Introducing Vancouver’s newest punk band…shooting clams and taking names.
By Kristina Mameli, the
SkinnyPrior to this, I’d never heard of anyone interviewing a band that no one other than the band members themselves had ever heard, let alone interviewed one myself; but those familiar with the Vancouver music scene are no doubt well acquainted with how persuasive former Black Halos frontman Billy Hopeless can be. I could already tell this was going to be interesting; a challenge. With that in the back of my mind, I had the distinct privilege of conducting the inaugural Bonitos interview over a beer at their jam space days before the band’s debut gig.
For his new project, Hopeless hand selected each member of the band with one goal:
to find a group of like-minded individuals to create his own favourite band and in so doing revive rock n’ roll in Vancouver, dispelling the No Fun City myth.
The incredibly sweet players each uniformly introduced themselves, highlighting their backgrounds and explaining how they came to be recruited.
“I started out east, moved all the way out here, and ran into Billy at a lingerie shop,” perhaps slightly sarcastically recalled guitarist Chris Walsh Bonito. “He helped me try on some new thongs, stuff like that. I met the other guys; they seemed down with it---”
“Chris used to be in a band called the Daggers,” broke in Hopeless amongst the laughter. “We played with them in Calgary and I was just too messed up to know what was going on or if they were any good really, but I got a 7 inch and I really liked it.”
A friend of Hopeless’ later drunkenly recommended Walsh.
“And that’s all it took,” smiled Walsh.
Originally from Calgary, bassist Kato Bonito played mostly in cover bands before being enlisted. “I didn’t play in anything anyone’s ever heard of before,” mused Kato. “I had Billy fill in on a couple of my projects and they were fucking fun. Then we were talking and I said we had to do something original because covers are fun, but your own shit’s better.”
Guitarist and Vancouverite Pinto Bonito and Hopeless go a little further back, but not necessarily in a positive way. Pinto’s former bands were both rivals of Hopeless’ former projects. “Both the Saddle Sores and Crystal Pistol were bands that the Black Market Babies and the Black Halos were at war with; literally at war with,” revealed Hopeless. “So it’s really great to have Pinto in the band because of both those bands I thought Pinto was the cool guy. He was always the Johnny Thunders; great guitar player, great energy on stage and a really great guy.”
Formerly of “the ultimate tribute to Kiss” Black Diamond, drummer Mark Cuzzetto Bonito grew up alongside Hopeless. “I’ve known Billy since before he was completely hopeless,” said Cuzzetto with a smile.
“I was still called Hopeless back then.”
“Yeah, we pretty much knew you were hopeless from day one.”
Hopeless meticulously and painstakingly researched each member, coming across Cuzzetto on Myspace. “For Mark, it’s really funny because I wanted Clive Burr, the first drummer from Maiden, Phil Rudd, AC/DC’s first drummer, or Peter Criss. If I had to pick three drummers that kicked my ass, those are the rock and roll drummers that I think of,” said Hopeless, remembering that the last time he ran into Cuzzetto, he was dressed as Peter Criss at the Commodore. “And I was like man…Mark Cuzzetto, you’re Peter Criss! You rule!”
Thus, rather organically, began the Bonitos. “We all got a call and it was kind of like this,” said Walsh breaking into an inspired impression of Hopeless channelling Joe Shithead. “‘Hey Chris, this is Billy. I’m starting a new band. I got some guys together; meet me at this place.’ And then I didn’t hear from him until I showed up at the door and met everybody.”
Walsh relates the mobilization of the Bonitos to the movie the Magnificent Seven. “He told me I had to play the part of Yul Brynner and he said ‘I’ve already got Charles Bronson and the other guys---just show up on this day.’ So we did. Now it’s just love and dysfunction and all kinds of other good things.”
The band shares influences “from AC/DC to ZZ Top, as long as it’s rock.” First and foremost, that includes the Ramones and Canadian road warriors such as DOA, SNFU, and the Subhumans.
“Anything you listen to, anything you see in your life is going to affect you,” reflected Hopeless. “There are so many beautiful things in this city that affect you, and then you’ve got music, television and movies. You can’t really narrow it down I think. I mean, Pinto’s shovelling horseshit and that’s got to affect you in some weird way.”
