Bearded Gentlemen Music interviews Bite Me Bambi Member, Mike Berault.
To understand my love of ska is to understand where I was living when I first learned what ska was. The year was 1995. The place was Southern California. I had just moved to California after living overseas for three years. Sure, I knew who Madness was because of “One Step Beyond,” but that was just ‘80s music to me at the time. In California, I started to hear bands like No Doubt and Sublime and Reel Big Fish. Those bands led me to Less Than Jake and the Suicide Machines and the Specials, which led me to Desmond Dekker and the Skatalites. If it wasn’t for the Orange County ska explosion, I wouldn’t have spent the last 25 years of my life being obsessed with ska music. It was because of all those bands in OC that I learned about the First Wave and 2 Tone. It was almost serendipitous that I found myself in California when I did.