Rundown Kreeps Interview

Fresh off the road, the Rundown Kreeps guitarist and singer, Richard Lamas, chats with me about booking, touring, and owls!

Tony Coke: You guys are finishing up a tour. How did it go?

Richard Lamas: This past spring tour with Straight Shooter went really well. At least I think so. We had the privilege of performing with a lot of awesome bands and we also met a lot of rad people that we’re glad to be able to now call friends. Overall I think that our music and stage show was received extremely well with every audience that we performed in front of, and in my opinion that’s all that really matters.

Tony Coke: Do you guys do all of your own booking or do you work with an agent or someone that handles that for you?

Richard Lamas: I technically do all of the booking for the band via email and internet messaging. But for this last tour we pretty much just rode along with the guys from Straight Shooter. We essentially received a great opportunity and were asked to be direct support for the guys on an already scheduled tour. Everything has been pretty DIY punk rock for us at this point of our existence and I really enjoy that asthetic.

Tony Coke: That’s so great when you can jump on someone else’s tour and let them handle booking! Give our other musician readers a word of advice or a struggle that you’ve overcome pertaining to touring or booking?

Richard Lamas: Keep at it. That’s the most relevant piece of information I can give to anyone no matter what their creative outlet is. Be persistent, write honest music for the purpose of impressing no one other than yourself, and play every show as if you’re performing for a sold out crowd no matter the turn out. Keep yourself happy with what you’re doing. Oh, and pack a towel. This tour was some of the guys first experience with being on the road and they didn’t pack a towel. They had to rely on using dirty T-shirts and it left them smelling kinda musty. And that’s no good for anybody. Especially if everyone is going to be stuck in a van together for hours in the heat.

Tony Coke: Ya that’s nasty! What is the hardest thing about being in a band, other than the smell?

Richard Lamas: Is there suppose to be a hard part? I really can’t think of one. I do what I do because i wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t, and if I thought it was hard to be myself I wouldn’t be me. If that makes sense.

Tony Coke: Fair enough! Give us a crazy story from the road.

Richard Lamas: We accidentally ran over an owl that just found lunch on our way to Roswell, New Mexico. Well it was more like owl suicide. I was in the passenger seat acting as navigator while Horacio from Straight Shooter was driving the van. Everyone else was passed out, we had the first shift driving over night. It must’ve been sometime between 4am-6am. The highway was dark and vacant like something out of a horror movie. When all of a sudden an owl swoops down towards the right of the van, picks up a rabbit, then flys directly in front of the van. There was no time to react so we unfortunately collided with the bird and it’s lunch while they were mid flight. I felt bad, but at the same time I couldn’t help but feel like it was kind of the owls fault. I mean we don’t blame the conductor when someone gets killed trying to cross train tracks while there is an oncoming train visible and no time to do so. That owl had a death wish and I guess the van played the role of Jack Kevorkian in the mess of it all. The weird part is that about 14 miles later when the sun began to make itself evident we made eye contact with another owl that was chilling on what seemed to be the only tree on that particular stretch of the highway. I couldn’t help but get the feeling that it knew.

Tony Coke: Oh damn, and a rabbit!! How’s it going on the management and business side of things?

Richard Lamas: It’s good, the guys from Dunton have been pretty rad to us and they totally understand us because they know the music scene that we derive from. I’m definitely looking forward to what will come out of our partnership with them. I appreciate having those guys on our side of the ring and I’m glad to be able to call them friends.

Tony Coke: Cool man, best of luck to you guys. I hate that I missed you when you came through Dallas, hopefully I’ll get out to LA soon and catch yall there.

Check out Rundown Kreeps music and videos and hook up with them on social media.

Reverbnation: http://www.reverbnation.com/rundownkreeps
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/rundown-kreeps
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RundownKreeps
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Rundownkreeps
Instagram: https://instagram.com/rundownkreeps
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rundown.kreeps

Management: Ken Gonzalez – Dunton Records