So how has your latest album/EP gone so far with fans then?
The last year has been wild. When we recorded our album Secret Kombinations, we weren’t a band, per se. It was a project that morphed into a full-blown band, only after we got the mixes back. From there, we felt like the music was deserving of a band commitment. When we released the album about seven months later, nobody knew who we were. People of Punk Rock Records saw the magic in the music and signed us, releasing three singles before the record dropped. So over a two-month span, we started building a fanbase, so when the album released, people seemed to be hungry for it. And our little independent punk rock album has far exceeded our expectations, which is, I suppose, what happens when you go into a situation without any expectations. We simply made the music for the joy of creating art and collaborating. The fanbase we’ve built since March of 2023 is amazing. We’re grateful and appreciative of each fan and we’re just stoked there are so many fellow members of the BTG tribe. Bridge The Gap has grown dramatically over that span, mind-bogglingly so.
Tell us something about the release no one knows?
Secret Kombinations released with 13 songs, but we actually recorded 14 during the sessions at the Blasting Room. With eight songs in the can, I had problems toward the end with my voice going out (as per usual in the bloot-sweat-and-tears studio) and I had already rescheduled to come back and finish five, which I did. But there was that last song, still that needed the vocals tracked, and we just got impatient and wanted to move forward. Plus, our producer Bill Stevenson is a busy dude, especially as a touring musician as the drummer in Descendents. So we put song 14 on the back burner, mastered and released the album as a 13-song piece. The original Secret Kombinations sessions took place in June/July of 2022, and I went back for the five songs on vocals in August. After we released the album, a few months passed by, and I reached out to Bill about coming back to knock out vocals on No. 14, and our schedules aligned for September 2023. We released it as a single on October 31 entitled Revenant. Fans can now purchase the Secret Kombinations album as was intended at our Bandcamp page, with all 14 songs.
Can you tell us about the meaning behind the track?
Revenant is written in tribute to my Uncle Mark, who lost a lifelong battle with drug addiction about 20 years ago. The song tells his story, as it were.
If you could work with any band on a new song, who would it be and why?
That’s a tough question to answer. Having somehow convinced one of my all-time songwriting heroes to produce the band, we don’t have any intentions of making a record with anyone but Bill, Jason, Andrew, Colton, Miles, Chris, and Jonathan at the Blasting Room. But the geek in me will always wonder what it would be like to work with Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion. Bad Religion has been and always will be my favorite band.
How has your latest release been received?
Secret Kombinations was very well received, it seems. Not only from a listening/streaming/purchasing perspective, but in the punk rock press. All positive reviews, which is gratifying and very humbling. And we’ve made a lot of friends from other bands/artists who dug the record.
What tours do you have coming up, and what can you tell us about them?
We’re playing a few U.S. festivals this summer, and plan to tour for our upcoming album, the title and release date yet to be determined. We hope to get to Europe in 2025.
What venue are you most looking forward to playing the most, and why?
We’d like to play Punk Rock Holiday, SBaM Fest, and Groezrock in the not-too-distant future.
What else can we expect from you in 2024?
We just finished our second record at the Blasting Room. Another 14-songer. We hope to release it in 2024.