SO JOSH I SEE THAT YOU JUST GOT HOME from San Diego California. What were you doing in San Diego? JOSH SLEEZE: We (The Bombpops) had a couple shows with the Descendents in Santa Cruz and Fresno leading up to the Punk in Drublic Festival/Final NOFX Tour in San Diego.
The BombPops are on Fat Mike from NOFX’s record label Fat Wreck Chords. How long have the Bombpops been on Fat Wreck Chords? We’ve been “on the radar” for Fat Wreck since I joined the band in 2012. We wrote some tunes with Lawrence Katz of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and tracked them. Sent them to Fat Mike and his response was “write better songs”. Being the second or third time he said that to us we went ahead and put it out ourselves and toured hard. We felt we had something to prove. A few years later we went back into the studio, Black in Bluhm studios in Denver, and brought everything we had to the table. And wrote the best record we could, and again sent it to Mike. His response was “congratulations, you did it. And I’d be honored to put this record out on Fat.” That was in 2017. Since then we’ve put out another full length and an e.p. Working on new music so stay tuned.
NOFX have announced that this is their last tour. The Bombpops have been lucky enough to be invited on some shows. How many shows would you say the Bombpops will do on this last NOFX tour? Well this year is a mellow year for The Bombpops. We did the first one in Austin, then San Diego. And the last one we’re doing this year in San Francisco. I wish we were playing Tacoma…but unfortunately it’s not in the cards. But the “Final Tour” is gonna go into next year so we’re hoping to hop on a few of those as well.
Josh, you have a long relationship with Bremerton. What year would you say you first came to Bremerton? The first time I came to Bremerton was in 2007. It was the first tour I had ever done and I fell in love with the PNW.
Why did you first come to Bremerton, was it with the Puget Sound Naval Base? No, it wasn’t the naval base. My old band Murderland was on tour and we had booked a show there after Seattle.
If I asked you to name off the different places you’ve played punk rock in Bremerton over the years, could you name them all? I couldn’t name them all but here’s a few. I wanna say wonderland… but not sure if that was the name of it. (It was Winterland) Ummm The AFU Hall, The Drift Inn. The manette. The Charleston aka The Chuck. Some VFW hall somewhere. And a bunch more I can’t remember. I smoke too much weed.
Some of those businesses are long gone now, but you still come through town supporting local art, and local business. That is super cool, thank you! The BombPops are not the first band you’ve played in. You have played in several punk rock bands over the years. Can you run us down your punk rock drummer resume real fast? They weren’t all punk rock. But here’s a list. Public Disturbance. The Inquiry. Neck Tie Social. Murderland. Neutralboy. Evl Fkr. The Worst. Payoff. Black Velvet Dlx. The Natives. Code-415. 3 Chords. Red City Radio. The Bombpops. Harry and the Hendersons. And I’m filling in for Sean Sellars for Versus The World this summer. Catch us at El Corazon on the 8th of July with Dead Bars and Diesel Boy. I know there are more, I just can’t think of them.
Now most of those bands are from your home turf of Southern California. I did notice Bremerton’s own Neutralboy on that impressive list of bands. Do you remember how you first ended up playing in that Bremerton gang of punk rockers? I first met Mike Moen of Neutralboy in 2007 on the first tour I did. We (Murderland) did 21 shows in 23 days. And at least a week of that run was with Neutralboy and Get Dead. We did a bunch of stuff with them over the years, and Mike kidnapped me after a run we did with Payoff that ended in Santa Barbara, brought me to Washington and locked ourselves in his buddy’s garage studio, (thanks Jef). We tracked a bunch of songs. Did a couple tours with them and recently Mike reached back out and asked if I was available to play shows. And when he calls. I answer. We did a show in Corvallis on the 2nd of June and the 3rd in Portland. But keep your ears open. We will be playing more. Guaranteed.
I was surprised to learn that you recently moved from Los Angeles up here to the Northwest. Where did you move to, and when did you move there? I moved up here November of 2020. Had an opportunity to get my feet back on the ground managing a cannabis farm and took it. When I first moved up here I was in the Wedgewood neighborhood north of Seattle. Now I’m in the Green Lake area. The farm fell through and I’ve been working security at Neumos on Capitol Hill for the last year and a half.
So you pretty much moved to Seattle right in the beginning of a Covid lockdown, and street riots. Now that’s punk rock! Where can we follow the international drum sensation Josh Sleeze online? I hate social media, but I do have an Instagram @joshsleeze. You can go there and hit that follow button. Or go to the bombpops.com. I’m working on a website for my clothing brand Sleeze clothing. But that will come soon. // CRAVIN MOORE
