about the traffic in Los Angeles, it says something that local officials warned motorists about a temporary roadwork closure on the 405 last year by calling it Carmageddon. Angelenos took the hint, and this weekend, they're expected to steer clear of the latest 405 closure, named, of course, Carmageddon 2. That's how it is in L.A., a snarl of overstuffed freeways and commuters who keep their cool, except when they don't. KPCC's Stephen Cuevas has this profile of a punk rocker whose music expresses the insanity of L.A. traffic while extolling the virtues of public transit. Couple of things you need to know about Eddie Solis. He lives in L.A., loves the band Kiss, and does not own a car. Being someone who's from L.A., born and raised, and, you know, having a few cars in my past, I saw the city much differently, through a different perspective, through the eyes of a bus rider. One just all the way to the back. Line 18. Just steps from the front door of his home, across the street from a tortilla factory in L.A.'s Boyle Heights neighborhood, Solis catches a bus that connects him with the city's subway, and the commuter train he catches to his day job at an indie record label in Hollywood. It just opened me up to, like, little neighborhoods, galleries, clubs, bars, just everything. Just seeing what's out there, little pockets of the city. Solis's journeys aboard L.A. bus, buses, and subway cars, informs a lot of the material on The New Los Angeles Part 1, Through the Eyes of a Bus Rider, the latest release by the singer-guitarist band It's Casual. In Solis's vision of a new Los Angeles, people abandon their cars, climb aboard public transit, and rediscover their communities. One song, that stoles the virtues of the L.A. County Metropolitan Transit Agency's E-ZPass, and the urban underbelly it introduces to the rider. And that's, like, a nod and homage to, you know, the people who know what you can even go cheaper, and really beat the system, and really steer away from spending money on gas and oil profits and all that. It's all it takes for me to witness racial tension, for me to witness illegal aliens, and to see what's going on in the world. It's not to paint a negative picture, it's just my perspective of what is seen. E-ZPass! I got a funny backstory. Off the bus and back on the street, we make our way past a jazz saxophonist playing for pocket change, and down a long escalator to catch a train. So, where are we now? We're at the Red Line Station, the Pershing Square Station in downtown L.A. And what's our train number? And what's our train number? We're going to go downstairs another tier, and in about five minutes we're going to get on the Red Line going northbound. Okay, let's go. The Metro Red Line snakes from North Hollywood to downtown Los Angeles. It's the train that inspired its casuals signature tune, and spawned a viral internet video. It was partly filmed late at night on a moving train, as it hurtles from station to station. Solis thrashes away on his guitar and barks the lyrics, which celebrate the Red Line and call out the congested freeways, that coil around Los Angeles. This is a Metro Red Line train to North Hollywood. The 210, 605, the freeways are not so nice. The I-5, the 210, the freeways are not so nice. The thread that comes out of the record that ties everyone together is just like, be alive, don't be a victim of having a car. The 210, 605, the freeways are not so nice. The I-5, the I-10, the freeways are not so nice. The Red Line, the Red Line. An MTA spokesman said he couldn't comment on Eddie Solis' furious pro-Metro message, but the Red Line video was a hit at the offices of Move LA. Eddie's done a good job. Thank you, Eddie. It's the public transportation news. It's the public transportation advocacy group headed by former Santa Monica mayor Denny Zane. He liked the juxtaposition of Solis blissfully riding LA public transit in one scene with scenes of the band raging against those notorious freeway jams. Eddie is all frantic when he talks about highways and so mellow when he's like grooving on a skateboard and on the bus and on the Red Line. There's a metaphor for the transformation, you know, from the, Oh my God, I just got to get out of here. Oh my God, I just got to get out of the traffic to, Hey, this is cool. I can mellow out. Or you can blast the tune like too many people as you claw your way across Los Angeles by car, bus, or skateboard. Los Angeles There's too many people I want them to go away Even LMPJs are free Too many people could also be a motto for its casual. Over the years, the band whittled itself down to a power duo of Solis and a rotating cast of drummers. So you may think the burly bearded punk rocker just can't get along with freeways, with people, or his native LA. Not true. I love it. I love everything about it. I've traveled throughout the US many times and I could never look forward enough to coming back. The weather, the different cultures, the landscape. I was just like, you know what? Now I know why everyone moves to LA. Solis will bring the love and the volume. During a Red Line mini tour next month, its casual will play a different venue within walking distance of several Red Line metro stops from Union Station to West Hollywood. For the California Report, I'm Stephen Cuevas. I was my driver last night and I'm going to be driving to San Francisco. I'm going to be driving to San Francisco. I'm going to be driving to San Francisco. I'm going to be driving to San Francisco. I'm going to be driving to San Francisco. And that's the California Report, a production of KQED Public Radio in San Francisco. Our director this week is Nina Thorsen. Ciel Muller is our technical producer. We had additional engineering from Danny Bringer and Howard Gelman. Thanks to Hank Hadley at KCBX. Our online team includes Lisa Pickoff-White, David Marks, and Don Clyde. Our internet team includes Lisa Pickoff-White, David Marks, and Don Clyde. Our interns are Katherine Borgeson and Rachel Johnson. Taiki Hendrix is our elections editor with production help from Tina Lauerberg. We had editing support from Paul Rogers. Victoria Malione is our associate senior producer. Ingrid Becker is our senior producer. The news director is Bruce Kuhn. I'm Rachel Miro. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend. This is the California Report. Funds for the California Report are provided by the James Irvine Foundation, expanding opportunity for the people of California and supporting the California Report since its premiere in 1995. And the California Endowment, health happens in schools, at CalEndow.org. And Chevron, investing in renewables, strengthening communities, and creating jobs. More information at Chevron.com. The 210-605. The freeways are not so nice. The I-5. The 210. The freeways are not so nice. The 101. The 405. The freeways are not so nice. The I-5. The I-10. The freeways are not so nice. The 210-605. The freeways are not so nice. The I-5. The I-10. The freeways are not so nice. The 210-605. The freeways are not so nice. The I-5. The I-10. The freeways are not so nice. The 210-605. The freeways are not so nice. The I-5. The I-10. The freeways are not so nice. The two-tenth. The freeways are not so nice The red line The red line The red line The red line The red line The red line The red line The red line From 10 to 6 or 5 The freeways are not so nice The I-5 The I-10 The freeways are not so nice The 101 The 405 The freeways are not so nice The 605 The 101 The 101 The 101 The I-10 The 210 The 605 The 405 The I-10 The freeways are not so nice The red line The red line The red light! The red light! The red light! The red light! The red light! The red light! Good afternoon, good afternoon. Welcome to the 112th episode of Los Angeles Nista. This is the NAMM 2014 wrap-up. And I am the show creator, producer, and host, Edward Solis. Thank you for joining us. We have interviews that were conducted at NAMM 2014 in Anaheim, California from Bill from Macedon and Fred Ortiz from BC Boys and Bongaloids. And my in-studio guest is the mystery man, the man behind the van that everybody took pictures with at NAMM and it's still floating around in cyberspace, the founder of Vagina Guitar. It's Andrew Miller. How are you? Hey, how's it going? It's a pleasure, pleasure, pleasure to have you in the studio. The founder of Vagina Guitars. Here you are. You created such a huge, gigantic splash of photography and social networking at NAMM 2014. I know for a fact, coming from the music business, that nobody could buy that. I'm not sure if it's strategy, but I'm just going to say you did it. It's a great thing. It's out there and congratulations. Thank you. It was actually completely unexpected. My wife had heels on. We had to park close and I drive that van every day. That's your van. Now, let's talk about your company, Vagina Guitars. Let's go back. Okay, when did you commit to doing your own company? It was about a year and a half ago. I was looking for a baritone guitar and everything I found, I just didn't like. Okay. And there was a time when I lived in Asia. I went to Singapore. And then I started looking for some trade shows out there and ended up finding some people in Korea that would build what I draw. So I started just drawing different things. Send me this. Send me that. Send me this. And then I put in American hardware and stuff. And I realized it was just as good as everything else I found. So I started selling it. And of course, when it came to the name, it was the first thing that came to mind. Very cool. Yeah. I wanted a guitar. I sent vagina on it. I thought it was funny. And it's simple as that. That's the message behind it. Or that's how it happened. Yeah. Pretty much. And then you made the van. Yeah, yeah. Well, basically, you got to work with what you got. I always see people driving around with these vans that have these, like, really busy stickers. You can't even tell what they're selling. There's so much stuff on it. It's like beef and, like, a couple of guys shirtless, and you don't even know what it is. Too much stuff, right? Yeah, so I just made sure it was just two words, you know, and .com, and you can tell what it is. And people do know what it is because they're taking pictures of me on a freeway all the time, swerving next to me in my blind spot. It's definitely interesting. Okay. Okay, let's talk about your guitars that you have and you are going to be releasing. Let's talk about the shapes. You can start one by one. I'm starting with classic styles. I have a single cut that comes two different ways. You can have it standard length, standard 24.75 inches. That's the same as, like, a Les Paul. I have that, and then I have the baritone version, which I like. I have a, I don't know what you call it. I guess I could say SG style, but no affiliation with Gibson, of course. That only comes in baritone, and I have some Vs coming