Astute readers will recall that Thousand Oaks, California’s The Bogarts were a Dying Scene Spotlight band last Spring. Apparently they weren’t ready to walk into the sunset with that as their high-water mark, so they’ve been busy working on material and they are due to head in to the studio in April to record the full-length followup to last year’s “Ideologies” EP. We caught up with co-frontman Alex Johnson to chat about what’s new in The Bogarts’ camp, the direction of the new material, growing up in Thousand Oaks, and “going all Skiba.” They also revealed the title and tracklisting of their forthcoming release, and detailed a few upcoming shows (including one with the Flatliners). Check it out here.Dying Scene (Jay Stone): First and foremost, give Dying Scenesters a little background on the band: who you are, how you met, when you started out, etc.
The Bogarts (Alex): The Bogarts formed in July of 2009 in our drummer’s house. We originally started as a three-piece, with myself on guitar and vocals, Nick on bass and vocals, and Moritz on drums. I’d played in multiple nothing-bands with Moritz since we were little kids, but when we met Nick in that early July, he was definitely the force that gave us the ambition to actually start making music, recording, and playing shows.
Later down the line, we met our lead guitarist, Liam. We all went to high school with him, but we thought he was too cool to be our friend, and as it turns out, he thought the same about us. When our previous guitarist couldn’t tour with us last summer, Liam filled in and learned our songs really quickly. At the end of the tour, it was pretty clear he was going to be in our band.
Fill the non-Californians among us in a little bit: what’s the scene like in Thousand Oaks nowadays?
The music scene in Thousand Oaks is a pretty lackluster to say the least. We don’t have a single music venue that lets punk rock bands play, so we either have to drive down to the San Fernando Valley, or up north to Camarillo and Ventura to play a show. We’ve got some solid bands around here, too, like The Braces, Moonraker, The Sheds, The Grittys, and a whole bunch more. But we’ve got a lot of friends out here, and we’re glad to come from where we come from.
“Ideologies,” your last EP, was released a year ago. At the time, you remarked that it was your “road out of ‘Suckville’ and into ‘Kindofokayland’.” Listening to those songs now, how do you think they hold up? Also, do you have a particular destination for the upcoming full-length?
“Ideologies” is and always will be that “road” of sorts to us. Nick and I wrote those songs when we were still in high school, and listening to and playing those songs brings back some great and not-so-great memories for me. I’m sure Nick would feel the same way about them, too. Those songs were our way of figuring out what direction we wanted to head in as a band, and as individual songwriters.
As for the new record, which we’ve decided to call “Nothing To Call Our Own”, we have a fairly defined destination. We always have trouble with questions like this though, because we feel that no matter what we say, we won’t properly describe how it sounds. But what I can tell you is that it’s a lot more diverse than the EP was. No two songs sound the same, and I think the EP lacked dynamic more than anything else.
Speaking of that upcoming full-length…what was the writing process like this time around? Was everything written specifically for this full-length or is it an amalgam of songs from the last several years?
The writing process was a lot less formulaic this time around, but was also a lot more organized. For the EP, the songs were usually just written by Nick or myself, and then we’d get them together full-band after Nick and I had sat down and worked out the kinks. But for this record, if either one of us wrote a song, we’d write only the basic guitar and vocal part, and then instead of working on it just the two of us, we’d take it to Moritz and Liam. Those two ended up having almost as much, if not just as much input into the songwriting as Nick and I did. Liam actually wrote the music for one of the songs, “Reflections/Clarifications”.
All of the songs that are featured on this new record were written together as a whole cohesive effort. Some songs flow into each other, some songs have lyrical trends. It’s the first time we’ve ever set out to write a RECORD, rather than just writing songs. I hope that when it’s finally recorded and out for the ears of the public, people will see it that way too.
Will you be holed up in the bedroom of Zack Sekuler (The Braces) this time as well or are you branching out?
This time, we’re actually not recording with Zack. We did a demo of a new song called “Tempe, AZ” with him, but then a bunch of complications came up, mostly the fact that Zack is working his ass off on The Braces’ new record. Had we decided to record with him, we wouldn’t have been able to release the record by the time we wanted to. So instead, we’re recording with Alex Estrada in Los Angeles. He recently did Joyce Manor’s self-titled, which was one of our favorite records of last year, so we’re all excited to record with him.
