48 HILLS (SAN FRANCISCO) -- Born in Mountain View, Mena was first drawn to guitar heroes like Jimi Hendrix before discovering Tera Melos around 2015. After checking out the band’s Facebook page and being drawn to the group’s intricate sound, Mena noticed their guitarist, Nick Reinhart, was offering lessons.
“He basically introduced me to the whole thing,” says Mena. “[He’d say] ’Check out King Crimson, they’re really great. Check out This Town Needs Guns, check out Hella.’ It was clearly a new world to me.”
At the time, Mena was studying Political Science at San Francisco State. “I was failing all my classes really, really badly,” he says. “I felt like I’d made a huge mistake. I signed up to do stuff that I wasn’t really that passionate about. So as a way to kind of derail the whole thing, I decided to practice as much as I can.”