The same year pop-punk legends Audio Karate wrote and recorded their last studio material, the White Stripes released Elephant, the Great White concert tragedy happened, and Ozzy Osbourne underwent emergency surgery after buzzing around on an ATV at his English estate. So, in other words, it was 20 years ago. Also around that time, Audio Karate disbanded.
“We’ve grown so much (since then),” vocalist and guitarist Arturo Barrios says. “One of our guys—I won’t get into specifics—(now) makes really good money and owns a farm. As for me, I’m married now.”
Audio Karate also feature bassist Justo Gonzalez, guitarist Jason Camacho, and his cousin, drummer/percussionist Gabriel Camacho and their relationship spans decades.
“I’ve known all (my bandmates) since I was 12,” Barrios says.
The California group convened in early 2018. Initially, they only had a shared interest in helping with vinyl reissues of early Audio Karate albums (and, later, two albums’ worth of previously unreleased material). While working on reissues—and noticing the band’s fanbase grew during Audio Karate’s breakup period—they confabbed and agreed fresh studio material was long overdue.
“We’ve always been big on writing new music, trying to push forward and seeing what we can do,” Barrios says. “We put our heads together (to write new material). Almost immediately, we were like, “OK, this is what we sound like approaching our middle-aged years.”
Those unacquainted with the new Audio Karate can hear their “middle-age sound” on a two-song release that Iodine Recordings issued June 30. It contains a new song, “A Show of Hands,” as well as a re-recording of the Audio Karate song “A Monster in Disguise.”
“We got into a room and said, ‘Let’s see what we can come up with if we’re all (playing music) together,’” Barrios recalls. “Back in the day when we wrote records, I would have a melody or a chorus in my head to bring to the table in case we didn’t come up with (any other) ideas. For this, I went in with a blank canvas, intentionally, to see what happens if we just got together and came up with something.”
Barrios shares his astonishment over how quickly “A Show of Hands” came together. Even after all that downtime, it only took two or three takes for Audio Karate to crack their new tune. It’s as if the musicians have been friends since they were kids, or two members of the band are cousins.
What lies ahead for Audio Karate remains unclear. But Barrios alludes to a potential tour that he hopes would finally get the band their just desserts.
“We didn’t tour heavily (at first) because we only had two records,” Barrios says. “We know there’s still this huge fanbase for an emo kind of pop punk that we were. And, now coming back together as a band years later, we’ve become better musicians because we actually know what we’re doing.”
Photo courtesy of Senny Mau
