This is part 3 of my 4 part interview with Ken Mochikoshi-Horne of the Bronx.
Part 1 is here
Part 2 is here
In part 3, we talk about joining the Bronx, the formation of Mariachi El Bronx, and playing Late Night television.
Audio is here. Transcript right below it.
Ted: The Dragons split up and you went back to Japan. Where were you mentally? Were you like “all my dreams are crushed” or “just gotta do what I gotta do to live”?
Kenny: So the Dragons broke up September of 2004. So then, a little before that, like January of 2004, the Bronx already kind of had…
Ted: You played with the Bronx.
Kenny: Yeah, I jammed them.
Ted: Did they open up for the Dragons?
Kenny: Well, no, no. The Bronx first show club show was at the Troubadour And it was on the same bill as the Dragons. It was like an opening band, Bronx, us, and Duane Peters’ band. And then at that point the Bronx were already getting scouted by major labels. Then the Bronx put out their first album and then I went and jammed with them. They were such a young band, because they were thinking of adding another guitar player, but it just didn’t happen. And then the Dragons broke up and I went back to Japan. I was jamming with friends and stuff. And it was fun. It was fun living in Japan and you know not having to go to practice three times a week.
Ted: Now your parents were here, right? So why did you go back to Japan?
Kenny: I’ve always wanted to go back to Japan. That was my you know… when I moved here and I was in high school ’87-’88, I was so sad about moving here, that I was always wanting to go back. I’ve always liked everything Japan. I go back. Work at a record label. Translating. Having fun. But I missed playing. So I was there for two years and there was like kind of the visa kind of stuff. At that point I had a green card in the States. So when you have a green card, you could only leave for six months. But I signed up so I could leave for two years. And I would have to renew or… I just have to get out of Japan once and then go back type shit. I was thinking about that I was like, oh, what should I do? Should I go back to the States? Should I stay here? But at that point I was like, oh, I’m probably gonna stay in Japan. But then right when I was thinking that, like June of 2006, and I was coming up on two years… Joby from the Bronx e-mailed me and he was like, “hey man, we’re coming out with our album and we’re gonna go full on tour. If you want to join and if your mind is still at the same place…” And I was like, “Alright. I’m gonna do it.”
Ted: Was that scary?
Kenny: Uh, of course I was already like “fuck! I’m fucking leaving Japan again!”. I always regret, well not regret… I always miss the stuff like when I get to Japan I’m like, “well first when I come to the States I’m like, oh, fuck. I miss Japan so much” then I moved back to Japan. Then I’m like “Oh, I miss the fucking sunny San Diego weather” and then I and then now I’m coming back! But at least I was coming back for something. Something I wanted to really do.
Ted: Was it always your dream to be doing this?
Kenny: Yeah. Of course everyone wants to be yeah in a huge band. But I just I just wanted to make a living out of it. I didn’t have to make five million dollars. I just had to make enough to eat. Enough to pay rent, enough to put gas in the car and buy guitar strings.
Ted: And you couldn’t do that with the Dragons. You had to have a side job for that, but the Bronx were full-time.
Kenny: Yeah, so I came back. Practiced for two, three weeks, and then we went on two and a half month tour. We left September 1st and came back like November 15th.
Ted: And that was the longest you’ve been on the road Up till that point.
Kenny: Yeah.
Ted: So I was that shocking? Was it cool? What was it like?
Kenny: Getting into Bronx, it was it was taking a little used to getting to play that style of music too. Because the Dragons are kind of loose rock and roll, where Bronx is more tight. Tight punk rock, you know. And I worked hard at that. That was a little different. The Dragons had a van, but the Bronx had a van AND a trailer, you know. We did the States. We did the States for a month. Opened up for Mastadon. So that was like some pretty big stages. And then straight from Mastadon, we went to England for a headline Europe. First time over there. Toured over there for a month and a half.
Ted: What was it like being there for the first time?
Kenny: It was awesome. I mean I’d read so much magazines and stuff we’d go over there, I was like “oh, yeah fucking fish and chips! Indian food is really good here”. But there was stuff that was new, obviously. But yeah, it was cool. But that was my first tour bus too! In England. You get there, a tour bus picks you up! So that was pretty cool. Yeah, that was fun.
