We talk to the down to earth and irrepressible vocalist of The Bronx and their Mariachi influenced alter ego, Mariachi El Bronx, Matt Caughthran. We discuss the killer new Bronx record, ‘V’, being kind to animals and various brutal mosh pit injuries…
So if you haven’t already heard, the almighty punk / hardcore juggernaut that is, The Bronx, are bringing their wild and captivating live performance back down under to Australia this October! Just under a year since their last visit. The L.A based quintet, consisting of talented, high spirited and all round rad dudes will be here in support of legendary punk outfit, Pennywise and their ‘Full Circle Twentieth Anniversary Australian Tour 2017’. Not to be confused with that scary AF clown in the classic horror film “I.T”…P.S- do not attempt to Google search ‘Pennywise’ if you don’t want to see images of the band’s namesake. Lesson learned. Great film but seriously, fuck unexpected creepy clowns…
The Bronx also like to dress up for Halloween, as seen when they played here with Violent Soho in October last year. *Note to Matt and the rest of the guys- please don’t make the costume choice of clowns when you come back this way for Halloween 2017…
The band have announced their brand new record, ‘V’ their fifth studio album, due out September 22nd this year, singer Matt describing it as a “rebirth” for the band. The first two tracks released, ‘Sore Throat’ and ‘Two Birds’, perfectly encapsulate the distinctive combination of raw, fast, thrashy punk songs along with the more rock and roll style tunes on this record, with catchy melodic hooks and beautiful intricate guitars, delving into some psychedelic tones with progressive, hard hitting and honest lyrical content.
Overall the record is another high point in the band’s 15 years together, with Caughthran describing the band as feeling “…unstoppable right now and that’s why, it just feels good, you know, we can go for another decade, it’s like we’re ready to write another record and I just feel like the band is in a really good spot right now…”
While the Californian front man turns on one hell of a high voltage performance, venting aggression in The Bronx, with an explosive presence, paying homage to his punk roots, he explores a unique duality with the band’s alter ego, Mariachi El Bronx, slipping into a beautifully tailored traditional Charro suit and delving into tales of love and loss and Mexican landscapes, delivered with a gentle, romantic charm at the front of the seven piece Mariachi style band.
Caughthran treats both of his contrasting musical outlets with passion and respect, showcasing the singer’s talent, depth and range.
Read on for our chat about the upcoming Australian tour, the new Bronx record and more…
*Connecting call….
John: Just to confirm, Matt Caughthran, you now have Sarah Thomson from Scenezine, Australia on the line…
Matt Caughthran: Yeeeah whaddup!?
SCENEzine: (laughs) Hi, how you doing?
Matt Caughthran: I’m doin’ great, how are you?
SCENEzine: Yeah I’m good thanks, thanks for chatting with us today…
Matt Caughthran: Oh of course, come on now…
SCENEzine: (laughs) so right now in Melbourne, it’s about 10:30am and absolutely freezing, 12 degrees…
Matt Caughthran: Really?!
SCENEzine: Yeah, what is it over there?
Matt Caughthran: It’s hot as hell, it’s the peak of Summer time, so it’s like…California’s got a crazy heat wave goin’ on right now so it’s super gnarly but the beach is amazing, so I’m not complaining…
SCENEzine: …well don’t rub it in (laughs)
Matt Caughthran: (laughs)…
SCENEzine: …I have been lucky enough to be listening to an advanced album stream of the new Bronx record, V, definitely warming me up on this cold Melbourne Winter morning, it’s so good!
Matt Caughthran: Good. Awesome, thank you.
SCENEzine: You guys have nailed it, I love how the thrashy, raw, in your face fast tracks kind of blend with the more rock n roll, catchy songs and you’ve got those psychedelic guitars too…
Matt Caughthran: Yeah, you know the guitars on this record are honestly just insanely beautiful. One of the things I love about it is, it’s like one of those records you can put in your car or on your home stereo and you can blast it but you can also, like if you listen to it with headphones, there’s so many like little intricate like little guitar stuff and just mix stuff happening in there it’s really cool, it just kinda like keeps on going you know the more you get into it. It’s kinda hard to do with a punk record or a rock n roll record you know, it’s usually kind of black and white, it’s just like loud guitars and bass and drums and in your face but this record has…there’s just a bit more goin’ on so it’s cool.
