Bunktown Falls dropped their new EP, “High Koalaty” on us yesterday and it is a damn hit! Watching the progress these four have made over the past year alone is amazing. Their musical talent is unmatched, and they are some of the most genuine people I’ve ever met.With the release of this new EP, Bunktown Falls has proven that they have mastered their sound and are ready to take on the world! Check out my interview with the Bunktown boys below!
Band: Bunktown Falls
Recent Release: “High Koalaty” EP (2020)
*Boomtown = Spencer
*Crispy = Carl
*Mundo = Alex
*Toasty = Santo
Dan: The main focus of the interview is the new EP, “High Koalaty”. What can you tell us about it?
Boomtown: I’d say the focus for us is that it was 100% self-contained. There was nothing done by anyone on these tracks that isn’t in the band.
Dan: Let’s talk about the new tracks, what can you tell us about them?
Toasty: ‘Sunday’ is like a love song. So it’s something like cool, in the breeze. You got a girl that doesn’t bust your chops all the time. You can kick back, relax and spark one up on the beach or on a drive. Just enjoy a nice, beautiful day with someone that makes you happy. It’s an uplifter.
Boomtown: That was the relaxing song I needed to put out in terms of base lines. Santo linked up and liked the vibe of the song and had lyrics for it. The song kinda grew from that one first riff, the lyrics he had…
Toasty: It all kind of gets meshed together.
Mundo: It never comes out like cookie cutter, like here’s the chorus, here’s the parts. It’s more like ‘I got an idea.’ and we just play it. It literally happened here 15 minutes ago. I had this idea and that idea, and now we started 2 different songs.
Dan: So it’s more like a jam session and you kinda go from there?
Toasty: Jam session, for all the musical composition 100%. Song writing is from stories and stories we have that come out of a book of experiences. The driving component for the lyrics is all based on our past experiences.
Dan: So let’s stick to this topic and talk about the vocals a little bit. Crispy, in terms of vocals, where do you come into play with the new songs?
Crispy: Well I didn’t have very much to do with any of the writing. I had a little influence on how the melody changed, but all the lyrics have been coming from Santo. It’s funny because his inspiration for the words are so deep and emotionally rooted that sometimes I feel like I can’t find the emotion I need to sing his songs with. I’m often thinking of how I relate to his lyrics and how I can add emotion from my life into it when I’m singing.
Toasty: The reason that he’s able to do it is because these guys are my family. What I feel, they have felt at one point or another. They take away from all my experiences and pull it into the music. As much as the experiences have happened to me, a little piece of that has happened to these guys too.
Mundo: I’ve been watching those two guys turn more and more into a duo. Watching them work together and build these parts is amazing. On ‘Sunday’, I was trying to help Carl work on some vocals and I went in the completely wrong direction. When Santo got back in here working with Carl, they fucking did it in like three hits. When they work together, it’s just natural.
Boomtown: I want to just say something because Carl sold himself a little bit short. With ‘Power and Sand’, we spent a lot of time working on those harmonies. Carl specifically spent a lot of time making sure stuff works, listening to stuff and suggesting harmonies for us to do.
Toasty: Yeah, this guy’s warm up is longer than our practices. He takes it more seriously than any of us!
Dan: Let’s talk about how Bunktown came to be. The current lineup isn’t the original lineup, so how did you 4 end up together?
Mundo: I kinda pulled everyone into this room together at some point or another. I meant Santo back in the day.
Toasty: Yeah, fucking wasted out of our god damn minds, like 30 beers in the hole.
Mundo: I knew Spencer from working at Sam Ash. I knew he was a killer musician, and then we became this family for years and years and years. And we always knew Carl could sing. And that was like our “ah-ha!” moment.
Dan: So you said that was the “ah-ha!” moment, but what was the actual moment?
Mundo: I had the “ah-ha!” moment with Santo 10 years ago, when we said we needed to start the reggae super group.
Boomtown: What I’ll say is the second I knew this was the right group is when the three of us jammed together and we all kinda hit this stop together during the jam, unplanned, and we all looked at each other and kept playing. I think we all clicked at that moment, like ‘ok there’s something here that wasn’t there with the previous people we played with.’ And I knew Carl belonged in this band after our 4/20 show in Boston. We got back to the hotel and he was slamming on pretty girl’s doors telling them he knew they were in there and had to come party with us. That’s when I knew Carl was the right fit.”
Dan: So everyone sounds like they were in a bunch of bands prior to Bunktown. What were you doing, musically, before this Carl?
Crispy: Me and Mundo would try to pick up girls on the beach all summer long. I would be like ‘Mundo I know your guitar is in the trunk’ because he would never want to bring it with him and be that asshole. So I would run up the beach, grab his guitar and run back down and put it in his lap and be like ‘Mundo is really good at guitar and I’m gonna sing!’ My family and I jam all the time. My dad rips on keys and my uncle is a really good guitarist and my mom is a vocalist as well, so I’ve always been involved in music.
