It’s rare, these days, to hear something that really ravages; reminding us of a time passed when music outranked fashion and the raw, gritty sound of pressed vinyl was relished far greater than that of electro-beats and sampling.  But place that needle on a Bronx track and that’s exactly what you’ll find – a refreshing blast of something real.  Music made for music’s sake.

It’s not all that surprising that this Los Angeles based five-piece; consisting of Joby Ford and Ken Horne on guitar, vocalist Matt Caughthran, drummer Jorma Vik, and bassist James Tweedy; were noticed immediately.  They landed manager Jonathan Daniel before ever playing a show, and signed with Island/Def Jam after a meager 12 live performances. 

But don’t be mistaken – this is not a band about to glide along on a road paved with record contracts.  They cancelled their obligation to the prodigious major label after the release of their full length debut, opting to release their music on the band’s own label, “White Drugs.”

Since the formation of The Bronx in 2002, they have released numerous singles and EP’s (check out La Muerte Viva - it’s amazing); two full-length self-titled albums and are about to release a third (The Bronx III, out November 11); were requested by Greg Ginn himself to portray Black Flag in a film; and have made music with the likes of Keith Morris and Joe Cardamone (on a genius limited edition 7” series called “Social Club”: Colaborative releases on “White Drugs” of which each issue has only 250 presses and consists of recordings not found on any other album.).

Not to mention touring half the world, all the while adapting their style, learning new instruments and techniques, and writing material as Mariachi El Bronx – a mariachi project whose release of the same name is scheduled for January, 2009.

I hung out with Joby Ford before their set in Saskatoon recently, where they were on tour supporting Bad Religion.

You’re from the states, you’ve been a band for 6 odd years, you’ve toured the UK, Australia, Europe, all over the states… What took so long to get up to Canada?

We have, actually.  The first tour we ever went on as a band, a band called Rocket from the Crypt took us out and we did most of Canada.  We didn’t even have a record out then, and nobody knew who we were.  We’ve done certain cities in Canada.  We’ve popped over and done Toronto and Montreal, we actually played Saskatoon on Warped Tour, too.

Yeah, you guys were here in August on Warped.  You’ve done the Warped Tour, shared bills with the Distillers, done a tour with The Cribs, now Bad Religion, you’ve also toured with the likes of Mastodon and Converge.  The type of band you guys tour with is pretty varied.  Where do your own tastes come into play, musically, when deciding what tours to go on or what bands to share the stage with?

A lot of it depends, I guess first and foremost, on us being fans of the bands that we go out with.  It’s not always true.  I mean sometimes we get strong-armed into going out with someone.  We’re just fans of the real shit, you know?  I mean we’re fans of Ottis Redding, or like Black Flag, or Public Enemy… just anything that kind of carries the same undertones of not playing music for fame or money’s sake, but more because you have to.  People who are OK with being original and OK with being who they are.  The reason that these bands are good is because they are different, and they aren’t like everybody else.  We as a group sort of are attracted to those sort of differences. 

Let’s talk about the quick success of your band.  You’ve all been musicians and in the industry for a long time.  You’re from LA, surrounded by people infatuated with the “Myth of the Hollywood Dream”.  But together as this band, you got a manager, Jonathan Daniel, after playing like one show.

I don’t even think we played a show.  He flew to LA and came to our practice spot in downtown LA and immediately said “I want to manage you.”  And he still is.  We’ve never even signed a contract with him.

And then you were signed to [major label] Island/Def Jam after, what, 12 live shows?

Yeah they came and saw us our second show and probably by the time we hit 12 shows we’d signed with them.

Pretty impressive.  The Bronx has had such quick success and was noticed almost immediately.  What did that do to you as a band, and more notably, what did it do to your egos?

Um, well it was weird.  I’d never been in a signed band before.  Our bass player, James, at the time was in a band called Sunday’s Best [that was] on a small label, and our drummer [Jorma] was on a small label in a band called Death on Wednesday.  Matt and I have another band called The Drips and I think we’d put out a 7”, but that was it.  It was weird. It was all of a sudden, one day you go from begging people to watch you play shows to being flown to New York City.  Just seeing money being thrown around.  It was a lot, you know, to think about it all.  As far as egos, um… I think it might have made us think we were pretty hot shit [laughs].  I won’t deny that.  It did.  You know, it felt good.  I think we played it out alright though.  We’re all pretty mature and normal people.  There definitely wasn’t any sort of, um… nobody really became “rock stars”.  It was kind of hilarious! It was the first time any of us had any money… I think most of us blew it at the bar [laughs].

