This is definitely an honor for us here at BareKnuckle magazine to sit down with one of our legends, and heroes Mike Herrera. If you've never heard of Mike, he's is the front man and bassist of renowned punk band MXPX. On top of touring and recording for MXPX, Mike also plays in his more recent Punk/Western creation, Tumble Down. 


Mike I wanted to thank you for taking the time to let us interview you. I’ve been listening to MXPX since Teenage Politics, and can honestly say
I’ve enjoyed every album you guys have put out.  I wanted to thank you for taking the time to connect with Bare Knuckle Magazine even though you have a busy schedule. I’m so stoked to interview you, and find out what you’ve been up to, I know you have been traveling a lot. What has it been like and what were your favorite places to play this year?

I just got done with the Bikeriders Southern Ride Tour in Texas and Oklahoma. This was a first for me. The whole touring crew is riding motorcycles to each show, including all gear and merch. This was an acoustic tour.. don't try strapping an 8x10  bass cab on the back of a motorbike. The tour was headlined be Ben Nichols of Lucero, and hosted by tattoo artist Oliver Peck

Wow that's crazy, how long have you been riding?

i've been riding about 5 years.. it's just part of life.. although i'm selling both my motorcycles.. i'm not attached to anything.

MXPX has changed a lot since back in the day. How have things changed for MXPX and what do you see MXPX doing in the near future?

We've grown up and changed as people.. i still listen to punk rock. but i also have a lot of other musical interests.. we're just playing shows and doing some decent amount of touring.

How are Yuri and Tom doing? Do they still play in the band periodically?

They still play periodically.. we just did 5 shows this summer for our 20 year celebration.. we'll had such a good time!  

What is your writing process like? How do you know when it’s a TD song or a MXPX song? In other words do you sit down and say.. “ I’m going to write an MXPX song right now.. Or “I’m going to write a TD song”

I usually have intentions to write for Mxpx or TD.. or even a solo type song.. although.. it all stems from the lyrics..
I can usually shape the music into whatever band i'm working on.

I saw you play in your other band Tumble Down and was totally blown away by your live show. How has it been playing in Tumble Down?

Tumbledown is a good release, artistic and otherwise.. I have such a good time playing a different style of music.. but it's still me writing the songs.. so it's familiar..

What inspired you to start writing country music?

I don't really write country music.. but i've written a few that have country and western tendencies. I love classic country though.. 

What bands influenced you to start writing songs and be in a band?

other punk bands.. some of which were local. Descendents, Black Flag, Clash, Ramones, Rancid, Nofx, Bad Religion. Stray Cats

Yeah I love all those bands. What music are you listening to right now?

Listening to everything and nothing.. i go back to all my favorite records.. and also listen to new bands as well.. but regular rotation is Against Me, A.A. Bondy, Dave Hause, Drag the River, Off, Gasoline Heart, Joe Strummer, Lucero

I remember back in late 90's when there was such a huge music scene. From a fans perspective it seemed like such a tight knit family of artists. I discovered you guys, Stavesacre, P86 (besides you guys P86 is one of the only bands still around) , Plankeye, 90 LB Wuss, Squad 5O, basically almost all Tooth&Nail bands around the same time. What do you have to say about those days? (talking about this makes me feel old)

We all hung out and toured together.. most of us.. it was great.. so many good memories.. we were all just pretending we
knew what we were doing.. 


Out of all the songs you’ve written, what is your favorite song? What is
your favorite song to perform?

hmm.. this always changes with my mood. one minute i'm never gonna play this or that song again.. then i'm putting it into the set list..
right now.. my favorite song is "stay on your feet".. to perform it's "for always".. 

I can see you have a lot of tatoos. What is your favorite tattoo, and why?

My back.. or maybe the ones behind my ear, those are pretty cool too..  i just like the designs.. and locations too..

What’s your most expensive
tattoo?

my back.. took 9 sittings.. of an average of 3 hours..  cost a lot.. don't know how much..

Thanks mike it was an honor to interview you..

No problem. Thanks

The other day I had the pleasure of sitting down with music sensation Kelly Easter. If you haven't heard of him, hes been taking the north state by storm  with his record "Dance floor." 

I've known Kelly for around 5 years now and can honestly say hes one of the nicest guys I've ever met.




So how are you doing today?

