The Rising: Brian Bonz

Talking with Brooklyn-bred singer/songwriter Brian Bonz is like taking a music-head to Amoeba for the first time: Their interest is immediately piqued, they get really giddy and don’t know where to start. Or finish, for that matter.

But unlike most sweet-natured scatterbrains, the 23-year-old troubadour is someone who seems wise beyond his years. Not only does Bonz have a Homeric epic’s worth of stories at the ready - many of them derived from the variable of madness that is touring - but like the Greek legend, he’s a pro at telling them. And he seems to have processed many of the lessons learned to boot.

We considered telling you all about Bonz in chronological form, but such a straight-forward bio wouldn’t really do justice to this peripatetic wanderlust. So instead we’ll relay - mostly in the Road Warrior’s own words - a series of not-too-tall tales he told us, spicing it up with some extra insights and “bonus material.”

Enjoy.

—–

The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonz-ai Across the 8th Dimension!

—–

When IndiePit caught up with Mr. Bonz a couple of weeks back, he was lost in the desert. Well, not exactly “lost” - but when we started talking with him as he was traversing from the New Mexico plains to San Antonio, his cell phone cut out. So in that sense he was “lost” to us (hey, we’re trying to make this dramatic).

Anyway, he called us a little later and apologized - which he didn’t have to do, because really, it was the fault of nature - or the phone company.

Nonetheless, despite the scheduling conflict and the sweaty trek through the sand, Bonz was in good spirits. In fact, from the evenly enthusiastic way he spoke about the highs and lows of the tour (and his life in general), we got the impression that this is a someone who is usually in good spirits. You know, a glass-half-full kinda guy. For added proof, watch the video below.

For instance, Bonz found himself with a “good” problem on his hands while slogging through the tour: People at the shows were wanting to buy Brian Bonz records - just not the Brian Bonz records he was selling.

Here’s the thing: See, he has this new album, From Sumi to Japan, coming out August 4 on Triple Crown (according to Bonz, RCA and XL also skirmished over releasing it).

Well, the record features the angelic-voiced singer/guitarist - think a younger, more normal version of Wayne Coyne - backed by a full band called the Dot Hongs (yeah, no, we won’t go there). Problem is, the trip Bonz was on when we spoke with him - opening for regular road mates Nightmare of You - was a solo-acoustic affair. Concertgoers who liked what they saw and heard wanted to get a physical copy that represented … well, what they saw and heard. They didn’t want the full band versions, because that wasn’t part of their experience.

“I’m working backward,” he said. 

And while he found a positive way to frame the dilemma, that wasn’t the tour’s only hiccup thus far.

Not too long before his chat with IndiePit, “Nightmare of You’s booking agent offered us this last-minute show in Madison, Wisconsin. It was on a lake, and when we got there, there was maybe five people. It was ridiculous. And then the PA broke right after I played, so the two other bands couldn’t play. It felt like a scene right out of ‘Flight of the Conchords.’ ”

Not having people show up to your show sucks, there’s no doubt about it. But as Bonz reminded us, the reverse situation can also pose problems: overenthusiastic fans.

When not touring with fellow Brooklynite Kevin Devine - who is, like Nightmare of You, another one of Bonz’s regular road partners - he usually winds up crashing at a friend’s pad, or a fan’s (that would be Dr. Know DIY tour tip #17). But there was that one time he did that in St. Louis, when …

“… We stayed with this girl who was hula-hooping at the show the entire time while I was playing. I said to her, ‘I’m playing solo acoustic; you can’t hula-hoop at my show.’ And she got all offended. And she thought I was all upset - but I really wasn’t, I was just giving her a hard time. So my friend comes over, and it turns out we were staying at her friend’s house. Of course this is right after the first time these two girls had just done coke.

“So we go to the friend’s house and the girl is still hula-hooping. Then the friend puts on this Robert Johnson record on vinyl - which is great to hear, ’cause I’d never heard Robert Johnson on vinyl blasting through a house at 4 in the morning.

“But these hippie girls, they were blowing smoke into the Nightmare of You singer’s face while was sleeping. It was just surreal.

“And in the morning, it was more hula-hooping.”

—–

Even though he’s only 23, Bonz feels like he’s already outgrown episodes like those. Isn’t there a cliché about how touring makes musicians get real old real fast? No? Well, there should be one. How about: “Touring makes musicians get real old real fast.”

“Some of my Brooklyn friends I grew up with, I feel like I’m a bit disconnected with them, or that they don’t get me,” Bonz said.

Also important: He spent most of his youth under the tutelage of his older brother, also a musician. And he’s been touring predominately with musicians more senior than himself - Devine included.

But it’s not just the tour experiences that have put Bonz face to face with some of life’s harsh realities. Like, there was that time when he was 21 when he dated that 30-year-old woman who had just returned from Iraq - and who wanted to have a baby with him and start a family. He talks all about this in his song “Judy and the Alpha Queen.”

“It’s basically about having this long-distance relationship where two people are dating, and one person is at the point in their life where they’re drinking and getting into what they want to do in their early 20s - and the other person is washing [battlefield] blood out of her jeans.

“I put myself in situations like that …”

—–

Indeed he does. Because even though Bonz does seem to be learning as he gets older - regularly taking stock of his life, for example - he has also had a tendency to put himself in “situations.”

“On the last tour, when I was traveling through Yuma, I didn’t know there would be a Homeland Security checkpoint. And I had a little bit of marijuana with me, which sucked. I got there an hour after Lil Wayne got popped. And I had to fly back [to go to court].”

Bonz went back, shacked up at a hotel and tried to get the issue over with as soon as he could.

“The hotel manager had to drive me to the courthouse,” he sighed. “And then we got into a discussion: ‘What did you get arrested for?’ It was surreal to be in a car with someone you don’t know who’s driving you to your court date.”

—–

Bonz - who has also toured with Joan of Arc, Do Make Say Think and others - has many more otherworldly adventures like these: van breakdowns, a bizarre gas station incident in which one of his bandmates almost totaled an attendant’s car, a mêlée between rowdy teens in Cleveland, getting a concussion after hitting his head on the band’s vehicle, almost getting jumped by 12 guys outside his apartment … ad infinitum.

Want to hear more? Guess what: The stories above, and many others, are what basically provide the foundation for From Sumi to Japan. 

“When it comes to my writing, it’s all about the truth of what’s going on in my life currently or [what I went through] as a child.”

Again, as the adventurer Bonz said, he puts himself in “situations.”

—–

Unfortunately we don’t have any Bonz tunes to share with you, but this “Dee the Dinosaur” has gotten the A-OK for complimentary public consumption:

Don’t miss these past editions of “The Rising”:

The Drums

Too Many Daves

Mountanaka

The Hero and the Victor