out. I really wish I had more Vs made because they're just blowing up. I get so many requests for the Vs. It's not even funny. Is that the most requests that you think from you? Yeah, everybody wants a flying vagina. Wow. Yeah, I mean, I've been getting hit up so much. I originally made 39 guitars, and I was telling them, I hope we can sell five of these if we park the van here. And now I'm like, you know what? I got to get more stuff. I just need more stuff. So we're scrambling to find money, basically, because it's hard to fund stuff when it's just a family business. Right, right. Let's talk about the guitar without the volume knob. Well, I made that for myself because it's basically an FU guitar. I love that. Yeah, I don't need it. It's like, whatever. I'm not turning it down anyway. First, it started with no tone because I always have it in the same spot. So I was like, I don't need this thing. And everybody these days has the 15-channel amp anyway. So, yeah, forget all that stuff. Just volume pedal, seven distortions. It's fine. There you go. There you go. Now, personally, you are making – I've never played a baritone guitar, but you're making them. Yeah, well, I like to tune low. I started buying guitars and tuned it low. And, well, I started seeing it online because I'm searching for it. And I realized they all look like – Yeah, they're slightly off. Like it's, I don't know, like a burst effect or something when you see a – As far as being balanced? Yeah, they just look funny. You know, it's not a bass, not a guitar. So I try to keep it the same actual length as a regular guitar, but then have the actual string length from bridge to nut is much larger. So it's like 28 inches. I got an extra four inches or three and a half inches on there. And the tone is completely different. The low notes ring out. It's not quite a bass. But I find myself playing them as like a bass. I can't help it. But I like low. I like low, distorted, and angry. Now, as far as the next phase, I mean, you obviously created a demand for yourself. Yeah, a bigger demand than I expected. It's a good problem to have, though. Yeah, it's not a bad problem. It's not a bad problem. But it is a bad problem when you're trying to get a business loan in your company's name vagina. Is that a problem? A little bit, yeah. Because people – I mean, the people who understand, understand. But the people who don't just look at you crazy. They really don't understand. Yeah. They look at you like, what are you – What are you up to? But then that just makes me think of another slogan. It's like, hey, vagina. Some people get it. You're only here once a week, right? What do you mean? That's a joke because you're making these funny jokes. And I'm like, this guy is like a professional comedian. No, I just talk too much. Oh, no, you don't. No, you don't. Actually, I do. So what were you thinking when you were inside the van and you saw people taking photos against your van? Well, what happened – okay. Well, we got there early because living in L.A., we know how the traffic is. The freeways are not so nice, right? Yeah, exactly. So we headed out early. My wife didn't even have her makeup on or anything. I said, just do it there. So we get there. We park. She starts doing her makeup. And all of a sudden, it was like zombies. People are just walking up and leaning against the van. And we're like, whoa, what is this? Because this is like, I don't know, 7.30 in the morning on Thursday. And it pretty much went on from 7.30 in the morning until at least 11 o'clock at night. Right. All four days. And as soon as we – Sure. We saw our friends, you know, the first day, someone inside said, you know you can't drive home, right? You can't move that thing. You need to go get a rental car and just leave that thing there because you can't buy that. Like you said earlier, you can't buy that and you also can't plan it. We had no idea. So let's talk about all the buzz throughout NAMM and Post with all the social networking that has happened with your brand. You have, you know, friends worldwide. A friend in Prague saying, what do you do? What are you doing over there? Yeah. Oh, yeah. My buddy, I had a friend who knew I started the company. And basically, he starts seeing things from – because he's been a professional guitarist forever. He starts seeing posts on his Facebook from other people. And he's like, yeah, what's happening? Because it's blowing up my webpage and none of it's from you. And I know you don't even know these people. Some of them are in Brazil. But yeah, that's what it was. It spread really fast. That's killer. That's killer. So tell me, what is going to be – What is going to be your goal for this year? My goal for this year is to open a store on Sunset Boulevard. And it's going to say – It'll say, vagina as big as I can possibly afford to pay for a sign. There you go. Yeah. I want it like the size of the Ralph sign. Yeah, about like that. We're going to get into one of our pre-recorded interviews that we conducted over at NAMM. It's with Bill, one of the guitarists from Mastodon. But before we do that – I wanted to ask you, did you find NAMM to be as productive as you thought it would be for you going to find hardware vendors, et cetera? Actually, yeah, it was. Because, see, I had the guitars made and I still have to do my part. So I have like half-finished guitars being shipped to me from Korea. Okay. But what was funny was, okay, when I originally tried to register with companies as a wholesaler, they would give me a hard time because of the company name. So you're being discriminated, basically. Basically, yeah. I mean, so – But what happened was – When I started, I figured I'd talk to them in person. You know, go to NAMM, talk to them in person, and it'd be easier. But what happened was, by the second, third day, I would walk up to the people's booths and talk to them. They'd look at my badge and they'd go, oh, hey, want to see your picture with your van? So it made it a lot easier. It broke the ice. People realized it wasn't some guy in a company – I mean, excuse me, some guy in a basement with one guitar trying to get pickups for cheap. Right. Yeah, it made it a lot easier. But at the same time, it got me sidetracked where a couple of the days, I didn't even get to look at anything because people kept stopping me and my wife. You know, like, hey, is that you? Is that you? Where's your booth? Where's your booth? And we didn't have one because we didn't even plan on it. I wish I did, though, because we would have probably made the money for the booth in shirts. There you go. There you go. Okay. So we're going to listen to this interview that Los Angeles Nista and Skid Row Studios.com conducted at NAMM 2014 with Bill from Macedon. Okay, welcome to Los Angeles Nista with Eddie Solis. This is the NAMM coverage episode, NAMM 2014. In Anaheim, California. And my guest standing right here in front of me is Bill Kelleher. Yeah. Okay. So, Bill, I want to talk to you specifically about the coherent submission statement of NAMM, which is actually the National Association of Music Merchants. It's all about, you know, new product being manufactured, buyers from stores coming to purchase it, and revealing new product lines. And it even gets deeper into... And it's a new curriculum with, you know, teachers and music schools. I want to ask you, prior to your success in Macedon, did you ever come to NAMM before this? No, I've never, never came to NAMM before Macedon. I don't think I really even knew about it back then, you know. I was never really on the radar enough. I mean, I never took any guitar lessons like my whole life until recently. I actually called a guy up and said, Hey, would you mind coming over and give me a lesson? And he was a local guy and it was right around April Fool's Day. He thought I was kidding with him. I was like, No, I really... It was before we did the Crack the Sky record. And I was like, Man, I really need... I should probably take a lesson. I've never taken one, you know, because I don't know anything about theory. I mean, you know, I know enough to play and to write, but I've always been a songwriter. So NAMM never came on in the radar for me. I mean, I've been playing since I was 15 and I'm 40, almost 43 now. So, you know, it's been a few years, but I just learned by ear, you know, putting on old Metallica records and Slayer, you know. Killer. So, so... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Killer. So, so, so that was your foundation for guitar playing as far as metal guitar playing. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. Okay. So, so let's talk about your, your pickup through Lace. Now, you actually have your own signature pickup. Talk about how you chose to design it and get... And the sound, the sound you're trying to get out of it. Well, you know, I've learned that, you know, less, less is more sometimes, you know, and I, you know, I always used to go with really super good sound. I always used to go with super hot pickups because I only really played one style of music, which was super, I wanted the heavier, the better, you know, and I, when you're a kid, you can't afford those nice amps, like the nice Marshalls that have like, you know, cleaner tone or, you know, they have, you know, can do more, you know, the gain knobs and stuff like that. You, you know, when I was a kid, I, I just wanted distortion pedals and the heaviest stuff I could get. Cause the amps that my dad had bought me back in the day, the trainers and the old Yamahas and stuff. They were all jazz amps. So I never thought about that an amp could, you didn't need the pickup to always be so damn hot. So as I grew and got older and more mature and started, you know, man, making more money and finding better amps and, you know, started buying old Marshalls that, you know, can have, give a good amount of, you know, clean tones with a, you know, pedal and, you know, the, the, the, I was using, you know, distortion pickups, super high gain. And when the band started to write a little more in a different direction. With clean stuff, I found that I was stuck. Like I couldn't get those clean tones that I wanted to get. I'd have to take off my distortion pedal, turn the gain down in the amp. So I was like, this, this amp is going to be, sounds great without the distortion pedal. I can crank the gain up. So maybe it's in my pickup. Maybe it's in the speakers. Maybe the speakers don't need to be, you know, 75 watt or whatever. They can, I can bring those down a little bit to break up easier and I don't have to rely so much on. Just having this crazy high output pickup because it's squealing and making all this noise. So when my signature guitar was made, I wanted the, when Lace came to me, first of all, back track a little bit. When Lace first came to me, Jared Reynolds was just nonstop. Like you got to try these