SCENEzine: Yeah, sort of the gift that keeps on giving with each listen…did it all come together as planned or did it kind of take on a life of it’s own?
Matt Caughthran: (laughs) yeah. Umm… I mean, it always takes on a life of it’s own, but it definitely, it’s a little bit of both, it did come together as planned you know it’s like, we wanted to make an aggressive, nasty sounding record and it’s like even though there’s songs that are more melodic than others you know, obviously there’s thrashers and then there’s songs like ‘Side Effects’ and ‘Two Birds’ and stuff like that, but overall the record just sounds super raw and that’s the one thing that we knew we wanted to do, you know the songs, they always change because you write so many and you just end up taking the ones that sound the best you know, so we didn’t have too many goals going into the record we just knew how we wanted it to sound and the producer, Rob Schnapf, he was the perfect guy for that and he just nailed it you know, everything sounds perfect to us.
SCENEzine: The first single you released from the new record, ‘Sore Throat’ it kinda just explodes right out of the gates in a two minute, thirty two second frenzy. What were you feeling when you wrote that song?
Matt Caughthran: Ah frustrated. You know that song (laughs) ah… I tend to hold stuff in a lot, and we went through a lot of bullshit over the last couple years, you know in this band with some relationships that we’ve had and you know it ended with, I don’t really want to go too far into it but it’s just like, you have these relationships with people and they just kinda turn out to be not what they seem and I was dealing with a lawsuit or a pending lawsuit and just trying to wrap things up and talking to someone that was a very frustrating human being and ah that song is based on that you know, being so frustrated and pissed off at somebody….you know what I mean (laughs)
SCENEzine: (laughs) Yeah I get that. You’ve described the new record as a “rebirth” for the band. What do you mean by that?
Matt Caughthran: Um it was just needed you know and like I was saying with the last question, it’s like we had to go through a lot of things and dealing with parting ways with an original member in Jorma and changing the guard on some industry side of things and there was just a lot that the band was having to deal with. In those situations you always kind of hunker down and you know, you surround yourself with each other, so it was Me, Joby, Ken and Brad and we just decided that no one’s gonna fuck with this band and if we have to do everything ourselves, if we have to circle the wagons and kind of take inventory on everyone that we’re dealing with and you know then, that’s what we gotta do. There was nothing that was gonna stop us from making this record. So that’s the feeling you get after you cross that threshold and when the record’s done and it sounds the way you want it and you made it through all the shit that everyone was trying to throw on you and stop you from making, you can stand up and you can just say “fuck yeah!”, you know, it’s like you did it and like, the band feels unstoppable right now and that’s why, it just feels good, you know we can go for another decade, it’s like we’re ready to write another record and I just feel like the band is in a really good spot right now and it just feels really good.
SCENEzine: Yeah that sounds like a great place to be for the band and you personally. During your “Live Cuts” album, recorded live at the Teragram Ballroom, a couple hears ago, just before you play the song, ‘They Will Kill Us All’ you say, “…a lot of people like to talk shit on punk music…I don’t give a fuck about all that, punk music saved my life” Can you elaborate a little on that sentiment?
Matt Caughthran: Ah yeah, you know, it’s true! I mean, growing up it’s like the only thing that I gravitated towards was music, you know it’s not like I was some sort of weird you know like loner dude, it’s like I had friends and stuff I was totally fine but as far as my mind and my life, the deeper shit that made me feel something, it was all music and it was always something that I loved but it never felt attainable, it never felt personal because I was listening to like Iron Maiden and Slayer and it was like just making me you know just be stoked on like the devil and like you know wanting to set stuff on fire, but it was punk music that gave me that legitimate like “wow this is me” you know like “this is exactly who I am, these are exactly the friends that I have, this is exactly what I’m going through and you know, I fell in love with it. Everyone has shit in their lives you know, but it’s like just personally speaking it’s like knowing the type of person that I am, knowing just what music has given me, you know had I not found it when I did, I would’ve ended up in a terrible place you know, there’s not a doubt in my mind.
I’m so fortunate to be able to sing in the band and to be able to tour the world and play shows and make records and hang out with my friends, it’s not lost on me, it’s like I’m one of the few people who get to actually do what they love for a living and it’s like, I’m not going to turn my back on punk music for giving me that opportunity just because it might be unpopular or because fucking there’s pop punk bands that have gotten big and fuckin people call em sell outs or because punk music goes through years where everything that comes out sucks. None of that really matters to me, like it will still only matter that this is the style of music that has given me my voice as a human being and I’ll always be thankful for that.
