Every time the guys in post-hardcore band Our Last Night go to Buffalo Wild Wings in Brea (about an hour southeast of LA), they see the sign for TAPS Fish House & Brewery and wonder what they’re missing by not trying the neighboring restaurant. This time, it’s a Thursday afternoon and they finally got the chance to try the brewery’s menu. They’re also easy to spot, as Trevor and Matt Wentworth, Alex “Woody” Woodrow and Tim Molloy are probably the only people in the restaurant under the age of 50.

“I think I’m gonna get a burger, because I can never have enough of those,” says Trevor, the band’s vocalist. Molloy, the band’s drummer agrees and orders the same.

“Those fish tacos are calling to me,” adds Woodrow, bassist and yoga instructor.

Matt, who plays guitar and sings alongside his brother, goes with the tuna melt, and everyone has different craft beers in front of them. On Trevor’s recommendation, I go with the grapefruit IPA.

As everyone waits patiently for their food, there’s only one topic being discussed at the table.

“Man, I lost $25 last week on FanDuel,” Trevor mentions to no one in particular.

“Wait, do you guys do multiple teams in the same league with that, or do you play a bunch of different leagues?” Molloy asks the table. 

Yep, that’s right. Like most other guys in their 20s, the members of Our Last Night spend their free time setting rosters and checking stats for the fantasy football world. But finding the most updated injury report is far from the only thing the New England products regularly use their phones and internet for. 

“It’s all about social media these days,” Trevor says. “YouTube is where you put your music to get it out now. You don’t need a big display in a store like Best Buy anymore.” 

“It seems almost impossible for a band to get CDs in stores like Best Buy,” Matt adds as his tuna melt is placed in front of him. “You have to get so many CDs made, then you have to find the right distributor that can get you in the stores. It takes a long time. Now, we can have music on iTunes within a few hours of when it’s done.”

YouTube, Facebook, Twitter—it’s all a major part of being a successful band in 2015, and it’s something Our Last Night has been doing for quite some time. 

“When we signed with Epitaph, they made Twitter accounts for all of us and told us what Twitter was, but we still didn’t get it,” Matt says. “We were like, ‘So who reads it? What’s it for? It’s like an away message?’”

“I think we were probably among the first 10,000 people to have Twitter,” Trevor adds while pouring BBQ sauce for his burger (with add-ons of bacon and avocado, because why wouldn’t you add bacon and avocado?) and fries.

Aside from being pioneers on Twitter, Our Last Night has a far stronger YouTube presence than most bands their size, in part because of the number of videos they make, but also because of the amount of cover songs they post.

“The covers were definitely something our manager convinced us to do at first,” Trevor admits. “There are kids on YouTube that have millions of subscribers just from doing covers. When we were on Warped Tour this summer, the YouTubers had longer lines for signings and such than most of the bands did. It also helps other people find our music, because a video like Katy Perry’s ‘Dark Horse’ has a billion views and our cover of it comes up right next to it.” 

“We see fans at the shows who are there from the YouTube cover videos,” Matt says. “It might be their first concert or they’re into other types of music, but they saw one of our covers on YouTube and liked it.” 

Between the YouTube covers and the social media presence, Our Last Night is a prime example of how a band can create a relatively diehard international fan base in ways that weren’t even available to musicians a decade ago.

“It really is just building a relationship with the fans,” Trevor says. “They see you live and it isn’t like they’re just reading what you’re writing or hearing what you’re saying on a video chat. It’s so easy to do, I don’t see why other bands don’t do it.”

“I think that makes everything more honest too,” Matt says. “The industry doesn’t just make stars now as often as they used to. It still happens, but not as much. Now it’s about social media and connecting with fans. We can do stuff now that if bands did back when I was a kid, I would’ve been like, ‘What the fuck? This is so cool!’”

Because of Our Last Night’s fan-friendly attitude and general (particularly online) popularity, the band was able to do something relatively rare in the music world. In 2013, Our Last Night parted ways with Epitaph Records and funded their next EP (2013’s Oak Island) through crowdsourcing, earning over $46,000 via Indiegogo.

“We had no idea what to expect, but it was just time to leave Epitaph,” Trevor says. “We set the goal of $15,000 because we didn’t want to be the band asking for $50,000. We raised over $45,000 and it made us realize our fans really wanted more music, which made us stoked to make more music. We recorded the whole album ourselves; so most of the money went to music videos and recording equipment. It was the first time we’d really made a large amount of money, but because it was a pre-sale for the album and we had to pay for the hoodies and shirts and everything, we ended up with like a $20,000 merch bill.”

As the four-piece finish sipping their brews, I ask them something crucial for a band that’s been playing music together for roughly a decade: What’s the one piece of advice they’d give their teenage selves if they could go back in time? 

“When the cops shut us down at the release show for Oak Island, get arrested,” Woodrow says with a taco in one hand. “I’ve seen Straight Outta Compton, it would’ve taken us to the next level.”