When reviewing “Ideologies” for a punk news site whose name currently escapes me, some particularly astute editor commented on how certain lyrics (particularly on the title track) sounded more ‘grown up’ than your then-ages might otherwise suggest. Something about “what you’d expect from a young person starting to break out of their bubble and paying attention to the world around them for the first time.” What sort of lyrical direction can we expect this time around?
The lyrical content of this record is a lot darker, not to say we’re going all Skiba on everyone. I think the fact that we’ve dealt with a lot of the bullshit of life in the past year really shows through in our lyrics. Nick had someone really close to him pass away recently – he wrote a song about it. We’ve had friends tell us they didn’t want to be associated with us anymore – we wrote a song about it. We had a horrible experience last summer playing a show in Tempe, AZ – we wrote a song about it. It all comes down to the fact that we write songs about real feelings and real experiences, and at the end of the day, that makes for what we hope to be a relatable record, lyrically.
You’re obviously busy writing and recording soon, but summer is also coming: any plans to take The Bogarts on the road in the near future?
We’ve actually already finished up all the writing for the record, which is a relief. We’re recording in the first week of April, and then after that, we’re doing as many shows as humanly possible while still holding jobs before we leave for a month long tour of the U.S. (sans East Coast) with Moonraker. Furthest east we’re going is Indianapolis, but seeing as we’re doing it all on our own budget, I don’t feel half-bad about that.
You guys are a younger band but you’ve got an obvious respect for no-nonsense, DIY punk music of years’ past. If you could pick one “elder statesman” from the history of the punk scene to have a beer (or non-alcoholic beverage) with, who would it be?
Fuck, that’s a tough one. My gut reaction is to pick Ian MacKaye simply because he’s done it all – multiple influential bands, a record label, production, and more. But I can guarantee you that if the four of us had to agree on someone, it would end being Glenn Danzig, just so he could hear Nick’s best Danzig impression.
Most young bands cut their teeth playing shows in sketchy venues for lame crowds and no money. Any particularly terrible gig experiences to share?
Man, we’ve had some pretty weak moments over the past few tours, more than I could give in one answer, and more than we’d like to admit. One that still stands out to us is when we played a show at a bar that will remain nameless in Boise, Idaho. We pulled up to the bar to see that they’d placed an inflatable pool in front of the venue, on the fucking pavement outside. It was someone’s birthday, and that was the Boise, Idaho version of a pool party, it would seem.
We decided to mingle with the bar-folk, which we’ve learned is never a good idea as a bunch of underage dudes. Liam and I ended up going swimming, and he broke out his infamous banana-hammock man-thong, and got groped by some 400lbs+ man that we will refer to as “Face-tattoo-guy”.
Later on, we left the pool, and while I was watching the merch table inside, Nick, Liam, Moritz, and our tour manager/roadie/champion-of-the-world, Kevin were out back, loading in the equipment. Face-tattoo-guy managed to make an appearance, and tried to score some cocaine off of Nick and Moritz. When he realized that they didn’t have any coke to give him, he decided to pull a gun on the guys, picked up Nick, pinned him against the van, and began to dry-hump him. He then went on to find me, gave me five dollars, and disappeared for the rest of the night, but not before he offered us a place to stay.
At the end of the night, we did end up meeting some cool people, but it was still an experience I thought I should share.
Wow. Anything else you think Dying Scene fans should know?
Check out this sweet tracklisting for our upcoming record, “Nothing To Call Our Own”.
1. Bridge Burners
2. Reflections/Clarifications
3. Profiteering Schemes
4. Living
5. Formerly Known
6. Half-Empty
7. Obsolete Motives
8. Heavy Head
9. Greetings From…
10. Tempe, AZ
11. The Offensive Rhyme
12. Indecision
Also, we’ve got a fuck-ton of shows coming up in April including one with the Flatliners on the 26th, so if anyone is looking for anything to do, point yourselves in our direction.
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