On the Record With...
Flexx Bronco
By Scotty
(SugarBuzz Hollywood)
SugarBuzz Magazine
1. For the readers that do not know Flexx Bronco, please introduce the band and a brief bio.
We are Whiskey Devil (vox), Filthy(guitar) Jackii lawles(Guitar) Guy thunderbird (Bass) Thor Bigsby(drums) Well I like to think Flexx Bronco is not your typical "Throwback" Rock N' Roll band. We always hear shit like "dude you guys are like arena rock" or some shit like that, and maybe there is that element. Probably more from our stage show than anything else, but there are so many more elements to what we do than just sleazy driving rock. We formed in 01' with an idea to put together our loves of rock, punk and drunk country sing alongs into one big fun kick as show. We call it D.S.R "DirtySexRock" It took us a while to figure it out but people kept on coming back to our shows and here we are today talking to you
2. You guys just did some Warped Tour shows, how did those go?
Ha yeah, lets just say to keep a long story short. First off, we all got free shoes out of the deal. Second, it was a great promotional oportunity that you don't get to do everyday. All day long it was handing out CD's and slapping lil girls on the butt with flexxbronco stickers. One of the guys in the band we were touring with (misled citezen out of SD) got heat stroke from drinking with us to much. The days went pretty much like that and we got it all on video. That may be a bad thing but whatever.
3. The band recently released an indie EP, describe how that came about and the plans for the record.
Well we were opening up for one of those BlackBoard Jungle shows at the Whiskey a Go Go. We played a fucking horrible set but the sound and the energy was still there. It caught the eye and ear of Roger Sommers (Rod Stewart, Rage Against the Machine, ect ect) He had heard this crappy demo that we had put out and he really wanted to help us make something that would take us to the next level. So over the next year we recorded Vol. 1 which is only 6 songs, but 6 great, very well recorded songs and not 12 half ass songs with some filler. This is a content driven industry now and we have no plans to release a full length anytime soon but rather we are going to keep dropping singles and ep's. We have talked about the next EP coming with some live footage and maybe some live songs to help the listener who has never seen us play live in on what we do.
4. Flexx Bronco recently had a big honor, opening for Sammy Hagar and Tesla at 107.7 The Bone Bonebash concert, can you tell the readers how it was to open for these legends?
Well they were boring and old and the singer from Tesla was wearing a stupid baseball cap, lets just get that out of the way. Playing in front of 2000 people was cool, getting our songs played on the radio for 3 months straight was cool. Having Bill Graham Presents tell us to tear down our merch table or we had to pay them 40% of our sales was fucked. We were in the middle of our tour, we are broke and we had to get to Vegas for a show the next night. It's like, "Hey assholes, whats 40% of nothing?" That's taking from the poor and giving to the rich, so on stage I told Clear Chanel and BGP to go fuck themselves. They didn't like that so much and wanted us to leave. So we sold as much merch as possible and took some booby picks with a bunch of 40 year old butt rocker chicks who thought we were rockstars and split for Sin City.
5. You guys are from San Francisco, a city NOT reknowned for being a very "rock 'n' roll" town. What are your thoughts on this?
We know this and hate it but it's better than being in a city with a bunch of cookie cutter wannabe skinny junkies. We play to so many different crowds out here it makes every show a new challenge and more fun. We love to play with different bands all the time from Thee Merry Widows(all girl psychobilly) to Teenage Harlets (Surf, punk garage) it makes for bigger shows also, cause you get every bands crowd and it's not just punks and rockers out to see FlexXbronco, it's the greasers and the nerds and the hipters, it rules that way. We can play with all the rock and punk bands on the road but in SF it's our family bands and friends that make our scene.
6. How is your draw at out of town shows compared to local Bay Area shows?
Depends on who we are playing with really. We do really well in Vegas, OC, Portland, Chico. Alot of that though has to do with the bands that are helping book the shows in those various cities. I get messages from friends on vacation in wherever who tell me they went to a show and saw a Flexx Bronco hoody here and a t shirt there. Thats when it's like,"ok guys time to go back to that city" ya know?
7. Do you guys have professional management or booking at this time? Label interest?
Right now we aren't signing anything exclusive with anyone because we aren't at that stage yet. We are still very much into keeping things at a personal level with most of the clubs, bookers and bands that we are dealing with. We have a booker that helps fill in the gaps in the schedule and we also have a guy that helps us with our marketing so we can get to the next stage. As far as label intrest goes, these days you have better odds in vegas than to make it on a label. Majors are a joke and the bottom dropped out a long time ago. So we figure we have made it this far ourselves why not keep on going. We incorperated and are looking into our own label and distro, most likely under the D.S.R. name.
8. With the advent of Myspace and ITunes, how do you feel about bands using these outlets for promotion and distribution versus old school methods like paper flyering and taking your music to local record shops?
Part of the reason why FlexXBronco does so well in SF and out of town is that we still get off our ass and get in peoples faces with flyers and not just myspace. Once your friends have seen you play 5 or 6 times they are going to stop going to your shows. You have to get out there and talk to people, let them know whats up. We are always dragging people from the dive bar across the street to see us play and if they come over and like what they see we give them a CD or something. Myspace has given us and thousands of other bands the chance to network and book shows without having to make 12 thousand phone calls. Like I said before this is now a content driven industry and with Itunes and myspace you don't have to keep putting out full length albums. Just keep recording good tunes, making them available and people will keep coming back
9. What "scene" do you guys consider yourselves part of?
Well it's not the butt rocker "Hey brothers let start a rock n roll revolution" scene, that already happened in the fucking 60's. I don't know how it is everyhere else but here in SF there are not that many bands that do what we do, so when we do get together with those other rock/punk bands it can get a bit boring. It is so much more fun to play a show with groups of bands that you get along with and have fun with. It's pointless to get together with 3 other cock rock bands and have a wank fest, unless your into that sort thing then we are there.... ha just kidding
10. What are the future plans for Flexx Bronco? And please don't say we wanna conquer the world because all bands say that.
Ya know always working on our stage show and figuring out ways to keep people entertained. We are getting Thor a new sparkling cod piece that might shoot something out of it so ladies cover your eyes. I would say just check out our spyspace at www.myspace.com/flexxbronco or our website www.flexxbronco.com, shoot us a message and we'll keep you posted