Review Fix Exclusive: Bad Bruno’s Freddy Tapia Talks ‘Good Stories, Bad Decisions’

Review Fix chats with Bad Bruno’s Freddy Tapia, who discusses the band’s origin, creative process and new album, “Good Stories, Bad Decisions.”

Review Fix: How did the band get together?

Freddy Tapia: We met each other through the backyard punk scene in the San Fernando Valley during the mid 2000s. I had initially started the band with some other guys, but as soon as we played our first few shows, I quickly became friends with Kurlee and Martin, who were already playing in other bands. Kurlee was the drummer and singer for Liquor n Poker, and Martin was the bassist of a band called Rob’em Blind. At the time, we all had similar musical styles and liked similar music and played the same shows together, so it was easy to stay connected.

After a couple of years of doing badBruno, and cycling through drummers, Martin got on drums. He was 17 and I was 21 or so, and it was he first time as a drummer. He had all kinds of energy and played ridiculously fast, but he was good… Very creative dude on drums because he liked a lot crazy punk drummers like Jord Samoleski (Propagandhi), Brendan Canty (Fugazi), Josh Freese (the Vandals), and Derrick Plourde and Dave Raun (Lagwagon). If you hear our first album (2015), you can hear Martin do these kind-of trick shots on his drum rolls. He still takes pride in those recordings and gives Kurlee shit about how “they’re suppose to sound like…” But yeah, he’s the youngest in the band, and the most formally trained musician between us. So much that he’s taken time to learn classical music on piano and can pretty much play anything he puts is energy to. I’d like to say the band really began shortly after he joined in in 2008. That’s about the time him and I started to push each other do something bigger and more creative with the band’s sound and style.

Kurlee, he’s our biggest critic of them all, and also happens to be the biggest fan, too… And with every right! This man has been around the world drumming for some of the best touring psychobilly and punk bands out there. The dude is a mover and shaker out here, too; and has been the backbone of the band from the first day that he decided he would join. His skills make him the rock star, the roadside rebel with the custom car, the comedian, the Sargent, the total badass of the band. Something like, if the Fonz had a band, he’d be his drummer, smoking and drinking whiskey on the set of Happy Days not giving a shit about what Richie Cunningham had to say.

Kurlee and I connected all things style: punk, rock n roll, oi, rockabilly, psychobilly, blues, even Mexican norteno, banda, corridos, and rancheras. It was always a natural fit to get us in the same bands together in the past, but we made it permanent in 2014. Martin and I had just finished mixing the first album that January. I was sitting in Kurlee’s car on our way to some music convention, and I brought that rough mix CD to show Kurlee. We put in the CD and we started talking about how Kurlee ended up covering on drums for Martin, while Martin played bass for a show that past November because our old bassist couldn’t play with us anymore. That show had gone really well and was fun as hell; but I was hesitant about asking him before to join because I knew he was a busy guy. But by this time, I felt obliged to tell him what Martin and I wanted to work on if I were to convince him to join. The CD finished playing and the first thing he said was, “that’s cool; but let me help you get the drums mixed better.” And that’s been him since, always concerned with making sure we sound “better.”

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Tapia: “Good Stories, Bad Decisions” was a little outside our typical way of putting releases together. I normally write a song, record a demo at home with some software, show the guys, we rehearse it, re-write parts of the song, rehearse it some more, play it over and over until we say, “cool we have another song” and put it on our dry eraseboard list of songs. 30 plus years later we pick and choose songs that sound good together, record a solid version of the songs and called it a release.

This time around, I had just written a 3 songs that Kurlee really liked and he immediately jumped to the idea of recording an album around it. He took the reigns on this project and within that month had set up deadlines for us. He went through our dry eraseboard list of songs and picked his favorites to play. Then he called up our engineer friend to come and record his drums tracks. I thought this was part of demo process of trying to get songs in place, or the very least seeing how we could make songs flow or have continuity between them. I concern myself with these things a lot, so it was weird at first to have been thrown off like that. But Kurlee knew what he was looking for by taking that producer role. And it worked. Having hard deadlines to hit, paired with a madman focus, pushed out a second album that we’re proud of. There was plenty to learn from that.

