The Bom Bom Boms Q&A: Alfonso Gaona
Q: Alfonso, you’re the lead singer and guitar player for your band, The Bom Bom Boms. Are you also the main songwriter?
Alfonso: As of right now, I write the majority of our songs, meaning the lyrics and melodies, but my band writes their own instrumental parts.
Q. Cool, so what's your creative process?
Alfonso: Hard to say, but I just kind of get into the zone and start writing when I can. I don’t know; I guess I kind of have two processes. (1) I'd get together with the band, and we would play something wrong, and sometimes that would be the song. (2) Other times, it’s just me and my lonesome in the studio just doing my thing.
Q: Where do you think you draw your inspirations from as a band and even in your own songwriting?
Alfonso: As far as composition goes, I try not to be a particular genre player. There are a lot of blues players, metal players, or things like that. I don't like to be held down or tethered. The same goes for the band; we try to write outside of a genre or let the song exist on its own. So for any song idea that comes to mind, if it's different from the next, then that's just how it's going to be. There are a lot of love songs. and I’m really more of the "anti-love guy." A lot of my writing inspiration comes from outer space, and I really love outer space as a theme.
Q: Where do you think you draw your inspirations from as a band and even in your own songwriting?
Alfonso: As far as composition goes, I try not to be a particular genre player. There are a lot of blues players, metal players, or things like that. I don't like to be held down or tethered. The same goes for the band; we try to write outside of a genre or let the song exist on its own. So for any song idea that comes to mind, if it's different from the next, then that's just how it's going to be. There are a lot of love songs. and I’m really more of the "anti-love guy." A lot of my writing inspiration comes from outer space, and I really love outer space as a theme.
Q: Who created your debut’s album cover?
Alfonso: I'm glad you asked that. This album and the music are so hands on that my brother is the band's artist. He made that whole cover, and there's a back cover too, but we have to get a physical album out for everybody to see that.
Q: When’s your next project coming out?
Alfonso: Hopefully soon. Everybody's kind of on vacation, and I'm just itching in my seat right now. I'm ready for the next thing. I'm hoping to have something released by the spring, or maybe earlier if we can. We were kind of unsure that people would like our stuff. I mean, I guess that's kind of the typical thing for a musician, all the self-doubt. I think it's part of the process, but we have enough fans to say, "Hey, we've got something here." We are definitely ready for the next project. Regardless of whether people like us or not, we are going to keep going.
Q: So, it’s more than being wildly famous and successful, you just love music?
Alfonso: Oh, yes, absolutely. At the same time, we're trying to expand as much as we can. I feel like the concept of the "band" is a dying breed. It seems like it, but, hopefully, from what it seems like, the tides are changing. Maybe live music is becoming more popular, even if it is underground, you know? I have never really liked pop music, and the industry is really focusing on digital artists, not bands. It's kind of ridiculous. It's good to be solo, but where are the bands?
Q: What show is your most favorite to play and these past few months?
Alfonso: It definitely has to be the Growl. That was really awesome. It had really nice energy and a great environment. The bands were freaking amazing.
Q: So how does it feel to have your music out there playing live?
Alfonso: It feels freaking great. We've done this before, and the feeling back then was just beautiful. The energy matches up. The first show I played at O'Rileys, just recently, was a weird out-of-body experience. My nerves were just on fire. It was that kind of crossroads: where am I going to go with this? Am I going to walk away from it? You have to decide and just lean into it. Man, it was a very natural yet unfamiliar feeling.
Q: What is your setlist usually consist of? Do you do any covers? Do you play your whole album? What does it look like?
Alfonso: Yeah, well, we'll include at least one cover and play our album. Once the next project comes out, we will only play our music. So what we'll do is start with our song "Autumn Vodka" and then just kind of flow into the setlist from there. We'll usually do a cover in the middle of the set. We have covered Lonnie Liston Smith, which is pretty funky. I’m pretty sure Lonnie is a horn player or something. He’s a really funky dude. We cover the White Stripes. An upcoming cover we're going to do is from The Reverend Horton Heat, so just stuff like that.
Q: Where do you want to play in 2023?
Alfonso: Oh, man, realistically, thank you for asking. This kind of reminds me of places that I need to sign up for. I’d like to play at the Texas State Fair. Definitely. There's this one thing called the Wild Flower Festival. It would be awesome to play at the Bomb Factory and the House of Blues. I mean, honestly, it would be awesome to play at the American Airlines Center, but those other places would be more realistic, I think.
Q: Do you have any upcoming gigs?
Alfonso: Yes, we have a gig at Killer’s Tacos on January 20th. We are opening for a band called Soma Sky. They have a project coming out and have invited us to play at their event. The show starts at 7:30PM. We have another one at the Howling Mutt in February on the 18th; we play at 6 PM for that one. We just lined up a gig for St. Patrick’s Day at O’Rileys. We are really excited for this. Hopefully, our project comes out before then.
“With The Bom Bom Boms, you’re always in for a surprise. Creating music that ascends the boundaries of genre and bringing you a show that is bound to knock your socks off.”
-BlueGirlHours
