Disclaimer: This article was originally written for Communications 311 Feature Writing at CSU Bakersfield, Summer 2016

It’s Saturday night, and you’re at a local bar in downtown Bakersfield, Calif. You order a beer from the bartender and turn your attention to the three young men in a band sound testing their equipment before they perform – there’s a guitarist, a drummer, and a bassist. The band is Magic Mammoth, a psychedelic hard rock band that brings groovy tunes to the youths crowding up against the stage.

As the music starts, you feel the loudness of the amplifiers invading your eardrums – the drummer has already begun to sweat but the steady, hard beat of the bass drum is contagious to your foot, the bassist, in an Iggy Pop, bent-back position, is bringing the funk to the rhythm of the drums. As your head begins to bob along to the music, you hear the guitar for the first time, a heavy stoner metal-esque groove with minor jazz influences. The band becomes one single entity as they jam the night away.

Magic Mammoth was born in August of 2015 by three 20-year old college students, now 21: Andrew Chavez (guitar and vocals), Joshua Benjamin Aguilera (drums), and Scott Gallardo Jones (bass). A stoner-metal influenced, psychedelic hard rock and funk band, Magic Mammoth has been growing strong for the past year and is only getting bigger. As they begin to record their second EP –so far untitled – (an “extended play,” or a collection of songs recorded, but shorter than a full-length album, or, LP), I spoke to the band members about what making music together means to them and what they hope sonically for their prospective future.

Chavez says the three-piece band’s intimacy is refreshing as the bandmates get to really know one another better, personally and musically. Originally jamming as friends for three years, it wasn’t until last year that Andrew, Josh, and Scott decided to actually form a band.

From practicing in garages and bedrooms to playing live shows in bars across town, a lot has changed for the band, mentally, as they begin to experience and learn from their live performances.

With the occasional help from a little alcohol or a certain leafy green narcotic, playing live means, “turning a nervous energy into adrenaline and emotion… and withdrawing into the music,” says Andrew.

“It’s important to get in sync with each other,” says Andrew. “When we’re on [stage], it’s like a stream of energy funneling through each one of us.”

For Andrew, the positive energy that is both fed to and from the crowd that is what is most important to him. Nothing else compares to the special moments that happen on-stage both with his band mates and the crowd – nothing is hidden. To him, playing live means sharing a special “something” with the band that is then “proposed to everyone in the crowd.”

While Magic Mammoth’s music is not available through any music streaming services as of yet, Andrew hopes to get his band’s music up on Spotify and Apple Music as soon as possible. For now, they will continue to perform live in venues across Bakersfield.

Andrew says, “playing [live] is, like, creating a sonic landscape for everybody to view… and it’s empowering in a way.”

Daniele Dickason, or Dani, one of Magic Mammoth’s biggest fans, spoke about what it’s like being in the crowd at one of their shows.

“My favorite part is the coherence of the guys all together… they are all great performers because they make you feel what they are feeling while they play: hard, groovy fun,” says Dani.

What is so great about their band, Dani explains, is that they all bring something of their own to the stage, and it’s crafted perfectly harmoniously when the sound waves collide. Whether it be Scott’s funky grooves on the bass, Andrew’s smooth and encapsulating guitar, or Josh’s hard and heavy drumming, it all blends together so perfectly that Dani, and others in the crowd, can’t help but dance and head bang.

Josh Aguilera has been drumming since the age of 12 after his parents bought him an old, classic Ludwig drum kit, going on to annoy the neighborhood from the basement of his home here in Bakersfield, behind East Bakersfield High School. Labeled as the John Bonham of Magic Mammoth (he even has Bonham’s trinity Celtic logo tattooed on his right forearm), Josh takes the heaviness of classic, peak rock n’ roll and plays viscously onto his drums. Taking inspiration from other drummers such as Dave Grohl of Nirvana and The Foo Fighters, previous drummers from The Mars Volta drummers (especially Jon Theodore and Deantoni Parks), and, of course, John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, Josh is motivated to play on the amazing level these rock stars have achieved. Deserving of any rock star title his idols have earned, Josh plays with a fierce tenacity, fighting through the burning of his forearms and the sweat that runs down his head and body, that is the heavy soul of the hard rock aspect of Magic Mammoth.

When asked about recording their second EP, Josh said he’s grateful for his friends and producers, Logan Archer (guitarist of local band “Xanax Tomboys”) and Spencer Reynen (local producer and artist, making guest appearances with the band “Izzy and the Fins”), for helping, not only the band record their tracks at the studio room in Spencer’s house, but for helping him become a better drummer.

