The Bouncing Souls
On tour this year to celebrate the new Born To Be, The Bouncing Souls has also been playing songs off three of their classics, which are celebrating milestone anniversaries Maniacal Laughter (30), How I Spent My Summer Vacation (25), and The Gold Record (20) in 2026.
We caught up with vocalist Greg Attonito to discuss how making records has changed for the band over their 30+ year career.
Scene Point Blank: How did Bouncing Souls approach songwriting and recording when the anniversary albums were made vs the new Born To Be?
Greg Attonito: For roughly the first 20 years we wrote songs in the jam room together...usually rocking out at full volume. Later we realized it was sometimes good to hash out ideas on an acoustic before getting loud. It could go either way.
The biggest difference between that time and writing/recording Born To Be was having Will Yip, our producer, involved in the process. For Born To Be we came into the studio with a few lyric ideas and some verses/choruses. Will has an amazing and positive creative presence, which can really catapult a song into existence and capture some spontaneity. Will is really good at helping us make choices without fussing which makes the process more fun. I think you can feel that in the recordings.
Scene Point Blank: Bands have to walk a tightrope of "it sounds too similar to the last one" vs "they all sound the same." I feel like you've straddled that line very well over 30+ years. Do you think about it consciously, or is the answer "just be yourself"?
Greg Attonito: Thanks. It’s a little of both. “Just be yourself” is a little tricky because that’s not really easy to define when it comes to creativity. I think once we found “our sound” in songs like “Joe Lies,” “Lamar Vannoy” then, later, evolving into “Hopeless Romantic” and “True Believers,” we enjoyed a comfort in that place for a while. That was nice, but only for a little while. Nothing stays the same so we started tinkering and pushing boundaries a little on each record. There's always room for 2 or 3 weirdos on a record. Or songs we feel weird about but might not be at all. There has to be room to explore in my opinion.
Scene Point Blank: You've always had a positive lyrical spin in a scene that tends to lean more cynical. Why?
Greg Attonito: I think it’s our approach to life as individuals and as a group. We started out as a party band. We wanted to have a good time with friends. It seemed weird to us there were so many serious bands out there. It still does. We want to get onstage and uplift ourselves and maybe someone else in a deep spiritual kind of way. If you write a song about throwing a toilet off a roof you can immediately be perceived as a real boneheaded band. I think the people that don’t catch the spirit of that might be boneheads. What else are we doing out here, if we are not lifting or at least attempting to lift each other up?
Scene Point Blank: "As One" stands out on the new album. It's political but not preachy. Historically, I feel like you've focused more on personal lyrics and non-topical subjects. What inspired this one and how did you approach the lyrical angle in that song?
Greg Attonito: The lyrics to this song were written primarily by Bryan. The music concept came from Pete. Bryan was very inspired by The Clash with the lyrics and we kind of tried to run with that. We have tried and failed to write a Clash-inspired song in the past but this one works and it seems to land really well live.
Everyone is being political at all times, whether they want to be or not. How you interact, what you buy, how you invest your time and energy all has an impact one way or another in the energy on earth. We’ve done our best to live consciously in that way since we were kids. It’s a practice and a learning curve every moment. I think Bryan wanted to touch on some of the world issues but still hold onto that awareness and infuse some of that into the song. We talk about the crap of the world and the beautiful stuff a lot. We really give a shit when we are writing, so hopefully thats what comes through regardless.
Scene Point Blank: George Rebelo is from Gainesville so you have a Gainesville connection. Do you remember first meeting George?
Greg Attonito: I do remember the first time I really connected with George. I’m pretty sure it was when the Souls and Hot Water Music were on a summer tour across Canada. We were sitting backstage staring across the room at each other and ended up chatting one on one for the first time. We talked about music and he mentioned how he had been getting somewhat annoyed by the influx of pop punk bands at the time. He kind of had us in that bag until we toured together and said how much we weren’t like the rest. Something along those lines. I told him I was equally annoyed by some annoying pop punk bands at the time -- after that it was buds forever. The two bands also all witnessed an amazing display of the aurora borealis during an overnight drive through remote Canada. It was an epic broment.
