If you love music and you’ve spent time around the Jersey Shore music scene, you’ve likely heard of venues where live music lives, like The Stone Pony or The Wonder Bar, maybe even Asbury Park’s annual culinary festival, Asburyfest. Beyond those well-known stages, you’ll find venues where live music thrives from local acts, such as Crossroads and Dingbatz! – a new wave of local bands is working its way up – including Spyne!
Spyne! is an Indie/Alternative American rock band formed in 2021. Their lead singer and rhythm guitarist, Kyle Moyer, 22, from Woodbridge, is the frontman for the band and founded the group.
Spyne! has grown from a high school Battle of the Bands act into a rising rock band playing shows across New Jersey — including an intimate acoustic performance at Brookdale Community College’s Performing Arts Center.
“The current lineup’s been myself, my drummer Eric Muhler, his brother Liam Muhler, and my bassist Antoni Manousos,” Moyer said.
The band released its first studio album, Out of Nowhere, in 2024 and is already working on a follow-up project that aims to expand its sound.
“With the new stuff, it’s mosh; it’s going to be awesome,” Moyer said. “We want people to party and jump around and really go crazy. A vibe we’d like to bring into some of our shows.”
Spyne!’s music blends multiple rock subgenres, drawing influence from 1990s and early 2000s alternative, while recently experimenting with heavier sounds. “It’s a little bit of everything,” Moyer said. “You could say rock, you could say alternative… We’d like to venture more into a heavier, hard rock sound with this next stuff.”
The band’s origins trace back to high school, when Moyer and friends formed an early version of the group to compete in a Battle of the Bands event in 2022. “I was like, ‘hey, let’s start a band,” he said. “That was the first iteration of Spyne! without the exclamation point.”
The name itself evolved over time — first inspired by a former drummer’s scoliosis, then altered for originality.
“Changing the Y was because there’s probably nine million bands named ‘Spine,’ that exist,” Moyer said. “Eventually, the exclamation point came in… adding some random character symbol, and there it is!”
Bassist Antoni Manousos joined after watching the band rehearse at the Battle of the Bands event. He was three years younger, but Moyer didn’t have a bassist. At the time, it was just Moyer and his drummer, so he auditioned Manousos with “nothing to lose.”
“He came up and he shredded, and then he shredded guitar, which is amazing at 15 years old,” Moyer said. “He’s stuck with me ever since.”
The current lineup solidified later, after Moyer connected with Eric and Liam Muhler ahead of a
last-minute show.
“I lost our old drummer, and me and Antoni were just doing acoustic stuff. I was at work and somebody was like, ‘Hey, they’re doing Sunday showcases again at the Stone Pony (where I work), because right around this time, they weren’t doing it too much. This was the first one since COVID.”
Moyer said he talked to someone he worked with who was a lighting tech and a drummer. That person was Eric. “He texted me, and he’s like ‘Hey, my brother plays guitar; he’s interested in joining another band, would you be down to have him?
“We did a one-day rehearsal… the day before the show — and it was a great show. It’s been that lineup for three years,” he said.
“Working there (at Stone Pony) definitely helped… I’ve known a lot of the people there for a long time. But getting on shows wasn’t really anything that could help without working there.”
Music has long been part of Moyer’s life, even before forming the band. “I just found the love for music and musicianship came along with it,” he said.
He picked up his first guitar at age 10 for his birthday — a Yamaha FG5 acoustic he still loves.
“It’s a beautiful acoustic. I still love it. I think it’s still the best sounding acoustic I had. Ever since then, it was kind of off and on for (about) six years, but by the time I was 18, I met some people who were more into music, and eventually I was able to form a band and then go on from there to now, here, which is really cool.”
Although the first to acquire the skill of musicianship in his family, Moyer grew up surrounded by music at home. It was something deeply rooted in his family.
