An Interview With The Budos Band
We caught up with the Staten Island’s The Budos Band recently. While the band has been around for a while, their new album Burnt Offering has put them and their unique ‘70’s Psychedelic Instrumental’ sound back in the spotlight. The album has received a massive amount of praise from critics and was even put on a few “Best Of 2014” lists.
So, how long has the band been together?
As “The Budos”, we’ve been together about ten years… twelve years…
There aren’t a lot of bands that’ve been together for that long, what has kept you together for so long?
We just like hanging out with each other, drinking beer and just…being friends first! We don’t look at it as a business that you’re money making, we don’t wanna be popular, we don’t wanna be a big band, we just wanna make music together, and like playing music together. We don’t care if other people like it or they don’t. We’re just kind of hanging out drinking beer, playing music, making songs…If we like it, it’s great, if other people like it – alright, that’s cool too but if they don’t like it – alright, whatever, you know…
So, how many members in total?
Nine all together
How many of you have been involved from the start?
This is the original crew, we’ve been together since the beginning
Schedules must be a little difficult, how many shows do you on perform on average each year?
Probably around sixty
We heard that you guys are gonna be going to Australia in a few months, are you guys looking forward to that?
We are! It’s a bunch of outlaws in the desert, we’re gonna have a good time – we always do in Australia.
Are there any festivals you play every year?
We don’t have anything consistent but we had a great time at High Sierra. That’s in The Sierra Mountains in Quincy, California. It’s a really giving community there and people are super cool. You hang for like two or three days and you just feel like it’s a city, you know? You could be wandering around and people invite you into their trailers, campsites, whatever. We’d definitely like to go back there.
You guys did a set at 2 AM last night, what was the crowds energy like?
It was over the top. The crowd started chanting before we even came on stage and had crazy energy the whole time. We had pretty good following out there; we were definitely impressed.
Let’s say this band wasn’t here and money was no object; you were given the opportunity to follow one band on tour and totally submerge yourself in the tour. Which band would you follow?
Electric Citizen from Cincinnati .They’re great! They’ve been opening for us for the past three months and we’ve been playing together since the summer. It’s like a marriage made in heaven.
What’s one venue that the band would love to play that you guys haven’t yet?
Well, we’re about to do it in January. It’s the Filmore in San Francisco, that is happening. There’s a shit ton of history there obviously and a lot of bands that we admire have played there over the years and now we’re doing it in January. That’s definitely a very exciting achievement.
Why are you playing music together?
Why are we playing music together? Because we are still hungry as musicians. I think we still have the energy and the drive to just bust our asses and go crazy. We’re not satisfied. This most recent album is like a turn for us and it’s a big turn because the first three albums kind of exist as almost like a trilogy. The fourth album was musically something different for us together and I think we’ve always kind of followed a path that is not straight. It takes turns all over the place. It’s something that we experience together and that’s why we’re here, that’s why we’re doing it.
Do you guys plan out your sets? Or do you just vibe off one another?
We’re not trying to sell it like the record that we’re playing. It’s like, this is how we wanna play this song today, and maybe tomorrow we’ll play the song a little differently.You heard us last night. I’m sure there’s a difference between what we played yesterday and tonight in terms of like…a certain energy on a certain song, the vibe, or even just the intro’s or outro’s or whatever. I mean it’s not a hundred percent switch, it’s an energy change. Because if you watch some others, you’ll feel like “Ah, it’s like they sound exactly the same, this is bad. Exactly the same, exactly the same.” They tour all year, they play the same set the same way day after day, after day, after day, and yes it’s tight. But what’s the point? There’s no feeling there. What’s the point playing the same thing every day, you know?
So you aim to give your fans something new at each show?
Yes, I don’t think I’ve ever played the same way twice. Ever.
So, if somebody heard you guys live and wants to join the Budos mayhem – how could they do that?
Go on the internet, thebudos.com,. We have Facebook to announce tour dates. We also have our Instagram where we put pictures of us going crazy. We’re on Daptone Records so you can check us out on their website too.
Listen to Burnt Offering below and download it here!
Interview by Steve Prendergast