You recorded Eat This with Cameron Webb, who also produced it. How did you decide who to work with? What was working with him like?

Mike: I’ve been a musician for many, many years. I did a recording with the Mad Caddies with Cameron and that’s how I met him. We’re talking 10 years ago probably, a long time ago. I really liked him. He’s super sarcastic and he’s really efficient. He’s super good at recording. Seeing his body of work is like, “Oh, he’s worked with Kelly Clarkson and Tenacious D and Motorhead and all these other bands!” He’s prolific.

We’ve always worked with Cameron. When we were looking for people to produce Bambi, he took a shot on us and we took a shot on him. He liked the band and we worked together once and that was it. We just kinda clicked with him. He’s done the majority of our recordings back to our original EP Hurry Up and Wait. He’s done all the singles we’ve done since then. He’s turned out to be a really great friend and collaborative partner. Tahlena will probably tell you this, but she doesn’t like having anyone else record her vocals other than him. He’s just really great.

Tahlena: It’s true. [laughs]

Mike: We were at NOFX’s last show together and, no joke, of all the bands on that bill I think he had recorded 9 of them. He’s so quiet about it. Then you walk into Fletcher’s trailer and Fletcher’s got him in a headlock like, “I love this guy!” He’s just a really cool dude. He’s got the job from us as long as he wants it. Not that we’re opposed to other collaborations, but I think we really like the way we sound. We like the version of Bambi that Cameron produces.

Tahlena: Cameron has really shaped who I am as an artist and I’m really appreciative of him for that. He pushes me when I need to be pushed and he supports me in my decisions when I need that as well. He’s really taught me a lot about the recording process, honestly. When I started in this band I used to hate making records, I was all about the live show. I’m a ham. [laughs] It’s just what I feed off of. Cameron’s really taught me more about the art behind making a record. It’s the thing that will outlive you, so it’s important to give it its due. Cameron was like, “We’re making art. We’re making a piece of art”. You have to think about it that way and you have to be intentional in how you do that and be smart with your choices and things like that.

You’ve mentioned how working on the album took you on a creative journey and helped you stop over-editing. How do you feel your creative process has changed over the course of working on the album?

Tahlena: It’s definitely become way more collaborative. Some of the last songs on the record were very much everybody in the room together, including Cameron. Cameron would come do a pre-production rehearsal with us before we went in. It was really fun and special for us to all work together and have everyone’s voice be heard. It was like, “Check your ego at the door”. We were looking at each other like, “What do we want to make?”

Let’s be real, we play ska - I love ska and have the utmost respect for it - but it’s a subgenre that not a lot of people know. If I had a dime for every time someone goes, “What type of band are you in? What’s ska?” I’d have a lot of dimes. If we’re already doing something that’s kind of niche, we might as well make the version of it that we love and not the version that we think people want to hear or what we think will have the most plays on Spotify or what the algorithm will praise the most. We might as well make what we want. The record has 5 songs that have previously been released but they haven’t been on an album before. I feel like these new songs in this new writing style with us saying and doing what we want is who we are becoming and I’m really proud of that.

Mike: I agree with everything she said. Working on the album as a work of art really dictates a lot of, “What have we already done? Is this thing adding value or are we doing this just to do something? What makes this track unique? What makes it different?” Looking at it like that is really awesome and so is having a collaborator in the room. It’s really helped the writing process to know that’s what we’re creating. We’re not writing songs just to write songs and put them out. God, I hope nobody’s writing songs for a ska algorithm, how pointless is that? Pick something else if you’re gonna write for an algorithm, something that has people following it! [laughs]

Tahlena: Some labels will be like, “Every song has to be two and half minutes because that’s the sweet spot for the Spotify algorithm, blah, blah, blah”. Sometimes that conversation comes into the room and I’m like, “That’s bizarre! We’re making art, everyone!” I hate to be that guy but we’re making art and expressing ourselves. I don’t wanna sit and be like, “Well, in the TikTok generation…” But we are the band that’s like, “Oh, the YouTube music video has to have a hot chick in it in the first five minutes or the YouTube algorithm doesn’t like it”. [laughs]