Dan: Let’s get back to “High Koalaty”. What are you most excited about?
Crispy: I felt like ‘Power and Sand’ hands down was the song. When we started recording, we wanted to do this one first because it’s the fun one and we love the way it sounds and playing it so much. ‘Sunday’ was recorded earlier. We were gonna drop it with ‘Officer’ but we felt that it wasn’t ready. So we decided to scrap it, change it up and redo it again. Now when I listen to ‘Sunday’, I don’t know which song is going to be the one that’s gonna catch on with people more.
Mundo: ‘Sunday’ is almost a little bit like the last of ‘old Bunktown’. The very first phase change into what we are now. With this, I feel the least amount of doubt I’ve ever had musically.
Dan: With this new EP, there’s a noticeable difference in the sound and style. What was the inspiration behind that?
Boomtown: These songs are the first songs I think we all wrote together with specific intent. ‘Sunday’ I think we reignited ourselves when we re-recorded it. I think it’s a really good representation of the best of what Bunktown was doing. ‘Power and Sand’ is kinda a statement of what we would like to do next. It’s the forward motion. And if you listen to that song, it is forward motion. It’s a verse that is sung differently both times. Besides that, everything else doesn’t repeat itself. There’s no set in stone chorus. And to get that chorus feel that people want, we put this almost Pop Punk anthem at the end of it to sing along to.
Dan: So what’s the next move? From what I’ve heard, the band has come into their own with “High Koalaty”. What do you see within the next 6 months?
Toasty: To blow the fuck up! I swear to god, we’re working so hard to make this band explosive in such a big way. Any avenue we can address, anything we can exhaust, any talent that anyone in this band has is being put to use right now. We’re all hammering, writing songs, booking shows, making contacts, spreading the word of Bunktown because when I say we’re looking to take over, we’re not fucking kidding.
Boomtown: Our focus right now is to take it national at all costs.
Crispy: We love Long Island, don’t get me wrong. The shows we played last year, the bands we got to play with. Man, we reflected on it recently and it’s mind blowing the names we get to drop that we’ve played with. And it’s so cool to play the festivals we get to play. But we’ve thought ‘what’s the missing link?’ And it’s touring. That’s exactly what we want to do. We want to get out and go spread the love, spread the Bunk!
Dan: So what is your favorite song you’ve recorded to this day?
All: ‘Power and Sand’
Dan: Here’s a fun question I like to ask every band. Regardless of type of music, if you were to cover ANY song, what would it be?
Toasty: ‘Fool in the Rain’ by Led Zeppelin.
Boomtown: I always saw this band doing a really dope cover of ‘Rocket Man’.
Crispy: Yellow Card would be awesome. ‘Only One’ or ‘Paper Walls’ would be a fun one to do.
Mundo: ‘All in Time’ by Umphrey’s McGee. But one I think we could actually pull off is ‘Higgins’ by Umphrey’s McGee.
Dan: What do you have coming up?
Boomtown: Let’s talk about the Cannabis Parade we’re playing in the city!
Toasty: We’re playing May 2nd. It’s like a stand up and fights for your rights type of thing.
Crispy: The authorities give written amnesty to the entire festival.
Toasty: We walked up to the festival last year at Union Square, and we just thought ‘what the fuck is going on? It stinks like herb over here.’ And the whole park is just smoking joints and bowls right in front of the cops.
Boomtown: And we’re playing with Sensi Trails! It’s gonna be Bunktown, Sensi Trails and Aqua Cherry, June 23rd at Mercury Lounge. And then we’re gonna try to pick up what we can in other states.
Dan: So to wrap it all up, what do each of you want everyone to take from “High Koalaty” and this interview?
Boomtown: Nothing you ever see us do, whether it be on an instagram story, musically, public appearances, anything. Anything we do, none of this is pretend. It all comes from exactly who we are and exactly what we do. If you ever think we’re putting on a show for you guys, we’re just doing what we do because this is what comes to us. This is what we want to be doing and this is what makes us happy.
Toasty: You’ll never see a better version of our songs than what we’re doing in this band right now. This is the best version of us because this is what we love.
Crispy: We got a big family that’s growing with room for more and we welcome all! We try to hit everyone we can with our music, our genre, our words, so join our fam!
Mundo: Growth. Like I said we’ve been playing together for years. We’ve been through a lot of shit. A lot of good and a lot of bad, but we always came out ahead of it. It’s always been a matter of constantly looking forward no matter what and I think this EP sums that up.
Bunktown Falls just set the bar high with “High Koalaty“. With each release, this band just gets better and better. Check out the new EP on the blog’s Spotify playlist: After Hours Review!