“It’s pretty hard playing on beat with a metronome. When you’re on [beat], you sort of can’t tell if the metronome is even there anymore, you’re playing over it, and that’s scary,” says Spencer.

Speaking about his friend Dom Miller, drummer and Guitar Center employee, Josh said, “he was like, ‘most drummers should only take three to five takes per song…they should be able to play with a metronome that well, that should be it.’’’ A humble drummer, Josh retorted that while it may take him a little longer to get the perfect take on a track, he’s happy to learn and improve as he progresses through the recordings of their new EP, taking what he learns and passionately playing at the next gig.

Sometimes, Magic Mammoth brings in a special appearance from the crowd. A friend of the band, Brandon Guerrero, is occasionally summoned on stage to play guitar with the band. Supplementing the band as a rhythm guitar or taking over for Andrew as lead to focus on lyrics and performing, Brandon is always eager to jam out and craft part of the sonic landscape.

Playing guitar for 11 years, music is more than just a hobby to Brandon, it’s a way of life. Bringing in more influences from other genres (doom metal, hard rock, blues, ambient music, and classic rock), Brandon encourages Magic Mammoth’s jam sessions to explore places the music can take the band.

Jamming together and sharing each other’s inspirations, “we sort of rib off one another and we use those influences to put them in a meaningful way,” says Brandon.

At the occasional show, you will see Brandon walking on stage to play one of Magic Mammoth’s hard groove-riddled tunes or perform a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Into the Void,” before returning to the crowd.

Although Brandon has only recently begun performing a few songs with Magic Mammoth, you can still feel a tight chemistry as he follows the mantra of becoming one with the music on stage and losing yourself to the experience of performing live.

Brandon is constantly practicing his rhythmic skill, saying he isn’t, “some kind of freaking virtuoso, but I’m getting better.” What he loves about getting to jam with the band is that he can take those experiences of playing something together, crafting a cohesive sound, and learn from them to perfect his own craft. While Brandon himself isn’t in a band, he still has plans to work on a solo ambient and soundscape project, with heavy influence from bluesy vintage sounds, to construct what he says to be, “a display of emotion without any words.” Most recently, Brandon has co-scored a local independent Los Angeles filmmaker’s short film, Mark Moreno’s “La Orden.”

Scott Jones is the bassist of Magic Mammoth and is the funky soul of the band’s grooviness. Taking inspiration from old funk bands like The Commodores and Earth, Wind, and Fire, moving to alternative bands like The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and recently exploring old jazz bands such as the Bill Evans Trio, Scott is always eager to absorb the funkadelic inspiration from his tunes and incorporate them into the sounds of Magic Mammoth.

Scott explains that many of Magic Mammoth’s songs have started as a simple jam between him and Josh, or him and Andrew, where Scott would add a layer of funk and soul over the more psychedelic and rock aspect of Andrew or Josh.

“Sometimes when we jam, I want it to be a warm jazzy, loungey feel…other times, fast, complex, and hard,” says Scott.

To Scott, there is no such thing as bad dead space, or, the moments in between preparing to play another song live.

According to Scott, on stage, “it’s fun-dead space to explore and launch into a spontaneous jam. And, you know, you can really see it in the crowd, their response, and that just makes it fun.”

For their second EP, Magic Mammoth is taking a different approach than they had the first time. For their first EP, all the band members played live together. And while Scott says it was fun to have that back and forth of doing it together, it was a lot harder to track and record. Instead, this time, Scott and Josh will track and play together, while Andrew will then come in separately to record his guitar and vocals, allowing Andrew to experiment with the sound of his guitar.

In terms of sound, Scott mentions that Magic Mammoth isn’t afraid to experiment in the recording of their new EP. Although the new album can be seen as somewhat of a continuation of EP 1, recording older written tracks and songs performed at multiple shows, Scott tells us that there is also plenty of new material as well, such as the heavy track, “Perfect Fire,” the unheard song, “Sun Swamp,” and the new, laid-back loungey groove track, “Onward.” When asked about my personal favorite, “Campus Coffee Place,” Scott said, “no promises, but, you never know.”

So as Magic Mammoth explores the setlist of their new album, Scott mentions that they have ordered their first shipment of shirts with the Magic Mammoth logo, designed by friend of the band Brianna Bryant, to be released with EP 2, perhaps sooner, depending.

Anyone interested in their band can check out their Facebook page, “magicmammoth2015,” for more information on show dates and links to their various social media spaces.

Listen to more Magic Mammoth on SoundCloud here.

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