Meet Brandon Rauch | Musician/Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brandon Rauch and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brandon, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Risk is everything. How can one truly excel in any facet of their lives if they’re not willing to take a risk? I think people always identify risk with something monumental when in reality that tiny little risk you take can greatly affect your life. You have to wake up every day and do something different from the previous day, we’re human, we need change, we need risk, we can’t be static. As a band, touring is a huge risk. We spend most of our time traveling to play 45 minutes of music, not knowing if anyone will come to the show or care, yet the risk is always worth it. It can suck financially, you will be exhausted, maybe you got some weird venereal disease from the last town you played in (that’s a risk in itself), but that feeling of showing your art and craft to people in person, where everything can go wrong, is so worth it. You have to take a risk if you want to believe in yourself. Self-doubt is, unfortunately, a huge recoil from modern technology. You have to risk not caring what anyone else thinks and know what you are bringing to the table is unique to yourself and if you truly believe in yourself, you can move past the self-doubting, and now you’ve created a mini world for yourself that you can be free in. Take that risk and believe in yourself.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Hmmm what sets us apart? We’re the only band to ever be called JUGGS I think hahah. I’m mostly excited that music is my life. I’m so lucky I do this as a living, I didn’t think that was possible, but here I am! I am the absolute worst at looking back and saying “well I did this so I ended up here because of that”, but I made my passion my obsession, and my obsession is now my career, and I can be a designated lunatic and still strive forward as a functioning person. None of this is easy. It’s just about being consistent in your work ethic and forming good, long-lasting relationships. #1 lesson is to be kind and open to new ideas. All of us have our strengths and weaknesses so being able to collaborate with people who share a common goal is a great way to start. It’s not very fun to do everything yourself, so being open to people’s ideas who you respect just makes everything better. I just want people to know JUGGS is a place they can come escape to. We don’t want to tell you who to vote for or what to buy, just come to a show or put our music on and tune out and enjoy yourself.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I think I’d re-enact the scene from Repo Man where Harry Stanton and Emilio Esteves are doing speed in their car sneering at “ordinary fuckin people!” and then drive around skid row all night. Or go to the Monty Bar and dance to post-punk and industrial music…or take a nice 8-mile hike out in Malibu.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
For starters, I have to thank Willem, my bandmate for even going down this path with me and all our friends who have been part of our sessions to brutally tell us if something we’re doing sucks or is awesome. Harry our manager, and of course our label Creation records. Alan Mcgee (Creation) has put out some of our favorite music and it’s an honor to be part of his roster alongside Primal Scream, The Cramps. Jesus and Mary Chain, just to name a few. I’d also like to give a huge thank you to John Waters for being the most inspiring person to make us feel cool for pursuing a path as weirdo musicians. And thank you to Zander Schloss (Joe Strummer, the Circle Jerks, The Weirdos) for being a mentor and sharing his stories of punk legend and helping to guide me as a musician. Most importantly, my mom for letting me play ridiculously loud music as a kid in her garage.

Website: https://linktr.ee/JUGGS
Instagram: www.instagram.com/juggstagram
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/juggsmusic