GUESSED WRONG, LONG ISLAND, NY
Guessed Wrong are yet another up and coming Long Island Hardcore band who totally qualify as “fresh blood” having released their debut 4 song demo in October and who also have played a total of 5 shows at the time we are running this. Their demo absolutely crushes and I am really excited to see what this band grows into. We caught up with one of their two guitarists in Devon Dijan for this December 2025 interview. The rest of Guessed Wrong is: Dylan Dijan- guitar, TJ Martinez- drums, Carlos Gutierrez- bass and Matt Strick on vocals. Lead photo and last photo by: Step2Vic Graphics by: Jeff Marsala. All live photos by: Robyn Stanton @ResidualSnaps
GUESSED WRONG PHOTOS BY: ROBYN STANTON
IE: When did Guessed Wrong start out and when you were first putting things together what kinds of things were being discussed as far as what style band you wanted Guessed Wrong to be?
Devon: Guessed Wrong started in early 2024 when they started writing the 2025 demo. It took some time to put the demo together as TJ was recovering from a hand injury. Later on in the summer, I heard they were putting together a band so I asked if they needed some guitar players to call me. So in August we got to jamming and everything clicked really quick. At that time the demo had already been written, but my brother and I helped bring them to life since they finally had guitar players. I added a few things extra to how I play them live that aren’t on the demo. As for style, we all knew we wanted to keep things melodic on the side of the 90’s hardcore era and still have our heavy moments when we can, that’s definitely my favorite style.
IE: Who are the other members of Guessed Wrong and can you give us an interesting fact about each of them?
Devon: Dylan is kind of a jack of all trades when it comes to music. He started playing drums first when we were growing up, and then he jumped to bass because he wanted to get more into the melodic side of playing. Then once he got into hardcore the guitar work was always the most interesting thing to him so he bought his first guitar last year when we started this project! Safe to say he got really good at it quick. I’ve known TJ since high school and he’s been turning me on to new bands forever. Carlos is a Spanish professor at City University of New York and has traveled to Spain a lot for different workshops they’ve had. Matt is one of the funniest people I know with some of the funniest stories you’d ever hear! Matt, TJ and Carlos are also huge history buffs. As for me, I’m the resident guitar gear nerd and guitar tech of the band. I’ve been working on guitars for the past 10 years and since getting into the scene I’ve been able to help out bands like Pain Of Truth, Family Dinner, skycamefalling, Grael, NYC Shootout, Blame God, Evil Ways, Last Laugh, Fear Made Flesh, Bowel Erosion, Drown In Blood, and Firing Squad just to name a few.
GUESSED WRONG AT THE MASSAPEQUA VFW OCTOBER 26, 2025. PHOTO BY: ROBYN STANTON
IE: What was your introduction like to heavier music and is hardcore like Guessed Wrong plays just a piece in a bigger puzzle in regards to what influences you?
Devon: Growing up, my dad would always play his DVD’s in the house, stuff like KISS, Led Zeppelin, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. But one day, he was playing the Slipknot 1999 self-titled documentary, Metallica and Pantera, I never forgot the feeling from hearing the intense music they played. But growing up in school I didn’t have many friends that were into heavy music so I kept listening to all that stuff until high school when I discovered djent bands like Periphery and Meshuggah, and that pretty much was what I was listening to for years until about 2017 when I first heard about Knocked Loose. That was pretty much my first exposure to hardcore. I went to see them play at Revolution (Amityville, NY) and that’s where I saw Harm’s Way and Higher Power. Seeing Knocked Loose’s set changed me forever since I’ve never seen a show get that insane before. I only really discovered more hardcore bands at the end of 2019 into 2020 and that’s when I started listening to more bands in that genre. To where I am now with Guessed Wrong, I’m channeling my influences of Trapped Under Ice, Stout, Turnstile, Leeway, Crown Of Thornz, Breakdown, Indecision, Madball, Hangman and V.O.D.
IE: I’m guessing members of this band are also playing in other current bands as well?
Devon: My brother and I are in a metalcore band called Farsight and have some other projects starting up. Carlos is in a hardcore band, Firstline from Madrid. And Matt is in a melodic hardcore band called Pursuit.
PHOTO BY: ROBYN STANTON
IE: You and your brother are both cousins of Mike Dijan who for decades has been doing great things within the NYHC scene having been in bands like Breakdown, Crown Of Thornz, Outburst and who also produced the new Agnostic Front album. His musical resume seems endless… With this info comes an interesting backstory where you guys didn’t even know each other till more recent times? Can you fill us in on these details?