pickups. Got to try, calling me once a week. I was like, this guy's really bothered me. He's like on the verge of, I know he's trying to be nice, but you know what? Finally I gave in. I said, let me try these things out. I put them in my guitar and I was like, these sound like. And EMG with soul, but no batteries. So I was like, this sounds great. So I went for the, pretty much the first pickup he gave me was the Lace Nitro Hemi, which is very high gain output pickup. And I put it in my Les Paul 77 Les Paul custom, which still sits in there today. And I, that was a couple of years ago and it just sounds amazing. Even for clean stuff. It sounded good too. When I took off the distortion pedal, it just quieted right down and got nice and nice and clean. Um. So my definition of clean is different than maybe some other guitar players, but, um, basically when I, he kept telling me, you need to build, make your own pickup and design your own pickup. And I was like, well, how do I make this pickup already sounds awesome. How do I make it sound more awesome? So I thought, why don't I take the gain down the high output down a little bit and, you know, give it a little bit more of a tight bottom end. And honestly, like when I first toured with Alison chains. And Jerry Cantrell, uh, you know, he was, he was playing and they, he always had his amps totally isolated backstage. So you'd just be walking down the hall. They'd be playing on stage, no amps on stage, but his cabinets would be mic'd up behind the stage. So you could walk right up to the amp and just hear every freaking note. And I was blown away. I was like, what the hell is he using? I want to, I want that sound because it was just a light, light, you know, drizzle of distortion in there. But it sounded so chunky when you meet Palm Mutes and play solos, all that stuff. And I was like, how, how do I design a pickup that sounds can do all that stuff, you know, close to that, you know? So of course I went to his guitar tech where I went to Jerry first, you know, he's like, Oh, I use these Friedman amps. So I bought a Friedman amp. He's like, well, we use these motor city pickups. I'm like, I need those. And you know, I, I did that combination. So when talking to Jared at Lace, you know, I was like, well, maybe I can base it kind of off that sound. You know, and that's not that I'm trying to steal Jerry's sound. That was your foundation. But that was kind of the starting point. Yeah. I was like, Jerry sound is amazing. My sounds a little bit different, but I, I like where it's going. Like the ACDC crunch and chunk. Um, but just a little bit more gain, a little bit more. Cause they always, they have great sounding guitars and the high strings ring out. That's what I like. I want to hear those high strings. A lot of guitar players, you know, they, they scoop the mids and I did that for years and until I realized you listen to recordings of some of you live and there's no, where are you? You're gone. You're muddied muffled. It sounds great up close. If you're just sitting in your room practicing, it sounds great. But for me, I started to experiment turning that, uh, you know, mids up and flattening the queue and starting to experiment with sounds like that. So I said, let's put some more mids in this pickup. Let's make the bottom end nice and tight. I don't want any like flabby resonance coming out. I want it. More definition, right? More definition. I want, when I stopped playing, I want pickup to react. When I palm mute something I want, I don't want any mud. I want it defined with just enough distortion to give me a pick squeal, you know, when I, when I want to pinch harmonic or something. So we went back and forth for about three, four weeks, Jeff Lace and I, and you know, I had my, um, y'all, my array of pickups that I thought sounded great, you know, between the Gibsons, the bare knuckles, the, uh, Motocross. All great pickups, but I, you know, I'm trying to design my own with a little bit of, uh, each one in there. So I spent, you know, day and night taking pickups in and out and going down the practice room and plug it into different amps and seeing what I liked about each pickup that, uh, Jeff Lace had sent me and being totally honest and just saying, Hey, like this one doesn't work for me. It doesn't, it doesn't have the bottom end tightness that I want. And we started getting, I was like, it's getting warmer. It's getting closer. I mean, a lot of people think I just took the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, a lot of people think I just took the nitro Hemi and just added something or took something away, but I didn't, you know, we pretty much started from scratch because I asked him, I said, how close in your specs is this pickup to the nitro Hemi? And he's like, oh, it's completely different. He's like, he has like the spec sheets. I'm going to show you the spec sheet and it's completely like when he designed it, you know, he'd be crossing things out that I didn't like and adding Ks here and whatever. I don't know. I know nothing about that aspect of it. I just use my ear and try to get it. I just try to get as close to the sound that I thought would, uh, you know, be an overall, cause I don't want to be just known for like, okay, there's Bill, Bill Keller's pickup is only for straight up Mastodon sound or metal. You know, it's, you can roll off, you can lower the pickup and there's a lot less gain and you can get more, still has that bite, like the bite, bite and crunch and sustain are the most important things, you know, and definition, you know, you gotta, you gotta be able to, you're playing a million notes. You know, you want to hear all that. That's stuff. Right. Well put. Uh, so in reality is the way you articulated this is the, the whole pickup concept that you came up with. I mean, you started from scratch. There's no, uh, you know, uh, there, there's no barring of any ideas as, as a blueprint. I mean, it's just completely starting from scratch, adding, taking away until you got it right. If P if someone comes up to you and asked you, what's your favorite guitar for that pickup? Through what amp? What would you say? Uh, well, I've got a 1987 gun metal Les Paul custom that it's in right now. I only have, I only have one of them, but they'll pro it'll probably go in more guitars and I'm running that into my Friedman, uh, Brown. I 100 that's modified, has a modified clean channel. And that's going through the Friedman, uh, cabinets, two, four 12s, which are loaded with, uh, the 65 cream backs, Celestions. And man, it sounds. It's pretty cool. It's pretty close to Godly to me. It sounds really good. You know, when I was designing the pickups also, I, I would send him like songs like, uh, what I sent him, like ride the lightning. Like you hear that like definition of the guitars. I mean, they're very trebly, but I've always been a fan of the early Metallica 80 sound. Absolutely. I just said, hear that you hear like guitar, you can hear the guitars, you can hear every little fucking note. Yeah. I want that pick and like everything. I want that. That's what I want. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. That's a, that's, it's funny. I think a lot of those old Metallica records, as you say, are more key to metal music than people realize as far as deep as their tones and, and the, you know, the, uh, the aura that those records create. I mean, you're absolutely right about that. Yeah. Let's talk about your Gibson. Okay. Um, when you started playing guitar, did you ever think you would have your own Gibson? Never, never. I, I didn't even think I'd own my own Gibson. Yeah. I mean, you know, when I was a kid, I was, you know, up until my late twenties, I didn't have enough money really to even buy more than one guitar at a time. My very first guitar actually I saved up was a white Gibson Explorer. I think it was like $600 brand new back in 91, 92. And I was so, I, you know, I was head over heels over that guitar. And of course I bought it because I love Metallica and James Hadfield and everything that they were doing. And, uh, no, I never thought I didn't know. No, I had no, I always knew I wanted to be a musician and play music for a living, but to have my own signature model, I mean, it took work. It wasn't just, you know, I'm not like Slash or, or, uh, right. I mean, yeah, I mean the music industry is different. The MTV, you know, Guns and Roses, it takes a lot of work to a lot of components to get your own signature model. It just didn't happen. No, I had to pursue them and call them and bother them because they promised me at one point that would do it. And then some things got rattled at Gibson and some people weren't sure if they're going to have their jobs anymore and management switching around things. So they kind of put me on hold for awhile, but I got right back in there. I think it was actually two years ago at NAMM when I met one of my, my good friends over there who works in the New York office, Jim Felber pointed me in the right direction. He said, you need to talk to that guy over there. He works in Nashville. He can get you what you want done. So I walked right up to him and he's like, of course, let's start getting, let's get working on it now. And I followed up. And I just kept on the horn with them and send them an emails and made a good relationship with those guys. And anytime they asked me to do anything, I'm like, of course, you know, what do you want me to do? Like, Oh, we're going to send you to Sweetwater to do a little clinic. We're going to send you over here to talk about us, you know, some kind of like their poster child at the moment. So I'm enjoying it. Very cool. Now, now let's talk about your signature. Let's talk about, uh, the body. Well, it's the body is modeled after, uh, like 19, early 1980s E2s. Yeah. And the, uh, Explorer E2, which was a really big, thick, heavy guitar, which I have a, a collection of them, you know, back home and I've been slowly buying them up. And then, you know, they're basically not as, they're just rounder. They're more, uh, classic looking than the sharper explorers, like from the eighties and nineties or late eighties and nineties, but they started getting those sharp kind of tail fin. And, you know, so I wanted it to be round. Cause they sent me a couple of prototypes and said, eh, nah, I want it. It's gotta be round. It's gotta be look a little more, you know, curvy like a woman's body. Well, yeah. Men like your guitars curvy, like they like your women, right? Exactly. So, um, you know, I, I wanted that first of all, and, uh, you know, the, the color scheme of the paint, because, you know, I'm mostly a silver burst, uh, playing guy guitar wise. And I, you know, Brendan had beat me to it. You know, me and Brendan went on tour together and we both had the same tobacco sunburst E2s and we were, you know, showing, you