Flamango Bay talks mangoes, name changes, and the mundane

This past Halloween night, we found ourselves in a backyard-turned-venue in Berkeley just a couple hours before a show hosted by Flamango Bay, an East Bay-based alternative rock band. Friends and band members alike were bustling and bantering while they worked to embellish the DIY space with spooky, holiday-appropriate decorations, such as cotton webs, bats and spiders. It was an impressive set up, especially since the band is composed entirely of high school students. There was a tangible sense of community and hoorah that made us each wish we had had such a talented, tightly knit group of friends in high school — or even now, for that matter. The band members themselves were the definition of the word “cool” — lead guitarist and vocalist Ikaika Gunderson sported a tie with a collarless Nirvana T-shirt in her best Avril Lavigne impression. We sat down on the backyard patio with Gunderson and the rest of the band, including bassist Bodhi Lucero, drummer Dash Goss Post, and guitarist and vocalist Georgia Manou, to discuss their recent name change, their musical influences, their upcoming project, and more. 

Ikaika Gunderson

Georgia Manou

Dash Goss Post

Bodhi Lucero

When and how did you all meet and become a band?

Georgia Manou (GM): We’re seniors in high school now, and we started in 8th grade. So it’s been almost 4 years.

Ikaika Gunderson (IG): We were all in the drama program in middle school.

Bodhi Lucero (BL): I knew of them in the 6th grade, but we didn’t become friends until 7th or 8th grade. Ikaika really wanted to start a band, so she kind of put it all together.

IG: Aw, well thanks. [Everyone laughs.] 

What are your thoughts on being such a young band? Is it hard to be taken seriously?

IG: Being young gives it a certain.. What’s the word..

BL: A charm. It’s sad losing that charm with age.

IG: We’re not cute anymore, but we’re not old enough to be with the big boys. 

BL: I think people take us seriously for the most part. But I think one of the hardest things when you’re under 18 is a lot of people tend to avoid your show.

IG: And the venue choices.

Dash Goss Post (DGP): Yeah, there’s a lot of over-21 venues. But it’s fun. We’re lucky that we get to do music now while we’re still living with our parents and don’t have to support ourselves. 

How would you describe your sound?

DGP: Indie?

BL: Yeah, we settled on indie because it’s vague.

IG: I feel like we all have a lot of different influences. Dash is the drummer of the jazz ensemble. Bodhi grew up listening to punk music. I grew up on R&B stuff. Georgia grew up on classic rock. 

BL: It’s a mixture of all the music we listened to our whole lives. 

IG: So like indie-pop-rock. 

DGP: With some slight jazz. [More collective laughter.]

What are you guys listening to right now?

DGP: We really like SWMRS. They’re a big influence, especially since they’re local.

BL: I think a couple years ago, we all got into more local music. I think that’s moved us a little bit more recently, because local bands are close to our age. 

DGP: It’s cool because it feels like something that you could obtain.

How did you guys start becoming part of the local scene?

IG: We’re really at the very bottom of the come-up. 

GM: We’re still trying to get in there.

IG: Over the summer we went on a little tour. Played a few beatdown taverns up the coast. It was really fun.

BL: We ended it playing the Gillman, which was really fun. But it was really punk.

GM: When we’re there, we’re like Taylor Swift in comparison. [Everyone laughs.]

DGP: We’ve just been doing these DIY shows and sort of creating our own mini scene. 

BL: At this point, most people in Berkeley High know of us as a band. At least in our grade.

What inspired the recent name change from SAME (Something and Maybe Everything) to Flamango Bay?

IG: Well with SAME, no one would remember it. You couldn’t find it on the internet, and Something and Maybe Everything is too long. 

GM: It’s also just an awkward interaction with people. We’d say “SAME” and the other person would be like “what?”.

BL: Too short, too generic. We spent such a long time trying to find a new band name. It’s a real struggle.

IG: We ended up picking the first one we all really liked.

BL: At first, we had it as Flamingo Bay (spelled correctly). But we were talking about how some people don’t know how to pronounce Flamingo, they say Flamango. We thought that made it more unique.

DGP: And we like mangoes. 

When you write, what kinds of things do you look to tackle lyrically?

IG: I write all the lyrics, and usually when I write, I hear a melody and I just somehow put the words together. It’s very natural. I don’t know how to describe it. There’s not really any meaning until I look back. I guess some of our songs are about… What are our songs about, guys? [Laughs.]

DGP: “Midas” is about stupid Donald Trump. Well, sort of. I don’t write them, but to me, all the lyrics are vague and can be applied to a lot of things.

IG: Oh, we have a song about The Great Gatsby. I read that book, and thought, “Ew, the American Dream.”

BL: All this lyric stuff goes right over my head. I got really exposed like a year ago for not knowing the lyrics to any of our songs.

What do you guys do together outside of music?

BL: We spend most of our time together.

IG: We like to go to the beach.

DGP: We go to the Goodwill outlet.

IG: One time, we just took a road trip to LA with my mom.

DGP: What are, like, the more mundane things we do? Oh, we play Mario Kart.

BL: We’re at that point where we don’t have to be doing anything. We’re just in each other’s presence.

DGP: We went to see Dominic Fike recently.

IG: Love him, he’s great. That whole subgenre of pop is something I’m really influenced by. Like Steve Lacy, the Internet.

BL: Yeah, I like the combination of popular music with real instruments, and that’s kind of the realm we’re in. 

Are you planning on releasing a first project soon?

IG: We are, actually. 

GM: We have an EP in the works. 

IG: All the songs are recorded and mixed, they just need to be mastered. The single is very, very close. It’s called “Bleach Blonde.” 

DGP: Should we tell ‘em the date?

BL: [Whispering] December 14th. 

DGP: We’re cautious about that date, but we’re pretty sure it’ll be ready by then. The EP is called Tiny Room.

What’s the EP like?

IG: It’s high energy, but also a little eclectic. We have kind of a bossa nova-inspired vibe. 

DGP: It sounds very much like a first EP for any band really. But it’s pretty rockin’.

IG: It’s called Tiny Room because we practice in Dash’s tiny room. 

DGP: Yep, that’s where all the songs came to be. 

What are your thoughts on becoming a professional band?

IG: That’s the plan.

GM: The ultimate goal is to just keep going with it. 

BL: Senior year is stressful because of college apps.

IG: Yeah, that’s definitely a discussion we have to keep having.

BL: But we’re planning on staying together, keeping the music going. We don’t want it to become a side operation. This is, like, our goal in life. We want to make this what we do.  

IG: It’s something we’re all really passionate about.

Flamango Bay’s upcoming single “Bleach Blonde” off of their debut EP Tiny Room releases December 14th. Be the first to stream it on Spotify here!

Follow the band on Soundcloud, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Article by Anthony Vega

Interview by Anthony Vega and Mahavir Baboolall

Photos by Annie Nguyen and Bianca Lu