“There’s no time where we haven’t listened to something… We always had SiriusXM, an iPod Nano, iPod shuffle, one of those things.” Moyer said. “My mom had 80s rock on;, my dad was into heavier stuff like hair metal, new metal, Slipknot, all the heavier stuff. Those were the two main sources.”
Spyne!’s sound is influenced and inspired by an array of different rock bands.
“Foo Fighters influence sits around. We play sometimes two Foo Fighter songs in a set. But for Eric, I would say some of his things are Circa Survive, he (also) loves Rise Against and stuff like that. Liam is everywhere. He loves anything jazz. He likes older rock music, rock staples and jazz staples. He loves indie rock, prog, math rock. He does everything. Antoni is kind of the same way, but he’s much more old school, and when you hear him play guitar, you could definitely hear the old school riffing and stuff like that compared to what William does, which is two different styles. They sound so good, especially when working together.”
Spyne!’s songwriting typically begins with Moyer experimenting on guitar before building out full compositions or getting together with the full band.
“Most of the time it starts with a riff. I’ll just fiddle around my guitar, I’ll hear an older song… and spin it on its head a little bit,” he said. “The lyrics kind of follow…it really spirals from just that first riff to where it wants to be.”
Lyrically, the band focuses on relatable, everyday experiences.
“When you write a song, you’re writing it for yourself,” Moyer said, “but the goal is for people to say, ‘I’ve had that experience.’”
Songs from Out of Nowhere touch on themes like relationships and work, aiming to connect with listeners through shared moments.
“Our song ‘Slow Down’ is about like a date, ‘Out of Nowhere’ is like working a crappy job. Everybody has these types of experiences, that’s a personal one, and ultimately you can get something from that, or I hope people get something from that.”
Performing live remains central to the band’s identity, whether at major Jersey Shore venues or smaller community settings.
Moyer said one of his favorite performances took place at Brookdale, where the band played a short acoustic set for a packed room of mostly new listeners.
“It was one of the best shows we ever did,” he said. “Nobody had heard us before… and it was just a perfect night.”
“We have a video of it online. It’s of our song Deep in the Sand. It was such a good vibe because you walk out in that room and everybody’s sitting on the same level as you, and it was packed. We come out, and it’s just acoustic and it’s all of our songs in this acoustic set. Liam’s on this clean electric guitar. Me and AJ are on acoustics, and the perfect trio, perfect night. It was one of my favorite shows of all time. That setting at Brookdale made it the best thing ever.”
The band has also built a following through regular performances in Asbury Park and beyond, sometimes drawing crowds simply through word of mouth.
“It’s cool to see people come up to you and say, ‘you guys rock,’” Moyer said. “That community shapes us.”
“We really love interacting with them and hearing what they have to say. Hearing their criticisms, hearing their likes about it and stuff. I think that’s the most important part of being a band period.”
The band to relies heavily on grassroots support and live audiences.
“I think supporting local music is probably the most underrated thing of all time,” Moyer said.
“For five bucks, you could find the best band you’ve ever heard.”
“For the local shows, most of them don’t break over 15 bucks, and you could get some really good music from those guys, sometimes for free. When there’s a five-dollar cover, spend the money, come in, enjoy it, because even if the band sucks, at least you say you tried (listening to) another band, and maybe you’ll find the best band you’ve ever heard in your life. You have no idea. You can find something that really surprises you.”
Moyer continues to express how rewarding it can be going out to a local bands show.
“A live show is so much different than what you hear on any recording. It’s imperative that live music makes a little bit of a comeback so that people can say, ‘Hey, this band’s coming here tonight, let’s go see them, I don’t know who they are, but let’s find out!’
My goal would be to make that happen. I would love to see that happen someday.”
It’s the shows in his hometown that stay close to his heart.
“I love playing for Woodbridge. I love playing at the town. It was such a fun time (at) Moby Dicks.
Oh, it’s cool. It’s right off the waterfront, and they’ll do a free park show for the town. And it’s super, super chill vibes.
