Interview: Buk Buk Bigups
Posted on April 4, 2011 – 6:18 AM | by Admin
By Becky Grunewald Photos by Scott Duncan
Buk Buk Bigups was a project before it was a band. It was spawned in 2009 on the laptop of Aaron Zeff at a house on T street where Sacramentans-cum-Brooklynites !!! practiced in the basement when they were in town to record or kick off a tour. The sound leaked up through the floorboards and permeated Zeff’s brain, and out came something both trippy and dance-y; kinda dark and totally fun.
Recently Zeff had the itch to assemble a full band, a kind of supergroup (as things tend to be in our incestuous little scene) stocked with veterans of many other local outfits: Joss Lucio (Karate Party) on drums, Dylan Craver (G. Green) on bass, and both Matt Maxwell (Ancient Sons) and Dan Quillan (Art Lessing and the Flower Vato) on guitars.
The new Buk Buk Bigups made a splash at the tenth iteration of KDVS’ popular music festival Operation Restore Maximum Freedom. They rocked the crowd with some surprisingly pop-y anthems. DJ Rick Ele, the man behind Max Freedom, had this to say, “When Buk Buk Bigups became a full-fledged band with drums, bass, and guitars, it definitely brought forward the Krautrock influence, and I think it’s really remarkable that the Bigups Band sits at the highest intersection of Krautiness and fun that I’ve ever heard.”
MidMo recently caught up with Zeff, 29, Maxwell, 25, and Quillan, 38, over some beers at Alley Katz
MidMo: When did Buk Buk Bigups form and how?
AZ: Well I started recording October of 2009 or maybe August of 2009 and then the group with the other musicians formed in, I think, July of 2010. I just asked all the guys to play with me
MidMo: What have you put out?
AZ: I have one record out on (local label) Weird Forest, the record’s a 12 inch and then I have a cassette tape (self-released) that’s out.
MidMo: Did you do that all by yourself?
AZ: Yes, well Hailey, my girlfriend [otherwise known as MOM] is on the 12 inch.
MidMo: How did you hook up with Weird Forest?
AZ: I was just really lucky and I was playing my second show and Chad [Stockdale, formerly of Weird Forest] offered to do my record for me. That was really nice of him. He told me I could do whatever I want so I decided to do just one song, well two songs. I’d only been doing it for a couple of months so I only had two things that were strong enough to put on vinyl. He said that was fine so that was out in a few months.
MidMo: Are you guys all from the Sac area?
DQ: originally Sacto via Wisconsin. Eleven years in Wisconsin and then I lived in
Auburn for 15, almost 20 years. And I was in a death metal band in Auburn called Pax Mortis.
MM: I’m from Yuba City and I moved here 6 years ago. It feels like 10 years ago.
AZ: I’m from Sacramento.
MidMo: Of course being from Sacramento people are comparing you to Out Hud and !!!. Do you feel an affinity or is that a stretch?
AZ: The 12 inch was totally influenced by those guys because I was sharing a practice space with them when I recorded and that was part of that. My girlfriend DJs funk and started doing that around the time I was recording that. But now we’re getting a lot more evil, things are getting weirder in the band. So I understand that those comparisons are made now, but there will be no reason for people to make those comparisons in the future because things are definitely morphing into something that’s kinda way more out there than what people might expect from what they’ve heard on the 12 inch.
MidMo: Are you recording more?
AZ: I’m recording right now and I hope to record with these guys later in the year.
MM: I want to say what it means to be in Buk Buk Bigups. Remember when you wrote about Aaron [on the blog Heckasac], you described him as a mad scientist. That’s totally appropriate. We have this band leader that will tell you that you’re going to be doing something that sounds completely crazy and off the wall, but for some reason because it’s Aaron you just trust it and you want to do it because he wants you to do it, and then it ends up being totally fucking crazy and amazing. I think that’s what it means to be in Buk Buk Bigups, to just give up everything and put all your trust in one man.
MidMo: It sounds like a cult!
MM: Exactly!