Being a very active band, touring the country and Europe all year long, catching up with BRONCHO in Austin was something we really looked forward to. They are no strangers to the Austin scene, they have a few South By’s under their belt and a few other shows in their earlier stages of their career. Coming out of Oklahoma, BRONCHO is the type of hard working band that explored and exploited their local music scene before moving on to the next. Which at the time it was to North Texas. They did their rounds in the lone-star state then took a turn back North to Chicago.
Their success story depends a whole lot on the popularity they gained on the road, bringing their sound to your favorite most disreputable and ghostly local venues. The ones you go to because they have live music, its close and you know all the bartenders. Their grungy sound had an appeal to the underground as the taste of a PBR. It’s not the most cheerful taste but its also not overpowering so it won’t get old quick, it is the right amount of carelessness and ease for repetition. The perfect road trip vibes.
When we met during FFF, I knew by their instagram feed that the guys have been having too much fun on the road. From Berlin to Cincinnati, the images tell much more then I words could. So seeing lead singer walk in with what looked like a black eye, I could only speculate what kind of backstory was responsible for the bruises and how eventful their rockstar lifestyle must be.
Manuel Frayre: How goes it guys? Welcome back to Austin.
BRONCHO has recently gotten a taste of the big picture by going on tour with Billy Idol. What does it mean to the you to be able to appeal to such larger masses with a legendary name like Billy idol?
Ryan Lindsey: Its good to be with Billy, he introduced us to his crowd. Which is great because its always nice to be introduced to people then try to introduce myself to people.
MF: So your transition as a band and your success happened all so quick. Going from the underground DIY stages to the bigger theaters. Where do you think you feel more comfortable performing?
Ryan Lindsey: I like a mix of it, our personality is liked the change of scenery. So is fun to do something then go explore another world. It always feels right to go back to the small claustrophobic and sweaty environments. We probably make the most sense in the tight little room, but its fun to see how we you can translate or not translate to different stages.
MF: You guys are from Oklahoma, not too far from us. Tell me a little bit about the beginnings, how did the local music scene treated you?
Ryan Lindsey: Yeah it was pretty diverse we all played in a lot of different bands that weren’t like BRONCHO at all. All of our friends played in all kinds of bands. There was a little bit of everything and it was a good support system, it was our own personal nursery.
MF: During this era, did you guys ever crossed borders to Texas for SXSW, Austin, Denton?
Ryan Lindsey: Yeah our first travels, were playing in Dallas then making it down to Austin. And then our friend started a vinyl label ‘CQ records’, he was doing shows down here with his band so from there we decided to go North to Chicago. But our first path was down this way.
I think our first show at SXSW was at someone’s front yard, somewhere far north. I remember we brought my PA, and we blew it. We blew the speakers that same night, yeah it all just kind of crumbled from there. People pulled up their cars to shine their lights and there was alto of dust. So visually that was great.
MF: So it was a house show / drive in kind of thing. Do you guys find that kind of scenery much outside of Austin?
Ryan Lindsey: I mean Austin is definitely one of a kind, as far as the opportunities where one of a kind things can happen around the big events that happen here. There is not like it, but there is great scenes everywhere. I think most scenes we encounter the people are on the same wavelength. Which is cool.
MF: My understanding there was a bit of a rocky pad recording “Just enough hip to be a women” your label falling through the middle of recordings. Finding new studio spaces. How did you guys get through that? What stop you from throwing the towel and stand up for your music?
Ryan Lindsey: I think the main way we got through it was just to take it serious enough to get the job done. But not letting ourselves get too upset to the point were we might not like each other anymore. Ultimately its not a life or die situation, so we didn’t take it all that serious.
MF: Do you guys think that that feeling translated to the album itself?
Ryan Lindsey: Yeah, I bet some of that emotion got trapped in there. We squeezed it though the mics.
Ben King: When we started that record, from the start to the finish. We changed the line up because we added Penny. Which helped the whole situation right when it got hard to handle. So in that process before the record came out, we went throughout the whole transition and that record definitely has some of that dramatic month in it.
MF: So who in the band do you think has just enough hips to be a woman?
Ryan Lindsey: I think we all do, but I think Ben will win.
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | SOUNDCLOUD
