NICE GUYS FINISH FIRST
AN INTERVIEW WITH M.B.D.
SEPTEMBER 20, 2019
HUNTINGTON BEACH – “He’s the quiet one, who watches us [bassist Ruben Alvarez]. He, uh, manages us [drummer Nikki Wheatley],” Carlos Najera Soto explained nodding in the general direction of each of his bandmates as he said this.
And what of Massive Brain Damage’s frontman and lone original member from when M.B.D. was still an acronym for Mental Break Down?
“I’m too nice,” Soto said sheepishly.
“You’ve got too much heart,” drummer Nikki Wheatley said.
Is there such a thing? One could make a case either way, but in an ecosystem dependent on everyone doing their part – promoters promote, bands show up and play and people support the bands – having a lot of heart would seem to be, in the words of domestic dominatrix Martha Stewart, a good thing.
It’s a recent Saturday ahead of M.B.D.’s album release show Sept. 19 at the Locker Room in Garden Grove. On the bill with them are Productos de Wilmington, Fallacy and Exile. They’ve got an hour at Gothard Sound Studios – the homey space operated by Leftöver Crack’s Donny Morris, who has coffee sitting out for patrons – to charge through their upcoming set, giving a sneak preview at what they have planned for the release show, where they’ll also have the album available on cassettes.
“I changed the intro,” Soto tells Wheatley casually as the drummer readied to rip into a song. There’s a nanosecond of a delayed reaction before Wheatley realized what was said.
“To what,” Wheatley implored as Soto excitedly explained. Maybe this is an example of where having a lot of heart is, well, a lot?
M.B.D.’s got magnetic stage presence –hypnotizing riffs, big hair, energy and passion – with accolades and co-signs from other bands, such as Harbor Area hardcore band Deviated State bestowing nothing but praise on the three-piece.
M.B.D. are all from Orange County, where the band – the first iteration – was also born, in Costa Mesa.
Soto started the band with high school friends in 2008 – Nov. 7, 2008, if you want to be exact – initially as a six piece. That dwindled to five and then four. The influences were bands such as The Casualties, Adolescents and D.I. Personal differences led them to disband in 2012.
Six years later, M.B.D. bounced back, adding with it the experience of time to where the band’s sound is now evolved into something of a thrash metal crossover band, rooted in punk. Hence, their calling it crossover punk.
“He hit me up and said ‘I wrote this song when I was 15 and I really want to do it justice. I would love if we could jam and I want you to play drums on it.’ And I was touched,” Wheatley said of when Soto reached out to him. “Me and him, we knew each other for a while. I was packing up my drums one time and he was like, ‘Hey, do you need help,’ and that’s how we became friends. We met up and jammed and had a natural chemistry.”
Bassist Ruben Alvarez followed not long after Soto ran into him on a bank errand.
“Me and Carlos, we’re like strong, black coffee,” Wheatley said. “You can mix us together, but you need something to balance us out. Ruben balances us out.”
“He’s the sugar and the cream,” Soto said. “He’s the pumpkin syrup to your latte.”
“Don’t you dare knock pumpkin spice,” said Wheatley (he’s partial to the Starbucks drink.)
The refreshed M.B.D. got together and learned all the songs. The Instagram page was started up in November of last year, but the band largely kept itself under wraps, mulling the idea of an album. It wasn’t until Wheatley’s mom, who lives in Australia, came Stateside for a visit, that the new M.B.D. emerged for the first time on the Dec. 21 bill of a metal and punk night at The Doll Hut in Anaheim. People began asking about an album and here they are in 2019 delivering just that.
The themes they tackle are easy to get: dealing with bullies (“And I’m”), parking lot rockers who hang outside for an entire show (“Cut the Crap”) and ones from the earlier days are still as beloved as ever (“The Blob,” “Zombies!”, “Warriors”).
“We didn’t know our instruments at that time,” Soto said of the older songs from around 2011. “From there, we just wanted to evolve and explore more. When Mental Break Down started, we wanted it to be a metal thrash band and I love punk. I’ve always loved both the same. That’s why when I write the music, I try to do crossover.”
“These songs are all about personal growth and stuff you can relate to, and I know a lot of musicians are about that, but it was nice to have simple themes,” Wheatley said. “I didn’t have to delve in and pick things apart.”
That’s not to say the actual music is simplistic.
“Since the band came back, I wanted to do stuff I couldn’t do with the old guys,” Soto said. “They just wanted to be Minor Threat again. Granted, I love Minor Threat. But I wanted to be different. I like bands like Negative Approach, R.K.L., Ill Repute.”
With the reset button now officially hit and the album now out (the release show, crowd and band, collectively was a hit), it’s time to move forward.
“We’re just going to hit the ground running, playing shows,” Wheatley said. “We want to travel north. Our goal is to hit Oxnard, Bakersfield ....”
Touring is appealing to them, especially if they can swing something with Deviated State, for summer 2020, they said.
The band and their personal lives are in some ways intertwined. They’re friends first and then a band and, ask anyone they come into contact with, they want to be friends with everyone else. They’re not so above it as to not want to help anyone else out, bringing to mind those idealistic images most have about the scene and everyone supporting each other.
“We help out anyone if they come and ask us ‘How’d you do this?’ We’ll tell them,” Soto said.
“We spent hours searching for the right merch connects,” Wheatley added. “I’ll give people all those connects. I long for….”
He cut himself off before finishing the thought: “Let’s create this universal PMA atmosphere. Be who you are; play what you want to play.”
And, do it with some heart.