Bondo write songs that sound especially great driving with the windows down on a summer night, so it is fitting that their latest, a self-titled release, will drop in the middle of the season.
To craft these songs on their latest, the band—which also includes Niko Escudero and Brian Bartus on vocals and guitar, Gerry on bass, and Cook Lee-Chobanian on drums—worked together in the same room, letting tracks take shape organically. They make music for people who get lost in tracks from bands like Slint, Unwound, Duster, or Acetone, allowing their mesmeric quality to wash over them. Escudero is the band’s central creative force, and he puts it succinctly: “Bondo is my dad rock phase. I started this to have fun with friends. It’s nice that people like it.”
The band effortlessly glides between noisy freakouts like the one-two punch of “DJ Lessons” and “BG” from their 2024 release, Harmonica, to intricate mood-setters like the groove-based “Headcleaner” to quiet, reflective tracks like “Paul Gross”. The new record builds on the sound of Harmonica. It’s easy to imagine a song like “Strummer” stretching out in a live setting to allow listeners to get into a headspace or “Brian Screams” snapping them out of a dreamy haze. It is easy to hear the influence of those instrumental tracks that are the connective tissue of Fugazi‘s albums in Bondo’s sound, too.
Escudero started the group at home during COVID, after spending years on the road in bands like Froth (who opened for Interpol), Never Young, and Preoccupations. When the pandemic shut down touring, he started experimenting. “I was over touring,” Escudero says. “I wanted to have a band where collaboration is similar to Fugazi, a little more free and jazz-shaped. I was using an eight-track recorder to get some ideas down,” he shares.
“Now, we work together and make decisions together, which can be a challenge, because we all have strong opinions. I like to keep it as egalitarian as possible, but I do have veto power. I had the original idea for the band, so there is an understanding,” he explains.
Bondo’s songs emerge from the tension of that collaboration. “Everyone in the band is a strong-willed, independent person. We all have different musical interests, but we do have some common ground. They’re all interesting people with different characteristics. It can be fun to clash a bit, but it can also be a lot of disagreement,” he says.
Bondo’s creative process is akin to world-building. “For us, it is all about dynamic decision-making in the room while we are playing. The creative process can be limiting. I want to discover the feeling of our moment in time and space. What do four guys who live in Los Angeles, who surf and are into science fiction, UFOs, and soccer come up with at the moment? What is our collective output?” Escudero explains.
Songs can change in the moment in the middle of a live show, too: “Our song ‘Compressed Drum’ is meditative on the EP, but when we play it live, it feels like it wants to get bigger. We have a sensitivity in the room. It comes from a painstaking process and understanding of each other as musicians.”
The aim is to leave things open to listeners to get lost in. “A lot of rock music is blatant, like ‘This is a song about X.’ The abstraction makes it feel more powerful and more present. Bondo music is like the start-up screen on an operating system. It’s not too material. It’s loose and hard to put your finger on,” he notes.
That sparseness also extends to lyrics. “We don’t have a lot of lyrics on purpose,” Escudero notes. “In life, I like being verbose. I have a lot to say. I just don’t think this music needs that. The minimal lyrics are a conscious choice. The vocals are a tool, not a necessity. I don’t want to write catchy choruses. We all like bands like Unwound, Tortoise, Arial M, and Slint.”
When he’s not engaged in Bondo, Escudero currently works in a wood shop, but his resume also includes teaching transcendental meditation to local teachers at the David Lynch Foundation. The Foundation secured funding to teach doctors, firefighters, and teachers, but after Lynch passed, the program started to wind down. “I was in a two-year hybrid program that contained two in-residence experiences. This is the only way to become certified, and it is the most researched transcendental meditation program in the world. A lot of what I learned helped me understand my life and also influenced the band. I taught one of my bandmates to meditate. It’s a fascinating world,” he explains.
True to the unfussed, unforced vibe of the group, aside from a show at Zebulon, a staple of the Los Angeles music scene, there are no major tour plans to celebrate the release of Bondo’s new record. However, the band will be on tour with cult favorites WU LYF, who are returning from a lengthy absence, in July. They specifically requested Bondo as their opening act.
Escudero doesn’t like to get all caught up in the business side of music. “The industry world is annoying. We don’t have a booking agent because I can do that myself. I don’t see us operating in the industry capacity. We might wind up doing some shows in the Southwest. We did some shows with Teethe there that were great,” he says. “It’s just great to be in front of an audience who is really excited to see us. We played one of my favorite shows in Omaha to about ten people.”
He continues, “We have no master plan. We are flying by the seat of our pants, and that is what makes it fun. I like doing things our way.”