know, cock sizes to each other. Oh yeah, this is mine. This is yours. Okay, cool. And, you know, he was talking about Gibson, wanting to make him a guitar. And I was saying, oh, they're going to make me one too. And he sent them a black and white photo of the same tobacco guitar. And they said, oh, silver burst, huh? And he's like, yeah, sure. So he beat me to that. But, um, then I thought, well, how about gold burst? Or I was thinking gold. I saw, uh, I said, Lizzie Hellstrom, she had one made, uh, by Gibson. And when I saw her having one, I said, now she's got one. Where's mine? I need, I need one. You know? Uh, so I saw, I looked at hers and I saw the trapezoid inlays and I, I've always thought trapezoid inlay should be on every guitar you play because it just makes it look that much classier. And uh, hadn't seen them on an Explorer before. So I said, yeah, put trapezoid inlays on there. Uh, you know, the old school body shape, let's move, you know, I want to make a little difference. So let's move the, uh, the toggle switch being way over here. I didn't, you know, way down in the horn of the, the front of the guitar, you have to reach all the way across the strings to, to activate it, which, you know, I thought being over here, it'd be a little closer to home, being closer to the bridge. Um, and you know, having three or four knobs and they always put the volume in the center and I just didn't. I'm used to that. I'm used to hitting it on my old guitars, turning it out, turn off the volume when you're done with a song. But I was like, why would you put the volume in the middle? At least make it the first one. And then I was like, why do we need three knobs at all? How about we just put three into two? Less is more. Less is more. You know what I mean? Like I'm not a rock of science, scientist. I just need, I need a couple, give me one knob, whatever. So it also has push pull, uh, coil splitting, which I figured, you know, sometimes when you're in the studio, if you're a kid, you only own one guitar and you want, you know, you want it. You want it in the studio and the guy says, do you have another guitar to use for a different sound? Well, no, I don't. Well, you can split the coil and at least get a little bit of different sound there. If you're doing a lead or you're doing something clean, you've got options. You don't just have the one pickup in the one sound. So that's another thing I changed on it. And the name Golden Axe just kind of came to me. Killer, killer. From an old Sega game that I used to play at Time Out at the, at the mall. Like you know. So Time Out was a chain. Yeah. Mall, you know, it was a mall rat. There is one here in LA, at Stonewood Mall. I thought that was the only one. Fun fact. Fun. Yeah. Fun facts. So, so that, that guitar looks like it weighs a ton. You know how much it weighs? I don't know. It's probably seven or eight pounds. I'm not sure. It does weigh a lot. I don't want to, I don't believe in, uh, what do you call it? Cheaping out. Yeah. Cheaping out. I mean. Well, that's great that it weighs a lot because the resonation is probably just. Yeah. When they hollow out the inside, they chamber it. Like I'm like, don't chamber my guitar. No way. Why would you do that? Oh, to make it lighter. Why would you make it lighter? That's part of the deal. You're playing heavy music, heavy guitar. Yeah. I have a E2 that probably weighs 15 pounds. That thing is so fucking heavy and I, you know, I give it to hand it to people and they're just like, Ooh, Jesus. They're not ready for it. It's like this thick. It's great. And I love it. And I play it, you know, as much as I can. I jump around on stage with it. That's why I'm so strong. You're a strong manly man, right? That's right. Okay. Let's talk about, um, Macedon. Okay. Okay. You guys are working on a new album right now. Yes, we are. And we're up in Nashville with Rick. Rick. Nick Raskalenics. That's a mouthful of words. So he's back home. That's where he's from. Yeah. Yeah, he is. And we're there recording and, uh, we've got, we're about 80% there, I think, with the record. We're putting down vocals. I got to go back there and do, uh, my final guitar stuff and, you know, little noises and things like that. The soundscapes that'll go in between songs and whatnot. And then we're going to start mixing early next month. And then we're off to Australia for Soundwaves Festival. And I just got back from Australia, New Zealand, Japan with my other band called Primate, which we did a three week tour over there. So I'm headed right back. It's, you know, I'll go home for a minute and kiss my kids and then back on the road. Really cool. Now, uh, the Primate thing, let's talk about that. I know I've seen you guys a couple of times. Um, and it was refreshing to know, not only, I knew you came from hardcore roots and appreciated it, but actually doing a new band like that, you know, when you had on your extra time, how did that come together? Uh, I think I just had some downtime with Mastodon and Kevin Sharp and the rest of the guys asked me to come in and, you know, kind of just do a little, uh, like do some demoing cause I have a small studio back in Atlanta. And I said, yeah, I'll do some, I'll, I'll record your stuff. I, you know, I'm just getting into my foot, feet wet and doing that. And once we, uh, one, I found out, I started like producing a little bit cause I was like, Hey, why don't you play that riff some more? Cause that's an awesome riff. And the songs were like 20 seconds long and I'm like, man, you gotta revisit that riff. It's too good to, to not. You know? So they're like, well show us here, take a guitar. I'm like, Hey, like this. So then they're like, why don't you just play too? And then it's just kind of how it was born. We don't really practice or jam maybe once a week. And then we tour like maybe twice a year, but it's kind of, you know, it's just something fun to do. It's playing really fast and I get to play some leads and some solos and Kevin screams and we're just, it's just a totally different thing than Mastodon. Mastodon's a, is like my business job and this is like my fun job. Right. You know what I mean? I mean, Mastodon's fun too. Of course. But why would you do two bands that sound the same? Exactly. Yeah. So, so let's talk about the album cycle. I mean, I, you know, what you guys are doing, I mean, I mean, this will be a new, a new album tour video. Let's talk about the videos. You guys have always done great videos, especially with Crack the Sky. Those are some of my favorite. Are you, do you think you'll be using the same director Robo Showbo for that? I don't know. You know, we're so day to day. We're not, we don't really think that far in advance with the videos. But I think so. I really like his work. I like working with the guy. He's great. And he's got a good vision, but I don't know. I mean, this record's totally taken a different direction as well. Artwork wise and, you know, just sound wise too. It's a lot different than our last record. So. And lastly, before we go, who's your favorite black flag singer? Favorite black flag singer. It's gotta be Keith Morris. All right. All right. Well, thank you so much, Bill. Thanks for listening to AM2014. I'm Edward Solis. And here representing all the percussionists and drummers here at NAMM is Fredo Ortiz, a well-rounded individual who has worked with BC Boys, Offspring, Money Mark Band, many more. Currently has a ton of projects to talk about and his own band, Bungaloids. Fredo, how are you? I'm good, brother. How are you, Eddie? I'm good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Thank you, man. Just over here running around at NAMM. Let's talk about your first NAMM record. Yeah. I'm going to talk about my first NAMM experience. How old were you? I was probably about 16 or 17. I went with one of my best friends, Louis Bettis. And he says, hey, my dad's going to this thing in Anaheim. You want to go? There's a bunch of instruments. I'm like, yeah, that's cool. He's like, but shoot, we need a badge for you. But here, you're going to be Robert Tovar for today. For today? For today. So I put on this badge as I was Robert Tovar. That was before they checked IDs at the door. Yeah, exactly. And we walked in. I was young enough. Probably didn't care about gear as much. But when I walked in, it was like total candy store. We just kind of followed his dad. And his dad had to do all these little meetings and stuff like that. And we just kind of ran off and did our thing. But that was first NAMM. That was my experience. And didn't really soak in the fact that I was here looking at new products or looking for people to represent me as a player. I was just 16, 17. It was about being here. And it was like you said. It was like getting a candy store. Yeah, exactly. Wow, wow. Okay, so let's talk about the dynamic of coming in not as experienced to coming while you're in the BC Boys. Let's talk about that dynamic. Now there's a lot of people that endorsed you and still do. It is work when you come now, isn't it? Definitely a lot of work. It's a lot of, I mean, for one thing, they're here to exhibit their new products to one, to the players. But more to people who are going to distribute themselves. Yeah. And sell their product. But as a player and musician, you come in and you see what's new. And for me, I didn't get into looking at endorsements until after I had toured with the BC Boys for a couple years. They had their own endorsements. So I kind of just came into a built-in system where here are the drums you're going to play. These are cool, right? And I'd be like, yeah, that's cool. The first year that I actually did get to choose what I wanted was 2007. It was the mix-up tour for the BC Boys. Yeah. And the person that usually dealt with the connection with all the companies wasn't there anymore. So I had to call myself and go, hey, what's going on? I'm touring with the BC Boys. They're like, sure, what do you need? And the deal that the BC Boys has, they would buy the product and they would own it. So I really didn't get the endorsement just yet, but I did get to choose what I wanted. It wasn't until after that that I finally said, hey, I should go check this out. I should go talk to these companies. Since I am representing a band that's well-known around the world and that usually helps with them wanting to help you out with their gear. So I went to all these companies. I went to Pearl, went to Zildjian. Zildjian was a big sponsor of the BC Boys. Vic Firth as well. Vic Firth came in through when I was playing in a band called Morningwood from New York. I was just like, I could try these sticks. Now they make me signature sticks. Zildjian, Kirsten at Zildjian, great deal, great people. They're all great people. They're all great people. They're all great people. They're all great people. They're all great people. And it's like, you