Mike: I think that’s just really sad. To be honest, the most popular band in our genre is a fraction of the sales of Megan Thee Stallion or whoever would have. I was watching part of that FireAid concert and No Doubt was on - quite possibly the biggest band to come out of Orange County or Anaheim in the last 30 years. THE biggest band, let’s be honest. Here they are playing at 7 o’clock for FireAid. Olivia Rodrigo headlines it. That tells you right there like, “This is for these people and Olivia Rodrigo is for the masses”. Not to say that I don’t like her music - I think there’s a place for all of that. I think part of the punk ethos, the DIY ethos, and the ska ethos is that we make it for ourselves first and hopefully people resonate with it. If they don’t, then I get it, I understand. We’re not Olivia Rodrigo, I’m not Megan Thee Stallion. You’re not gonna like it. But most people like it when they hear it! [laughs]

There’s something to be said for having that authenticity instead of being like, “What beep boops can we put in just to please Spotify?”

Mike: Unless those beep boops have a purpose, get them out of there!

Tahlena: It’s really about making music intentionally instead of going, “This is a nice sounding pop song”. It’s being like, “What do we wanna say?”, even if it's not the most favourable or whatever.

Mike: Yeah. I love it when we get off stage because people are genuinely surprised like, “Wow, you guys are really good!!” [laughs] I usually have two responses. One is, “You know what? We practice and own our own instruments and everything!” [laughs] And the second thing I say is, “We made it for you. I’m glad you like it”. Honestly, we made it for us but the fact that it resonates is great.

At the end of the day, people want to have a good time. No offense to Santa Barbara, California, but if you’re on the desert island that is Santa Barbara, you probably only get certain types of music whether it be acoustic or alt-country or new reggae. Then you hear Bite Me Bambi. We just played Santa Barbara with Fishbone and a guy said to me, “The way you play your keyboard…it’s aggressive!” I was like, “Well, it’s called a reggae bubble but I play it in a ska way so it’s faster. That’s why it looks like that”. He goes, “Oh man, I’ve never seen that!” I was like, “You should look up Jerry Dammers from The Specials or Chris Dowd from Fishbone! Those are two of my influences, you should look at those guys.”

Tahlena: He must’ve lost his mind when Chris Dowd got up there and swung his keyboard around in a circle! [laughs]

Mike: Exactly! I told the guy, “If you liked that, you should really watch Fishbone because they’re amazing!” [laughs]

It’s one of those things where you think ska is pretty big then you hear things like that like, “How weren’t you aware of this?”

Mike: And they’re not. They’re on a different algo than we are.

Tahlena: “Different algo”. [retches] [laughs] The amount I have to say “algorithm” about my artwork makes me wanna jump out of a window.

Mike: The matrix loves your artwork so there you go.

Tahlena: I’ve had a lot of life changes in this past year and I’m sort of reframing how I think about things like being in a band. It’s a privilege, not everyone gets to do it. To be able to make my art and that a small amount of people care about it, that’s a privilege. I don’t wanna get caught in the trappings - which I have in the past - of social media numbers and Instagram followers and likes and views. It was rotting my brain and not serving me anymore. I think getting a little older, a little wiser, and learning a little bit more about myself, I’m like, “Who knows how many chances you get? To make a record? To play shows?” You have to make the most of them when you can and avoid burnout.

We had a really big band conversation recently about burnout and how we all got so burnt and we need to take care of ourselves. All of the internet is not real life so if we’re going to put our real selves and our hearts into this music, it’s gotta come from that and not come from the algorithm.

Mike: 100%

What’s helped you work through the burnout? When you feel burnout starting, what do you do to curb it?

Mike: Alcohol helps a lot. No, I’m just kidding. [laughs]

Tahlena: Girl, when we figure it out, we’ll let you know! [laughs] It was the end of 2024 that we kinda looked at ourselves and were like, “We are not well”. We had pushed really hard. When you’re a band our size, you never want to turn down an opportunity. I was really proud of us because there were some days on the road that were really hard and we pushed through and we worked together. We had really high highs and great wins and some low lows.

