Cousins Matt Lovato and
Tony Lovato formed the band together in October 1995. The band's last guitarist, Jeremiah Rangel, joined the band in 1998. Their previous guitarist was Steve Lovato, Tony Lovato's brother. Nick Gigler joined the band in 1997. In 1998, the band self-released ''Mo' Money, Mo' 40z
. Their debut album on Maverick Records, Wasting Time
, was released in July 2000 and Destination Unknown
in 2001. They toured as an opening band for Goldfinger on July 20, 2002, in Las Vegas and then a few months later, released a DVD called The Show Must Go Off! in January 2003. Later that same year, the band released their self-titled album, which featured the single Jaded (These Years)'', featuring
Benji Madden of
Good Charlotte. In 2005, a tour with
Social Distortion was cut short when drummer Nick Gigler required surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome in his wrists which was affecting his drumming. The band's last album,
Photographs, was released October 18, 2005. In January 2006, the band announced on their
MySpace blog that they would break-up following a U.S. tour. The tour ran from late January until early March, with support from
Allister and
Scary Kids Scaring Kids. In response, Nick Gigler posted a bulletin through his personal MySpace and confirmed that he would not be taking part, and that he had called Jeremiah Rangel and Matt Lovato, who had confirmed that they would not be appearing with Tony either. After the one-off "One Night Stand" show, Tony decided to rebuild Mest and go on a monthlong tour, with help from Chris Wilson (Good Charlotte, The Summer Obsession), and his brother and founding member, Steve Lovato (at the time in Room One Eleven). Although Matt showed interest, he and Jeremiah were both reported to be too busy with other commitments to join. Nick and Tony had not been on speaking terms since the band broke up. The trek took place in October and November 2008, and featured Quietdrive,
Rookie of the Year, and
Automatic Loveletter. Mest went on a European tour in spring 2012 with its current members, Mike Longworth and Richie Gonzales, and also toured the US with Escape the Fate and Attack Attack in 2012. Mest released their album
Not What You Expected in September 2013, written and recorded with Richie Gonzales and Mike Longworth, making it available for free to download from their website. Mest played 3 dates on the
Warped Tour 2013. They self-released another album in 2014, entitled
Broken Down. On October 25, 2018, Mest officially announced that they had signed with
El Hefe, from
NOFX's label Cyber Trax Records and a new album with the original lineup would be released in spring 2019. A single entitled "Masquerade" was uploaded to
YouTube in July 2019, accompanied by an announcement to the effect that a new album would be released in the fall of that year, produced by
Cameron Webb. Mest's album
Masquerade was released on January 17, 2020. On April 12, 2024, Mest released a new song called "When We Were Young" featuring
Jaret Reddick of
Bowling For Soup. At this time the band also announced
Youth, which released on June 21, 2024. == Projects ==