don't come here to expect anything for free. It kind of seems like the thing, like, oh, I represent a band. There's so many bands here in LA. How do you just expect to get something for free? You got to work at that too. You got to be able to be the one to go out and talk to these people, tell them what you're about, say that you're willing to use their product. But in the end, you have their guitar, you have their drums, you have their microphone that you're using because that's what you've used all along since you were a kid. I went to Guitar Center and bought Remo drum heads. So we supported these companies all along. And then now here we are, older, you're part of a touring band and they want to help you out. And so now I come here to say hello, represent, take pictures, and then look for the new stuff, see what's going on. And then I want to use that and go, hey, now that I'm playing guitar in a band, and I was just in the Gibson booth, I met a couple of people there. So it's like, I'm going out there. And you have to do the work. You have to do the footwork yourself. Right. Yeah, I think that's the business model for the music industry more than ever. The infrastructure is what you build, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Now, as far as the people that you work with, as far as manufacturers, who do you work with as far as sponsorships and endorsements for drums and percussion? Well, the cool one was going with Pearl, Pearl Drums, because they also have a percussion department. And I was doing both with Beastie Boys. I was playing congas, timbales, tambourines. I was playing with the Shaker, whatever. I was the auxiliary percussion. And not until 2007 did I get to play drums for them. So now I was Beastie Boy punk drummer and percussionist. So when I went with Pearl, they had the best of both worlds. I love all the other companies. It's funny because you end up using every other company because every company has something that you can use. So it's hard to live for just one company. But you do it. Yeah. So I signed up with them, and they were cool. They gave me a great drum set. They gave me a set of timbales. And I've been able to use it on television. They were making Japanese taiko drums. And I did a Jimmy Kimmel show. So it was stuff like that. When you're able, I know with people like kids who are in bands starting out, and they want to be at that level, you've got to just push hard and be in it. You've got to be in the game for a long time to actually gain these perks, too. It just doesn't come to you. It's definitely building a foundation, building off that foundation, and being a work in progress. Yeah, totally. Totally. So as far as sticks, let's talk about your sticks. Sticks. Vic for sticks. I've used their sticks since I was real young. And that was something I think that was what I was saying earlier. I went to the companies that I was already using their product and liked it. And when I went to them, with the help of having the Beastie Boys and my resume as one thing, they said, yes, come on in. The deal is sweet. Because when I'm not working, I could get in. I could get in. I could get in. I could get in. And then I get a little bit of discount. And then when I'm working, they provide for your job. And you're going out for six months? Dude, here. Supply. And then when you're not working, they also take care of me. And then they do every ... For mallets, because I have a marimba at home. They do mallets. They do beaters. I was in marching band. They do everything. And then I have recently got a Bungaloids Fredo signature stick. So then they'll print my name on it. And it's cool. And it's such a ... Yeah. pleasure to have that connection with the company, you know. That's great. I mean, you have your own sticks. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I mean, Lars Ulrich does, and so does Fred Ortiz. There you go, you know. I mean, it's like, you know, since, like, when I was touring in 98, that was the world tour, and that's what these companies look for, is that you're going to be out there, you know, displaying their product. On some platform, right? On some platform, and, you know, and I didn't do that. I didn't go after that, maybe because of where I was in life, or, you know, the age. It really didn't concern me that much until later, where I was just like, oh, shit, you know. I keep buying this stuff. I should probably be able to go in and see if I can, you know, strike a deal with them and see where I can still use their stuff and not have to pay as much because I am using it all the time, and, you know, and I'm working. I'm out there, you know. Exactly. I mean, it's so funny because it seems like, you know, a lot of people, now talking about, when I say a lot of people, I mean a local band that maybe has a little bit of a reputation. A little bit of a buzz in general, you know, that aren't really experienced think that they're entitled to these endorsements and don't realize, as we stated earlier, that you've got to have a solid foundation built for yourself and touring and making records and the visibility. And even though you have the opportunity to be a part of the BC Boys and tour on that level in front of all those people, it's all about longevity and consistency. It doesn't always have to be on that level. I mean, if you could provide a good product for them, records, pictures... You know, in different scenarios. In the studio, video games. I mean, you do everything. I mean, you do a lot of work for video games as well, right? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, let's talk about that. Yeah, I just got done working with Woody Jackson over at Vox Studios in Hollywood, and we worked on the soundtrack for Grand Theft Auto 5. We had a team of, you know, 20 musicians that were rotating in and out of the studio. And Woody was capturing it all, had the ideas, you know, we're doing like the funk tracks. And I came in... And... in as a drummer and a percussionist did mostly percussion but uh drummers like joey waronker you know big name people were coming through to play on this thing and um i had a buddy um this guy this guy danny um chedwig and he he was my partner on percussion you know and so we had two percussionists you know we had all this stuff and i mean you know since we're talking about gear and stuff like i look at our gear and on the floor and it's all mixed up it's all like stuff from like africa you know you just you find your own parts it has a percussionist you know but um huge selling game you know we just did a live performance the biggest biggest i mean it's crazy and we we just did a live performance of that soundtrack for the vgx awards the video game awards they had a performance outside in downtown la we backed up the game uh tyler the creator um there's all these hip-hop artists that rhymed over these songs that we created in the studio and now is in a huge hit selling game you know so it's you know i you know grateful and lucky that i still get these jobs but i i have you know been in this world long enough to where you know i have a lot of people that you know respect what i do as a musician and want me to be involved and you know and then i get to do it you know that's really admirable so so let me ask you this when you're in in the studio um making music for a video game and the biggest video game in the world at that i believe it is or one of the biggest um when you listen back i mean what's the feeling you get knowing that like people aren't going to be playing this in their car as far as listening to a record but every kid in their living room is going to be playing this and hearing your music they're going to be hearing the music and you know it's it's a trip because i was reading the message boards and people were like oh they're not using you know like like licensed songs or you know because there was all these like 80s songs you could change the channel you know on the on the car now it's like you know some down home you know just you know organically made music for a video game and and it's a trip to see their response to it but yeah mainly they're into the game you know and and the music in the background is just kind of a filter you know it kind of keeps you interested you know and and um and like um i lost my train of thought but what i wanted to ask was uh that leads me to the next question i mean you front and lead your own band called bungalow you play guitar and sing um as an independent artist that has created his own band and has um taken the um the driver's wheel and and been at the helm of leading the band uh with everything that it takes to do a band video games are important because that equals music placement and music placement equals money definitely so what do you think as far as um creating music and then once it's done and recorded and released what are some of the seeking avenues to get it placed um i think if you if that's what you're looking for then you definitely have chances to to do that and get your music out there for me i've met a lot of people along the way you know working with the bc's money mark you know all these people that i they all do that type of work money mark scores movies and stuff like that you know so i've met a lot of these people and now that i have my own record to promote i get to hand them this record and it's not going to guarantee me you know i'm not going to be able to you know but video games are important it could be a platform i mean you look you look at you know all the skate videos and i mean all the skate um the video games you know you got the bronx on there you know it's cool stuff and those are all our friends you know so i was like hey you know i think definitely i can you know be a candidate for that and you know i i try to listen to my music actually i did think of movies and video games when i was making my record not necessarily that this is going to get placed on it but i was just like hey you know why not make something that you like that's going to be a part of your life and you know i think that's going to be a part of the sound that you like and then maybe they'll like it too and put in their their video well done um now let's talk about you being a very you know um pure a purist when it comes to percussions and all these sub percussions under the umbrella and full kit everything and and being having the experience you have playing with an act like bc boys in arenas in big in big halls in theaters in um you know stadiums around the world being on that platform and even touring with offspring um as far as that goes and money mark was on some of those tours with with the uh with the bc boys being on being in that situation behind the kit and and even in club situations with these major acts and then now being out in front of the kit right is that a different dynamic for you i mean how how how