Hi, everyone! I recently did an interview with Brandon Welchez and Charlie Rowell, two of the founding members of the punk group Crocodiles. Though neither musician lives in the band's place of origin (San Diego), both have consistently released music for the group since 2009. That includes seven studio records and an abundance of singles along the way. I first discovered their song "Endless Flowers" on someone's playlist a few months back, and it ended up being one of my picks for Song of the Month. In this interview, we talk about making music in two different parts of the worlds, each of the band members' favorite songs they've made, and much, much more!
bazzreviews: Which albums or artists inspired you guys to start a music career in the first place?
Brandon Welchez: Since I was a little kid, I knew I wanted to play in a band and make albums. When I was 6 years old, I had a boombox that had a recording function on it. I would make these little humorous songs inspired by Weird Al, the Beastie Boys and stuff like that. When I was about 12, a kid at school made me a tape with a Sex Pistols album on one side and Dead Kennedys’ Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables on the other. That tape led me to discover songs like “Forming” by the Germs, “Boredom” by Buzzcocks and “Wasted” by Black Flag. It's a bit cliche, but like a million other people, it was in that moment I realized I could learn three chords and start my own band.
Charlie Rowell: I really loved Ziggy Stardust-era David bowie. Those were the first albums that made me want to write music and start a band. Being exposed to the punk scene in San Diego is what really inspired me to actually dedicate myself to it. There were so many bands that were active or had already broken up from there that inspired us with their DIY ethos and artistic approach to hardcore and punk. I’d say groups like Locust, Run For Your Fucking Life, or anyone on Gravity Records were of tremendous influence to us.
br: How did you guys meet each other?
B.W.: Like Charlie was touching on, San Diego had - and still has - a small, but tight-knit punk and hardcore scene that is very politically involved. We met at an Anti-Racist Action meeting, and after we started seeing each other at shows, we became friends and started playing music together pretty quickly.
br: What’s the significance behind the group’s name?
B.W.: It doesn't have that much significance, to be honest. After we had written our first batch of songs, our friend Mario invited us to play a show. We didn't have a name at that point, but he said he needed to put something on the flyer. We knew we wanted a pretty non-specific name because we didn't want to be defined by it and then locked into one type of music. If a band names themselves “Nuclear Assault” or “Skanking Pickle,” you can kind of assume what kind of music they have made and will keep making, you know? We were thinking of bands with animal names that we liked - The Monkees, Swans, the Byrds, etc. We just picked one that felt like it suited us at the time, and that happened to be Crocodiles.
br: In what ways have you been staying active musically during the pandemic?
B.W.: We've written a lot for our next album, more than enough songs, actually. In the meantime, we will keep on writing up until we can eventually record together. Charlie recently released a solo tape under the name Crush Of Souls, and my girlfriend Kate and I have written her next album even though her first one isn't out for a few months. I've also helped out on a few songs with my friend, Juliá, for our punk band Xenu & The Thetans' next album. Charlie and I also have done two volumes of a cover series, called Shitty Times, that we have been releasing on cassette. The money from those has been going to various Black Lives Matter causes. We are almost done with the third and final volume, which will hopefully be released soon, too.
br: Brandon, I know you’re in LA, and Charlie, in Paris. How have you guys transitioned to making music when you guys are in two completely different parts of the world?
B.W.: The majority of our songs are written separately. We contribute equally and both pick our best five songs for each album but we more or less send each other complete demos. Occasionally if one of us is stuck on something - a guitar lead, a lyric, a harmony - we'll ask the other for help. We still write a song from scratch together occasionally but it's pretty hard if we aren't in person. When we get together to record for real we listen back to our ten or twelve favorite demos and rework them together and try to improve each other's songs as much as possible.
br: It seems like the live show is a pretty important aspect of the band’s image, would you guys say that you prefer playing live rather than working on new songs?
B.W.: They are equally important to me, you can't have one without the other. Of course, right now I really miss playing live because it is impossible to do so for the foreseeable future. That being said, I am also really looking forward to the recording process.
br: Can you describe your process for making songs?
C.R.: Once Brandon or myself have written something, usually if it's an entire song, we demo it together. I will record the guitars, one of us plays bass, etc. After this, we choose where and who we want to record with.