When you’re gone with your friends for 3 months or whatever, you gotta work on your interpersonal relationships and a lot of stuff. I think as a band we got together and were like, “Look, we’re not well so let’s try to set some boundaries for ourselves for what we can and can’t do”. We made this new rule that if you are burning out or if you are not feeling well, raise your hand and say something. No one is gonna be mad. You’re not letting anyone down, you’re not holding us back, just say you can’t do this right now or that the tour is too much or “I need some time away” or “I need to get my own hotel room”. Anything from the minuscule everyday things of, “I need to eat, I need to sleep” to things like, “I don’t know how many tours we can do back to back to back next year”. Having the open dialogue around these decisions was the change we made instead of just going, “Yep, ok” without stopping and going like, “Wait a minute…I don’t feel good”. [laughs]

Mike: I don’t have the answer on how to balance things. I take on too much, I run too much, - run meaning running things, I don’t run physically at all - I do too much. So I don’t have the answer, but what helps is to ground yourself in the fact that this absolutely is a privilege. It absolutely is a privilege to do this. I have a corporate job and when I tell people what I do like, “I was gone for three weeks because I was on tour” everybody wants to know every little detail about it because it’s everyone’s dream. It’s something that we have worked hard for. I say we “get to” but we earned it. We earned the right to be proficient enough to be a touring band. Honestly, that’s all I can really ask for.

At different points in my life I’ve been a corporate guy or a - believe it or not - workout fanatic but I’ve always been a musician. To be able to return to music and contribute a verse to the metaphorical song that we’re all a part of as musicians is pretty amazing. So when I’m feeling overwhelmed I remind myself that this isn’t a “have to”, this is a “get to”. There are so many people who wish they would even have a portion of this.

Look at Guitar Center. All those people who are in Guitar Center on a Saturday noodling around on guitars or basses or drums or whatever, they all have a dream, and let’s be honest, 99.9% of them aren’t gonna realize that dream. The fact is most people who buy a guitar will never play it longer than three months. Of those that do play longer than three months, 99% will never be in a band and if you are in a band, you’ll never be in a band that has any following or you’ll only play one gig or you’ll just play out of your garage. Then 99% of those bands will only play bar gigs and 90% of those will never go on tour. When you look at a band like Foo Fighters, we are literally two rungs below them!

Tahlena: Let’s not get carried away, Michael. [laughs]

Mike: I’m just saying in the grand scheme of bands. We released an album that people can buy and we’ve had more than 50 people show up to a show. It’s pretty amazing when you look at that.

Tahlena: We’re very lucky to be able to do what we do and that’s the perspective.

A lot of the album talks about not giving time to people who drain you and working to recoup that energy. What’s helped you cut those types of people out and reclaim your energy?

Tahlena: That’s a good question. I think it’s something I’m always working on and that’s why I pay my therapist so much money. [laughs] Looking at my big life changes, I started to think, “Ok, how can I be a healthier me?” Sometimes it’s sad to see things like friendships or relationships go but sometimes you just have to take care of yourself. I love to try to work on my relationships with people, but there comes a time when you can’t anymore. You have to protect your own self and your own mental health and things like that. I also think that statement isn’t even just about people, it’s about ideas. I don’t like letting the algorithm or the amount of Facebook or Instagram likes on a post live rent-free in my head. You have to protect yourself and put things up to do that, whatever it is that might help you.

For me, I’m like, “Let me take a step back from these things”. I really lost myself in it for a while where I didn’t know where the real me started and where the Instagram / internet me began. It’s an embarrassing thing to admit. I think sometimes you just have to take a step back and assess what is serving you, for lack of a better term. Mike loves to just cut people out of his life all the time. Right, Mike? He’s gonna cut me out after this interview.

Mike: I’ve already cut you out, actually. [laughs] Honestly, I have a hard time with that. I like to give people a second chance and a third chance if I can. I try to put myself in other people’s perspectives but there’s a point like, “Nah, dude. I’m the idiot for doing that”. I think that there’s something to be said for getting involved in people’s lives and being supportive very quickly but also cutting out quickly if you need to, like if you sense something that is unhealthy. I think that’s a discipline that we all could use. I’m very sensitive to manipulation, so if I feel like I’m getting any sort of manipulative feeling from somebody I cut them out immediately. I just don’t want them in my life anymore.

Tahlena: He hasn’t figured out that I’m manipulating him all the time yet. Soon. [laughs]

You didn’t like ska before the band.

Mike: I didn’t, no. She told me the only type of music left was ska music and I believed her.

