The Next Number

Matt Caughthran is yakking down the line from Wilmington, North Carolina, where El Bronx have just wrapped up the final show of a five-week tour supporting reggae-punk rockers Slightly Stoopid.

“It's been great man,” he enthuses. “We haven't really done too much reggae stuff, you know, in our world, but it's cool. Being out with a bunch of bands, smoking pot and making music, it's not the worst thing in the world.”

After The Bronx's upcoming whirlwind Australian tour and a month in Europe, there's a third El Bronx album to release and an under-wraps Bronx project. “I wouldn't call it Bronx V” – for newcomers, every Bronx album is called The Bronx, but the first album is colloquially known as I, the second II, etc. Their latest, IV, dropped last year – “I will tell you this: it's just going to be an EP. It will be a new collection of music that we're putting together for a project, and it's probably going to come out and exist outside of that project on its own. So, umm, that's it. That's all I can say.”

Which begs a question: with both The Bronx and Mariachi El Bronx successful in their own right, is it easy to switch from one to the other?

“It's not easy, y'know, but it's rewarding so it's really exciting,” Caughthran admits. “It was a lot easier when we first started the band, mentally, to switch over. But now there's a certain weight that each band carries so it's harder to go back and forth. You can't just switch anymore; you've got to allow some time for a headspace to be created.

“Logistically it's a fucking nightmare. When we have a tour with both bands we've got like 90 pieces of gear; we go to airports and it's insane. But it's all good. Even when we do Bronx tours now, it's a bitch because there's less gear but you've got to load in and out fucking heavy gear, so when we do mariachi stuff it's like 'Oh, it's super easy going, there's no heavy gear.'”

The Bronx released IV last year to satisfy fans' growing hunger for the Californian five-piece's brand of punk/hardcore songs. It had been five years since III, with Mariachi El Bronx I and Mariachi El Bronx II dropping in between. The album is a return to the highs the band is known for, and when The Bronx hit Australian stages they'll be ready to unleash the whole album on punters.

“We made a point on this record when we started touring with it. We have lots of songs from II and, particularly, III that are cool but we don't play, so we were like 'Let's not do that with this record. Let's make sure that when we go out we play these songs. Let's know them.'

“There are certain songs off II and III, that, if someone in the audience shouted them out, we would be like 'Yo, umm, sorry.' We might be able to fumble our way through them but that would be a bummer. We don't want to be that type of band. We want to be able to play anything any time.

“For this new record, we just wanted to get out and fucking play all these songs because, having been in a band for a while, it's so awesome that we can go out and play a different set of tunes every night. We're stoked, because we're not going out and doing the same thing every night and the crowd's stoked because the setlist is fucking cool.”

It's humbling – and, frankly, exciting – to hear Caughthran talk frankly about The Bronx's shows and the search for improvement on stage. “I think we got a little lethargic in a couple of ways and started playing the same set a lot, but this time we're going to come down to Australia with a new sense of pride and a new sense of energy.

“We're going to play some different tunes and some different sets each night and really have some motherfucking fun and get the place cranking like we always do.”

While The Bronx aren't getting out west this time around – “You know I'm a west coast guy, I love the west coast. Hopefully they'll forgive us” – they are taking their high octane show to Tasmania for the first time. 

And though his choice of a tattoo of the Tasmanian Devil might not be particularly original, the opportunity to throw down a Bronx set on a whole new landmass is something that Caughthran is excited about.

“When we go to any part of Australia and play shows, it's something that's really important and gratifying to us. It's always been worth our while. It's a beautiful thing, man. I seriously really, really love Australia.”