much of a comfort zone is it not it's definitely not a comfort zone for me i mean i'm not on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground on the ground from Eddie Palmieri, Tito Puente, you know, so I knew what Latin music sounded like. And then he bought me those instruments and I, you know, related the two. And I was like, oh, OK, this is what I got to learn. But definitely, you know, playing and like the offspring and all that, like they hired me as a percussionist, you know, and I was looking at their frontman. Money Mark, a keyboardist, wrote his own record and became a frontman. And I was like, OK, well, let me see what this is like. Let me see what I can do with this. And definitely stepping out, putting on a guitar that, you know, I've jammed on my own in my bedroom. You know, I learned a couple of bar chords when I was in the Villains from Louis and, you know, stuff like that. But I'm not a virtuoso guitar player. And all of a sudden I'm like, oh, damn, I wrote these songs. Now I've got to perform them. I had to step it up. I had to go back to school. I had to sit down and really learn my parts and then sing along to them. Be like, OK, I have a big responsibility now. Like I've learned a new craft. I have to learn to be an entertainer. I have to learn to be someone who's going to communicate with the crowd now. Before, I didn't have to say anything. I mean, after a while, I was the drummer with the mic. We were like, oh, who gave the drummer a mic? You know, nobody wants to hear the drummer talk. And it's like, you know, but I used to do backup vocals, you know, in most of the bands and stuff like that. So I kind of had having that experience, you know, doing backup vocals for a punk band or anybody else, you know, gave me the. Confidence to try to sing, you know, up in front. And definitely it's a huge it's a huge task to take. And, you know, you you got it. You got to work at it like anything else. You got to work at it. And that was a point I was trying to articulate to all our listeners is the fact that even though you've done so much percussion around the world on different levels, it's a natural extension of you. And you've had the, you know, the ability and and, you know, being great enough to go out. And be on the platforms with the B.C. Boys and these huge places, whether it's a stadium, an arena, a club, Moneymark or Offspring. And then, you know, whoever else at the time you were working with, you know, and play these venues that are in between. It's kind of a thing like no matter how much experience you have by funding your own band like you do now, it's like relearning something. Right. It takes work, energy, commitment. Yeah. It's a new craft. Yeah. And being used to like, you know, playing arenas and, you know. I. One thing that kept me grounded was having good friends at home that I can come back to. And I always, you know, playing at huge arenas, I would always come back home and play like, you know, a pizza shop in Whittier called Ambrose. You know, it's like I'd go from traveling the world to playing that. So it's like, you know, doing that really humbled me to the point where it's like, you know, I felt comfortable. I felt comfortable doing this. You know, let's talk about your specs. What like what gauge are your sticks? I use five B's. I use wood, wood tip and I don't use anything else. If I use Zildjian Timbales sticks, which are actually the Luis Conte model and and then for like because I do different styles of music. So for my rock stuff, I use the five B's for my like Latin stuff. When I play Timbales, mixed in with the kit that I do like a 7A, you know, stick. And now now for a full kit, like if you're going to be working with a band, you know, if. Say, for example, you get hired on to do a tour. What specs do you use in full kit like for straightforward rock? Straightforward rock, rock, I guess that would be the band Tito and Tarantula that I played for and we worked in Europe and I had a 24 inch kick drum by 16 at 13 inch rock tom 1618 floor. So big drums, big cymbals. You know, I went to Zildjian and got, you know, the washiest cymbal. I mean, we were rocking out. We bashed like, you know, it was it was, you know, we were doing soundtrack song because all the Tito songs are on soundtracks like Desperado from Dusk Till Dawn, like all these movies. They're controlled recordings, you know, but live like he wants to rock like he came from that world. He wants to fucking turn it up to 11, just bash. And that's all we did. And I brought that energy and we had for that run of 2008, 2009, like that's what we had. So that's kind of a rock set up that I that I do, you know. So now that you currently front and leading your own band. Bungaloids, you're a drummer, a percussionist, a well-rounded one, and now you're out front writing the songs, playing guitar and singing. Do you record you have a lot of requirements for the drummers you work with? Like you have to play this gauge. I'm looking for this sound. Tell me about it. I think I recently asked my drummer, Alexander Gonzalez, which ride he was using. And he's like, oh, yeah, you know, it's 20 inch K light, right? I'm like, yeah, you got anything heavier? Because I wanted that like that bad religion ping ride, you know. And he's like, yeah, I think I got one of those, but not right now. I was like, I'll lend you mine. You know, I'm not too picky. I try not to be picky. I try to like let everybody control their world because that that was what people did for me when I came into a situation. You know, I didn't know their music. You know, I'm playing it now. I'm playing their music. I'm like, what do you need? How can I adapt to this? How can I make you sound good as well as me? Keep happy as a drummer. You know, some drummers come in. Showing their chops and sometimes bands adopt that, you know, sometimes somebody wants a specific part, you know, that money works a good example where he I came in early on with him coming from the villain. So I was used to punk rock. I come in with him and he's doing like down tempo funk stuff, which is requires a simple beat like a no feels nothing. Just simple beats. That's something I had to learn, you know, the discipline, the discipline to. To adapt to his music because he even told me he's like, no, don't do all the feels. I don't want a lot of symbols. Just give me a beat. So I had, you know, I had to learn that. So I don't expect a lot from my drummers. I do expect them to know what they're doing. Of course, of course, of course. But I guess that's me and searching, you know, and I haven't really been that picky. You know, people that have been interested, you know, they're like, they're like, oh, I'll play, you know, and I'll see their I'll hear their level, you know, and I won't I won't criticize. I'll let it happen. I'll I'd have to adapt to what they're doing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, if I show you who needs still needs a lot of work, you know, I'll work with them and try to because I can speak their language. That's what that's exactly what I'm saying. That's one thing that that the drummers enjoy is that I can speak the language with them. But then because I did record the drums on all the records, something whatever I did, you know, is not the next person can't just copy it because they have a different style of their own, you know. So they're trying their best to try to emulate what I did. And in the end, I'm just like, get the idea. And make it yours, you know. And I think that's again, another point I was trying to bring to light was the fact that, you know, if you're behind the kit playing for someone and the guitarist turns around, you know, who's singing is like, dude, no, I want this. But he doesn't know anything about drums. You're like, what are you talking about? But when you or Dave Grohl turns around to their drummer, it's like, you know what you're talking about. You know what I mean? You get the quick result and, you know. Yeah. Yeah. So it's kind of like, you know, you know, the kind of sound that comes off certain sticks that rebound off. Snare skins and the kick pedal and a certain dimension of a kick drum. You know, you want a bigger wash. You get the you know, you want the Bad Religion ping. You want a wider, you know. So I think all that comes into play and you probably are able to get what you want quicker. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. You know, and I've noticed that most of the drummers I've worked with, you know, because I've done some patterns of my own and some songs, you know, it's a challenge for them, which is awesome, you know, because it's awesome. Like, you always want to feel challenged when you're playing. Yeah. You know, and you also want to, you know, make it easy, too, on yourself. You know, you don't want to work too hard. So some some people, you know, they take their time and take it home and practice like, you know, like I'm still doing that to this day, even though I'm fighting my own band. I'm still, you know, touring with bands that I have to learn their songs within a day or two. You know, that's like 13 songs. Well, that's being a professional, though. You're called on and you're you're conditioned with your eyes and ears and your hands to do that. I mean, some people can't do that. Some people can't even fathom doing 13 songs in 13 days. Right. Right. No, exactly. Yeah. So so tell me, let's move on to guitars. You're playing guitar in the band. Do you have any guitar influences and vocal influences that you want to share? Um, not really. I've always been one, I guess, that never paid attention to the name or who was doing it, but knew what I liked. Neil Young was definitely one sound that I liked. And only because I heard him. I heard him in concert. And that was only like a couple of years ago at the Hollywood Bowl. And I was just like I was blown away by the notes he was playing. And then you're like, I get it now. Yeah. This is why he's great. