Danny Gonzalez - Jacuzzi Boys Interview
Tell me about growing up in Florida. What was your childhood like growing up? When did you first begin to fall in love with music? Was this something that was relevant around your household growing up?
I was born in Miami and grew up kinda like by the Everglades. Our house was on a dirt road for many years so there was lots of mudding on a Honda 70 ATC I had, airboat rides, and shooting rats with a bb gun off of our mango tree during season. I'd just knock them down and my dog would take care of the rest. I was all about being outside and getting dirty. Then around the time I turned 15 my family started running the concessions in a state park and we moved into a trailer inside the park. My dad likes old Cuban music and had a bunch of records and my mom was a bit of a disco queen, but music wasn't really a big deal in our house, It was mostly just played in the car or at parties. But somehow I kinda became obsessed with music from a really early age. I fell in love with the oldies station and freestyle (kinda like a latin influenced, electronic, rnb dance music). And then MTV turned me on to all the current 90's rock stuff that was happening.
What would you do for fun growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When and where did you see your first concert and when did you realize you wanted to spend your life pursuing music? Did you participate in any groups prior to JB?
Kinda like I mentioned before, a bunch of outdoor stuff... Motorcycles, go-karts, bicycles.. Stuff like that. Basically trying to live out all my Goonies fantasies. I think once I became aware of the current mainstream rock scene in the 90's (bands like Jane's Addiction, Nirvana, Beastie Boys, Smashing Pumpkins, Guns and Roses, RHCP) is when I really got into music, that's when I wanted to start going to shows and buying records and magazines and stuff like that. My first concert was either The Mighty Mighty Bosstones with Face to Face and Wax at this club in Ft, Lauderdale called The Edge (It's called Revolution now) or Lollapalozza '94 (Beastie Boys, Smashing Pumpkins, The Breeders, A Tribe Called Quest, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) at Bicentennial Park. Soon after that I started going to local shows. And as far as realizing I wanted to pursue music my whole life, I don't think I ever had a moment where that became a thought. I just got more into it and never lost interest. Yeah I had a goofy punk band with my brother in high school called The Lab Rats. We played a few clubs around town and recorded a demo or sorts, but it was pretty short lived. I thought I was so cool though going to clubs on weeknights to play and then showing up to school the next day with crazy stories.
How did you initially meet your bandmates and when and where did you guys first get together to jam? What was the overall vision and approach for the band’s music in those early days?
We met through a mutual friend of ours, Rydel. I had known him for a few years but I had kinda stopped going out for a bit, and he had randomly started hanging out with them. But one night we all ended up hanging out in a parking lot outside of a club and kinda hit it off. Gabriel and Diego were already doing JBs as a two piece and had maybe played 3 shows. I was at one of those shows and it was a total disaster, but I loved it. Then that night in the parking lot Gabriel just asked if I wanted to play bass. I was hesitant at first 'cause I thought they didn't need it, but he convinced me. Soon after that we met up and took band photos before we had even played together. I remember putting the photo up on myspace and thinking.. Well I guess I'm in the band... We should probably practice soon. I think early on we thought of it as more of a psych band, but we were all kinda still learning to play so it was kinda like.. whatever we came up with we stuck with and used for our set. We couldn't be too picky about the songs.
The band released its debut “No Seasons” back in 2009. Tell me about writing and recording that record and how the deal with Floridas Dying came about. Would you mind giving some background to some of the songs that are featured on the album? The band released its anticipated follow up in 2011 entitled “Glazin’” on Hardly Art. How did you guys want to approach this album that differs from the band’s debut record? How did the deal with those guys come about?
Yeah, we recorded that record in Atlanta at this place called The Living Room. We were there for a week and had a blast. It was our first time in an actual studio and it felt pretty exciting. It was basically all the songs from our set that had stuck around. I imagine that's what a lot of debut records are. And yeah, there were songs about animals dying inside the walls of my trailer (Smells Dead), a song about our first trip to New Orleans (Planet of The Dreamers), one about our friend Rydel getting out of his mind on tour (I Saw it All), and songs about Miami (No Seasons). We recorded Glazin' at this amazing studio in Benton Harbor, Michigan called Key Club run by Bill Skibbe and his partner Jessica Ruffins. I remember talking about wanting to make it more electric, whatever that meant. I kinda described it as.. No Seasons was us hanging out in the Everglades and Glazin' was us going shopping at the mall. It was brighter with more options. And the Hardly Art connection happened from us just touring through Seattle and meeting those folks. Ruben at Hardly Art was already a fan from early on and he really wanted us on the label. We did two records with them. Glazin' and the Self Titled follow up.
The band released its third record “Ping Pong” back in 2016. Tell me about this record.
Our 3rd record was actually self titled (Ping Pong was our 4th) and we also did that one at Key Club. We drank A LOT during the making of that record. and we kinda showed up to the studio with lots of unfinished ideas so we kinda built it as we went along. It was kinda of a weird record and not so easy to finish, but we had lots of fun. I remember thinking.. fuck it, no rules for this one. Who cares if we can't recreate this stuff live... Let's just do whatever weird idea comes to mind. We looped stuff, did heavy editing, ran guitars through synthesizers. All kinds of weird shit. It wasn't really a traditional rock band playing live approach necessarily. Ping Pong, our fourth record was done in LA with this guy Eric Hoegemeyer. We were basically living in LA for like 7 months while working with this management company and slowly recorded that record over that period of time. We were meant to demo everything at the company's office and then head into a proper studio, but we kinda realized the company was falling apart and that wasn't gonna happen so the office demo sessions just became the record.
You mentioned in our correspondence that you guys are heading out for a tour this Friday. Tell us about those happenings! Is there anything else you would like to further share with the
readers?
Yeah, we're going out for like 10 days with our friends Snacks from Huntsville, Alabama. It's mostly Florida dates with a few out of state stops. We toured with Snacks this past February as well and we had a blast so we decided to do it again. Gabriel is having a baby soon, so it might be the last tour for a little bit, but I think we're gonna stay busy in the studio. We've released two digital EPs this year so far (Dipped & Glue) and we're going in to record a new jam with our friend Jonathan Nunez from Torche right after this tour. I think it's gonna be a good one.