Pretty good dawg… Im glad to be here

Yeah man it’s a pleasure to sit down and talk to you dude

Yeah I’m glad to be here man, glad you called me in

So what’s been going on with you man, anything new as far as your music goes?

Well basically I kind of put things on hold for a little bit, been producing for other artists, a single for Gemini and other artists. Getting ready to pitch some songs for other artists.  I’m getting more into the actual production/songwriting side of it but at the same time I’m getting material ready for a next album for myself.  I’d like to do another EP or something. I’m really excited but I’m trying to take it one step at a time.  Some doors opened to produce and write songs so I’m putting my career on hold.  I do want to put out a project for me, hopefully the doors open for that soon.  I’m doing some recording so that I’ll have like four or five songs to produce an EP once I get the funds.  That’s why I’ve been doing more production.  I’ve always wanted to be a producer even before I wanted to be an artist.  I always saw myself as more of a producer even since I was sixteen.  A lot of times we start off like I want to be an artist but it’s funny how life has it’s twists and turns.  In the musical world I should come right back with another album especially because I’m not well known.  You need to put out album after album after album and keep putting out new material until you start to get recognized and known.  You’ve got new albums coming out every Tuesday on iTunes and Amazon and you have other artists mix tapes.  Not only transcending into the  hip hop but also into the indie world.  You have people who are like, here are some tracks that I’ve been hiding out in my bedroom and they release them for download for free.  There’s a lot to keep up with these days. I’m really enjoying producing and song writing, but I’m really having a hard time not recording.  I was scheduled to record an  album this summer but I put that on hold.  I’m really itching to do a new album.  I’ve got some new material I’m really excited about.  I’ts different when you are producing for other people.  I’m putting my twist on it but it’s still a different style than I would do for myself.

If you had to dissect your style of music how would you describe it… and what is your writing process?

Man I wish I had a set way I do it but honestly it changes every time.  It’s just all about creativity, about what hits you and how it hits you.  Sometimes it starts with a melody in my head and I’m just  like, that’s really strong, that’s really good ,and then I’ll sit down at my production station and pour it out and throw a little loop or something behind it ,and start developing the song from there. Sometimes I’ll get a song in my head and start panning it out with the lyrics.  Sometimes all I get is the lyrics, it comes in different forms every time. I mean sometimes I’ve gotten a word or a concept.  It’s so weird.  I’ve got this song in my computer and all I got was like the name Mysterio… which came from the comic book character and when I found things that relate to people and life and how characters develop and people actually have these characters in life and I wrote a whole song on Mysterio. It’s way left field.  The crazy thing is it’s a pretty good song.  It’s got a lot of truth to it.  It’s talking about that person who puffs them self up to be something. I'ts got lots of metaphors slamming in verse after verse and then there’s a pre chorus and then the big chorus.  It’ gets uplifting toward the end and it turns into this whole encouraging thing about this person who has this Mysterio personality, and this stage of life and it turns into this encouraging friend like your bigger than that, you’re better than that, do you not realize how powerful you are? It’s kinda weird.  When you first hear it you’re like.. what the hell?


That’s rad, I think the music industry needs a lot of that dude.. Seems like we are being inundated by a lot of selfishness.. On MTV especially..  

Yeah dude. When I find a song or sound that is me, I put it to the side.  There are songs that pull out melodies of my heart, the things that make me me.  I can’t see myself selling or getting rid of them.  Something will tell me “don’t get rid of it”  It’s very creative, different, melodic.  Some of it’s slow, some of it’s upbeat.  Some of it’s 80s Phil Collins.  I even use some of the same filters on my voice in the demos.  It came out really awesome.  There’s another song called “I wanna go” and it’s a cross between Motown, Celo Green and Radiohead.  The chorus is very Motown, I’ve got vinyl drums the whole real feel, and then it goes like Radiohead with the ambience.  

People are just attracted to originality, especially when it’s good originality.  It’s real and it’s in a sense pure.  It’s organic and it’s pure.  We all have a song in our DNA.  It’s just scientifically genetically there.  We all each have a song.  They can actually pull out your blood and your code and actually print it out and it has like notes to it and you can get your genetic code song out.  Look it up on line.  You can do all that.  We each have a song in us and the crazy thing is as many people there all in this world it all comes out different.  That’s in itself incredible.  If you can figure out how to stay true to that song that’s in you people get rocked touched impacted by that because it’ just pure and original.  