As for the creative process of writing a song, most of what I write anchors down on single thoughts or constructed memories of real things that happened, or I imagine happened. I don’t always agree with myself at the end, but I do write in the hopes to never have to deal with the subjects ever again. From the distopian oppressiveness of “Prison Cell,” to dealing with evictions, to heart-break, to losing friends to drugs, guns or the law, to finding solace in a tableau memory of someone special… I think our topics can easily be someone else’s experience as well, and the connecting line between the band and someone else is a song.

Putting our songs under a umbrella of cliche love songs, or political songs, or dance songs for that matter, implies a packaging and resale of the topic; which is sad that it happens to artist. I kind of want to keep our songs away from becoming a commodity in the same way the human experience can’t be bought. My process of writing material is in the framework and tradition of past rebel song writers writing anti-capitalist love songs. My creative process of writing new songs, isn’t so much understanding how to write a good catchy song, but also being emphatic.

Review Fix: What inspires you guys?

Tapia: We all connected through the punk rock scene, and the music and art that came from punk as a reaction to our societal issues and our personal histories. But then, we also listen to a lot of different things and we also expose each other to many more different genres of music that it would be impossible to get our lists right.

But punk has always been there for us. We’re inspired by the attitude, intensity, the speed, the energy… the “tragame tierra” heart squeezing moments that we yell at all our sets. We’re inspired by songs and bands that do that to us….. In short though, we’re inspired by rebel music from all periods in time.

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?

Tapia: In comparison to other bands that we like and admire? And have found recognition and success at a noticeable degree?…. and in no particular order?

Rancid, Swingin’ Utters, Dropkick Murphys, Cock Sparrer, the Briggs, the Clash, Against Me!, and others of the like… I’m sure we wouldn’t be at all mad about being on that same playlist… much less be mad if we found ourselves on the same bill with any of them.

Review Fix: What’s the standout track? How was it written?

Tapia: According to Spotify, our most played song right now is “Song in C” from Good Stories, Bad Decisions…. So that tells us something.

Song in C, lyrically, was written after remembering a story that a real good friend of the band, who will remain nameless, was telling me the story about how he was leaving a show that we both had played, and that he crashed his car because he fell asleep at the wheel… and he was drunk…. Then he took off by foot, eventually got caught, but in a short period of time was let out, and came back and told me about it. That story was told to me ages ago, but it always stuck out. Maybe like a life lesson of what not to do, or maybe what to do, I’m not sure… I still don’t completely understand how to resolve the morality issue in that song, or if there even is one. All I know was that I was glad to have him back safe and sound, we’re all doing well and that the gang still here.

As for musically… symphonies are written in 4 parts. This one is written in the key of C.

Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work?

Tapia: I think our individual personalities show a lot more during our live sets. They absolutely have to. Our songs are already pretty serious, so I’d hate to leave a show knowing I bummed myself out because of some lyrics I recited.

So jokes are cracked as if you were to be watching some episodic musical sitcom, and sometimes the fourth wall is broke purely because there really are no walls between the audience and band. Those are the best shows, when the mic is stolen, dropped, and yelled into by people who are really feeling the chorus of a song. But each show is different, kinda like a new episode of your favorite show. You know the characters, but you don’t know whats going to happen until it happens. Our studio work serves simply as playbill to the show at best.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2018?

Tapia: We’re writing again, so that’s good news.I liked the idea of the turn around time from Good Stories, Bad Decisions because it kept us on the road playing shows more often, and not coupe up in a poorly lit studio singing to no one. So the real good news is: we’re not going to take an eternity in the studio but we will be releasing new recorded material, and we will be playing more shows on the road this year.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Tapia: We’re putting together a bunch of songs that we cover into a free download; so make room on your playlist for that this year, too.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Tapia: Yeah, visit our social media sites (instagram, facebook, twitter, youtube) and give us a follow, like a photo or two and drop us a message. We read them, we like them, we appreciate them. You can also visit our website for more information about us at www.badbruno.com