Devon: It’s a bit of an unfortunate story that I won’t divulge too much since it’s family stuff, but back in the 70’s there was a splintering of the Dijan family to where Mike’s family wasn’t around my dad’s side of the family for a while and my dad was only 13 when he didn’t see Mike and the rest of his brother for decades after. When my dad got older in the 90’s he tried seeking them out a few times, but they were never able to get together. Years later my dad brought Mike to one of my bands shows in 2016 when I met him for the very first time. Being as humble as Mike was, he didn’t speak much about what he was doing at the time and he wasn’t back in Crown Of Thornz yet. And then in 2019 he brought us to the Paramount where he was playing bass and tour managing Cro Mags JM where we got to meet all those guys and they were telling us about the stuff that was going on in the 90’s. Later on we ended up Googling him to find out more about him and to our shock he had done all these insane bands and his music went on to inspire generations worth of hardcore. That’s when I looked up the 1995 NYHC Documentary (Velebit Productions) and saw the incredible scene that had been built by all these bands making music they could share with their community and be together with their friends. It was the first time I’d seen music that was meant to bring friends together under a common goal to get your emotions out and to uplift one another. This is going to sound corny, but discovering hardcore for me felt like the final piece to the puzzle of music as I’ve been into rock, blues, jazz fusion, djent, and thrash my whole life. And to find out my own cousin had a huge hand in progressing the genre forward on top of it only made me want to dive deeper into discovering new bands, go out to shows all the time and play hardcore with my friends. I know it sounds crazy being a Dijan and being late to hardcore, but I’m so thankful for hardcore because it really brought my family together. I even met his brother James for the first time at the Everybody Gets Hurt gig at Shaker’s last year by coincidence! I was picking up merch from EGH. They had a flyer from a previous show and Crown Of Thornz was on it, and so I mentioned how Mike was our cousin. Then they said his brother was inside. In shock I ran in and there he was, the Juggernaut himself! We spent the rest of the night catching up after lost time.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO STREAM THE GUESSED WRONG “DEMONSTRATION ’25” 
IE: At the time of us doing this interview Guessed Wrong’s demo is about two months old and you have only played a handful of live shows. How has the overall reaction been to the band so far and when can we realistically expect the follow up to the demo?
Devon: We’ve played about 5 shows so far. The reactions seem to get better and better every time since people have had some time to listen to the demo. It’s awesome to see my friends digging the music since it’s pretty different from the hardcore that’s been coming out of Long Island recently. We’re cooking up some more songs now that we’re really excited about one of them we’ve been playing live to fill up more time in the set. It’s one of my favorite songs to play. We hope to get something out hopefully by the spring or summer of next year.
IE: From your replies so far you seem to be really into the tech side of things with your guitar duties. What kind of equipment do you currently play and do you switch guitars out when you play with your other band Farsight?
Devon: From a young age my dad always turned me onto whatever new gear was coming out, and by the time I was getting into bands like Periphery I was shown the benefits of what extensive gear knowledge and the use of it can benefit not only the studio, but also in live situations. So live I use a Neural DSP Quad Cortex with a Quilter Tone Block 202 power amp. Before I get any hate from the tube purests, I love tube amps. Don’t get me wrong, but I’m a versatile guitarist that plays a lot of different styles and genres. I don’t have the money to have a bunch of different amps and pedals so one modeling unit that sounds great is a perfect solution to my problem. I also blew up my EVH 5153 in high school one time and that was my sign to start looking at other stuff besides tube amps. I also own a lot of different guitars to serve my different playing situations. For example, in Farsight, I use my Jackson USA Custom Shop Misha Mansoor Juggernaut HT7 in Inca Silver and my Jackson Concept Series MDK Evertune 7 in Gold Sparkle Burst that are in Drop F#. For Guessed Wrong I have a Jackson American Series Soloist in Lambo Orange Metallic and a Jackson Pro Series Soloist in red/silver crackle. A lot of my guitars I’ve modded with different pickups and parts to get the sound I want. I’m a big Jackson fan as you can see!
PHOTO BY: ROBYN STANTON
IE: You mentioned that you have been working on guitars for the past ten years and have also helped out a bunch of local bands. I would assume creating music is your passion but can you see yourself diving deeper into the tech side of things and moving in that direction more?
Devon: Working on guitars is a passion of mine now. Since being able to setup a guitar really well, being able to give other musicians around me the same treatment I give to my guitars has been really rewarding. Seeing how excited they all are once they get a guitar back is incredible since it seems not every guitar tech sets up guitars the same. I’d say I’m really good from all the feedback and repeat business I’ve had. Being a touring guitar tech is something I’ve been offered before and maybe one day I’d be a tech for one of the bigger touring LIHC bands! That opportunity is kind of on the table in the future, but we’ll see!
IE: It seems to be a pretty common thing (almost like a guitarist stereotype) for guitarists to always be eyeing their next purchase. What currently is that next new shiny toy that you would love to own?
Devon: I’d love to get one of those new Jackson Origins 1985 San Dimas guitars. I’ve been speculating for a while now that eventually the shredder guitar brands will start doing reissues of older models like how Gibson and Fender do vintage reissues. It’s just really cool that shredder guitar brands are introducing that vintage/reissue style market as they really deserve to show off the old-school builds from 40 years ago. Can you believe that the 80’s is already 40 years ago now? That’s now considered vintage!
IE: What do the members of Guessed Wrong do for your jobs/occupations?
Devon: I’m currently a guitar tech at Safe Haven Music and have a thriving guitar tech business on the side. Dylan is a salesman at Guitar Center Commack and also does real estate for The Agency, a multi-million dollar international real estate firm that has many different headquarters around the country and the world. Carlos is a Spanish professor at City University of New York. TJ is a photographer at a car dealership called Varsity Auto Group. And Matt works at a pizzeria.
