Can You Dig The Digs?

“I slept like four hours today,” shared lead singer and founder of The Digs, Andrew Padilla. “I don’t know if that says a lot but when it comes to music, in the middle of everything, I’m either listening to music or playing it. It’s just one of those things you have to have, it has to be there”

Inspired by the raspy, indie, alternative sound from the likes of The Strokes, The Arctic Monkeys, and The Smiths, The Digs are a local band composed of Cal State Long Beach students and alumni looking to inspire connection and have fun making something new as a byproduct of self-expression.

Starting from a casual turned geeking conversation about a sticker of The Strokes, Padilla, 19, and eventual band drummer, Claire McLoy, 19, initially met for math tutoring. Their shared passion and fandom for the garage rock icons would lead to Padilla creating a Reddit post on r/CSULB in search of other members. From this, the duo met Aris Ammons, a 23-year-old CSULB alumni with six years of experience playing the guitar. With that, their three-person band began.

So, how deep did the trio need to go before coming up with The Digs?

Photo by Em Chen.

“Well… we went through like 50 names and they all sounded really corny. Our first one was called ‘Three Four Seven Eight’ and it was annoying because no one could find us. People would just look it up on YouTube and ask ‘What is this time signature stuff?’ I think we went with Three Way Date, then we went with The Pikes, and then we went with The Digs,” Padilla shared. 

“We had to change our name from The Pikes because there was a CSULB frat with the same name,” added Ammons.

It wasn’t long after adding Ammons and settling on a name that they realized they needed a bassist. Luckily Ava Zell, 21, would be introduced.

According to Zell, her passion for music was fostered throughout her childhood as she played in bands with her family, and continued to play music in and outside of school.

“An old coworker connected Aris and I and the rest is history!” Zell commented.

Photo by Em Chen.

Before even conceiving the idea for the band, Padilla released an EP on Spotify titled “Whoopsie Daisy”. A culmination of his passion for early 2000s rock and the isolation he experienced during quarantine, he would go on to use the EP to recruit his bandmates as well as guide him in the creative process.

“There’s this one song called ‘Grown’ and that one’s about every stage of my life. I feel like that defines what all the other songs are about: the stages in every teenager's life and how they deal with loneliness, ” he shared.  “I like that it resonated with my bandmates, too, and I hope it resonates with more people in the future.”

The youngest and newest member of the band is 18-year-old keyboardist Gio Aguirre. A graduating senior in high school, Aguirre, despite only recently joining the band, has known Padilla the longest and, like the rest of the band, is passionate about creating music.

“I’ve been playing piano for around six years. I started off playing classical music and writing sheet music, and then I went into more improv and started trying to make my own type of music that way,” stated Aguirre, citing his academic responsibilities for the delay in him joining the band.

Photo by Em Chen.

With the band growing, McLoy admits that it’s somewhat a struggle to coordinate rehearsals, but acknowledges some of the magic that that brings. “I think the rarity of it makes it all special. We still do have time for our own social lives but we try to make time because we do this for a reason, it’s fun,” she shared.

“There’s just a romance to being in a band,” Padilla added.

The emotion and intimacy with which they perform is a fun but raw look into each individual member – why they play music and the band as a whole.

For Ammons, “It allows me to express myself because I’m not the most talkative person. I don’t like talking that much, so I kinda let music do the speaking for me, even in what I listen to, not just the music I play.”

Aguirre is impassioned by  the endeavor of originality, “I like the fulfillment of hearing something that we created that sounds good. Experimenting with it a little bit and then finding something that hits and you get that feeling of ‘That’s it!’ That feels good.”

“I have a billion different songs stuck in my head all the time and the band just allows me to get it out there,” shared Claire. “Anybody who knows me knows how I’m always playing the drums by myself, but it’s nicer to be able to play with people and get those ideas out.”

Photo by Em Chen.

Moving forward, The Digs hope to further define and refine their sound as well as, one day, producing a full fledged album.

To keep up with everything else related to The Digs, you can find them on Instagram at @the_digs_band.