Nucklehead

The local Ventura band Nucklehead offers a unique and enjoyable surf punk sound for all. Noah Boland plays bass and performs backup vocals, Trevor Carr plays guitar and does vocals, and Zach Castro performs on drums. Boland is also in charge of booking gigs for the band.

Boland and Carr are seniors at Ventura, while Castro is a junior at Foothill Technology High School, but they all find time to play music together.

The band’s origin story is short and simple; they formed just in February. “A mutual friend told Trevor about me, and we got together and just got the ball rolling. After a while Trevor invited Noah and that’s how we started jamming,” Castro said.

Boland added on that an inspiration to start a band was his dad. “My dad had a band when he was our age and that was an inspiration to play,” Boland said. Castro’s father is also a guitarist in Simi Valley.

Nucklehead’s first gig was at the Foothill Technology Art Show and their following act was at Bombay’s in Ventura.
With two seniors in the band, the question came up as to how college would incorporate into the band dynamic.

Boland is going to college in San Luis Obispo, and said, “We’ll be playing at a lot of shows hopefully, a lot of fun, sweat, and loud music.”

“We hope to keep this going, it’s not a short term thing,” Carr stated, with a positive outlook on the band’s future.

In between booking gigs and having fun, the band is dedicated to producing quality music.

“We play as much as possible but practices tend to last three hours, where the longest it’s ever lasted is five hours,” said Castro.

“We don’t just wing it,” he added. “It’s for fun but it’s also for self expression.”

The band as a whole feels their music can offer something more. “A lot of music today in my opinion is boring, so the fact we’re doing something different is a pretty big thing,” Castro said.

Their musical inspirations consist of bands like Black Flag and Bill Stevenson, Jean Krupa, and Papa Joe Jones.

When asked about the main goal of being a student-run band, Boland said, “We want people to hear our music as much as possible, but we really don’t care if we become famous. It’s not the main goal.” - The Foothill Dragon Press

Chill, fun, and good vibes are all adjectives you could use to describe Nucklehead, a new band in Ventura. The band consists of Ventura High seniors Trevor Carr and Noah Boland as well as Foothill Technology senior Zach Castro.
“I met Zach through a mutual friend, and I asked Noah if he wanted to come jam with us, and it worked out well,” Carr said about how the band formed. Carr plays the guitar and sings vocals, Boland plays bass and sings vocals, and Castro plays drums.
The group has recorded six original songs and published them online at Nucklehead.bandcamp.com. Their Instagram name is @nuckleheadofficial.
The group has recorded six original songs and published them online at Nucklehead.bandcamp.com. Click the icon to go to their instagram
Their first album, self-titled “Nucklehead,” has the following songs: “Get Away,” “Dreams,” “Time to Start,” “Poser,” “Burrito,” and “Heat.” They state that their music genre falls into surf punk.
The band has announced their upcoming gig is tonight, April 29, at 7 p.m. located at Foothill Technology High School’s art show. They are also hoping to play a show at the E.P. Foster Library in downtown Ventura soon.
Senior Jackson Reynosa states his view about the new band: “I think they’re a really upcoming band; it’s really exciting to see local bands form in this area. My buddy Noah Boland is in it, I think he’s an amazing musician, and I think they’re going to do great things because they already have an EP out already.”
The group practices in two locations: Zach’s red barn in his backyard and their ‘spot,’ located near Montalvo. - The Cougar Press