“It’s in early summer, so it’s not too hot. They had about 100 to 150 people show up just because it’s free live music. People show up and just hang out. It’s about two hours of music, but we always had a great time with those shows, and it’s always so relaxing because there’s no pressure. There’s nothing. You are just literally in a park with the water behind you, sun is setting. It’s just a beautiful time, it really is. I love those shows.”
Spyne!’s growth has included milestones like radio mentions on Q104.3 and airplay on The Rat, moments Moyer described as surreal.
“You’re being talked about to New York,” he said. “I was stoked. There’s nothing that beats that. I remember getting the call that morning. My mother was like, ‘Kyle, Kyle, you have to check the phone right now!’ Shout out Trevor on the radio, Trevor Marden, he’s one of the morning guys. I listen to him every day.”
“We were at WMCX Monmouth (student-run college radio station) doing their 24-hour fest. It
was at 8 p.m. It was a later night and was really cool. There were so many people in there… just
faces like Tom Hamley from The Rat, another awesome guy. We were on a super late hour. I
was talking to (Trevor) for an hour back before that, I was like ‘hey, like come to our vinyl
release, it’s going to be cool!’, I gave him a record, signed it and stuff, gave it to him.”
“Then just one day we woke up. I think it was it was the weekend after that WMCX show. And I
wake up to that, where they’re just talking about us. It’s funny because one of the guys was like,
you know, the Beatles had a missed letter in their name, you know, instead of two e’s it was an E
and A. I was like, oh my god, we just got compared to the Beatles, I’m gonna die right now!”
“The Rat was probably one of my favorites too because I love Tom Hanley, and I’ve done other
stuff for them and they’re super cool. But Q104.3 was a different animal.”
Looking ahead, Spyne! is focused on refining its sound and building a sustainable career in
music.
“We want to make music a profession,” Moyer said. “Finding our sound is going to be very
imperative over the next next few years. We want to make these next years count, and we really
want to make something out of this.”
“I think working and making sure this next album gets to the right people and shows where our sound has gone and what our capabilities are, it’s going to be really imperative. I’m really excited to see how my guys do it, how I do it, it’s exciting to see how we’ll pull it off, and I know that we can.”
Reflecting on their first record, Moyer considers it a huge milestone. “Making an album is really hard, honestly. Getting it produced and stuff and going through the measures of, are people actually going to listen to it? Is it worth the time? Is it worth the money? All of that doesn’t really matter because you’re there to have fun. You’re there to have a good time with your friends.
“It’s definitely an accomplishment because I don’t think there’s many people that could say that they
did that at 18 years old; a professional album like that where its professionally mixed and professionally done with all the money we saved up from shows. None of that album came out of pocket. That was what we earned and pulled together from just doing shows and making sure that we can make it happen.”
Following the release of the album, they had an official pressing for a vinyl record. “When we did the vinyl, it was another really cool accomplishment. It was cool to see people’s faces light up when they’re like, ‘it’s in my hands now!’, physical media…That’s a whole different can of worms there.
For Moyer, the band represents more than just a project. “Spyne! means pretty much everything to me,” he said. “We’ve put so much work into this… It’s like a child.”
“Genuinely these guys are just the best group of guys I’ve ever worked with on anything. I’m not a big group person. I work on my own car alone. I fix things alone; everything else I try to do myself because I feel like other people can get in the way. With Spyne!, I’ve never said that.”
He encourages aspiring musicians to stay persistent and build connections. “If you want to get somewhere, talking to people is your best friend,” Moyer said. “Making connections is imperative.”
“It’s genuinely probably the hardest career that you could get into. Anything artistic like this is, but if you know that you want to do music and you want to be the best, if you have that drive to do it just like any sport (or) any other thing — you can do it. You can a thousand percent do it if you put your mind to it. Talking to people is the biggest thing… Don’t go hide in a corner somewhere and sit back.”
Check out Spyne!’s live acoustic performance of their original ‘Deep in the Sand” from BCC
Band website: https://www.spyneband.com/portfolio/thestonepony
