Last Bullet is a “straight-up rock band” with a great sense of humor. Two of the five got together as a garage band just messing around, and eventually they decided to try writing proper songs. From there they found a bass player, called in a friend as their drummer and spent a year searching for a lead singer before finding Brian. In their own words “everything just clicked.”
They threw around a lot of names before they settled on Last Bullet. A lot of them were more over-the-top or darker, throwing words around and “dissecting” them. Somehow they got onto bullet and someone threw out Last Bullet, and they developed a whole little metaphor for it.
“Last Bullet, like it's your last shot, so make it count.” They said “It's like a more rock and roll version of Carpe Diem.”
Last Bullet; From the Left: Christopher Galaz, Michael Silva, Bryan Føntez, Will Shannon, Brenden Armstrong. Photography © Brystal Allen, 2013
IWhen song writing, usually Brendan starts with instrumentals, riffs, chord progressions, etc. and shows them to the rest of the band and they work on it from there. The majority of their songs are written as instrumentals first, and lyrics last, but that's not always the way that it goes.
“There's really no rules.” They said. “You can do it however you want, but that is just kind of how it works for us. It's fun to write however works for you.”
Forget The Rest - Last Bullet
They draw their influences from a wide array of places, including other music from various eras, live shows they've gone to, life experiences, both of their own and of those they are close to, and so on. “We're all over the place.” Noting how it is hard to narrow down from such a huge list of influences, and its hard to distinguish between influences and likes. So many different things can influence you at different times.
“Being on a label is not necessarily all its cracked up to be, anymore.” They said, when asked about being an independent band. “Labels don't want to take a chance on a band when there are like five people and too many elements to go wrong. No one is buying albums, no one is buying merchandise, so the label isn't making money and you aren't making money. Where is the money coming from? Shows. Do you need a label to play a show? No. So is it worth it trying to get signed? Depends on your outlook.”
On the best and worst things about being a musician they said: “Your job is to throw a wicked party and to be the focus of that party. The best part is entertaining people. That's my favorite part, when the people start moving to the music and you can see it that they are having the time of your life. The worst part is breaking down our gear when people are still around and drinking and wanting to hang out with us. Networking and meeting people you never would have met working a normal nine to five job, getting into the music scene and the more shows we play the more other bands you meet and bump into all the time.”
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