Of Mice & Men

Of Mice and Men are named after the 1937 John Steinbeck novella of the same name, the only thing that separates the California metalcore band's name from the book is the use of an ampersand in the place of the word "and."

Of Mice & Men was founded by Austin Carlile, the original vocalist of Attack Attack!, New Zealand bassist Jaxin Hall, drummer Valentino Arteaga formerly of Lower Definition, rhythm guitarist Jon Kintz formerly of Odd Project, and Phil Manansala, a touring guitarist for A Static Lullaby.

Manansala told Ultimate-Guitar.com the story of forming the band: "I met Tino and we had some drinks. I was like, 'Oh, we should just quit our bands and start a band.' Then I met Austin and eventually he got kicked out of Attack Attack! And started another band. I contacted Austin because I didn't want to be in Static so I was like, 'You know what? Let's do something.' So I contacted Tino and it was like, 'OK, let's actually do this.' It happened like that and then the band went on and we ended up having Aaron come in. I toured with all three of these people in back-to-back-to-back tours and then we all joined the band together."