Bruce Kubel - Acoustic Guitar & Lead Vocals of the New Pioneers

Interview with Bruce Kubel - Acoustic Guitar & Lead Vocals of the New Pioneers
By Paul Dale Roberts, HPI General Manager & Esoteric Entertainment Guy
http://www.hpiparanormal.net

Question: Bruce, before we really get into the guts of this interview, can you please tell me
something personal about yourself? Your family life, schools you attended, hobbies and
recreational activities.

Answer: I am the last child in a family of 4 brothers & sisters, however I grew up as an only
child since I am 10 years younger than my closest sibling. I grew up under the rules and
regulations of a retired Naval captain as my father, so I am sure you can imagine how that
was. I graduated from La Jolla High in 1981 and then graduated from the University of San
Diego (USD) in 1985. My hobbies are watching sports and playing music.

Question: I feel very close to you, since my brother Andy used to go out with your first
cousin...LOL! True story, but all kidding aside, you were telling me that you were raised in
La Jolla and that Dr. Seuss was your neighbor, can you elaborate on this?

Answer: Yeah, I know that is weird about your brother and my cousin...Dr. Seuss lived two
blocks above me in La Jolla, (San Diego County) and would invite all the kids over for
Halloween and serve us doughnuts and soda pop. The license plate on his Cadillac Seville
read: "Grinch". He was a really nice guy.

Question: What other famous neighbors did you have?

Answer: Well they may not have all been neighbors but many famous people graduated
from my high school. The most famous being Raquel Welch. I also knew Robin Wright
Penn of "Forrest Gump" and Gregor Verbinski who ended up directing Pirates of the
Caribbean.

Question: Were you influenced by your famous neighbors and if you were, can you explain
exactly who was your inspiration?

Answer:Bing Crosby's nephew, Robin Crosby, guitarist of the band RATT, lived down the
street from me. He was 5 years older than me and as a kid I'd see him playing his cool
guitar with his cool hair in his garage and wanted to emulate that. He ended up being a
really cool guy.

Question: In high school, you used to go to all the La Jolla parties, can you tell us some a
funny moment about one?

Answer: One night I went to two parties and Alberto's Taco shop afterwards, with one of my
good friends. At the second party, we had climbed up to a loft and were smoking out of a
hookah with 6 other people. On the way home from partying and Alberto's my friend puked
in my Porsche. In the morning when I told him to clean it up, he denied having ever done it!
When I told him it was after we ate Alberto's his reply was, "We didn't eat at Alberto's".
"Yeah, we did", I said. It was after the second party where we smoked the hookah!" I said.
His reply was "We only went to ONE party bro."

Question: When did the New Pioneers start? Why did you choose the name 'New
Pioneers'?
I know a lot of questions, but I want a lot of answers!!

Answer: New Pioneers started in 1994. It's a spinal tap influence as to why we named
ourselves the New Pioneers. New and Pioneer are redundant, and that made us laugh.
We started out in Granite Bay, CA.

Question: I heard your band was a favorite for Monica Lowe from 100.5. Did your band do
a commercial about Monica Lowe? Can you elaborate?

Answer: It wasn't really a commercial but more so an intro and outro to her daily radio show.
She seemed to like it as she used it every day. We didn't make any money off of it.. but
that's normal and plus she's really cool.

Question: I heard you played big shows for radio station KWOD 106.5's Boomer & The
Dave. I heard you played with The Fly's and played a show with Tiffany 80's pop star, and
Wil Wheaton from Star Trek. Again, can you elaborate?

Answer: Yes we did. Tiffany and Wil Wheaton were really nice and we also did a meet and
greet with them in the early am for KWOD. Boomer & The Dave were their long running AM
DJ's, and they had this yearly celebration called "Boomer & The Dave Day". It was crazy
day, they shaved this one guy's back on TV for charity and we played a show with The
Fly's. Those guys that did the song, "Got you Where I Want you" with Katie Holmes in the
video.