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and then like but I had, you know, I had direct influences around me which were, you know, became family. But it was like David Hidalgo and Louis Perez. Louis Perez, who was a drummer in Los Lobos first, but it became a guitarist. And I would listen to his style. Totally different style from Dave, you know, and you got Cesar Rosas that, you know, has a different style. Right. And I was picking up from them. And then I had direct teachings from Louis' son, LP3, Louis Perez III, who was showing me bar chords. And when I was younger as well, I had lessons in guitar. I went to Cal State LA for a morning conservatory, you know. So I was getting schooled here and there, but never took it that far like I did drums. And even on drums, I don't have like specific people. I just listen and play, play along to it. You know, it's like, I mean, now. Now. And at this. This. Older age, I do pay attention. You know, those like Steve Gadsden, you know, he's old funk drummer that's played for all the hit records, you know, and he. That's somebody that, you know, I was like, oh, yeah, you were who I was listening to. I just didn't know your name or even knew who your band was, but I knew the style, you know, would try to emulate, you know. So definitely, you know, I've been influenced by a lot of people. I just don't. I never really like to get into specifics. I don't know. I have. There's many friends that I have like, oh, you know, I got this guy and this guy. I play like this guy. Maybe that's for me. That's something that keeps my mind fresh where I don't have that on me where like I'm trying to sound like, you know, Ace Frehley or whatever. It's like I'm just doing my thing, doing what I think sounds good, you know, and I finally had to buy a better guitar because the one my mom bought me, you know, it's like kind of flimsy. I was like, I was like, I look at Louis guitar and he had nice heavy Gibsons, you know, and I'm just like, okay, I got to find something, you know, and I was on tour with Tito and Tarantula and they were endorsed by Duesenberg. And I was able to buy one through them. And, you know, it's, you know, I still couldn't tell you what the pickups are, you know, and I couldn't tell you what kind of wood it is. It's half hollow body, but it sounds good. You know, that's one thing that I like, you know, I've plugged it into the amp and I get a good sound, you know, and it makes me happy. And lastly, articulate what the sound of your band, Bungaloids, is. I mean, if you had, if you had to file it in a record store, where would it be found? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Filed. Filed. Filed. Filed. Filed. Filed. Filed. Filed. Filed. Filed. Filed. Filed. Filed. because I know it's you do all the writing lyrics and music what is it like tropical punk with a little bit of alterna alterna cumbia man um my sound I don't know comes from what all the influences and experiences I've had playing music live you know I started in a punk band went to a ska band latin jazz ska band excuse me learned the latin side of things uh then I joined the BC boys was a hip-hop side of things as well as punk rock and percussion and then I'd come back home and I'd play with uh groups local groups like cava you know that were mixing ska and cumbia you know and I mean even the band yeska that I was in like mid 90s we were doing we start we mix latin jazz and ska and we turned it into salsa so I was learning salsa so all that kind of mixed into my sound and you know I was a big fan of jawbreaker so it's like you know that was a big influence um you know that I have songs that are sound like that I have sounds like I don't even I don't even know what they sound like I I always kind of hate describing my music I'm just like just listen to it but I always wanted like no I would like to describe it but punk rock hip-hop I'm a big fan of hip-hop in the 80s I used to buy Dr Dre's mixtapes at rhodium swap meet so there's a very you know strong hip-hop influence in my heart and I got and I did a cumbia on the record you know I even did some electro stuff you know I used to like drum and bass and stuff like that so I was just everything that I've been exposed to over over the years just kind of morphed into what the bongoloid sound is isn't it and there is no category and I kind of like it that there is because the feedback that I'm getting from people is they're like they like the Mix they like it that it keeps changing you know and there's something fresh every time but you would go look back and be like man if I was signed to a label they would have to like kind of narrow me down they're like okay are you gonna do cumbia are you gonna do the punk rock are you gonna do the hip-hop let's narrow it down to a label that's a hey, are you going to do cumbia? Are you going to do the punk rock? Are you going to do the hip hop? Let's narrow it down. And then you would have a hard time trying to be what other people wanted you to sound like other than what I want to sound like. And I'm sounding like what I want to sound like. And so far, the feedback has been amazing. My record's about to come out. I just got the covers for it. I'm putting it out myself. I did a Kickstarter for it. Got funded. I had the support of people who bought the record, pre-bought the record, without even knowing what it was going to sound like. I don't have any videos out there. I don't have anything prior to the release. So this is going to be my debut release, coming from touring for all these years. I want to do this on my own and share that sound with people, share what I'm doing. And still, right now, I'm trying to think of what I can call it, and I have no idea. Well done. Well put. And Fred Ortiz, thank you so much for being a part of the NAMM 14 Los Angeles Nista coverage episode. Thanks, brother. Hey, well, welcome back to the 112th episode of Los Angeles Nista. I'm the show creator, producer, and host, Eddie Solis. And my in-studio guest is the founder of Vagina Guitars, Andrew Miller. Andrew, you holding up all right? Yeah, I'm doing fine. Awesome, man. I'm excited. You went there to figure out who you're going to use for your hardware and try to make a deal like everyone else. I mean, NAMM is about business, first and foremost, National Association of Music Merchants. And in the... In the preliminary episode we did, the preview, I took my time to really try to coherently explain and articulate what it is. It's more than just getting an autograph from Steve Vai or Gene Simmons or something like that. It's about doing business in that industry, manufacturers, distributors, independent retail, major retail, sheet music, teachers. It means a lot to all those people. This is their livelihood. So you, as a manufacturer, guitar manufacturer, you went and you were looking at the... You were looking for different vendors to try to strike a deal so you could get wholesale hardware. Yeah. How difficult is that? Well, it's not really difficult because I'm a real business. I have all the paperwork and everything. Right. You're legit, obviously. But the... Actually, one of the... I kind of had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder when I went there because I had a supplier that just irritated me every time I talked to them. Just bad customer service. Right. Number one thing was like, all right, replace this supplier. Replace this supplier. Right. That was the first thing I did. But it was... I mean, it was productive for me because that was why I needed to be there. It's just that the whole van thing kind of sidetracked me because we were too busy eating lunch in a rental car across the parking lot. Like, what the hell is going on, you know? But overall, yeah, it was pretty productive. Very cool. As far as the feedback from your guitar company, it just seems like... People are uptight. There's this whole PC politically correct thing, and music is supposed to be about self-expression. It's art. And you actually received complaints from people through email about the name. Oh, yeah. And what struck me about that statement is that you have, you know, the name Vagina, Vagina Guitars, it's just... That's a real word. It's not a slang for that. It doesn't mean anything else. It's, you know, that's the real word. And the thing about it is I saw photos of, like, women, females, taking pictures against the van, having fun with it. Not taking it too serious, just having fun. And that's what you wanted to do. I wanted you to state this. You're tired personally of seeing guitar manufacturers with people's names on it, literally. Well, you know what it is? It's always some guy's name that you never even heard of, and he's using his name as if you're supposed to know it or something. For example, like, it reminds me of on Sunset, there's a liquor store that says whatever, whatever is liquors. And I can tell he's, like, trying to be famous for any reason, so he's, like, trying to be known for this liquor store. But it's the same thing. It's like, you know, whatever, guitars. And it just makes me think it's some failed guitar player who just wants his 15 minutes, so he sells some crap guitars. And, you know, let me put my name on it, because then people know who I am. Yeah, whatever. I don't care. So you said, I'm not going to put my name on it. Just have fun. And you came up, the first thing that came into your mind was? Actually, I didn't even think I wouldn't put my name on it. As soon as I made a guitar, I said, I want to write vagina on the top of it. And that was it. There was no other question. Yeah, done. That was it. And somebody said, well, what else did you think of? No, I didn't think of anything else, because that is just, it's the best name. What else would I use? Gotcha. So let's take a look at one of your vagina guitars. This is one of the first ones I made. I like to keep them simple. I don't like plastic. That's the main thing. I don't like plastic. I try to eliminate as much as I can. That's great. And this one was like just a straight up FU guitar. It doesn't have a volume. It's just, you plug it in. No volume. I love that. Yeah, all the way up, all the time. That's it. Nice and simple, white. I did have a little bit of a Buckethead thing going on with this. I won't lie. Are you a Buckethead fan? Yeah. When I was like, basically when Buckethead was starting out was when I was in my late teens going to shows and stuff in the Bay Area. I remember seeing him in Deli Creeps. He didn't have the, he actually didn't even have the whitelist balls yet. But it's kind of what gave me the idea of the white. That and I don't like crazy colors anyway. I don't want to get stuck with some orange guitar trying to sell it. Right. 