BONDED BY BLOOD – Interview with Band

BONDED BY BLOOD are the newest thrash sensation out of L.A. The group formed in 2005 and have released one demo/EP “Extinguish the Weak” and a full-length, “Feed the Beast.” Their EP caught the ear of Earache Records (the label primarily responsible for bring back thrash), thus resulting in their signing with the said, established label. Before releasing “Feed the Beast,” BBB was featured on a the “Thrashing Like a Maniac” compilation, also released by Earache Records.

This group may be new to the scene and their members are quite young (some are still minors), but they bring a wealth of knowledge concerning thrash and do it quite well. One listen to “Feed the Beast” will not reveal a bunch of novice kids unfamiliar with their instruments. No, their music relates a veteran group of fierce intensity. Being young has its advantage, too. BBB has a spark and vigor that was part of the charm of the first wave of thrash.

BBB is currently touring with FUELED BY FIRE (dropped off the tour) and MERCYLESS DEATH as part of the package featuring bands on the “Thrashing Like a Maniac” compilation. Tonight, the group stopped off in Austin, Texas to play Headhunters, which is owned by famous front man Billy Milano (S.O.D., M.O.D.). All five members of the group met with Metal Centre on a patio/deck area to discuss the tour and their recent album.

This is your first full-scale tour. How do you like the tour life?

Jose (vocals): The tour has been pretty cool. I thought it was gonna be worse than this, but it has been very enjoyable. You get to meet a lot of weird people, cool people. You get to see a lot of weird-ass places. It’s all part of the tour life.

Alex (guitar): It’s interesting seeing a lot of different local bands, seeing a lot of new thrash bands. I can’t complain about the tour life. Like Jose said, I thought it would be worse, but it’s actually really enjoyable.

Juan (guitar): The tour has been a lot of fun. I’ve wanted to get out of the house (laughs). It has been cool meeting a lot of new people, and people digging our stuff and having a good time at the shows.

Carlos (drums): I didn’t expect the tour to be like this at all! I thought it was going to be totally different: us fighting a lot and going to places to play for nobody. There have actually been a lot of people showing up. We’ve met a lot of great people. We’ve seen a lot of cool places. I’m really surprised this tour has been so awesome.

RuDo (bass, “The less important one in the band”): I do a lot of dancing on stage (laughs). Instead of having your parents yell at you for sleeping on the floor, you have your band yell at you because you’re not driving (group laughs), which is not much different but a lot more fun than being at home.

I heard there were some setbacks on this tour. What difficulties have you experienced?

Jose: The water pump on the van got fucked up. We had to cancel the Salt Lake City show. Also, the tour was made last minute because of the booking agent. He was supposed to book it back in November, but he skipped out on it, so this other guy came in and saved the day.

Considering this is a thrash tour, have any of the crowds gotten rowdy: circle pits, stage dives, etc.

RuDo: Yeah, they are called drunk people. Drunk people in the crowd, they are everywhere.

The tour you are currently on features three“New School Thrash” acts that were on the “Thrashing Like a Maniac” compilation put out by your label, Earache Records. FUELED BY FIRE is one of the groups on this tour. Like you, they hail from Southern California. Have you guys played shows with them in your area?

Jose: I think the only show we played with them was the first show on the Thrashing Like a Maniac tour, which was in San Francisco. They had some problems, though, and had to drop off the tour. I guess because it was the first day of the tour, everybody was kind of shy. We didn’t really interact with them. I guess they dropped off because of personal reasons. We only played one show with them.

BONDED BY BLOOD hails from Pomona, California. Pomona is a long drive from Los Angeles, especially considering the terrible traffic backups on Highway 91 and 10. Do you have places to play and bands to play with in the Inland Empire?

Jose: Actually, the Inland Empire sucks. There have never been any good bands from there. There are some good local groups like ARMORED ASSASSIN and MUTANTS OF WAR. Now there are a lot of cool bands out there, but when we started it was emo central and hardcore central. All the venues that we have there have been shut down or torn down, so it kind of sucks. We always have to drive to L.A. or whatever. The Inland Empire sucks balls (laughs)! The Glasshouse is still going, but it picks up bigger acts. It used to have a really good punk and metal community, but the owner died and the new owner only lets emo bands play, which is pretty gay. Once in a while, cool bands like MUNICIPAL WASTE and GWAR play.

Tonight’s performance takes place at Headhunters in Austin, Texas. Billy Milano (ex-S.O.D., M.O.D.) owns the club. How do you feel about playing at the club of this legendary front man?