When asked what the musical direction of the band was, the question was abruptly shirked. “We play both kinds of music: rock and roll,” chuckled Hopeless saying that direction has become a common query. “You know me and you know what I’m into and I know what you’re into and it seems like we all like the same type of stuff and why don’t we just play and fucking not worry about direction? You can’t have direction; you’re going to get lost anyways. I mean, what’s the point of direction? There’s no rock n’ roll GPS.”
He also made it very clear that with the Bonitos, there’s no half assing it; you have to be in all the way. “This could be the last stand for a rock n’ roll band in this city, so I think for everyone it’s all or nothing; let’s just go. Let’s go really hard and let’s give it all we can and that’s sort of the direction I think, if there is a direction. Just let it all loose and hit ‘em with a barrage like a thousand Roman candles aimed at their crotches; let’s just go hard.”
And as for the sound? “It’s going to sound like something that’s beyond words,” said Hopeless mysteriously.
“That’s how bad it’s going to be,” laughed Pinto.
“Everyone always tries to be the best they can, why can’t you just go and shoot low?” reasoned Hopeless. “It’s way easier; that’s always my motto.”
So the goal is to conquer the bottom rung musically?
“Conquering the bottom is way easier,” explained Kato.
“Why try and shoot the stars when you can go to the beach and shoot clams?” asked Hopeless. “It’s way more fun. The bottom’s where all the good stuff is; all the heavy stuff sinks to the bottom.”
“That’s the album title right there,” chimed in Pinto. “Shooting Clams.”
“From the Bottom,” added Walsh to agreement and laughter.
“It’s just punk rock and roll,” described Hopeless. “It’s just us basically.”
“We’re the type of band that you raise your beer glass to and have fun,” said Walsh, raising his hand.
Much like the ease of their banter, the Bonitos also find themselves writing music naturally. With no principle songwriter, the process is collective and organic. “The very first time we got together was the very first time all of us had met, except for Billy,” said Cuzzetto. “We didn’t talk about what we were going to play, we didn’t talk about how it was going to sound, one of the guys just started playing guitar and the rest of us just sort of followed along.”
“It ain’t contrived,” summed up Hopeless. “You can’t try and force it because then it’s going to sound contrived and that’s not the point. The point is to do what comes natural or unnatural.”
Since his Black Halos days, Hopeless has always felt a great affection for Spain, naming the band because of a beautiful Spanish sentiment. While talking to a girl who writes for the Spanish equivalent of Rolling Stone, he asked her how to say beautiful in Spanish. “She said ‘Bonita, for me bonita,’ and I said ‘bye bye bonita’ and she said ‘for you bonito.’”
After the loss of close friend Kike, who had been responsible for bringing the Halo’s to Spain, Hopeless again spoke to the writer. “She said to me ‘Kike looked to you like his son and to me like his daughter’ and she goes ‘the Spanish love you so much because you love them. You must name the band in Spanish.’” Hopeless suggested Bonitos which means handsome man. “I also found out it means very large tuna,” laughed Hopeless. “And that makes sense too because it’s a big fish in a small pond attitude. Either way it sounds cool; it sounds like a gang.”
According to Walsh, the original name suggested was “Richard Thickopolous and the Perogie Rollers, but we just assumed that we couldn’t get on top of the pops with a name like that.”
But topping the charts is the last thing on anyone’s mind, especially if it risks compromising the integrity of the Bonitos music. “I still believe in rock and roll and I still love it,” said Hopeless. “I’m really glad getting this band together because I can say everyone here loves punk or they love rock and roll or both and that’s the key. That’s honesty. This is what we like and someone’s gotta play it because otherwise everyone’s just going to follow trends.”
The Bonitos are hard at work on their debut album, currently laying down bed tracks on a borrowed old school four-track cassette recorder. In fact, the first Halos 7 inch was recorded on a similar set-up. According to Hopeless, this method brings out a certain rawness that he is constantly striving for and helps avoid churning out an overproduced record. “It shouldn’t be perfect and it shouldn’t be clean; it should be raw, really raw and animalistic. And you get the little mistakes, you get the fuck ups. When you record digital you get this sound where everything’s too clean and too perfect and rock and roll ain’t meant to be that way.”
The unfinished recording has already received label inquiries and can be expected sometime in 2010, complete with what I’ve been assured will be amazing album art. Touring is also slated to start then.
“This band’s out to destroy and have a good time doing it,” grinned Hopeless alluding to the ferocious display of live energy to come at the Eldorado. “We hold parties, we don’t play shows man.”
The Bonitos play an all-ages show at the Fun House in Abbotsford January 23rd.