Three young Ventura natives have devoted their summer to creating their second album–a project that packs a punch in its lyrics, instrumentals, and energy.
The trio calls themselves nucklehead (with a lowercase “n”). The band is composed of VHS alumni Noah Boland and Trevor Carr, as well as Foothill Technology High School senior Zach Castro.
The band formed when a mutual friend of the bandmates suggested Carr (who plays guitar) and Castro (the drummer) jam together. Castro and Carr began making music in January of this year, but nucklehead wasn’t officially born until February, when Carr invited Boland (a multi-instrumentalist) to play bass in the band.
nucklehead showcased their unique talents for songwriting and their proficient skill at their respective instruments at their first gig, the Foothill Art Show on April 29, 2016. The band has since been a local favorite amongst friends and acquaintances.
Since then, they have scored gigs at Bombay Bar and Grill (where, at both shows, the crowds got too rowdy for venue security to handle, forcing the band to cut their sets short). They have also played a few house shows, at Discovery Ventura, and they also recently played at Rock City Studios in Camarillo and at Karen Reynosa’s block party.
nucklehead delivers a raw, genuine energy that won’t slow down for anyone. That’s why their shows are packed with vivacious kids who won’t stop moshing–even when security guards threaten to end the show early. Their music falls into the genres of power pop/punk, as well as surf punk and garage rock.
Their latest project, dubbed “Run Amok”, is a 9-song album that puts throwback punk jams in a unique light, but not without leaving room for catchy, reverb-heavy rock tunes.
It is the product of 18 separate trips to “the spot,” the studio in which nucklehead records music. According to Boland, each session ranged from 2-4 hours.
The first song, “Fall” is a fuzz-filled track that is reminiscent of old-school punk tunes. According t0 the band, it is an ode to nucklehead’s drummer; “Fall is about Castro with a concussion,” Carr commented.
Songs like “Enemy” capture the frenzy of punk rock without getting too frantic. Carr’s quick, riveting guitar solos are a seamless contrast to his effortless hooks in tracks like “In the Mind,” a hard hitting tune that combines overdriven fuzz guitar with jarring vocal hooks and clashing cymbals. Carr provides the raspy, growling vocals that open the door to the deranged universe of what he describes as “homeless people with schizophrenia.”
Track number four, “Seattle,” tells the tale of a love gone bad. It’s a quick, fun jam with guitar riffs that sound a little like Tijuana Panthers’ surfy tunes. This time, Castro provides the lyrics while vocalists Carr and Boland sing the powerful, angst-packed vocals.
“Have a Good Life,” the fifth track, is a pleasant shift in tempo and mood. While the rest of “Run Amok” is fast-paced, this slower song is strewn with clean, twangy guitar and bass until the pace quickens in the middle with catchy, staccato guitar chugs.
Boland provides the bumping bass, vocals, and lyrical genius behind this track. Castro succeeds in completing the song with tight, precise drumming.
When asked about the reason behind the change in mood, Boland stated that nucklehead has been “helped by Sasha and Seth from Massenger/Sweet Reaper a lot.” Seth Petterson and Sasha Green, also musicians from Ventura, have been mentors and influences to the band from early on.
Boland said, “Sasha was texting me some advice and said we should work on adding some variety into our set as far as tempo goes, and realizing the influences I have compared to Zach and Trevor, I figured… if anyone here is making the first slow song it’s probably gonna be me.” Castro and Carr are much more influenced by punk music, according to Boland.
He stated that “the song itself is influenced mostly by a band called Built to Spill, an alternative rock band from Boise, Idaho.”
The last four songs on the album are injected with hard hitting, hostile lyrics and funky, wavy bass lines and guitar riffs. Surf punk jams “Social” and “Never the Same” don’t sound unlike the Ventures or Jacuzzi Boys. “Mr. Big Talk” doesn’t hit as hard as its subsequent tracks, but nucklehead still nails the honest energy that punk rock encompasses.
The album finishes with a bang with the noisy tune “Public Icon,” in which Boland begins with a ominous, deep bassline backed with shrill amp noise. This attitude-packed track is comparable to songs like “Seeing Red” by Minor Threat (which is a considerable influence on the band, according to their bandcamp biography).
While Carr and Boland may not be American-Idol level singers, they sing with authenticity and honest emotion that lets the listener connect with their music. And many of their influences are not known for their singing abilities–bands like Bad Brains, Minor Threat, and the Descendents are popular because of their unapologetic punk attitude and blunt, rebellious lyrics.
When asked about the writing process, Carr stated that “ it’s always music first, lyrics second. Once we have the song down I’ll sing over it with whatever words that decide to come out, generally things that don’t make sense but help form a melody.” Carr also stated that the lyrics he writes are mostly “about things that are important to [him] or upset [him].”
As for the process of creating the album in general, nucklehead’s tenacious drummer Zach Castro commented that it “nearly killed [them].”
However, the band worked seamlessly together. Castro said that choosing “the cover and the name [of the album] probably would be the biggest issues.” Carr added that “it was all just fun to do… maybe just getting all of our busy schedules to match up [was an issue].”
When asked about “Run Amok,” Boland stated that “this album is the same as the last, we simply wanted to show people that we had new music, and we hoped they liked it. My goal was that the album would display maturity in song structure as well as vocal melodies, and I think we did a decent job with that.” He added that “the album was a much clearer representation of what [nucklehead] is capable of accomplishing.”
Boland stated that nucklehead’s album was influenced by bands like Dinosaur Jr., Descendents, X, Bad Brains, Built to Spill, Fuzz, and “Massenger, of course.”
Castro went on to say that “another inspiration [for creating the album] is to do something different. I feel as if the music we’ve created is so much different and creative than so much music that’s being made right now… so much music right now is so bloody boring, it kills me to know that the vast majority of people listen to the same boring stuff over and over again.”
As for the future of nucklehead, Boland stated that he “[hopes] more people know who [nucklehead is].” He is “stoked that people can finally be aware of what [the band] is playing live!”
While the band is stellar on recording, nothing beats seeing their tireless energy and moshable music live. You can catch nucklehead in the flesh at any (or all) of their upcoming shows. - The Cougar Press