untitled (halo) are on the rise

Original Photography by Todd Miller & Donovan Novotny Sometimes, the best meetings of the mind can’t be reverse-engineered or predetermined. After years of a music discovery culture so centred on algorithms and synthetic popularity, it’s refreshing to watch a band come up the good old fashioned way. That’s certainly the case with Dirty Hit’s newest prodigies, the band untitled (halo). Born out of the sunsoaked stretches of suburban Los Angeles, friends-turned-collaborators Ariana Mamnoon, Jack Dione, Jay Are, and Nicholas Noneman are unifying years of solo work and disparate creative adventures under a new banner that explores the dichotomous malaise and community found in California’s endless summers.All California locals, Mamnoon, Dione, Are, and Noneman bumped into each other through odd jobs, bands, and friends of friends. Mamnoon and Are first met at Los Angeles’s dublab radio, a community-oriented nonprofit that acts as a launch pad for the city’s next-up. Noneman first found Mamnoon at a skate park during COVID, where they linked up over a shared love of skate culture and Alex G. “Fun fact, our early TikTok was an Alex G fan page,” Noneman snickers and admits. “A video o...