Eight years since getting together, Saint Astonia is more enthusiastic than ever to share their music with people. 

Adam Gontier and Mike Mushok didn’t plan on putting together a band but discovered they could make good music together.  

In 2015 Gontier, who has just left his previous band, and Mushok started working on some songs together which led to the formation of Saint Astonia. Now, the band has four members and three released albums.  

Gontier is the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist and Mushok the lead guitarist. Cale Gontier, Adam’s cousin, is the band’s bassist and backing vocalist. The final member and drummer of the band is Cody Watkins. 

Gontier says he grew up in a family heavily influenced by music.  

“My mom is a musician as well, she’s a piano player and a jazz singer. I grew up watching her perform and write songs so from a pretty early age, I was introduced to performing live,” he said. 

Gontier remembers being 12 years old and having his mother take him to sing with house bands. 

Saint Astonia makes rock music with heavy messaging along with melody. Gontier says that his own struggle with addiction contributes largely to the songs he writes. However, there are also other things that have led to changes in their messaging over the years. 

“It’s going through the pandemic, just not being able to do the things we love to do. I think there’s a bit of a hopeful sort of message in most of the stuff we’re writing now based on coming out of the pandemic a little bit stronger,” he said. 

Gontier shared that they have a family-like connection in the band, which has been made stronger by Cale’s joining.  

“We [Cale and I] basically grew up as brothers, although we were cousins. So we’ve played music together since we were about five years old, and our plan was always to play on a big scale in a band together,” he said. 

The band has toured through North America, Brazil, and some countries in Europe over the years. Gontier says that most highlights of their career as a band come from performing live in front of fans. 

“Playing shows is really why I do this and being able to play in front of almost 40,000 people in Brazil and just touring and playing shows is a lot of fun,” he shared. 

The band is looking forward to putting out new music and new shows next year. Learn more about the band, their songs, and tour dates on their website.