Tahlena: I tricked Mike into all of this.

[laughter]

Tahlena: Every time I go to the La Quinta I’m like, “Mmm, Mike the free breakfast is delicious! The free breakfast at the La Quinta is delicious! You’re having a great time!” [laughs]

Mike: Oh my god, I’m having such a great time here, this is amazing! What I want is powdered eggs and weird sausage patties. I love it!

Tahlena: Now we’re going to drive for eight hours and you’re gonna love it! You’re going to drive the car for most of the time! Yayyyy! [laughs]

Mike: La Quinta gives you free breakfast and I’ll just have Raisin Bran because everything’s disgusting. I could have stayed at a much cheaper hotel and just bought Raisin Bran, prepackaged it in Ziplock bags, and just added milk. [laughs] Next time, next tour.

You heard it here first folks: tour tips!

Mike: Tour tips: prepackaged Ziplock bags with Raisin Bran. That’s how you survive. You can eat it dry or mix it with milk.

Tahlena: Protein bars and Red Bull - that’s all I need! I’m set. [laughs]

Breakfast of champions!

Tahlena: Although this last tour, I was the string cheese queen. Mike would be like, “You’re so gross. It’s breakfast and you’re having string cheese and Doritos and a coffee! What the fuck is wrong with you??” [laughs]

Mike: I was like, “Why don’t we stop and get you a cigar so you’ll have the perfect breath? It’ll be amazing!” It was like this green gas emanating from her mouth. [laughs]

Tahlena: I kept you company that whole drive. [laughs]

What’s the best tour food you’ve had?

Tahlena: Bite Me Bambi appreciates a hot Cracker Barrel breakfast if we’ve had a hard day.

Mike: We survived a tornado once.

Tahlena: The morning after we survived the tornado we were like, “Cracker Barrel”.

Mike: We literally cut across three lanes of traffic to get to Cracker Barrel. That was good. I love soup if I feel like I’m getting sick.

Tahlena: You old man! [laughs] That’s how we know if he’s ill. He’s like, “I could go for some soup” and we’re like, “Ok, you can’t talk to any of us. Don’t be around us. You’re sick if you want soup, bro”.

Mike: Honestly yeah, if I get a good type of chicken soup, that’s pretty solid. That’s usually warranted on the road. I like a good corn dog from a hot deli place inside a gas station, depending on how they look.

Tahlena: I love gas station samosas.

Mike: We got gas station samosas in New Jersey and they were pretty darn good.

Tahlena: Musicians are the only people I know where we’ll talk to each other and go, “What’s your favourite gas station?” [laughs]

Mike: I like a Pilot, personally. I’m a Pilot fan.

Tahlena: I’m a Flying Jay girl.

Mike: Flying Jay is good. A lot of people like Buc-ee’s.

Tahlena: I hate Buc-ee’s!

Mike: Buc-ee’s are for tourists and tourists only.

Tahlena: Buc-ee’s always smells like five smells. I’m always there at 1 in the morning and those are always the five smells I don’t want to smell at 1 in the morning.

Mike: Buc-ee’s has nice bathrooms, I will give that to them. Plenty of beef jerky selections and not enough trail mix selections.

Tahlena: I say not enough sundries! I tried to buy Benadryl at Buc-ee’s once. Every other rest stop will have Benadryl and Buc-ee’s did not have a good sundries selection.

Mike: I was gassing up just outside of Bellingham, Washington not too long ago and there was a lady selling corn dogs. I was waiting for the bathroom and I’m like, “I’m not going to eat a corn dog, it’s nine in the morning!” I ate that corn dog. [laughs]

Tahlena: Nerds Rope Bites is also how I stay awake if I need to be alert and driving the car when I am very tired. Nerds Rope Mini-Bites and a yellow Red Bull, thank you. I will be awake for hours.

Mike: I have a Good and Plenty and a coffee. That’s a speedball. That’ll keep you awake for hours and hours and hours. It’s good.