SCENEzine: Yeah definitely, I think that passion definitely translates through your music. I do want to talk more about that but we might run out of time if I do so to be continued… and I better move on to the next one. So The Bronx are coming to Australia in October this year, supporting Pennywise on their “Full Circle album Tour” We’re excited to see you guys back here again so soon, have you played with them before?
Matt Caughthran: Yeah yeah, they’re good friends you know and we’ve been trying to line a tour up together for a long time and obviously we’re both extremely busy bands and it just hasn’t been able to happen and now I think this is perfect timing. You know these shows, I can’t even stress enough, whenever I think about it I have the biggest smile on my face right now just talking about it because, just going back to the punk thing, it’s like, these are like the shows that like I would go to when I was a kid or a younger kid I should say, and like lose my mind, like these shows are gonna be so insane you know and the fact that it’s in Australia you know, it’s perfect because one, there’s a lot of places on the earth that wouldn’t be able to do these shows justice you know, they wouldn’t be able to let shit go and just fucking go bananas and it’s like Australia is the perfect place for this tour because you motherfuckers just love havin’ a good time and you love The Bronx and you love Pennywise and it’s just gonna be non stop I know it, like I know these are gonna be some of the best shows we’ve ever played and I can not wait for this tour.
SCENEzine: Yeah we can’t wait either! It’s kind of, pardon the pun, but like coming ‘full circle’ (laughs) I guess for you guys playing with Pennywise now (laughs)
Matt Caughthran: Yeah, yeah! (laughs)
SCENEzine: (laughs) Yeah it’s going to be good. Speaking of the live shows, you often get right amongst the crowd, right in the throws of the pit during a live Bronx show, have you ever seriously been hurt out there?
Matt Caughthran: Ah yeah, yeah, um recently I just tore my calf muscle in half on stage and that was absolutely brutal, it happened in France and it was coming back up the stage actually, from the pit and I come up on stage and I jumped up in the air and I came down and I came down so violently or I don’t know really what it was but I split my calf from the bottom up like half way and it hurt sooo bad, it hurt so bad, so I’m still kind of recovering from that…
SCENEzine: Did that happen in the middle of the set or how much of the set did you have left?
Matt Caughthran: No, it was three songs in! I had to finish the whole show basically on one leg without giving too much away, and then we still had three shows left on the tour after that, so I just had to like wrap my leg up and then I came home I got an MRI and got a boot and a cast and all that crap you know…
SCENEzine: Shit, that’s crazy…
Matt Caughthran: Yeah, it was pretty full on, ah you know, I get punched in the face all the time, you know like that’s everyone’s favorite thing to do is punch me in the face (laughs) I get punched in the face all the time, I’ve had ah you know, the tops of my feet broken on both legs, yeah I’ve been banged up a little bit here and there but it’s all good I wouldn’t change it for the world…
SCENEzine: Well as tough as you are on the outside to go through all of that, I know that you’ve got a bit of a soft spot for your beautiful black dog Mamba, how hard is it leaving her behind when you go on tour?
Matt Caughthran: (laughs) Yeah it sucks you know, I wish we were a huge rock and roll band so I could just have my own tour bus and bring Mamba with me wherever I go, you know, but unfortunately we haven’t reached that status yet but ah she’s the best dog in the world, I love animals, I love dogs, I love all animals and you know it’s an important thing for me to be able to, to share life with her and just in general to be able to appreciate nature and everything that being alive has to offer you know, so be cool to animals and don’t eat animals and all that crap you know…
SCENEzine: Hell yeah (laughs) couldn’t agree more. Finally, is there a chance that we might get some cheeky side shows for the Bronx or Mariachi El Bronx on this Pennywise Tour later in the year?
Matt Caughthran: Ah Bronx, 100%. El Bronx, no because there’s too much going on with the tour to bring the rest of the crew around, but yeah we’re definitely looking at doing some headlining Bronx shows so stay tuned, I’ll let you know when those are coming out…
SCENEzine: Yeah ok cool, sounds good. Well I better go and let you get to the next one, but thanks for taking the time to chat today and we will see you soon!
Matt Caughthran: Of course, sounds good. Thanks for the interview.
Interview by Sarah Thomson of Melbourne for Scenezine Australia.
August 2017.
