INTERVIEW: Bonerama find new label, new album
The New Orleans musical output is stronger than ever, and that can be evidenced by the continued success of Bonerama. Fronted by trombonist Mark Mullins, the funky brass outlet is currently on tour in support of their latest release, Hot Like Fire, which comes from the band’s new label, Basin Street Records.
Mullins is joined in the band by fellow trombonists Craig Klein and Greg Hicks, guitarist Bert Cotton, sousaphone player and bassist Matt Perrine, and drummer Walter Lundy. Their sound is bombastic and lively, making for an enjoyable night out.
Bonerama heads to The Cutting Room in New York City Wednesday, Nov. 1, followed by dates in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, Michigan and their native New Orleans.
Recently Mullins and Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails about the band’s new adventures. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What was your motivation for joining Basin Street Records? What can we expect from the collaboration?
We’ve known Mark Samuels for quite some time and always respected what he did with Basin Street Records. For us, after 20 years and six albums with choosing to release on our own with no label, we thought this would be a great time to partner with someone like Basin Street. We started talking, and it all happened very fast. We are very excited about being on his label.
How long have you been working on the new album? What was recording like?
We’ve been working on this album since really the release of Shake It Baby four years ago. It’s a constant pipeline of new music that comes through the band. Matt Perrine, Craig Klein and myself bring in the original material. I also like to tackle a lot of the covers we love to play, so much fun.
But with a band like us, we don’t have extended tours for months and months. It’s bits and pieces here and there. We can stay busy, but it’s often in chunks. So finding solid time to focus on recording at home is not as easy as it is for artists that have the luxury to say, OK, I’ll tour for three months and record, mix and master the new record in the next two months. We can’t do that. The fragmented time that our calendar is chopped up can slow down the recording process, but sometimes that is good as it offers us to take a fresh approach on the work in progress as we go along.
Bring me back to the early days of Bonerama. What was the motivation for starting the band?
After seeing a band fronted by multiple trombones in New York City, Craig Klein approached me in 1998 about forming a similar project New Orleans style. Something to feature the trombone up front. No rules on genre. I had a regular night at Tipitina’s French Quarter, so we just called some friends in town and went for it. It has not stopped and has been ever evolving.
Was the trombone your first instrument of choice as a child?
No, I started on piano when I was 5 or 6. The same piano I just brought in to my house from my childhood home, siting a few feet away from me right now actually. I wanted to play sax but orthodontist advised against it, and my older brothers told me too many already played sax. And I could be first chair quickly on trombone as no one wanted to play it. I started trombone at 8.
What’s the toughest aspect of the music industry in 2017?
Selling records used to be tour support. Selling records (CDs) these days is more difficult than ever. … I’m not bashing it though because it allows so many people to learn of what we do, which is great. We have no problem selling CDs at shows, and that is cool. It serves almost as a souvenir of a show to some, but selling in stores as few stores, as there are, is more difficult than ever.
Making these records can be quite costly as frugal as we try to be. Also, touring seems to get harder all of the time as there are more and more things for people to choose to do in their free time, [plus] more and more bands out there touring and many festivals and opportunities seemingly drying up. Not to be dismayed, we know 100 percent we still have people out there and are doing everything we can to connect with them.
Still blown away by our ever-growing base of support everywhere we seem to be traveling. It’s really worth the long drives, miles and hours we all put in to bring this music to the world outside of New Orleans.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Bonerama will play Wednesday, Nov. 1 at The Cutting Room in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets. Click here for Hollywood Soapbox’s previous interview with Mark Mullins.