Tahlena: Mike likes Good and Plenty because nobody else likes them and he knows he doesn’t have to share. If I open the Nerds Rope Mini-Bites, everyone hears the crinkle and is like, “Is that Nerds Rope Mini-Bites??? Pass that back here!!” But none of us like Good and Plenty so Mike’s like, “Screw you guys, Good and Plenty and a coffee!” I’m like, “I don’t want any of that. Take that away from me”. [laughs]

Mike: Our guitar player loves it, so whatever. [laughs]

“Girls of Summer” opens with a clip from the 1947 social guidance film Are You Popular? Why did you use that sample in particular?

Tahlena: I can’t take credit for that. Brian Mashburn - who was our guitar player at the time and also one of the main songwriters - found that when he demoed the song and threw it on the front. He was like, “If you don’t like it, we don’t have to keep it” and I was like, “No, that’s great. I love it”. It lived through the demo process and every single time we worked on the song up until the final product. I think he just typed it into YouTube and found that. I had no idea where it was from, so thank you for educating me. [laughs]

In “Too Many People” you reference “Total Hate 95” by No Doubt and Ranking Roger of the English Beat in the lyrics. Why did you include those references?

Tahlena: I did not write the “Total Hate” reference, Brian Mashburn wrote that one. It just fell out of his mouth while we were working on it. I feel bad because I’m invoking Ranking Roger's name in the cheesiest line: “Call me Ranking Roger I’m about to start toasting / Time to put an end to your bragging and boasting”. It’s sooo lame. Mashburn and I were working on it like, “What does this section have? It kinda has a cheesy rap”. I love rap music and I always wish I could rap so I was like, “Can I rap? Even though I’m bad at it?” [laughs] I rap even though I’m bad at it because you only get better at something by doing it, right?

It ended up sounding more funky. Originally in the demo, we had these kind of doinky fake instruments and it sounded so ‘80s. Originally it had cheesier lyrics. The lyric naming Ranking Roger - who I’ve always been a fan of and have great respect for - lived from the cheesier version that I had written. Sometimes you’ve gotta make yourself laugh like, “I’ve got the mellows, let’s get to roasting” then I come in angry like, “Burning all these fuckers and all their shit posting!!” [laughs]

You need cheese sometimes.

Tahlena: Yeah! For someone as cool as Ranking Roger, I feel bad that his name lives in the cheesiest section of the song. But it’s ok, that song has Dirty Walt on it and he’s the coolest guy I know. He added some coolness to the song. I was like, “Thank you for saving my cheesiness”. Then I was like, “No one play him me rapping! No one play him that please! He won’t show up!” [laughs]

How did that collaboration come about?

Tahlena: We wanted him on the track because we’re fans and because we’ve played a lot of shows with Fishbone. We share the same management so it was pretty easy getting a hold of him. I remember sending him the song and being so nervous. I was like, “Oh my god, he’s cool and he’s going to be like, ‘This is the lamest shit I’ve ever heard in my life!’” But he was like, “I dig it, I’m in!” I unfortunately wasn’t there when he actually went into the studio with Cameron. I was out of town helping some family with stuff but Mike was there. It seemed like they had the best time. I was jealous. When they sent me the first draft, I was like, “This is incredible! I love it!”

You worked with Jason Hammon of Dance Hall Crashers on “Gaslighter’s Anthem”. What was that experience like?

Tahlena: That was super cool! I’ve always been a huge fan of Dance Hall Crashers. The fact that I get to know these people in life now is pretty amazing. Dance Hall Crashers were working on putting out a repress of one of their records and they were trying to make it a special edition so they had all these old demos. Our manager is involved with Dance Hall Crashers' camp and he was helping them with this. He was like, “They have all these old demos and I think you could use one! Let me ask Jason if he’s cool with it”. Jason was like, “Yeah, they can use whatever they want”. He sort of cleaned it up and sent over this song he had written.

It was all chord structure and stuff, there weren’t any melodies or anything like that. I wrote against it and I was like, “This is pretty alright” so I took it to everybody. All of Bite Me Bambi got in the room together and we hashed out the horn lines and how long sections should be. It was truly a collaborative effort. I remember sending our sax player my recording when I wrote the melodies and the lyrics like, “If you hear some horns, send it back”. He sent it back really quick like, “Here’s what I heard” and they were not what I had imagined at all. I thought that was so cool because Edgar is such a great musician and obviously a way more proficient person at writing horn lines than me. It was so creative and different. It was really nice to be able to have his stamp on it and have it be something that I never would have imagined.

