The beloved Boston band Free Pizza made a recent move to the sun and sand of Miami. Two of the group’s members, bassist and vocalist Jesus Vio and guitarist Santiago Cardenas, grew up in Miami before packing their bags to attend the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Just a couple years after joining forces with Free Pizza drummer Nick Rasmussen, the trio decided to move back to Miami, breaking the hearts of many Boston music fans just months after teasing us with their album Boston, MA. I traveled down to the Sunshine State and followed the band around on a typical Friday night filled with art, music and free hot dogs. In the process, I found out why they moved, their plans are for the future and the best of the best in the DIY Miami scene.

Allston Pudding: What are your first impressions of Miami?

Nick Rasmussen: I really like it. It’s definitely got a lot better nightlife than Boston does and it’s just very different. It’s a culture shock. Boston is a very segregated city. Here in Miami it’s like a bunch of different cultures all blending together and that’s really cool. I’m still learning stuff. It’s only been two weeks, but it’s exciting to see something different.

AP: What was your reasoning behind the move?

Santiago Cardenas: We kept thinking we would move somewhere in the summer. Our friends, Designer, moved to Nashville. We just had different friends who were relocating, so we thought that it would be a cool thing to do one day in the future. We had an opportunity to go to Berlin, which would be sick, but we had to move home to save up. It puts us in a more comfortable position to be home with our parents to save up, while also having another bonus new experience. Us returning as adults to Miami is totally different than us having been here in high school, so it’s still a new city for us, especially as a band. It’s a cool bonus to get to explore Miami. The ultimate intention was to try to go to Europe and try to spread our music in a DIY fashion as far as we can until it picks up or takes off. In another respect, we just thought it would be cool to try to explore different places.

AP: What do you miss most about Boston?

Nick: I miss being able to walk around.

AP: What do you mean? You can’t walk around in Miami?

Nick: No. You can’t just walk around the city or walk to your friend’s house. That’s what I miss about Boston.

Santiago: Yeah, everything is driving. I miss all of our friends and all of the bands and the cool music scene there. I miss having a sense of autonomy and having a sense of community that I feel very connected to and a part of. Even though this is my home, it’s not my musical home by any means.

Boston-based Couples Counseling performing Space Mountain, one of Free Pizza’s destinations for the night.

Jesus: I miss JP a lot. I love JP – the pond, the arboretum, I miss the Whitehaus.

AP: What’s the best part about Miami so far?

Santiago: The weather. It’s so fucking chill. It’s so nice.

Nick: 97.7.

Santiago: Yeah! 97.7 FM. It’s like a pirate radio station. It’s so good. They play crazy ass shit. They play stuff from Miami and Fort Lauderdale and also like New Jersey club music and weird remixes, just awesome fucking music.

AP: Who’s your favorite Miami-based band?

Jesus: Bruiser is really good. Bruiser is amazing and this band Wasteland is very good. Those are my two favorites right now.

Nick: Nun Hex and Jellyfish Brothers.

AP: How do you think Boston and Miami’s music scenes differ?

Santiago: Well, everything is super close in Boston. Everything is in walking distance, or biking distance, so everything is really accessible. Here everything is driving. I don’t know why that makes it feel different. I guess just because you get to know everyone’s house in Boston. Here we don’t know anybody’s house. Here the music scene isn’t in people’s houses or it doesn’t seem like it is. I can’t speak much to it, but it seems like everything is in venues and maybe some galleries.

Nick: Yeah, it’s like going out – a lot more bars and stuff. It’s cool, but in a way it kind of relates to the club scene in Miami.

Jesus: Yeah, here you play for so many different people every other night.

AP: What’s in store for Free Pizza in 2015?

Nick: Record a new record. Tour Europe. Travel around Europe.

Jesus: Relocate to a new city in the United States after Europe. Meeting new friends, making more art.

Nick: Yeah, just expanding as a band more than we ever have. Now we’re just solely focusing on the band more than ever so it’s hard to really say, but definitely to record a new album.

AP: Why did you decide to make that leap to focus on the band?

Nick: I did personally because I was in school but I didn’t really know exactly what I wanted to do, but I always knew that I wanted to do music. I was given an opportunity and I felt like it would be stupid to throw it away. So I thought I might as well go for it now.

Jesus: For me, it’s the only thing that I want to do.