The Bronx Are On A Mission From, Well, Not God

Although a beloved act on record – last year's V their latest well-received full-length - Los Angeles punkers The Bronx's reputation as a high-energy, intense, sweat-dripping live act well and truly precedes them. Devotees likely will not be surprised that none of the group's onstage hijinks are in any way premeditated, instead remaining strictly in the moment.

“That's the only way to fly really,” vocalist Matt Caughthran explains from his home in Huntington Beach, California. “When you're on tour, there's so much routine in everything that you do. It's like, to make the show a part of that would just be a nightmare. You're on a schedule for so many different things, and because you're a human being and you have habits, you fall into patterns, you fall into your own routine, little daily things that you're doing here and there. So to try to fit the show on a grid like that as well, it's just never been our thing. The show is when it's time for madness. It's time for the unexpected, when it's time to just let things fly. So 100%, that's where it all goes down, that's where the craziness comes from.”

Has he engaged in particular antics while performing, only to regret it somewhat upon post-gig reflection? “Oh yeah. I've done it a couple of times where... In one of our earlier shows, I got naked and I shouldn't have done that. It was at the Groezrock festival in Belgium, and for the last song I took off all my clothes. It was just kind of a weird thing,” he chuckles. “I don't think people were ready for it. But yeah, that happened and after that I was like, 'Well, maybe I shouldn't have done that,' I kinda freaked people out a little bit.”

The Bronx are perennial visitors to these shores, with Australia becoming one of their strongest markets. The vocalist says there won't be any appearances from their Mariachi El Bronx alter ego this time around, but he's enthused at the prospect of returning with Melbourne heavy-hitters High Tension and garage-punk crew Private Function in tow. The jaunt will also venture into some regional markets.

"In one of our earlier shows, I got naked and I shouldn't have done that. It was at the Groezrock festival in Belgium, and for the last song I took off all my clothes. It was just kind of a weird thing."

“I feel like the past couple of times we've gone there, we haven't really been fully able to express ourselves in the manner that we need to in order to exorcise all the demons,” Caughthran says. “We still have a lot of aggression to get out... [So we decided to] come back and play some tiny ass regional shows, play some big city shows, play a crazy Halloween show [in Melbourne], and just get it all out. We're gonna bring Halloween to Australia, it's gonna happen. It's a mission of ours.”

Meanwhile, new material from The Bronx also appears to be in its infancy. “Nowadays as a band, you've kinda always got to be working... On the three facets of being a musician, which is writing, recording and playing. We don't know necessarily when we're gonna go do another Bronx record, I'm thinking sometime next year it's probably gonna happen. But we're kinda just starting to get the wheels going on that, and starting to think about writing.

“For the past two weeks I've been doing a tonne of writing, which is cool. I got through a bit of a block where I wasn't really feeling anything creative, broke through and ended up writing probably like six to eight pages full of stuff that I'm really stoked on. So it's starting to happen; eventually we'll get there, but that's a long way's away. Sometimes my mind operates like a thrift store. I just go in, and I'll just pull stuff out of fucking nowhere, and be like, 'Oh, that's nice.' So certain lines that I'm coming up with now, to be honest with you, they're pretty messed up. They seem a little crazy, but that's how I think I'm going in the right direction. So we'll see. I can't give it all [away] right now,” he laughs. “I've got to keep you in suspense. But it's dark; just think about that.”