Like a Lemon to the face
Interview with Bear Fight
Fullerton, Calif.
Doll Hut rock.
The members of Bear Fight are outside Riff Haus Studios in Fullerton, trying to describe their sound. Too many opinions and too many comedians have made it difficult to get a straight answer.
"What I call it now is Doll Hut rock because you go to the Doll Hut on a Saturday—," started lead guitarist and singer Tito Gutierrez.
"And, it's us," finished drummer Brownie Anda.
"People in their mid-30s and up," Gutierrez said.
"Yeah but we can't play fast anymore. Basically, what you heard right now is the fastest we can play," Anda said referencing the recently ended first part to that evening's practice.
"That's not true," said bassist and singer Dustin Mahaffey. "You're playing slow right now because you're tired.
"He's still recovering from that lemon to the face," said Brownie's brother and guitarist Daniel Anda.
"I wasn't trying to hit him in the face, but I did," Mahaffey said. "And, now, I'll never hear the end of it."
"So anyways," Daniel said, "we always play the Doll Hut and—what was the question?"
"She didn't ask one yet," Gutierrez said.
Welcome to band practice with Bear Fight.
The Orange County band, started in May 2013 under the name Dawn Patrol, got its start with a different guitar player. The band ended up parting ways with the old guitar player, brought in Daniel and renamed itself Bear Fight.
The name could reference the drink—a Jagerbomb followed by an Irish Car Bomb—or a reference to humans wrestling bears decades ago or several other things. None are the reason for the name.
"We were practicing and I said 'Brownie, think of a name for the band,'" Mahaffey said. "So he drums and then immediately after that he came up with that. He pulls shit out of his ass normally."
"I don't think pulling shit out of ass is a good technical term," Brownie said.
The self deprecation is purely that as means of not looking like guys with big heads because, in reality, Bear Fight is a tightly knit act. They play a breed of smooth, melodic 80s surf/skate punk that comes packed with a nice punch similar to—a lemon in the face, maybe?
"Obviously, we're all old and no one takes it too serious and we like to make fun of how terrible we are," Mahaffey said. " I don't want to be that asshole that's so hardcore about my band like I'm 35. We're not going to get you know—"
"But you are that asshole," Brownie said.
All kidding aside, their practice just before they went outside to take a break was an energetic, faced-paced set. That's a descriptor that could also speak to what they've done in the short amount of time the current lineup has been together.
Last March came the release of the single "Crater Face." That was followed by a six-song, self-titled EP in August 2014, trailed by a five-song EP called "Round 2" in November, which was tracked and mixed by Eddie Casillas from Voodoo Glow Skulls. All of it was released by Basement Records.
It's that relationship with Basement that got their music onto Vans skate videos and MTV's "Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory."
Make no mistake though, no one in the band's looking at the music as a cash cow. That's an expectation that's changed with age.
"Twenty years ago, I would have [signed to a larger label] in a second but since—I'm 41—and it just, I can't," Gutierrez said. "I don't know if I could."
"There's not enough money in that shit," Mahaffey said. "We would totally go and tour small stuff, but all of us have jobs and families."
"It's part hobby and this is what I love to do," Gutierrez finished.
In fact, in the case of MTV, how do you split $150 (what they received) four ways? You do, but then you mull the possibilities at Sonic Drive-In—which was the topic of conversation as they unloaded their gear into the practice room.
"There's still that little part of me [where] I'm showing my mom and dad and it's like 'Hey, mom, look. Look what I did and she's like 'That's nice mijo. That's great,'" Gutierrez said. "And I'm like 'yes.'"
"Yeah," Brownie added, "like when we were on 'Fantasy Factory,' I showed my coworkers and my mom. We pressed play for 10 seconds and then she goes 'OK... did you want food?'"
The payoff, really at the end of the day, is Bear Fight plays shows—frequently—which is all the four want to do really anyway. In fact, they play almost every weekend. So despite the running jokes about not practicing, it's largely because they're playing all the time. And it's gotten them in the lineup with bands such as D.I., Angry Samoans, The Vibrators (which was with the original lineup and old band name) and as, they like to mention, "technically X." The technically comes from the fact that they played the Constellation Room at the Observatory in Santa Ana, while X played the main stage.
Roughly forty-five minutes into the interview—staccatoed by passing freight trains, long-running tangents and Disneyland fireworks—they're ready for round two of practice, but Brownie's interested in one more story in response to the question of what's next and when their next album might drop.
"I'm going to tell you what's really going on," Brownie began.
"Jesus," Mahaffey said under his breath.
"We need to rent a cabin," Brownie continued. "We need to go Red Hot Chili Peppers 'Blood Sugar Sex Magik.' Just stay in the house for 24 hours."
"I can't get you to practice for two hours and you want to freaking stay in a cabin for a day," Mahaffey said.
"After we're done doing all of that," Brownie said, "we will burn the CD and then I will go back home and sleep."
"2016 summertime it'll happen," Mahaffey said quickly answering the question.
They trek back into Riff Haus for round two of practice. Someone asks if Brownie would like a water bottle to the face.
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