An Interview with Flamango Bay
Flamango Bay is an LA based indie band from the Bay Area that features Ikaika (18, she/they) on guitar and vocals, Bodhi (18, he/him) on Bass, Georgia (18, she/her) on vocals and guitar, and Dash (18, he/they) on drums.
Miumi: When you were growing up was music an important part of your life? Or was it more something you found yourself as you grew up?
Bodhi: I definitely think it was an important part of my childhood… but I didn't think of it as a career option until middle school when I was like “wait a minute, playing music is so fun!” Then we started the band, and we kept playing in a band.
Ikaika : Yeah, definitely. In [my] childhood, music was always playing. I was always listening to the radio. I caught on to the structures and stuff and started writing songs when I was seven.
Dash: Same. My family values music a lot. My mom plays piano and I took piano lessons when I was a kid.
Georgia: I started playing pretty young but I didn’t think about it that much till later either.
Miumi: When did you [start] writing music or like what caused or inspired you to write music?
Ikaika: I got really into writing songs because it's like a puzzle making all the rhymes fit and stuff. I've been consistently writing songs since I was seven, I couldn't imagine not writing songs.
Bodhi: In middle school I started listening to a lot of grunge music. Grunge music chord structure wise is super simple, so it was a really nice intro into how to write a song with four chords. That kind of pushed me onto the path of writing music stuff.
Dash: I think for me I'd say, making stuff up on drums, guitar, or piano, is very therapeutic. It's just really nice and feels good to play always.
Georgia: I guess I'm not very big on writing...playing is probably just my favorite part of it.
Ikaika: I'll always come with the words and the lyrics and the melody and stuff like that. Then Georgia will always smooth it out. She's the editor of every song.
Miumi: Who would you say are your biggest inspirations and like influences for your sound and your lyrical content?
Ikaika: You could put on any music and I'll be like "oh, this greatly shaped my songwriting". I feel like something I say that a lot about though is the emo pop that we would cover and listen to.
Dash: Like Paramore.
Ikaika: Like Paramore yeah, old Fall Out Boy. They had kind of weird lyrics that don't make a lot of sense, but they sound cool. I think I hooked onto that and I just ran.
Bodhi: I think one of our things is that we all listen to a fair amount of different music and all of our music tastes individually overlap, but they definitely go into different places. We've always struggled with putting a genre on our band ‘cause we just kind of write whatever we want to.
Dash: True. I feel like a lot of times when songs are coming together, there's the original skeleton of the song, that usually Ikaika or Bodhi brings to band practice. But then when we all play together, we all add stuff from our different musical backgrounds and that totally changes it and [fills] it in.
Miumi: Yeah, I definitely heard that with Bleach Blonde, which I really liked. I listen to it a lot, but it's kind of hard to put your finger on what genre it is? It sounds really good. How has COVID been affecting you guys?
Ikaika G: It's super crazy. Like at the beginning, we were still in high school. We fully graduated during COVID. We were trying to have weekly band meetings. But you know, it was a sad time; it was kind of hard to do a lot of things.
Georgia: Yeah, it put a pause on a lot of projects that we were trying to work on. Recording is way less doable; it's a lot harder. We still try to find time to share projects or do distance practices and stuff.
Dash: For me personally, recording altogether has always been one of my favorite things to do as a band. In quarantine, I've been trying to get into the more mixing side of recording so we can keep doing that self sufficiently.We've been sort of learning this new way of doing it, where we FaceTime and then send each other the parts and then add on to it, then like mix it all together. I've definitely found a new way to enjoy making music, which is really exciting.
Miumi: Yeah, I think a lot of artists are adapting to the circumstances and it takes time. What's your writing process like?
Ikaika: Yeah, usually me or Bodhi come with a song in mind. Me with like, simple chords, lyrics, and a melody, and Bodhi with cool guitar parts. Then we bring it in and we all just kind of put our spin on it. Then yeah, go about it until it works. That's my favorite part, writing all together after bringing in the beginning of something. It's very cool. It's kind of hard to do it in that way during COVID.
Miumi: Great, cool. What do you see for the future of your band? Like, what are you some goals or some things that you hope could come up soon?
Ikaika: A lot. Definitely a lot more music, possibly merch. Just the whole shebang.
Bodhi: I definitely know at least like right now, Ikaika especially has been really working on growing our social media stuff. So that like when we do release things, more people see it. It's all very exciting.
Miumi: Since a lot of our audiences are mainly youth artists and small bands, aspiring artists, do you have any advice that you want to say or something you want to end with?
Bodhi: I think you really just need to find the right people.
Ikaika: Just go for it. Don't get caught up in all of the details, it could really hold you back. If you have a vision, if you have a goal, just go for it. Also, be respectful.
Dash: Try not to judge yourself too hard. I feel like that can get in the way of a lot of good art in general.
Miumi: Any last words or just anything you want to promote?
Ikaika: We have a single Spider Song which is out everywhere now! Also a little project called Video Call Demos on Soundcloud and Bandcamp. They were all recorded over video call so that's fun.
Dash: Also, another single Drive will be out everywhere, so go listen to that.
