“It doesn’t feel that long ago, but I guess it’s been about eight-plus years. We were just hanging out. [Jeff Rosenstock] was over at my house, and we were just kinda listening to music,” says guitarist and mastermind Mike Park on forming the Bruce Lee Band with Jeff Rosenstock. “We were listening to Operation Ivy’s Energy. I think we listened to the Suicide Machine’s first album too. And we’re just like, ‘Let’s record a ska punk record!'”
Park, Rosenstock, and the other band members have their own projects, but they’ve maintained the Bruce Lee Band over the years, and they just released their third album with the same members. “We all have our things that are our main gig. but we just wanted to keep the same lineup and so that was the birth of this lineup of the Bruce Lee Band.”
The songs on Bruce Lee Band’s new record, One Step Forward. Two Steps Back are often angry, as Park uses music to express how he’s felt these past few years.
“I think I’ve been more angry these last six or seven years. So, it’s just an extension of that,” he says. “I’ve been writing songs that have been almost therapeutic for me. I feel like music is therapy. And just getting things off my chest has been really medicating to such a large degree.”
Writing for the Bruce Lee Band and his other projects has functioned as a source of comfort for Park throughout frustrating times. “It’s kind of like journaling,” he says. “I’m just getting things off my chest, lyrically, writing things down that are bothering me and trying to artistically put those words in a way that’s not just words.”
Park is a strong believer in the radical power of music. He notes that music is everywhere, and it influences everything all around us. “Music, in all facets, is the most powerful tool we have in mankind, I think,” Park says. “There’s nothing like it. It influences every mood; it’s used for every mood, anywhere you go, whether it’s the shopping mall, or grocery store, or a restaurant, it’s music. They put on that music, and they market that music to a specific audience. What kind of music can we play in this type of restaurant? I think people don’t realize how effective music is to persuade people in different ways.”
Watch the video for “I Hate This!” here:
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Photo courtesy of Ryan Perras