You seem to be a band that’s all about reviving a dead or dying scene, and bringing back that real, raw feel to music that you find in early bands like Iggy and the Stooges, or as you mentioned, Black Flag, or like The Saints, who you’ve done a cover of [Private Affair - La Muerte Viva EP].  So how do you feel about the progression of “underground” music from those kinds of bands kind of “molded” bands we’re seeing so many of today?

Well, those bands that you just mentioned, they were never popular.  You know, in those days, there was Disco and New Wave, there was things like that.  But those bands were great because they gave people an outlet to go seek out music that wasn’t, you know, Billy Joel or whoever at the time.  Just as there are bands today you can find that will give people a place to go other than Angels & Airwaves or Gym Class Heroes, or whatever; fill in the blank. 

Does the way that kids seem to be reacting these days to those fill-in-the-blank bands affect the kind of music you want to play, or the kind of music you want to put out on your label?

Well, I would say that it depends.  You know, music is a strange thing.  It’s very subjective.  I always liken it to, you know, you and I could look at a painting.  You could say “That’s awesome; I like the way it’s put together.  I think it’s great.” And I could tell you “That sucks.”  But we’re both right.  There’s no right or wrong in music, it’s pure 100% subjectivism.  So it’s kind of part of the exciting thing about music, that nobody is right and nobody is wrong.  I don’t dislike those bands that (I think we’re talking about the same type of music here); I don’t dislike them.  But I do like that I have the option NOT to listen to them.  Whereas when I was growing up, we had the radio.  And that’s how you discovered new music.  There just wasn’t anything else to listen to.  That’s why tape trading was so big when I grew up: it was a way to discover records much like file sharing is today, or listening to the local community or college station.  It’s just good to have different outlets for finding music you or I might want to listen to.

Ok, let’s talk about [your label] White Drugs.   You’ve been quoted as saying “There’s no point in being on a label anymore.”  Subsequently, you’ve released all of your music on your own label, whether solely or jointly.  How did White Drugs come about? Why did you want to start a label?

Well, what we do as a band is we make our own stuff and we put a lot of it out ourselves.  Jorma’s band (he’s in another band called Sangre Sangre) [is released on our label]; we do The Drips; I’m in another band called Men Who Beat Women and the Women Who Love Them; we’re doing another band [from the UK] called Kong, and so it’s all sort of a means to me.  We went years where nobody would put out our music, so now we just want to do it ourselves. 

White Drugs is putting out records for projects that members [of The Bronx] are involved in, but you’ve also got Kong.  So are you planning to expand this band list, and make White Drugs a full-fledged independent label?

I don’t know… It’s just kind of always been projects that people in The Bronx have been a part of.  That’s what we’ve kind of used it as.  Kong is a great band from Manchester that we happen to be very close friends with, so that’s kind of a no-brainer… they’re like a second family to this band.  I don’t know if I want to run a record label or not, and that’s the thing: I don’t know if that’s really ultimately what I want to do. I think I like the way it is now – it’s all extended family from what The Bronx is.  It all spirals down and branches go out and it’s kind of a really close-knit family.  I like it like that for now.  I’m not saying it’s NOT going to turn into a full-fledged label, but not right now.  Maybe down the road.  When I’m old. And need a job [laughs].

So you license your music to the UK label Wichita for distribution.  This is a label that seems to put out music by bands that have a very different sound from you.  They’re lineup includes bands like Les Savy Fav, the Dodos, Bloc Party, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs… what was the draw to this label?

Probably because they have good taste.  I like all those bands, even though they’re not, you know… well, nobody really sounds like The Bronx.  But they are good people and they definitely understand our band.  It’s a Mom ’n’ Pop operation,  I think there’s only 5 people that work there.  Going from being on Island/Def Jam - where there’s 200 people [working on your music] and 4 of them that you’ll ever meet; maybe 6 – to actually having personal relationships with people that put out your records in different countries, and you can just call them up anytime.  That’s a lot more important to me than the big ‘monster’ of Universal.

You’re putting out a Mariachi album next year.  Interesting stylization choice, considering your sound. 

Yes, you being from Canada.  No, us being from Los Angeles.  It’s everywhere.  The Mexican population of Los Angeles far exceeds the rest of the population.  You can’t walk down the street without hearing Mariachi music.  I mean it is everywhere, to the point where that’s probably the reason we put out [a mariachi] album.  The sound is just pumping through your head all the time.

Are you adapting songs already written or are you writing new songs in this style?

No, they’re all completely new.  They’re not anything that’s ever appeared on a record or that’s going to be on the new album that’s coming out. If you like punk music and our band, and you expect to come to a show and thrash about, don’t come to one of those [Mariachi El Bronx shows].  It’s a whole different experience.  It’s very adult, and a lot more focused on musicianship, and a very special kind of music.  That will probably appeal to a whole different array of people than putting out a Bronx record.  It’s a completely different vibe, a hundred percent 180 from a punk album.