Ted: So that was touring for the second album?
Kenny: Mm-hmm.
Ted: and you played a couple songs on that album?
Kenny: I didn’t. Wikipedia says that, but (it’s wrong). I didn’t. I started on “3”.
Ted: Were you an official member when doing “3”?
Kenny: When I was joining, Joby was like, oh, yeah, you know, we didn’t ask anyone else. We were just gonna ask you. We want you to be a member, you know, not just a touring guitar player. So that was cool!
Ted: And it turns out, what almost 20 years?
Kenny: 18 years
Ted: 18 years and so Matt and Joby have been in the band longer than you, but you’re next (longest)! You got seniority over any new people coming in.
Kenny: (laughs) Yeah. I joined and then our bass player, the original bass player, quit a year after I joined. Then Brad joined. He’s from Louisville, Kentucky. What was cool was when I first joined, like the week before I came, they played on a tv show. Like Fuse TV or something like that. One of those mid-2000s music shows, and they were asked to do acoustic songs, like unplugged…
Ted: which is weird for the Bronx’s type of music.
Kenny: yeah, so Joby was like, well, you know, it’s weird doing punk songs unplugged. It’s just playing punk songs on acoustic guitar. But then he was like, oh, let’s try to do it mariachi style. So they got like a couple mariachi instruments. And it really wasn’t mariachi at that point, but that thought sparked in his head. And then like a year (later), when Brad joined, we put out the word that we’re looking for bass player. And they’re like, hey, there’s this dude that plays bass AND plays trumpet. And we were already like thinking about doing the mariachi stuff. So things like that kind of work out, right?
Ted: Which is funny because there was another bond (with you) with that because the Dragons did an el mariachi (tribute every year on Cinco De Mayo). Did the Bronx know about that?
Kenny: I don’t think they knew about it. Because Texas Tornadoes was like rock and roll with an accordion. You know, it was loose. Singing in Spanish, but what Bronx does, we do full on mariachi style. No electric instruments. It’s all traditional instruments and we play it traditionally. So, it was way different (than what the Dragons were doing).
Ted: And so that just generated from playing acoustically.
Kenny: Yeah, so then Joby was like, oh, that’s kind of cool. And he wrote three songs. And then Matt sang on those three songs. And then I was like, “Oh, this is going to be kind of cool!” And then we brought in Vince, who plays the Vince Hidalgo. He plays the Mexican bass, the guitaron. And he kind of taught all of us how to play the Mexican style guitars. You know, so that’s where it all started out. So me and Joby were playing these Mexican instruments, nylon string guitars. Vince was playing the guitaron. And we had Brad, who plays trumpet now, you know? So we had a mariachi band.
Ted: Did the Bronx have like managers fall that to tell you what was going on when you joined?
Kenny: yeah. Bronx is good. You know, we had a big management. We had a big booking agent. We had a tour manager, you know, when we toured. But Bronx always kind of just did their stuff on their own. You know? It wasn’t like a manager saying, “you got to do this. You got to do that”. They’d advise us, but (don’t tell us what to do).
Ted: So is Mariachi El Bronx bigger than the Bronx?
Kenny: I don’t know…
Ted: because you’ve been on all these TV shows.
Kenny: Yeah, we did all the late nights. Yeah, it brings a lot of different things… you know, like we did Glastonbury, like the Bronx never had done Glastonbury. And a lot of the mariachi fans don’t know The Bronx. They don’t find out, you know? And then the Bronx fans usually know the mariachi band. But it’s funny, like when we do Bronx, people are like, “oh, man, where’s Mariachi El Bronx? oh, when are you when you guys going to do that?” And when we do mariachi El Bronx, it’s like “where’s the Bronx? I wanna go crazy! When are you guys coming with the Bronx?” So it’s always that.
Ted: So tell me about playing David Letterman and Jay Leno. You’ve played both. I hear Leno goes into your dressing room and says “hi”. And David Letterman won’t even let you…
Kenny: You can’t even look at him. Jay Leno was cool. It was like, you know, we get there like eight in the morning. We hang out in the green room and we soundcheck video check.
Ted: Eight in the morning!
