Castaic High School is home to its very own upcoming stars, a screamo, midwestern emo band that prides themselves on lyricism: Noragami. 

They officially became a band around two months ago. Juniors Adam Pessin, Edgar Morales, and Anthony Gallegos started a cover band in 2023. However, it soon faded out after six months. Pessin and Morales were determined to continue making music and began to form a band of their own, eventually bringing Gallegos back on and recruiting Scarlett Ordaz, senior, and Isaiah Crawford, sophomore, where they became the tight-knit band that they are today.

In the few months they have been together, they have performed at two shows. For their first show, they only had one original song prepared, “Silence.” 

“We were fairly new and were still getting used to playing together,” Ordaz explained.

Two weeks later, they performed at the Heart Destruct Music Festival’s show, Trixi. Only having a few weeks to prepare, they faced a lot of strife trying to create a fifteen-minute set. Originally, they were afraid they wouldn’t be able to do it and dropped out. But then, something clicked and they rejoined the set.

“And then, out of nowhere, we all were like ‘We are gonna do it’,” recalled Ordaz. 

They persevered and pumped out four new songs: “Snow”, “Ceasefire”, “Blood in The Water”, and an untitled track. Overall, they learned a lot from the experience. Moving forward, they hope to work on managing their time more efficiently and stay focused on making progress on their music, “But that comes with more practice and time,” Ordaz noted. 

Creating new music is no easy task, but Noragami makes it sound simple. They often start with an experimental tune when practicing and developing songs. This beginning stage is often conducted by drummer Pessin or guitarists Gallegos and Morales. The other band members will then join in, progressing the initial tune and adding the finer details to produce a definite sound. Finally, Ordaz adds the finishing vocals. Some of their songs are inspired by personal experiences, such as breakup songs, “Snow” and “Silence”. Other times, Ordaz, the band’s main lyricist, has her band give her a word or event that she uses as inspiration for a song.

“Ceasefire,” however, was created by Pessin, as a way to express his perspective on foreign troubles in the world. 

“I want the world to acknowledge more what is going on and speak a message through our music,” said Pessin.

Noragami best enjoys experimenting with symbolism and expression. In “Silence”, Pessin sings from the perspective of someone who can’t let go of a relationship while Ordaz duets the other perspective– of needing to be let go

As a primarily screamo, punk band, they take a lot of inspiration from bands such as Burial Etiquette and the Knumears. However, they hope to expand their limits when it comes to genres, like SCRAMS, while still staying true to the midwestern emo style they currently align with. 

“The best thing about midwestern Emo, you don’t have to follow too many rules and just get to feel the music and play with it together,” Morales shared.

Pessin added, “That’s what I like about it[midwestern emo], you can make a very melodic song but add vocals that are very emotionally driven.” 

Going forward towards screamo, they would love to add a stronger stage presence to create a more entertaining environment during their shows. 

“I think our stage presence is going to need more work but for two shows, we are doing pretty good. We got a little mosh going on in the back,” Morales explained. 

“We want to have more of that energy but we are definitely working on it.”

They recently started selling merchandise. They currently have two different shirt designs, one designed by fellow Castaic student Norah Wilde, and the other of their mascot, a dog jumping over barbed wire. 

Castaic junior, Keven Recinos, was hired to make their merch. Recinos has been making and printing shirts for around a year, All his shirts are handmade at his home. 

Through a screening process, involving ink, a stencil, and a frame, Recinos forces the ink into the shirt using the frame and stencil, recalling it takes hours in his day. 

“It can get a little stressful, trying to get the shirts to come out as perfect as they can, but I make do with what I have,” said Recinos, “Y’know I love Noragami.”

The band expressed their admiration for Recinos as they quickly sold out of their shirts at the Trixi show.  

Moving forward as a band, especially as Ordaz graduates, they hope to continue to expand their image by doing more shows and selling more merchandise.

“I appreciate these guys and I’m happy I’ll most likely be able to grow with them,” said Ordaz. 

She, along with the rest of the band, truly enjoy making music together and sharing their talents with the world.