Question: I was told that the band members are: Bruce Kubel- Acoustic guitar & lead
vocals, Frankie Panetta- Lead guitar, Rob Fisher, Bass and you are looking for a
drummer..is that correct or am I just whistling Dixie?

Answer: We immediately found a new drummer, he's great, we bought him off Craigslist. His
name is John "Joby" Bullock. Our old drummer blew up on stage/ self combusted.

Question: I heard you have been a musician since high school and you played with bands
like The Boogiemen, The Rain and of course The New Pioneers.

Answer: I played in my first band when I was sixteen, we were called,"Tyrant". We covered
songs by Led Zepplin, Judas Priest, Aerosmith, Stones, etc. It was super fun and helped
me score chicks. The other three bands you mentioned, we played/play our own songs,
originals you'd call it. Here are a couple of tunes by my old band The Boogiemen.









Question: Bruce, you being a big George Bush fan....okay....stop throwing bricks at me for
crying out loud, it just sounded good...geesh! Okay, onto another subject. What made you
want to start the New Pioneers again?

Answer: I was asked to play some songs by some of my musician buddies for my High
School Reunion. My wife got bummed out that she was not going to be able to attend. In
haste, I said too her," If you want to hear me play so badly, just get the New Pioneers back
together". Well, that took all of two hours to set up. If you know my wife, you know what I
mean...and I think you do. Our original drummer was in at first, but then backed out, so, we
moved forward and got a new drummer. Now, here we are...

Question: I hear your reunion show is on December 3rd, 2011 can you give me some more
information about that?

Answer: Yeah,our reunion gig is December 3 at Shenanigan's on J. Street & 7th in
Sacramento. The place is really cool, it has a good size stage upstairs with a sports bar
feel, and downstairs it looks like an L.A. Club. We love the place. We'll be playing with this
band called "Carly DuHain", we can't wait. We are also "giving away $100 bills". Have you
RSVP'd yet, Paul?

Question: What kind of music will you be playing? I like songs that the Firefly family (Devil's
Rejects) like...you know...Lynyrd Skynyrd' Freebird..do you play songs like that?

Answer: If you like Lynyrd Skynyrd you might like us. We're not Southern Rock but some of
our songs have a country feel like, "Country Song".

Question: What made you interested in playing the acoustic guitar and singing?

Answer: Acoustic guitar is very conducive to song writing which is my main forte'.

Question: How can people contact you..do you have a website?

Answer: http://www.NewPioneersBand.com and for booking you can contact my
wife/manager, Shannon McCabe on our Contact page.

Question: On a personal note, what are your favorite TV shows, movies, books, etc.?

Answer: TV Shows are all cartoons: Archer, South Park, Futurama, King of the Hill, Beavis &
Butthead. Movies: Guys & Dolls, Wuthering Heights, Idocracy, The Other Guys, Pride of
the Yankee's, Napoleon Dynamite. Books are: A Separate Peace, Tom Sawyer, The
Hunger Games Trilogy.

Question: If you had 6 dinner guests, 3 fictional and 3 historical, who would they be and
why?

Answer: Historical: Mozart, George S. Patton, Lou Gehrig. Fictional: Santa Claus, Iron Man,
Flash Gordon. Flash & Iron Man because they were my favorite comic books. Who
wouldn't want to hang with Santa, and Motzart is the greatest musician ever...EVER. Lou
Gehrig is my childhood idol, and Patton just plain kicks ass.

Question: If you were stranded on a deserted island, what 3 things would you bring with
you and why?

Answer: A lighter, my wife and dog, Rocket.

Question: Thank you for this fabulous interview, is there anything I am missing, that I
should have asked you? If not, do you have any words of wisdom for your readers?

Answer: Thank you for the interview. Words of wisdom: Make sure to drink your Ovaltine
and on a serious note... come to our show! You must hear my songs and then you can
philosophise! LOL
Love This Time of Year
The Boogiemen
Someone to Call my Own
The Boogiemen