Buckets isn’t just another indie rock band from Los Angeles. The 4-piece group puts on an energetic and dynamic show, transforming ‘indie rock’ into something much more layered and refreshing. With a wide array of influences, this group of musicians came into each other's lives at just the right time. The band consists of Tanner Houghton on guitar and vocals, Sasha Massey on guitar, Mitch Rossiter on bass, and Hiram Sevilla on drums. Buckets graced one of Boise’s greatest stages on March 21 at Treefort Music Fest in downtown Boise. K-UTE Radio was lucky enough to catch their set at Neurolux, and was even luckier to sit down with them the following day at Boise Brewing to talk about their experiences. Check out the full interview below.

Bailey: So your Treefort set marks the half-way point of your ‘Good Luck Tour’, how’s it been so far?

Tanner: We’ve had some good shows and had some okay shows, and it’s been a lot of fun. Seattle is always fun because that’s where me and Sasha are from so our family and old friends come out.

Jules: You two met in Seattle, where are you all originally from?

Sasha: Tanner and I are both from Washington

Mitch: Ohio, born and raised in Toledo.

Hiram: Sonora, Mexico.

Jules: You were telling us earlier you all met in Los Angeles, what’s the Buckets origin story?

Tanner: I moved to LA with an old project called Follies & Vices. It was a pop project and Sasha and I were working with a producer in LA. Then we needed a drummer for our live shows, so I put up a craigslist ad and his wife (points to Hiram) saw it on craigslist and told him he should reach out. We got like 10 video auditions and he was one of them, and he just looked so cool and he was killing it.

Hiram: I didn’t even have to audition.

Tanner: Yea he didn’t. I was like dude you’re handsome. And then I met Mitch at a party that I went to by myself, which is very out of character for me. I told him about our project, and Mitch was all drunk and he said “I’m not going to stop bugging you until you let me play bass in your band! I’m your f***ing bassist”.

Mitch: They were playing as two guitars and a drummer and I said “these songs are great, why is there no f***ing bass?” So I had booked them and was running sound for them, and then one day I was like “I’m just going to play bass for you guys”.

Bailey: What was the timeline from y’all getting together to the release of your project in 2021?

Mitch: We played two shows all together in late 2019, but then covid hit, so after two decent shows we had to figure out how to move forward with the project. Tanner and Sasha held up in their apartment that they lived in together and recorded basically the full record. We were tracking drums and I tracked my bass in my apartment, so we were kind of recording remotely. 

Tanner: It was fun, it was a huge learning experience for me and Sasha. We’ve never produced a full project like that before, so it was a lot of trial and error and a lot of fun.

Mitch: We basically spent the whole year of 2020 crafting the songs since it was all home recordings and self-produced. We had a couple different people work on mixes for different singles, so it was kind of hodge-podged together. And then finally at the end of 2020/early 2021, we pushed it out and actually had music out.

Jules: Do you have a lot of similar musical influences to one another or is there a wide range of what you listen to?

Sasha: There’s definitely a lot of overlap between us all but we have our varying niche things.

Tanner: They make fun of me for not knowing anybody.

Mitch: He doesn’t know a single musician.

Tanner: That’s why I like this festival, besides PHF I don’t know anybody. I’m just following them around like a puppy dog.

Sasha: Well you know Built to Spill.

Tanner: I know Built to Spill, yeah yeah.

Mitch: There’s venn diagrams between each of us. Like Hiram and I listen to a lot of the same punk bands, and Sasha and I listen to a lot of the same weirdo-experimental music, and Tanner’s more pop and hip-hop leaning.

Jules: You guys have a really interesting sound. You definitely have a midwest emo thing going on but it’s also much more layered than that, how would you describe your sound?

Mitch: That’s definitely an influence. We try not to hit the nail too much on the head with midwest emo, because you can easily fall into that and then get kind of pigeonholed into the emo world. 

Tanner: We got some Washington twang.

Sasha: I used to play in a math rock band back in the day in Seattle so I see some of that come through as well.

Jules: Are you currently working on any new music?

Tanner: Yeah we’ve been working on songs we put together right before we left for tour. We’ve been playing them to see how they do, how we do, see if people like it, etc.

Mitch: We’re working on LP 2 essentially. We don’t have a full tracklist or anything, but we’re about halfway there.

Tanner: It’s hard because we’re all so busy and then when we get together we’re practicing and rehearsing for the next show. There’s not a lot of time to sit and write together. It’s been a busy couple months.

Bailey: How has your sound or style changed from your first self-titled EP to your most recent album?

Sasha: I think we wanted this record to sound a lot more live. There’s a lot more full straight-through takes of everything, whereas the first LP was more so in-the-box. 

Tanner: I’m looking forward to leaning into that for our next record too. 

Mitch: We play better when we play live.

Tanner: It’s a bittersweet compliment when people are like “it’s way better live than your f***ing records”. 

Hiram: What was your impression of our show last night? 

Bailey: When y’all played “Better”, I immediately was like holy f***. As a reflection of hearing it a bunch of times on Spotify and then hearing just the beginning, I was like oh this is it. This is picture perfect. 

Jules: It’s like seeing it in 2D versus 3D. Hearing it in person was a 3D experience and it was awesome. 

Bailey: Especially because a lot of people know how you have the soft/loud dynamic, and that shined through very nicely live, as it should.