13 years later. Yeah, 13 years later. Hey, you want this guitar with a handle in it? What am I going to do with that? Right. So as far as the guitar that you just showed us, there's no volume knob. Not at all. Hardly any plastic. So tell me what you do personally to try to eliminate as much plastic from a guitar. So where do you start with that? Well, first thing I do is throw them Humbucker rings in a trash. Trash. Yeah, I don't like any of the, what is it? The truss rod cover and all that. And even the knobs. I have my knobs. I have my friend make billet aluminum knobs when I do have it. Because I don't even want plastic knobs. And for some reason, every guitar has the same three shapes. You got the strat shape. You got the Les Paul clear, half clear, whatever things. And then whatever the metal ones. But I don't know. The metal ones are full of plastic now anyway. So anyway. Yeah. Yeah. And as far as. As far as. I want to talk about your baritones again. The whole Les Paul baritone. You particularly, you know, spoke about that. How you want that to be. It has a longer neck, right? Well, actually what I did was I sank the neck deeper into the body. And it made the cut out deeper. That way it still fits in the same size case. And instead of tuning it to E, you're tuning to A. A or B, whatever, you know. But it's just as comfortable. It's a regular size Les Paul. But you have way more, you know, if you want that, the ringing notes of the low notes. Because if you just tune down, you just get the vibration. But yeah, that's what I tried to do. I didn't want it looking like a Les Paul bass either. Because those always look, well, can I say retarded? Yeah. Now, what about basses? You think you'll make any basses? I will. But see, I started with classic shapes that I like for the guitars. Sure. As far as basses, I just don't like how they look most of the time. I'm not a huge fan of P basses and jazz basses. All the high-end stuff. Well, you know what? That's the problem, too, with basses. There's nothing in the middle. It's either some cheap bass or something that's like $9,000. And there's nothing in the middle. And as much as it started as a hobby, I do have to make some money on it. So it's kind of hard with that middle ground. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet. I've got to find something interesting or design something. It just hasn't popped in my head yet. It will. Right. So besides your three classic shapes, what else is cooking as far as your forthcoming? I mean, where are you going to go after these three? Well, I have my variation of a Telecaster. It's not that traditional because I'm just not into Telecasters. But people keep asking for them, so I've got to do something with it. Oh, wow. Let's see. I think I'm going to do more with the Vs. I'm not sure yet how I want to do it. My wife keeps telling me to make some kind of shape that looks like our emblem. But I don't know. I don't know about that. I think it's a little too pointy. So, I mean, that's that balance that you have to find between too pointy and too round, right? Yeah. Well, yeah. Too pointy looks like a weapon. It looks stupid. Too round starts looking too feminine. Then it's not metal anymore. You can't be called vagina and be too feminine because then they're going to sell Daisy Rock guitars. I'm not doing that. So no Daisy Rock guitars at all, ever? No. No. Yeah, I don't need something that looks like a sunflower. Tell me about your music. About my music? My music's just angry. Oh, yeah? Not as angry as it used to be because I'm getting older. I'm just bitching about different stuff. Where the hell are my keys? Okay. Yeah, it's just a matter of stuff. Gotcha, gotcha. But your personal taste, a little bit about you. My personal taste, I ought to give you an example. I didn't care about Kiss and all that and signing autographs at NAMM. But I did have to talk to Kerry King. Really? Oh, yeah. When I was 15 years old, I saw Slayer and I wasn't the same ever since. I mean, I don't even know how I got permission to go. It was like on a Wednesday night in San Francisco. I had to take the train there. You got there. For some reason, I convinced my parents to let me go on a school night. So, yeah, I don't know how that worked out. Right. But who knows? So, let's talk about overall you walking through the halls of NAMM. Through the perspective of an independent business, guitar manufacturer, and a musician. What do you think? I mean, was this your first NAMM? No, it wasn't. It wasn't. I went years ago. When was it? Probably six or seven years ago. And it was exactly the same. The rock stars still looked old. I recognize a lot less people this time. Okay. But it was the same thing. And that was the other thing. I think that's why the van got attention was because it was the exact same thing I saw seven years ago. It's like nobody's doing anything different. I saw that the Ernie Ball booth, they had some. People dressed like circus stuff. You know, it was kind of interesting. They had like a game to play or something like that. But it seemed to me like they were the only ones making any effort. Everybody else just had their guys playing leads and making, you know, sex faces at me when I'm walking by. It didn't make me want to buy anything. Sex faces. Well, pretty much. You know, the guitar face. Yeah, the guitar face, right? That's weird. Isn't that a weird thing? Well, it is weird when you're, I'm standing in line to see Geezer Butler. That's actually, those are the only two people I cared about. I wanted to see Kerry King. I wanted to see Geezer Butler. But standing in line, I'm like right across from this guy who's playing leads. I'm the only one paying attention. He's staring dead in my eyes, making these faces. It's like I'm trying to like appreciate what you're doing. But yeah, that's not going to work, man. I had to like, I tried to switch with my wife in line, make her face him. But she had no, she wouldn't take any part of it. That's hilarious. That's hilarious. Personally, I had a great experience at NAMM. You know, I, my intent was as a media outlet with skidroadstudios.com doing this. Yeah. Yeah. And then I went to a show, Los Angeles Nista, you know, to go and capture some interviews, which I did that were installed. We, you know, we just heard with Bill from Macedon and Fred Ortiz from Busy Boys and Bongaloids. And the other second, you know, the other part of that was to go as an artist, an endorsed artist. I work with a pickup company called Seymour Duncan. And you know how it is when, you know, when you, you're able, you have a relationship and then you go, you're working with this company and then you go see the people, you meet them. And that was. It does help to see. To see the people in person. Yeah. And it was nothing but a great experience. The Seymour Duncan family, you know, Craig Costigan, Boomer, you know, Maricela Juarez and Kathy Duncan. It was great to meet with all of them. And, you know, they were just so reinforcing and generous and, you know, like family. It was great. That was one thing I had to do as an artist and it was great. So, I mean, for me, I did two days, not four. I did four. You did all four. Yeah. We had to be there all four. We have, I mean, don't get me wrong. I was saying that people weren't doing much, but we did enjoy it. But we were tired. We were beat by the fourth day. But, you know, we had to leave the van there. People enjoyed it. And we enjoyed watching people buy it. It was like, it was like zombies around that thing. They just, by the fourth day, there were beer cans under the van and empty cigarette packs. I mean, I saw people were actually using it as a landmark. Like, hey, pick me up by the vagina van. Like an anchor destination. Yeah. Yeah. So, tell me about, now here's what I don't get. Are people really that bored where they're going to write you a complaint email about the name of your guitar company? Yes. Okay. Tell me what some of these dudes said. Like, let's hear this. Okay. Well, the first one I got really threw me off because, okay, first of all, I'm not used to, I didn't, I wasn't expecting all the attention that we got. So, that already threw me off. Then I ended up getting this email from some guy who was demanding credentials. And he put me in one of those positions where it's like, why don't you explain this and this and this to me? And if you don't respond, or no, don't respond unless you have the proper and acceptable proof, blah, blah, blah, blah. Basically, it was like one of those no-win situations. And my first reaction is the union carpenter in me. I just wanted to rip into him. But, you know, I had to bite my tongue. He's like, I don't even respond. I'll just post it on Facebook and complain about him there. I'm not going to run back. This guy, because I'm still, you know, vagina still has a time in. We're young. We can't do crazy stuff right now because everybody's, no one has any information. They're going to judge us by anything we do. Sure. So, I have to really watch myself. And I've never been like that before. It's a little bit of a pain. Like, I don't want to. I want to rip into everybody who talks shit to me. But the bottom line is, it's weird because the only people who complain are men. You would think there'd be some uptight, you know, woman who's like, that's disgusting. But none of that. The women are taking pictures by the van. They're crazy. Yeah. The guys stand next to the van, but the girls are like posing with their face in each other. And, yeah, it's ridiculous. One girl had her foot behind her head. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. One lady was posing her kids. She had her kids leaned up against the van. Yeah. The whole thing was like that. That is funny. I mean, you know, if you can't, I mean, the fact that people are really offended for what it is. For whatever reason. I mean, it wasn't a lot. Actually, it was low, but it bothered me just because I wasn't used to it. But, yeah, it wasn't. Yeah. I hear you. I hear you. Now, let's talk about 2014. Let's just wrap it up here. You're going to be filling the demand. People are asking for your guitars. Yeah. Please be patient with me. Serious. The company's very, very small. I try to get back to every email as soon as I can. But, I mean. I'm pretty hammered with stuff right now. It's hard. So, be patient with me. I will get back to you. Now, as far as your line goes, I just want to articulate to people. Yeah. You know, you got stuff coming in. You're going to be putting that together. Yes. It's, you know, be patient. It's you. You're the guy. Yes, pretty much me and my wife. And she's just now showing interest because she realizes that people actually like it. Awesome. Yeah. And it's supposed to be fun. That's the bottom line. People. They're too serious about things. I wanted to have something fun that you can enjoy. That's why. That's cool. And that's why I think people enjoyed it was because it's like adolescent humor anyway. It makes you kind of feel childish and giggle because it's like before you were even swearing, you thought this was crazy. And that's all it is. Just have some fun. Yeah. If somebody is uptight about it, there's something wrong. Right. And you know what? Good luck to you, man. Thank you. I'm glad you're here as an in-studio guest for the NAMM wrap up. Good luck to you. And I look forward to talking to you a lot more in the future. Cool. And trying out your product. And yeah, just stay in touch. Everyone out there, thank you for checking out the 112th episode of Los Angeles Nista. Thank you. Use the bell to get notifications on all our new episodes. So here we go Coming in to your side Go for gold I'm on the call line Go for gold In to your side So here we go Knocked up kind of town Going through the naked eye On the way to island's mark I'm on the call line So here we go Going in to your side Go for gold I'm on the call line