Tumbledown | Rebel Without A Cause
Written By: Jameson Ketchum

ou may think that the second record from Tumbledown entitled Empty Bottle is self-explanatory, but the deeper levels reached by Mike Herrera’s now three year old rockabilly project may surprise even the most conservative Christian music listener. There’s more to this band than party songs and ballads about life on the road. The title refers to the energy spent by all of us in life whether it be in romantic relationships, friendships or just random encounters in every day life. Herrera’s creative departure from what we’ve all grown to love him in (MxPx) is an admirable one. Herrera avoids clichés and pigeonholes by doing something very different here; whatever he wants. Empty Bottle is quite the departure from their first self titled release and sees the front man spreading his wings into more experimental territories.  Herrera spoke with us while taking a much needed break en route to his home in Bremerton, Washington.

Even though we know that you’ve been writing country songs for some time now, how did you feel writing a follow up to your first? After putting out the first and seeing people’s reactions and how the songs resonating with audiences, do you feel like it was a bit of a trial and error process? If so, how did you approach this record differently?

Mike Herrera: I think it was more of a personal adjustment on my part. I kind of felt like maybe there are too many fast songs on the first record and people like fast stuff but a lot of the time it can get a little redundant so I tried to switch it up a little bit for all of us really, for my band guys so we’re not getting bored, for me, for the audience etc. It was just more of a personal adjustment I guess.

How has doing Tumbledown helped you progress as a songwriter?

MH: I don’t know if it has (laughs). I’ve been like this for a long time where I do get influenced by music but it’s not like new modern music. Like I heard this The Who song the other day I hadn’t heard in a long time and it inspired me to write something. I say I’ve heard every Tom Petty song there is but I still listen to him all the time so for me there’s no real new influence that gets me going. It’s more of me writing what I write. My influences are less musical than they used to be I guess, now that I kind of know what I can write. Anything kind of stretching too far beyond what I can already write seems like a different band. Once I start a band I stick with that. Over the years MxPx has a pretty good variety of styles of power pop/pop punk/hardcore punk etc. In country music you can have ballads, you can have more upbeat numbers, swing numbers, more of a Texas swing-so you can kind of do all these things within country music and I don’t necessarily bring all those things to Tumbledown but I try to bring slow songs and ballads-all these things into Tumbledown.

Do you feel the same kind of progression from the first Tumbledown record to this one that you feel from one MxPx album to the next? Or is it too early to tell?

MH: The songs write themselves half the time and I’m not really thinking ahead that much. Because we haven’t really toured on this new album yet, it’s going to influence what I write as well a little bit gauging what songs people like. Based on what people like, we’ll do more of that on the next record but at the same time that doesn’t guarantee anything. I’ve already written a few songs for the new record just because when I write I write. I guess my main thing is getting a reaction then having a conscious in my mind but not be the most important thing.

I’ve heard people say that your voice is a 100% a voice for punk only. What do you think of that? Was there any kind of effort try and change that with Tumbledown at all?

MH: I thought about that but my idea with that is that I kind of have to sing what I know and what my style is. That can change slightly on some songs, some songs might be a little more twangy sounding and I can add a little bit of flare to it but for the most part I kind of just sing the way I sing and that way it’s as true to reality as possible. There are a lot of bands that come out and nobody knows them and they can kind of create a persona and stage presence out of nothing, it could all be fake, but people know who I am previously so I can’t really fake being some country southern guy. I kind of have to go with who I am good or bad (laughs).

Did you ever worry about trying to establish It was always supposed to be Tumbledown, not Mike Herrera’s Tumbledown, which was just for the first record. Some of that was for legal reasons because there were some other Tumbledowns out there.Tumbledown apart from your name as it’s so associate and successful with MxPx?

MH: I’m not consciously trying to do that. It was always supposed to be Tumbledown, not Mike Herrera’s Tumbledown, which was just for the first record. Some of that was for legal reasons because there were some other Tumbledowns out there. But now that we’ve used the name so much its pretty much become ours. I don’t try to not be known, obviously a lot of people write on fliers for shows “Mike Herrera of MxPx’s new band Tumbledown” and it is what it is. It would be a losing battle to try and stop that and I respect MxPx fans. MxPx is my band, I’m in that band so I can’t deny it. I’ve kind of just embraced it. I respect our fans and I hope they’d give Tumbledown a chance. Maybe they like straight punk rock music better and that’s fine but just come out to a show and see if you like it because its not all that different from punk rock.

The new record is called Empty Bottle, is this just kind of a soundtrack to good old fashion bar fight or would you say there is a constant message or theme running throughout?

MH: Hopefully it flows well. They are individual songs, I’m not trying to do some kind of rock opera or anything (laughs). The main idea is that there are two things: empty bottle is us using up our bodies constantly draining them of energy and time and then on the other hand obviously we’re partying out there on the road talking to people. So its not just us as a band being out there its us interacting with everybody that comes to the shows and everyone we meet on the road so its kind of a record for all of us, all the listeners, all the people that are out there struggling to stay afloat and keep life bearable in this country with what’s been doing on lately. Hopefully it’s somewhat of an escape. The idea of an empty bottle isn’t just escaping with trying to drink away your problems, it’s also about letting the music flow into you and that can help temporarily or maybe on a deeper level with your life.

I have to ask. What do you have to say to the longtime MxPx Christian fans out there that may not be too stoked on your new material?

MH: I actually haven’t gotten that kind of feedback at all. Nobody has ever really mentioned it, maybe one or two out of the three years we’ve been a band. The truth is that MxPx doesn’t really have any hardcore super conservative fans when it comes to us. I don’t pretend to know everyone’s views or political ideals but really we haven’t been getting any crap for it. I’ve even done interviews with Christian podcasts and a lot of their listeners might not know who we are or who I am and probably would be offended but they don’t know me to yell at me I guess (laughs). I always say I’m 33 years old, this band is not for kids and if you don’t want to listen to it then don’t listen to it. Its separate from MxPx but a lot of our fans are MxPx fans and that’s fine. It’s been nice to not have to worry about that. I’m sure people are talking about it but they’re not talking to us about it. Obviously, that’s a totally different scene than what Tumbledown is a part of and they don’t have to do anything they don’t want to do, they don’t have to run stories on us, its fine. I’m not doing this to be rebellious or not be included in whatever publications; honestly I’m just doing what I want to do. This is the music I really enjoy doing right now and I still enjoy doing MxPx as well which is uplifting positive music.

Empty Bottle is available now. Please view our review of the record in our Reviews section.