in the lineup. Instead of being a variety cover band, 9FiftySeven shifted to being a catchy, danceable indie rock adjacent band, not afraid to get the crowd moving. In the words of my friend who initially introduced them to me, “they have strong local energy, with a well-crafted and confident performance.”
One major change during this time was in how the band organized their songs.
“Earlier songs, and ‘Space Song’ and some of the songs in that [first] record are like this, where they didn't have a clear structure; they would be very long, kind of jammy, there'd be multiple different sections,”
explained Aaron.
“And then we took ‘Take Me’ and ‘My Friend,' and we went more in that direction than some of the other songs that were on that first record.”
Another major change was an increase in the instrumental and lyrical variability throughout their songs.
“I was under the impression that repetition meant catchy, and sometimes it is, but sometimes it could be too much,”
explained Yanny.
“What we've done as a band is tone down the repetition, and repeat some lyrics, but also change the instruments. Or keep the instruments the same, but change some melody, and it does add a lot to the song. It doesn't feel static all throughout.”
Though, part of finding their niche is discovering what already works for them. They still create songs that fit into variety of different genres as a result of the band’s hodgepodge interests.
As Aaron explained,
“our most recent song is a latin pop song, and the song before that was a grunge song … we do like to play with the genres a lot.”
For Ryan, another consistently important aspect of their sound was,
“We want our songs to be catchy. No matter what we do, no matter what sort of layering, or harmonies, or things that we add, we just want it to be something … that will get inside people's heads.”
For Yanny, there was a specific show at the start of 2025 where she felt it all came together.
“I would say the second HAVEN show that we all played together was the best show that we've ever done. That's when we covered Paramore plus Olivia Rodrigo, and something clicked about that show. It felt like we were all liquid and flowing with each other, and then afterwards, there's this certain euphoria. And sometimes we mess up and the feeling isn't there, but that show we were all so ecstatic because we knew we had all done such an amazing job.”
That show was my third 9FiftySeven concert, and it was as memorable as she made it out to be. With perfected dance contests (people will really do anything for a free shirt), catchy tunes, and an excellent ‘Misery Business’ + ‘good 4 you’ mashup, the entire crowd was moving and singing by the end of the night.
Looking Forward
Even within their niche, the members of 9FiftySeven continue writing songs that push their boundaries as musicians, releasing new singles throughout 2025 and into 2026. One such song was ‘The Moon and the Sun,' a song debuted at HAVEN last January.
Yanny explained,
“I thought that it would be really cool to make a space song again. It's slower, a little bit more melodic. And Ryan's on harmony here, and I was really excited to make a song with harmony this time because it's only usually one voice or with Frank doing an octave lower, but never really an actual harmony.”
They also continue trying out new things on stage. As Ryan explained, at this same show, “We tried doing a grand entrance. We've never done that before.” This meant instead of all band members going on stage together then starting the song, it started with just Ryan and Aaron on stage doing a bass line. Then, Frank and finally Yanny came on stage, slowly building up to the song before actually starting the set.
Now, this is where I would like to say that “9FiftySeven is only just getting started, sure to continue innovating far into the future," but it is not that simple, as Yanny, Ryan and Aaron, freshmen in 2022, are now seniors. They have started planning their post-graduate careers, which will likely take them away from Pittsburgh, putting the future of the band on unstable ground.
However, even as they begin to move on from college, a couple hundred miles are not going to break the bond that has formed between the members of the band.
As Frank explained,
“9FiftySeven is never going to go away because it's not just about music, it's not just a band. 9FiftySeven, it’s a friend group, it’s a family.”
Aaron then follows up,
“9FiftySeven isn't a place, it's a people.”
Even if things are uncertain, Aaron is optimistic.
“I don't think 9FiftySeven is ever going to go away fully,”
he said.
“I think in the future you're probably going to see less live shows. We're going to be like The Beatles; we're going to be a recording band… There definitely will be more music continuing to come out in the future.”
Now as 9FiftySeven’s current chapter is coming to a close, I hope this article serves as a testament to one of my favorite local bands: a band that truly represents music’s power to build community. They started out as four freshmen just trying to get their footing in college, and through this band they formed a strong friendship of almost four years. Then, with a ton of work on their part and help from the community, they were able to go from a group of friends jamming in their dorm to a local powerhouse, capable of selling out shows across Oakland.
No matter what happens with the band, the local scene that has fueled their growth and grown alongside them shows no sign of stopping. Years from now, when the bands of today are only faint memories to the wizened local artists, in the Pittsburgh potties, shaking floors, and shitty speakers of Oakland basements, the spirit of 9FiftySeven will always live on.