How long have you been writing and performing? 

I think I wrote my first song when I was 16.  I just wrote it because I was getting into poetry back then and I picked song writing up again in 05 and that’s when I was into folk music and I still am.  I wrote a couple fold songs and I recorded them and some friends heard it and I started performing gigs around town.  I only did about three or four gigs with it but it kept increasing from there so I guess you could say four or five years. I wrote my first song at 16 but I didn’t write a lot between then.

What artists are you listening to  right now?

What I’m listening to currently that’s inspiring me is weirdly M83, washed out, (it’s the guy from Portlandia…the theme song is his)  Lady Hawk, and Desire.  Desire is really cool.  I’m kind of on like this old school 80s vinyl kick and Motown.  I’m really trying to get back into like Marvin Gaye and all that stuff, Smokey, Lionel Richie.  Lionel Richie is actually a huge one for me. When I was younger I wanted to be like him and was like if I had a career I would want a career like his because when I read up on him and listened to all his music he’s one of the only artist that had hits in all these different genres.  He had a hit in country.  He’s mainly like r and b, soul when he started off in the Commodores and even after that he was r and b soul but he kinda did this Michael Jackson thing.  He added pop to it  and you can hear it on like night train and all his different stuff and then he did dancing on the ceiling.  When I heard that stuff it was kind along the lines of what Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel were doing I was like this dude just came from the Commodores doing that straight up r and b soul and then he just took off.  Like when Michael Jackson first left the Jackson five he just started doing some crazy pop stuff and using synth.  His producer was one of the first guys. To use synth  Lionel Richie was huge influence for how I wanted my career to look like.  He’s got hits in all these different genres I was reading up on him and he was one of the only artists to actually have that actually did number one and number two in different genres for a certain amount of weeks at a time.  That’s why on the voice they brought him out as a coach on the voice but the guy, he did it right.  Now he’s doing a country album.  It’s just crazy.  The guy can do anything he wants.  He’s not limited and that’s how I want to be.  Prince is another one.  I mean he’s still got the most radio hits, the most single hits even over Michael Jackson.  Prince just kept pumping them out man. He was like a freaking modern day Beethoven.  He was doing stuff that composers were like “that was pretty genius theoretically if you dissect it” they dissected some of his songs in colleges and broke them down to scales.  He can play anything.  Oh another one of my favorites is Celo green.  He’s doing it. He’s genius.  The dude has found a way to sell mainstream but he’s in his own genre.  He’s made his own thing.  You never know what angle he’s gonna come at, and I really respect that guy.  Everyone else is just trying to get their pop hit, their standard and he’s just constantly doing him, being himself and he’s taking home his check.  He’s going into Motown and even when he was doing Gnarles Barkley it was like ambient Radiohead stuff.  He even did his own rendition of a Radio Head song.  Those are my influences right there


What music has really inspired you and shaped you as an artist? 

Most of my inspirations are the older guys from the 80’s and 90’s like Phil Collins, peter Gabriel, U2, Sting, seal and Daft Punk.  They can do anything.  I love it because a lot of those artists did themselves.  They brought what was inside of them and changed the game of music.  Phil collins has more hits than most of these guys today.  They’re still playing him in the grocery store, Know what I mean?

That’s what you call timeless and that’s the type of artist I want to be. That’s how bono u2 started all those guys got to be where they are now.  They still all have hits.  It’s timeless. I know people say that’s a different era but it’s music.  Here’s the weird thing. You’ve got teenagers rocking to Beatles and Johnny  Cash. Im not much of a country fan so to speak, but I like the older stuff like Dolly and Johnny Cash and a few of the older stuff but that’s it. You know I might rock a little T Swift on a road trip… (laughs) Na man but  Dylan’s stuff really rocks me.  Its good music. Dylan transcends time.  Its funny because some of the way Dylan sings , I was told  was making fun of a singer he was on tour with . There was a falling out between the two of them and then Dylan started making fun of him and singing like that when he started his blues band.  He was doing the folk and he kinda got shunned in a lot of towns because they wanted him to still do folk.  He started blues and rock and roll and they were like how can you defile the pure sound of folk.  So he really started doing that (high pitched whining singing) There’s a song that really impacted me, two songs that really inspired me.  It started with Blowing in the wind.  When I heard it I was like dude that is just crazy man.  It hit me super hard.  I was like, this is how I want to write.  I just want to express myself so freely.  Completely free.  I bought some of his albums and was listening to that song “Tomorrow Is A Long Time” It was just him and his guitar and his harmonica and it’s dead silence and you can hear every pluck of the string.. It rocks me every time and I still listen to it.  Sometimes I almost get tears.  Also that song Fields Of Gold by Sting.  It’s my life song.  I want to dance to it on my wedding day.  The last few times I had a show I actually pulled it out. My cousin played guitar for him for like 12 years so he has stories and he could play anything he could put his hands on.  