B.W.: For me, it will usually start with a chord progression and a melody. Just one part, usually a chorus or a verse, and I try to build the song around that one little part. Once I have the skeleton of a whole song - the chorus, melody and structure - I'll add lyrics. Then, I'll come up with the bass riffs and lead guitar parts and harmonies and stuff when we’re demoing it. That whole process can take anywhere from a day to a few months. For example, I had the first verse of “Wait Until Tomorrow” complete with lyrics for almost a year before I came up with the rest of the song, whereas “Telepathic Lover” came out fully formed in about an hour or two.
br: What’s more important to you guys- lyricism, or production value and instrumentation?
B.W.: They are all equally important. I would hate to waste a good melody and riffs on stupid lyrics or vice versa.
C.R.: As Brandon was saying, all of it is important. A lot of those aspects can change depending on the context of the music. I love lo-fi recordings, but with some groups, it just doesn't do the music justice. If the lyrics are bad, then hopefully the music is good to the point where it still can be enjoyable. For example, I find myself getting more and more tired of hearing the lyrics of New Order. They're really simple, which is fine, but they just have no feeling. That frames the music in a similar way.
br: What have been some of your favorite songs to have made over the years? Are there any fun stories behind them?
B.W.: It doesn't happen often, but I really enjoy the magic of when a song comes out of you very quickly and fully formed. You saw that with “Telepathic Lover” a couple questions back. I am not a very spiritual person, but that is the closest I've ever felt to tapping into something magical. Perhaps that sounds pretentious, but I digress. The song “Welcome Trouble” on Endless Flowers was fun to write and we did that collaboratively. We spent six weeks in Berlin rehearsing that album before we recorded it, and on that particular day, Charlie and I went to the studio a few hours before the others. He was on guitar, I was on drums, and the song came together very quickly. We didn't have a title and Marco (Rapisarda), the bassist at the time, suggested "Welcome Trouble" from some graffiti he had seen while taking the train over to practice.
C.R: Almost 99% of our recording sessions have been fun. We've had periods of sickness and insomnia, but damn it, there are so many good memories. The first that comes to mind is another song from the Berlin days, “Surfing Lucifer.” My girlfriend and Brandon's wife at the time were singing backups, and we were trying to make them laugh while they recorded.
br: If you could delete or rewrite one song from your discography, what would it be?
C.R.: I’d say none of them. Yes, there are a few that are not as creative as others, but I would probably rather change the mix on some then the actual writing.
B.W.: I don’t know, I feel like there are a few songs from some albums where I can tell I wasn't focused. It might have been because I had something stressful happening in my personal life, but like Brandon was touching on, I guess I wouldn't change anything major. Even if it’s not perfect, at least it's an honest representation of where I was at that particular point in my life.
Knowing everything you do about music, what is one thing you’d tell your past selves?
C.R.: I would tell ourselves to take more photos. We've been playing music together for twenty years or so, and we've had many bands before phones had cameras. Having them would be a reminder that we were once young and fresh, nothing worried us. We could tell stories of when we were eating out of dumpsters and booking shows in the middle of actual tours. So much fun to be young, following your dreams of being a musician and traveling in a van across the country to do shows.
Do you guys have any upcoming projects in the works that you can talk about?
B.W.: Like I talked about in the quarantine question, we are hoping to record another album as soon as possible. Hopefully, it will be done early next year. Also, be on the lookout for an album by Kate Clover - I produced it and am very proud of the product. The first single is out, and the album is coming out soon, too. I also recorded an album last year with some friends in Mexico; it's sort of psychedelic Latin punk - we are trying to figure out how we will be getting that released.
C.R.: Yeah! We both have side projects, which can be found through our Instagram. Next month, my other band, ISSUE, will record our second album.
What music goals do you guys have for the future?
B.W.: I want us to retain our open minds and never get boring or old. We will age physically, of course, but we will not allow ourselves to become artistically stale.
I'd thank to like Brandon and Charlie for participating in this interview- I had a great time chatting with them. If you haven't checked out any of their music, I would recommend that you do so. Thanks again to all of you guys for checking this out, and I hope that you are excited to check out other BR content coming soon!
To hear Crocodiles' music, go over to https://open.spotify.com/artist/1Z4Erxt5wSXH0gbOsVJUMv
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