Was it difficult to adapt your style?

We had some people come in – David Hidalgo from Los Lobos came in and played accordian.  We had a string section come in and perform, Steve Bartek from Oingo Boingo did those arrangements.  I think Vince [Hidalgo] from The Drips (he plays the guitarrón) is very well versed in that style of music, so when he joined Mariachi El Bronx, it really picked it up a lot from where it was going. 

Are you planning a tour as Mariachi El Bronx?

Yeah! But not until next year.  Well, we’re doing a couple of things.  Sometimes we’ll just play mariachi, sometimes we’ll just play punk.  Sometimes we’ll open for ourselves, so we’ll play two shows in one night.  Sometimes we’ll play three [mariachi] songs in the middle of our set, so it all depends on the situation, and probably the country.  I mean, it’s just such a different thing.  Unless its part of your culture or something that you see, I don’t think it’d really make sense.  [Many people] wouldn’t understand why it’s so important and so beautiful.  But you never know.

You played the part of Black Flag in a movie last year. 

Longest day of my life.  I think it probably sounds cooler than it was.  We had a trailer that must’ve been on top of a broken sewer pipe and it just smelt like… with flies and shit everywhere. We just hung around set all fucking day.  We kept leaving and going to the bar to get drinks.  It was about 5 o’clock in the morning that we shot our scene, and that was it.

How did you get hooked up with this?

Well, Pat Smear from the Germs called Greg Ginn [of Black Flag] and asked if there were any bands that he’d like to portray Black Flag, and Greg Ginn said “The Bronx.” So I got a call (we were in the studio at the time) from Pat Smear.  I thought it was a joke, like it was one of our friends.  Then he called back and it was really him.  I really thought it was a joke being played on us, but as it turned out, we went out to his house, met him, went to Radio Recorders and recorded Police Story, Kira [Roessler of Black Flag] played bass on it. It was cool.  I’d never been in a movie before.  I haven’t seen it.  I heard they cut most of our scene out.  But it was cool, and I feel pretty lucky to have done it.  And to have met Pat, who I still keep in contact with.  He’s a really nice guy.

So after they did this movie, the Germs reunited with Shane West as frontman.  You’re thoughts?

Oh.  It’s terrible.  But it’s not really about that.  It’s about seeing Lorna and everybody else play together.  Nobody really notices [Shane’s] there.  I think he’s a means to an end.  It’s not the point of the show, the point is the chemistry of the remaining three members all playing together.  It’s good.  It’s great to watch them play.  People just get mad at Shane and throw cheeseburgers at him, but nobody really cares or even notices he’s there.

Speaking of Black Flag, Keith Morris did vocals on the A side of Social Club Issue #1.  What was that like, and who’s your favorite Black Flag vocalist?

I think it’s either Keith or Chavo, I would say.  Probably Keith cause I know him, or got to meet him.  He’s definitely an interesting character.  One of the greatest things about Keith is just talking about music.  That guy knows every band and every record, and has the most incredible stories from being in Black Flag and Circle Jerks.  Keith just loves music so much and it’s really just exciting talking to him about everything he knows.  It was cool, Keith’s great. 

Let’s talk about Social Club.  Why did you guys decide to do this?

I dunno, just kind of something to do I guess.  We’re fans of music first and foremost.  To get to do stuff with people that you really respect and really appreciate, you know…  it’s one song going on a 7” that 250 people in the world will have, so the pressure to perform is very miniscule and nil, but I think it’s an exciting idea.  Matt, our singer, is a very big 7” and vinyl collector; he definitely comes from that world so it’s very cool and fun to do these little things that nobody will ever get to have.  Maybe when they’re all done we’ll do a box set of all of them and put that out. 

Are you planning to release your cover of Police Story at all?

I don’t know. Not us, I don’t think we can.  I think there’s a soundtrack coming out that it’ll be on.

The Bronx has gone through a lot of changes, between adding Ken Horne on guitar after the first album, jumping from major to indie labels, releasing your own music, touring the world, Mariachi… are you satisfied with where you are as a band now?

No. And I think the second you get satisfied with where you are, doing anything creative, you should stop.  Because then it becomes a job, or then it becomes something that it wasn’t in the first place.  There’s always that need for creative stimulation or a different way to do things or a different way to, sort of, go about doing stuff.  That’s the exciting part, to me, is that, rather than “Ok, we haven’t put a record out in four years but let’s go on tour because…” I think if this band ever became anything more than friends together trying to conquer the world, I don’t think it would be worth doing.  That’s kind of all it is.  Just a bunch of us together having the time of our lives.

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