Kenny: Yeah, they’re like, “You got to be here eight or nine in the morning”. Because we do everything ourselves. Usually bands that go on TV, they usually have a big crew that does that for them. But we just show up with our little acoustic guitars and we hang out. And that was cool. It was like, you know, soundcheck, camera check, you know, hang out, and they finally…
Ted: Do they tell you how to look at the cameras?
Kenny: I don’t remember. They do that at the camera check. They see us doing something or standing where we stand, and then they’re like, OK, at this point, we’re going to have a camera (here). And then at five p.m. They do the whole show, and then we go in there and play. But yeah, so Jay Leno. We did Jay Leno twice, and the both times he came in and shook our hands. “Thanks for…”, you know, even if he didn’t mean it, he came in.
Ted: Who were you on the show with? So did you get to talk to the guests or anything?
Kenny: I can’t remember who was on. It was someone pretty famous. I can’t remember the Jay Leno one. I remember one was we did Conan O’Brien and a guest was Joey Tribioni from Friends. That was cool.
Ted: Now, are you nervous when you’re when you know you’re getting on TV like that?
Kenny: Uh… Mariachi stuff, it’s a little, you know, a little more nerve wrecking, I guess. I’m not like, you know, shaking, but we got to do it right. If you fuck up, you could do it again. But you want to you want to do it on the first one. (laughs) We did that, you know, we’re fine. We didn’t have to redo it, but you think about it a little more, you know?
Ted: So what was that David Letterman like?
Kenny: David Letterman, he doesn’t… So we get there so early and we’re just like in this little room like this big and we’re just sitting there waiting and then we finally like set up. We go to like the liquor store. What was the next door neighbor liquor store?
Ted: Oh, where that guy is?
Kenny: I was going in there a couple of times and then the dressing rooms are like so small. And I think the same time we had Jeff Goldblum, maybe, and a sports guy (as guests). And then we just set up, soundcheck, and we play. And that’s it. And he (Letterman) just he got off and then he walked in between me and our bass player. And then he saw the big bass and he was like… I forgot what he says.. He’s like, “oh, that’s big!” Or he says to every drummer… He goes, “is that your drum set?” If you go on YouTube, there’s a compilation of David Letterman going, “is that your drum set? Is that yours?” But to him, he goes, that’s pretty big.
Ted: So do you see a big bump in attendance after you play these shows or it doesn’t seem to matter?
Kenny: Not really. But funny enough, when we did David Letterman, we did the show. and then we went out. And then me and one other guy went back to the hotel. And then we got in the elevator and he goes, “hey, you were on David Letterman tonight!” And then we were on the plane back and then the guy next to us, he was like, hey, I saw you guys on Letterman!”
Ted: Oh, that’s cool.
Kenny: So if those two guys saw us…
Ted: Well, hopefully it came through album sales and stuff.
Kenny: I think both Bronx and Mariachi do the same amount of sales. It’s not really a big difference. And now it’s a lot of it.. I think our stuff is usually half and half, half digital, half, you know, physical because we do vinyl too…. So we did the late nights. Yeah. Conan, Conan was the other one.
Ted: He would come up and talk to you?
Kenny: No, you know, Conan didn’t come in.
Ted: Oh, really? Wow. He because he seems like a geeky man of the people or something.
Kenny: I can’t remember if we did Conan twice, but he was like, he was like hanging out with the band. He plays guitar. So he was like playing with the band. We were like in the green room. Oh, his green room was pretty fun. He had a lot of little toys and shit, you know, guitar amps and like massage chairs and all that. That was that was cool. Kristen Dunst was the other guest. Kristen Dunst, Joey from Friends. It was kind of funny because I was like a big fan of Friends. So Matt bought me a Friends t-shirt for like I wear for pajamas or whatever. He was like, “wear that shirt under your Mariachi shirt. And at the end when everyone comes out and shakes your hand, whip open your shirt and show the Friends (shirt)”. And I was like, “I can’t do that!”. I did wear it though. I can’t, you know… we couldn’t take a picture. It wasn’t awkward, but we kind of missed a chance to take a picture with them. Because they’re like, you know, they when they’re done, they’re done. We’re like kind of getting our shit together. But I there was a little chance, but I think we kind of hesitated, you know.
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