Interview With Bryan Fontez of Last Bullet

Last Bullet is more than just a band, it's an experience..an experience you don't want to miss!

We had the pleasure to sit down with Bryan Fontez of  Last Bullet and get the latest scoop on the band and what they have in store for us for the future!

1. Tell us a little bit about how Last Bullet got started.

Long story short, our lead guitarist Brenden and our original drummer Leo went to high school together, they met our rhythm guitarist Mike through friends and started jamming for fun in 2008 with no specific aspirations of starting a band.

After writing and jamming a few songs they decided to put an ad on craigslist for a bass player, the first and only guy who answered is our current bass player Will, then they posted up flyers all over Toronto looking for a singer. 9 months and a handful of horrendous auditions later I called, they answered, we were together for about 5 years, our drummer Leo decided this career choice wasn’t for him, Chris took his place in Summer 2014 and we’ve been together ever since.

2. You just released a music video for your new single "Sin". We heard that "Sin" was filmed in the 24th floor attic of Toronto's historical landmark the Fairmont Royal York Hotel (the 1929 built setting for Saw 5). What was this like and what made you want to film in this location?

Thanks! I really wanted the video to convey the grit and heaviness of the song, so I began looking for some really decrepit, abandoned, broken down places to shoot. I stumbled upon a particular spot online that looked old, beat up, and full of character. We soon found out that it was actually the attic of the 87 year old historical landmark in Toronto known as the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. The song has a lot of darker socio-political themes so I wanted that intensity reflected visually.

Shoot day was EXTREMELY exhausting. It was one of the most tiring things we’ve ever done as a band and had we not had the help of even one of our friends we could not have done it. The attic was on the 24th floor, the elevators only went to 19, so we had to do 8-9 elevator trips to the 19th floor and then about 50+ trips up and down 12 flights of stairs hand-bombing individual pieces of equipment. We started at 7/8am and didn’t begin filming until 1pm, we finished at 6pm and then tore down and repeated the entire process again but in reverse.

3. Tell us about "sin" and the idea behind it.

“Sin” was a song that came out of our love for the kind of filthy hard rock that doesn’t seem to exist in mainstream music anymore. Among many others Velvet Revolver has been such a huge influence on us as a band. They have the perfect mix of sleaze, aggression, blues and soul, which has always been a huge inspiration to us. So it’s no coincidence that one day on the way to work I happened to be going back and forth between “Slither” and “She Builds Quick Machines” trying to figure out what it is exactly that makes those songs so great.

I tend to get so inspired by certain songs that I make it my mission to create my own version of them. I quickly realized that both songs had a pretty fast tempo, a very iconic but simple guitar riff, and a super catchy chorus, so I started there and came up with a very simple 3 note guitar riff that repeats itself as a triplet in 4/4 time. I’m not a guitarist by any means so our lead guitarist Brenden brilliantly came up with pretty much all the other guitars parts in the song and filled in the gaps.

The song began to take on a somewhat darker tone, which reminded us of more aggressive songs by bands like Alice In Chains and Stone Temple Pilots. We never try to force a song to be something that it’s not, so I made it my goal to channel that edgier vibe when it came to the lyrics and vocals. The lyrics are about society and how we've become more ignorant, naive and lacking in common sense than ever before. The lyrics depict a world that is choosing to ignore the consequences of their actions and would rather continue shooting themselves in the foot than be a part of the solution.

4. What has been your greatest accomplishment and challenge as a band thus far?

Our greatest accomplishment? Staying together for 7 years. Our greatest challenge? Staying together for 7 years lol. No I'd say that we've had a lot of accomplishments that we consider small because we know the potential of this band and our goals are very big. I would say that opening for Buckcherry is one of them, playing Dundas Square in Toronto in front of thousands would be another and having one of our songs used as the intro for the Canadian Gold Medal Hockey game which was broadcast across Canada to 40 million people or so, that was amazing.

Our biggest challenge has been learning from our mistakes, figuring out how to make this band more successful, profitable, efficient, etc. We're always trying to improve in all areas which can be a daunting task because we do everything ourselves.

5.  What can fans expect for the future?

Fans can expect a lot of new music, a ton of great shows, a few tours and who knows what else. We've got a lot of awesome stuff planned this year and I'm sure more will just pop up as things move along.

6. Any last words for your fans and Cupcakes and Crossbones viewers?

Thank you for featuring us! We really appreciate it. Thanks to everyone for reading, if you're interested in getting to know us better, you can visit LastBulletMusic.com for more info, music, show dates, videos and our new online store that we just launched yesterday. Keep in touch and keep rockin \m/

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