Jose: I feel…excited (group laughs). I’m ecstatic. He’s actually a really cool guy. We just met him and he bought us pizza. He was talking about how we are Mexicans; I expected that from him (everyone laughs).

Your Earache debut, “Feed the Beast” recently hit store shelves. So far, how have critics and fans received the album?

Jose: It has been better than I expected. People actually like it. The say things like it’s cool, and we are kicking it back twenty years. The newer bands and the younger crowd are really into it too. People are really digging our shit. I guess you could say I’m the band’s worse critic. I expected people to say that it sucks, but the response has been pretty good. We’ve heard a lot of really great responses about our material.

RuDo: When he says he is the band’s worse critic, he is serious. He is an asshole, dude (everyone laughs). We’re looking at the album and trying to figure out how we can improve our musicianship for the next album. We are pretty glad that this album got a good response.

“Feed the Beast” is your debut album on Earache, but not your first album. You previously release the “Extinguish the Weak” EP. How do these albums compare?

Jose: “Extinguish the Weak” was our five-song demo album. “Feed the Beast” came a couple months after “Extinguish the Weak.” It has the same kind of feeling but on steroids.

Does it have a better production?

Jose: Yeah.

Good thrash bands have always created songs with interesting concepts. Please tell me about the concepts of the following tracks: ‘Evil Within,’ Civil Servant,’ and ‘Another Disease.’

Jose: It [‘Evil Within’] is about me going to the bathroom (everyone laughs). ‘Evil Within’ is actually is more of a comic book-based thing. I’m really into comic books. I’ve been reading a lot of “Iron Man,” “The Hulk,” “The Avengers,” and others. I combined a lot of those ideas into this track to make my own comic book story. A lot of the concepts in my songs are about made up characters and evil villains, so this one had to do with that. This story is about a good guy who is turning into an evil villain. ‘Civil Servant’ is about the government. Fuck the government! It’s about us going to war and doing shit we aren’t supposed to be doing. I still throw in a little bit of comic book feel into it. ‘Another Disease,’ I like that one, is about shit that we like to do. It’s kind of a metaphor about skateboarding, but as if you were a comic book character. It’s about this guy who is terrorizing the world with his disease, which is skateboarding. A lot of people take it differently, thinking it’s about this or that. It’s about skateboarding (laughs).

One of the standout tracks is ‘The Theme from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.’ What prompted you to record this track?

RuDo: We did it at a few shows just for fun. It was something we all grew up with. I was young and didn’t know any English, but I still watched the cartoon. We all have that in common. At the last minute when we were recording our EP, we had enough time so we decided to record it. We got creative with it, added a few things. A lot of people liked it so it ended up on the album.

Jose: We always say we aren’t going to play it unless someone asks for it. Every show we’ve had, so far on this tour, someone has asked for it. We don’t even have it on our set list, but someone always asks for us to play ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,’ so we do it. People in a bar go crazy over it, especially people back in our hometown.

The album’s production seems to fit the music quite well. One instrument, in particular, the drums have a large sound. How did you achieve this sound?

Carlos: I focused a lot on that because when we scratched the original recording, it came out the complete opposite of that. When we first recorded with Rosen in Sacramento, the drums came out extremely weak. When we rerecorded it I made sure to fix that problem, to make sure the drums have a solid-hit sound.

RuDo: We made sure we were better-rounded with the sound. It sounded full, but it also sounded natural.

BONDED BY BLOOD is a band name that says you guys are EXODUS fans, and you can hear an obvious influence in the music. You obviously have that influence, but what aspects do you bring that aren’t of the old school?

Jose: I think we bring our goofiness. We are a serious band, but we are a bunch of goof balls, and it kind of shows, mainly on stage. We bring that little thing into it, I guess.

RuDo: I think our sound sets us apart. We are really into our instruments. Juan is really into the precision with his rhythms. We had to concentrate on that in our recording. He recorded all the rhythms. We had Alex do all the solo structuring. Then, we threw our own part in there.

What’s next after this tour?

Jose: We are going to tour more and tour more. We are going to be touring, touring, touring and when we have time off, we will be thinking about our second album. Other than that, we are going to tour. In August, we will be back again on a U.S. tour. It’s going to be us, EXMORTUS and PHANTOM WITCH. We are going to drop off of half of that tour and go into the M.O.D. tour. After that, we go to Europe to tour with GAMA BOMB. Then we come back for a winter tour with, I think, HATCHET. Then we’ll have some time off, and then get back to touring. We’re going to be touring for two year straight for this CD, and the next thing you know, our next album will be out.

www.myspace.com/bondedbyblood