Wichita’s TF Bundy will perform Friday, Oct. 25, at Wave on a bill with fellow local band Breeding Brainbow and headliners Social Cinema.
Together only a few years, TF Bundy has established itself as an exhilarating live force. In 2023, it issued its debut album, “Totally [expletive deleted] But Unfortunately Not Dead Yet,” the medical expression from which the band’s name is derived.
Drummer Matt Targos and bassist Jason Holman recently stopped by the KMUW studios to discuss some of the band’s history and a little bit about their friendship with Social Cinema.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You’re doing this show at Wave with Social Cinema. Tell me a little bit about the relationship you have with that band.
Matt Targos: It began a while ago, back when [three of the members were in] Kill Vargas. We got to tour with them a little bit. They moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, so we didn’t talk for a while, then some of them moved back. Me and [Social Cinema drummer] Logan [Bush] are geeks about music and politics surrounding that. We hang out periodically. He’s easy to work with. He works really fast, so he’ll [reach out and say], “Hey! Would you want to hop on this?”
Tell me a little bit about the differences in the band from when you first started and now.
Jason Holman: It just starts with being friends. Me and [Matt] work together, [vocalist] Tristan [Stateler] works with us, too. [Matt and I] work with each other day in, day out. We’re constantly talking about music, evolving in that way.
MT: We’ve always been close friends [and at one point] we found ourselves in a predicament where we could start a new [musical] project. This time around, we were able to curate our own lineup and see what we wanted to do. Just see who was in the community that we wanted to play with, which we’ve never really done in the past. Not meeting people at first but reaching out and saying, “Hey, would you want to see where this goes?” We’ve had a couple lineup changes and that’s brought on a lot of learning about how to … get back on the road, get back to work, where to put energy. For us, it’s always been rehearsing and writing songs and doing the touring stuff when we can, just loving to work and be friends first. We’re a tight group of friends, and I think that’s what we hold closest to our heart when it comes to playing music. If this band broke up, I’d probably just move away.
JH: [Laughs.]
MT: I’m running out of people to connect with.
JH: [Laughs.]
MT: That was a joke.
One thing that comes up a lot with musicians I talk to is that when you’re putting together a band, it’s important to find people you can spend long stretches of time within a vehicle and who you can handle crisis situations with. What happens when the van breaks down, and you’re 50 miles from anywhere, that kind of thing.
MT: You gotta learn to love the negative, gross aspects of peoples’ personalities.
JH: Realize when someone needs space. Give them space.
MT: And learning how to nurture that relationship. It’s about having more capacity for what other people need. Being in a band, a lot of the time, is learning how to talk, learning how to share. Learning how to communicate what your needs are and wants and then having an open ear for everybody else. Looking after one another. You feel kind of like a family if you can get to that point. And you for certain know when they don’t feel like family, too. And then it extends out into your community. Having that music community has taught me a lot about myself and how to conduct myself with interpersonal relationships. When I go out and see friends or familiar faces that I don’t get to see all the time, it grows questions so that I can gather information from other people and realize that a lot of us have very similar experiences when it comes to playing music and getting fed up with people but also learning how to be better.
One thing I’ve always enjoyed seeing is the way that people go from being fans of the music, to creating their own work. I can remember going to see shows and there would be young people in the audience watching their favorite local band and then, six months or a year later, they’re on the same stage, opening for the band that they used to go and watch. Did you have similar experiences?
MT: I’d say so. It was mainly going to ICT Fest at a young age, when you’re still in high school or seeing bands that are right out of high school that seem a lot older than you, and you’re, like, “Wow, they talked to me after the show.” Having that experience [gets you thinking], “Maybe it’s not so farfetched.” Then you put something together, and then you start to value your own ideas. You play live and [think], “Wow, that wasn’t that bad. No one showed up but you know what? That was great practice.”
Then it’s about, “How far do we want to take it?” And just being realistic about it. If you can get to that point where you can maintain your band [for a while], and you guys end up doing pretty well and meeting some of these people that you look up to [that’s great]. [For me, it was] playing with Carrie Nation and The Speakeasy. Meeting them and getting to know them has been really cool. They were one of those bands for me. I can remember watching them year after year at Halloween [and thinking], “Wow, they’re so cool. They’ve been a band forever.” You can’t plan those things out. You get into something and have passion. I like it when my friends do cool stuff.