I was thinking the other day, The Beatles , Led Zeppelin, and guys like that haven’t released and album for 40 and 30 years, and still they are ingrained in our culture.. 


Yeah That’s why Dylan and all those guys are timeless because they figured out that song within and they hammered it and nailed it home and every time they get on the mike or touch a guitar or piano it’s them every time.  It’s them.  This is how I’m feeling at the moment.  Life sucks right now.  Let me write about it in the most poetic way I know how.  

In your opinion what’s going on in the music industry and what’s your take on it?

Well I recently read an article on Dead Mouse.  I love that dude.  He’s killing it.  DJ’s are the new stars.  That’s what it’s turning out to be and it’s really taking over.  They’re the ones doing tours and packing out arenas.  Their shows are bigger than some of these big pop stars or on the same level.  Brittney spears had Pauly D open up for her in Puerto Rico.  

No way man.. that’s a surprise..

Yeah man, way left field.  G-unit just signed them.  Record labels are hunting them down …you know record labels are just after the money….but DJ’s are the stars now.  They’re the money makers. I kinda like it.  It’s cool.  It’s pretty rad Someone like Dead Mouse deserves it cause he foreran for many years. He’s a beast, he’s an alien. Dead Mouse has been doing it for awhile he doesn’t do just dub-step..  he does it all.  He can go funky, he can do trance, whatever.
Mark my words DJs are the new rock stars.  It’s already happening.  They just rock the private jets and just go all over the world.  You go to Coachella, that’s the stuff the crowd goes wild over.  I mean like Girl Talk, kinda underground still right now but they’re a huge band. They’ve got massive shows.  People go nuts.

There’s definitely a stir and a longing for real music because you have a lot of standard hits.  You’ve got your pop hits, your ballad hit, whether it’s rock, hip hop, pop, Country.  Even pop’s found in country because it’s the moneymaker.  You gotta have your standard pop hit and your pop ballad and I think it’s becoming in a sense very stagnant.  Some artists want that.  I can do that but for me the standard’s a bit different.  I can’t come at that angle because I don’t want to be known as a pop artist or a pop country singer.  I want to be known as an artist period.


What’s your view of the Christian music industry vs. the secular? 

I don’t really pay attention to the “Christian” music industry.  To be honest.  I don’t really listen to Christian music.  It’s just really doesn’t do it for me.  Way stuck in a box  there’s a few artist that I’ve heard some of their stuff and it was really good but they weren’t CCM.  Like Jason Upton and Jason Mordant but he stopped making music after like two albums, but beside that it just sucks it sucks really bad.  David in the Bible was graphic in the bible from what I‘ve seen.  “Oh lord my bones are crushed into dust and limbs are broken….  How long oh lord. “ You don’t hear it man in CCM.  Everybody afraid to write a song like that . They do the triumphant stuff, which is cool, but I don’t know, that’s just kinda my take. I can’t get into a lot of it.  Christian music industry from what I was told…I have friends who are artist and stuff, I wont say any names, I’ve been told it’s pretty cut throat.  It’s actually worse than the regular music industry in some senses.  It’s really weird but the cool thing, the plus side, I just found out that there’s really not a high percentage at all there’s a really low percentage of illegal downloads in the Christian music industry.  They say that nobody really bootlegs Christian music.  
That makes sense, its kinda the same thing as stealing a Bible.. Doesn’t really make sense.. haha

I’m a rabbit trailer, so I apologize for just streaming off.. 

Nah man you’re good.. I’ve been enjoying just listening to you man… Man It was a blast hearing your thoughts. Thanks again dude..

Yeah man thanks for having me it was fun..