Tony Molina

Northern California native Tony Molina has a restless, multi-faceted musical personality. He got his start playing in hardcore bands, but over time developed two distinct styles that are very far removed from that sound. Initially under the name Ovens, then as a solo artist, he crafts bite-sized chunks of melodic pop that can be broken into two sub-headings: quiet acoustic guitar-led ballads and noisy electric songs that sound like Teenage Fanclub with J Mascis and the Fastbacks' Kurt Bloch spearheading a dual guitar attack. Molina broke through with 2013's Dissed and Dismissed, which leaned almost exclusively on his louder songs to great effect. Not content to be pigeonholed, however, he switched to the gentle, acoustic side of his dual nature for his next two releases -- which included 2018's Baroque pop-influenced LP Kill the Lights -- before issuing 2022's In the Fade and 2025's On This Day, two stellar albums that incorporated all aspects of his previous work as a solo artist. Molina played in various D.I.Y. hardcore acts starting in his teenage years, while at the same time recording short songs that varied from acoustic ballads to almost symphonic metal, none of them lasting much more than a minute. This work was released under the name Ovens, beginning in 2006 with the "Beau Goes to the Hospital" single. He kept up a prolific pace, both as a member of bands and as Ovens, and in 2009 released the first music under his own name, the 12-song Embarrassing Times cassette. As the 2010s began, he continued recording as Ovens, joined the lo-fi punk band Violent Change and played on their self-titled album, and fronted the hardcore band Caged Animals. In 2013, Molina released his second solo album, Dissed and Dismissed, a collection of 12 short and fuzzy tunes that took notes from '90s indie and power pop acts like Weezer, Redd Kross, and Dinosaur Jr. What was intended as a demo caught the attention of fans of melodic guitar pop and hooked two legendary American labels, Matador and Slumberland. The former released the Six Tracks EP later in 2013; the latter signed him and reissued Dissed and Dismissed in 2014. While playing guitar in the hardcore band Scalped, Molina began work on his first Slumberland record. He wrote and recorded over 40 songs, feeling pressure to make the record just right and wavering about which musical direction to take. In the end, he pivoted from making an album to releasing an EP instead. Stripping away the power and guitars from his pop sound, the eight-song Confront the Truth featured Molina playing acoustic guitars, adding keyboards, and channeling his love of the Beatles. His next album, 2018's Kill the Lights, came about much more naturally. He worked on some songs with a friend, Jasper Leach, and they decided to make a record out of the demos they had started. Recorded in two studios and a bedroom, the album was again built around Molina's acoustic guitar and winsome pop melodies, but this time featured some folk-rock-ready 12-string electric, a full-band sound, and Leach's keyboards. The next year, the Smoking Room label convinced Molina to put together a collection of previously unreleased songs from throughout his career. Titled SONGS FROM SAN MATEO COUNTY, the 14-track album was released in July 2019, just about the time Molina was wrapping up a U.S. tour with Culture Abuse. When he began putting together another album, along with writing new songs, he also dipped back into the vaults to extract a few demos that were written during the Ovens era but never finished. Once he had a batch ready, he braved the COVID lockdowns to head to the studio with long-time collaborator Leach at his side. Also helping out were drummer Josh Mendoza and Sarah Rose Janko, his partner in the folk-rock duo the Lost Days, who provided harmony vocals. The finished album, In the Fade, was released by Summer Shade, an offshoot of Run for Cover, in August of 2022 and was the first of his solo records to contain all the sides of his musical personality under one roof. His 2025 album On This Day also gathered all the musical strands that had made up his career to that point; mixing Baroque guitar interludes with chiming 12-string-led folk-rock, and cheerful Beatles-y guitar pop with grungy indie rock. He worked with Alicia Vanden Heuvel at their 8-track studio on basic tracks, then added keyboards at Jack Shirley's Atomic Garden, along the way getting contributions from members of his live band (vocalist Rachel Orimo, guitarist Stephen Oriolo, drummer Steve Kerwin) as well as trumpet from Ladybug Transistor's Gary Olson. The record was issued by Slumberland in late 2025.
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