You’ve released videos for 6 of the 8 tracks on the record and all were directed by Chris Graue, who you’ve worked with for the entirety of Bite Me Bambi’s existence. How did that creative collaboration come about?

Tahlena: I knew Chris because he was in bands that I would play with when I was a kid so we've known each other a long time. Chris has always been into filmmaking and he’s made short films and stuff but he took this turn into doing more music videos. Chris is incredibly good at it. When he started doing it professionally, I was like, “Alright, let’s do it!” It’s always been fun because I’ve known Chris for so long. We’re such good friends, I never feel like I have a dumb idea or I can’t speak my mind. I can be like, “I don’t like this” or “I want to do this or that”. Everybody in the band is friends with Chris. It’s been cool to have a more professional collaboration on top of being friends.

Each of the videos tells a story and represents a different side of the band. Do you have a favourite storyline? Which video do you feel represents the band the best?

Tahlena: I think my favourite storyline is the “Do The Damned” music video. I think it’s super cute and fun and campy. A lot of that was our choreographer Kimmay Evans’ idea, like doing the Wednesday Addams emotionless sort of thing. I love a collab where I’m like, “I wouldn’t have thought of that!” She sent me the video of the choreography and I was like, “This is incredible!” A lot of Chris’ filmmaking expertise is in there. Our tour manager Christina is also a photographer so she came and helped with the lighting choices and stuff. A lot of that was really fun and collaborative.

I think the video that represents the band going forward the most - and one I’m really proud of - is “Bad Boyfriend”. I think it’s very punky and in your face. It’s not pulling any punches and that’s what we wanna be now. I’m really proud of both of those.

You’ll be playing some festivals later this year including Doll Fest, Brakrock, and Rebellion. What are you looking forward to the most about these shows?

Tahlena: I’m super excited for Doll Fest because it’s a really cool idea for a lot of femme and queer voices to be heard. I think that’s really neat. I also love the organizer, Maria. She’s the sweetest person I know. I’m happy to work with her. It’s fun to work with people you like.

Brakrock I don’t know very much about but I’ve never been to Belgium so I think that’s gonna be fun. This is our first time throwing our hat in for the European summer festival season so I’m excited for that. Also, we’re going with our friends in Voodoo Glow Skulls so I’m excited for that. Going to Europe with your friends is just fun and the fact that we get to play shows while we do it is even more fun.

I have heard so much about Rebellion. Rebellion runs deep in a lot of my friends and my family and I’m excited to finally be able to attend Rebellion. It’ll be fun. [laughs]

You’ll have to get Belgian waffles.

Tahlena: Girl, Belgian beer my shit! I am looking forward to that. Let’s hope that Tahlena makes it to the stage at Brakrock, that’s all I’m saying. I’ll be dragging my booty up there like, “Girl, get up here!” [laughs]

Which part of Eat This are you proudest of?

Tahlena: Not to be cheesy, but I’m really proud of us as a band. It was a hard year. We had lineup changes and a lot of that was because of personal things that went on in my life. I remember the rehearsal where we all looked at each other and were like, “Ok, those of us who are here, we’re still in. This still matters to us”. People left in the middle of making this record and we could’ve been like, “Screw it”. But instead, we looked at each other and were like, “We are all in and we’re going to do it together”. They all really supported me in my divorce and the changes in my life and I’ll always be really grateful for that. To keep the band going and re-commit like, “Let’s make this record”. I feel very grateful and humbled and very proud of that.

I hope that our true selves come through because, like I said, I really lost myself a lot in what other people think and other people’s expectations of me like, I’m doing this wrong or I’m too fat or I’m too thin or whatever. To be like, “I’m going to put my stamp on my own feelings and as a band, we’re going to band together and make some art that we’re really proud of”, I think that is really why I’m so emotionally attached to this record and why it means so much to me. It’s the story of Bite Me Bambi and the story of our friendship.

Is there anything that I didn’t ask you that you’d like to add?

Tahlena: Check out our record, come see us on the road. We have a lot of things I can’t announce yet but I’m stoked to be a lot of places this year! It’s always fun to see friends and fans and make new friends. I think it’s going to be a really good year for us. I’m really excited.