INTERVIEW: Friday Giants | Bunbury 2018

credit: Chris Hughes

Emerging Cincinnati-based pop-punk band Friday Giants are set to play to a hometown crowd at the Bunbury Music Festival on Saturday, June 2.  The band – featuring vocalist Gavin Bonar, guitarists Chuck Ralenkotter and Kyle Rhodes, bassist Zac Taylor and drummer Logan Boatright - have been building steam since forming in 2013 on the strength of  their energetic live performances and ridiculously catchy and melodic pop-punk sound that incorporates heavier elements of hardcore.

In anticipation, Atlas and the Anchor spoke with vocalist Gavin Bonar about playing to a hometown crowd, their influences and more.     

First of all, how cool is it to be able to play to a hometown crowd at the Bunbury Music Festival this year?

Bunbury was one of our goals for 2018, but it was more like a 'shoot for the stars' kind of goal. We've been submitting to play it ever since we started almost 5 years ago. We never in a million years thought we'd be selected after getting rejected so many times. To know that all of our hard work in the Cincy music scene is finally paying off has been surreal to us. It came to us at a time when we felt a bit defeated. It's hard to stay relevant in the music scene with how saturated everything is now-a-days. All of us actually cried at some point during the week we received the news! Bunbury has become a staple of the Cincy Music Scene and for us to get the nod is incredibly humbling. – Gavin Bonar

As an introduction for new listeners, I would say your heavy yet highly melodic pop-punk sound reminds me of early New Found Glory and A Day To Remember. But who are some of your least obvious influences?

GB: Well, thanks! Those are some our all-time favorite bands for sure!  Green Day. We actually just played a Green Day cover show at Bogart's at an almost sold out audience. It was crazy when we sat down to listen to all of their songs and we then realized how much influence those guys had on us. We actually put up an acoustic cover on our YouTube channel recently from their new album!

What is your favorite song to play live and why?

GB: We all dig “Twenty Nothings”. It's the coolest feeling in the world when you hear more than a hundred voices yell back the chorus! The best stage we had a chance to do that at was Bogart's at Brochella last August. That was definitely one of our favorite shows of all time.

I know you just released your debut album, Twenty Nothings a little over a year ago, but where are you in the creative process for your next album?

GB: If you want to be a successful band, you can't ever stop writing music. We are all obsessed with songwriting anyways so there's always something cooking in Friday Giants kitchen. Right now, we're revisiting our old material that didn't make the cut for Twenty Nothings and we're testing out some new ideas on top of that. It's important to advance and mature your previous material but to also stay true to who you are. We've got a few tricks up our sleeves that we're doing our best to keep under wraps right now. We can't wait to release new material in the future. We know it'll be worth the time.

Many people are excited to see you but what bands are you most excited to see at Bunbury?

GB: I think most of us are having a hard time processing that we are playing the same day as Incubus. It's going to be unreal to see a band that most of grew up idolizing. We're also pretty stoked that Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness and Third Eye Blind are hitting the stage the same day as us! We'd be lying if we said we all didn't cry when Blink-182 was announced for the festival too!

Be sure to check out Friday Giants at Bunbury on Saturday and stream their 2017 debut album, Twenty Somethings here:

For tickets and more info: https://bunburyfestival.com/