Getting to Know… Bridge The Gap | Interview 🎤

In the 384^th Q&A in our Getting to Know… series, we get the inside scoop from the skate punk rock band, Bridge The Gap.

“Since we released our debut album, Secret Kombinations back in March, we’ve received a lot of feedback about us having a uniquely 90s melodic punk sound.” Rock on 🤘, 🎙 Bridge The Gap! Vocalist, guitarist 🎸, and question answerer 🎙 Chad Jensen adds, “There’s a lot of great contemporary skate-punk out there, but that might be what makes us unique.” Like our many other Getting to Know Q&As, we get the inside scoop on…: genesis, goals, musical influences, and of course, current, and future musical endeavors. So, without further ado, let’s jump right into 🎤 Getting to Know… Bridge The Gap: Interview No. 384!

For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes Bridge The Gap distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

That’s tough to answer without sounding pretentious. I’ll say that since we released our debut album 💿 Secret Kombinations back in March, we’ve received a lot of feedback about us having a uniquely ‘90s melodic punk sound. There’s a lot of great contemporary skate-punk out there, but that might be what makes us unique. But we’re not reinventing the wheel or anything. It’s punk rock.

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Bridge The Gap form and what were some of the goals or visions you had early on?

Bridge The Gap rose out of the ashes of our previous band, UNFOLD, which broke up in 2006. After years apart starting careers and families, we all circled back to start a new band because I had continued to write songs and went on a furious streak of demoing them in my home studio. I’d email them to the guys for feedback and that was supposed to be that. Then our lead guitarist, 🎸 Jeff Andrews, suggested that we “do something” with the songs. And that started a conversation about what that might mean. We ultimately decided to swing for the fences, and we reached out to one of our musical heroes Bill Stevenson (Rise Against/ Descendents /NOFX) about producing an album for us at The Blasting Room and sent him the songs. He was down and next thing we knew, we were in Fort Collins, CO, recording a 13-song album. We didn’t have a vision for the band, per se. It didn’t even become a ‘band’ until after we got the initial mixes back and realized it was good. Bridge The Gap was born. We kind of approached things bass-ackward.

Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

Our goals have definitely changed and while our perspectives are mostly consistent, dating back to UNFOLD in the ‘90s and early ‘00s, nearly two decades will, hopefully, add a little wisdom to one’s outlook. Our goal starting out in the ‘90s was to ‘make it.’ To us, that didn’t mean becoming rock stars. It meant living off the music and not having to work jobs if our wildest dreams came true. Nowadays, our goals are to have a lot of fun making art and really living the experience of creation, and seeing where things go. We’re not trying to set the world on fire. We tried that back in the day and the Universe said no. So, we’re doing it now because we absolutely love it and we’re letting that ethos be the guide.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Whom would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

My biggest musical influences as a songwriter would be as follows: Brett Gurewitz and Greg Graffin of Bad Religion, Jim Cherry (Strung Out/Pulley/Zero Down), Bill Stevenson (Descendents/ALL), Fat Mike (NOFX), Pennywise, and Russ Rankin (Good Riddance). As a band, not everyone is as doggedly obsessed with listening to melodic punk as I am, with the exception of our drummer, 🥁 Ryan Thompson. We share that neurosis, Ryan and I. But guys in the band dig Gregory Alan Isakov, to Slayer, to Silver Sun Pickups, to Metric, and Silverstein.

Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

Man, I have so many memories of playing music for nearly 30 years. On tour in Oregon, we got into a fight as a band when we’d decided to go camp up on Mt. Hood on a night off between Portland and Eugene that left my picking hand sprained and immobile and another member of the band bloody and bruised up. It all happened close to our tour van. When we came down off the mountain and stopped at a gas station for provisions and to clean up, the outside of our van looked like we’d slaughtered an animal in the wilderness or something, with bloody handprints on the white exterior and blood streaks all over. It was hilarious. We didn’t clean up the van and left people to wonder about these Utah troglodytes as we continued on tour.

Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

That would be 🎵 “Whippersnapper”, which is a song written to our children. It’s a musical last will and testament. Like, if I got hit by a bus tomorrow morning and I never got to see or talk to my kids again, they’d always have that song to listen to for strength, comfort, and direction. It’s a meaningful song to each of us. Live, it’s always a blast performing 🎵 “My Creation”, which was our first single and easily our most streamed song. People at our shows go off on that song.

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

Our bass player, 🎸 Shon Foster,  is an elite chef 🧑‍🍳 and the reigning Chef of the Year in Utah. He owns and operates several restaurants, but his baby is 🍽️ Sego in Kanab, UT. He’s also a trained engineer, assisting on several Epitaph and Fat Wreck Chords albums 20-plus years ago, including Pennywise, Deviates, Strung Out, and 98 Mute. Our lead guitarist, Jeff, is an architect, and our drummer, Ryan, is a bad ass skater 🛹.

Closing out, what is Bridge The Gap currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure.   

On the heels of dropping our debut album, 💿 Secret Kombinations in March [2023], we just released a new single on October 31 entitled,  🎵 “Revenant”. We’re working on booking more live dates and most of our focus right now is writing songs for a new record for 2024.

Thank you so much for sharing and taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward.

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Getting to Know… Bridge The Gap: Interview No. 384 [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Bridge The Gap; Tumisu via Pixabay]