BANGARANG - Let's Get Gentle

"Bangarang just kinda happened."

"A handful of friends were all living at the Lime or Lemon House, which, during this time, was actually foreclosed on while we were renting it, with no notice from the landlord. My wife and I had a new baby. I worked answering phones for an insurance payment processing company, and the band I had been in for 10 years had recently broken up. I was just existing like you do when you're a 20-something college drop-out. Tristan was working at random restaurants, and had recently broken up with his partner, which I'm pretty sure is also what ended his band at the time. We've never actually talked about it, but I can only imagine he was experiencing all those "lost" or "just existing" type feelings.

Lime or Lemon House just had musical stuff strewn about, and we all messed around with different songs and projects. We had a laptop with garageband, but no other recording equipment, so we'd record directly into the laptop mic and just try to layer it.

One day Tristan and I just started playing "Both Ways," we liked it, so we recorded it on the laptop, we liked that, so we made a myspace page. Before we knew it, we were stencilling shirts and writing Bangarang over the stencil with quotes like, "Let's get gentle," or my favorite, "I've never felt so stupid in my whole life." Soon we had a few songs, and we were playing shows with a rotating cast of other band members.

I feel like you can hear what a whirlwind life was back then in the songs, not just lyrically, but in the "that'll do" attitude of the playing. Fast and sloppy and loud. There are so many little stories I can think of about this time period, this band, and the people around back then. It's easy to get nostalgic and remember the fun of your younger "golden years,'' when you listen to old records, but honestly it was chaotic and angsty and hard. I love some of these songs and memories, but I'm more grateful for the growth, the friendships, and lessons learned. "
-Celleste ​