PROMOTING A BAD INFLUENCE Local Band is Rocking East County
	APRIL 2005

by Michael Mandy
Photos by Russell Byrne

I played for a few years with a San Francisco based band, which forced me to drive 3-4 nights a week to the City for rehearsal, and then driving to gigs in places as far off as Chico or Santa Rosa. That was a long and tiring commute! Finding Bad Influence in Byron, of all places, with its nonexistent commute, exerted a dramatic and positive effect on my quality of life. More than that, however, Bad Influence is a team effort, permitting me to play music I really like myself — that I even help compose — instead of forcing me to follow the lyrics and a set of chord progressions that someone sticks in front of me.

Bad Influence has been rocking East County and beyond since February 2001 when Dean Kaler founded the band. Our audiences come to really respect our music — in part because we have a couple of actual roadies who really travel to gigs with us. Mike Batchelor is in charge of getting as many decibels as possible out of our kick-butt sound system and Jeff Perry manages our special effects-dominated lighting systems.

In with Both Feet and Sometimes Over our Heads
Bad Influence is no hobby, but is a central life issue for each of us. We’re a bunch of married guys and the band is like our mistress. We’re basically committed to our wives and family but they all know that we’re also profoundly dedicated to Bad Influence. Our passion also comes through during our performances. We don’t simply stand on a stage and stare at our feet while playing; we have a high-energy and compelling performance style. We put on a show complete with lights, fog, and choreographed movements.

We received a tremendous validation last fall when we competed with thousands of bands in the Cabo Wabo Cantina’s National Band competition. The contest was a lot of fun and a lot of work. We would line the stage with empty Cabo Wabo bottles (from our personal collection). Contest promoters wanted us to upload a lot of photos, so we passed the empty bottles out to the front rows and took pictures. We made it look like our fans were having a lot of fun with a whole lot of Cabo Wabo tequila. …Well, half of that was true, at least.

We rode Bad Influence right down to the national battle of the final six bands and took home an unofficial second place, which was gratifying. Sammy Hagar, himself, said he thought we were best! We sure don’t want to argue with him because we can only assume that he knew what he was talking about!

The final battle was conducted at the Sacramento Hard Rock Café, where we were given a half-hour, during which we played six original songs. The final decision was by a vote by the people who were there. Bad Influence doesn’t have a lot of fans in Sacramento so we rented a bus, and sold tickets to the event. We made it a big fun party and filled the bus with 40 screaming people who showed up at the event, all wearing our black Bad Influence t-shirts.

We took home a bunch of awards and prizes, including a guitar autographed by Sammy Hagar, an amp, and a $300 gift certificate for CD duplication. In addition, each of us was given a Nokia cell phone, plus a $300 gift certificate to Hard Rock Café.

The Boys in the Band
All of us in Bad Influence are seasoned veterans who have been around the barn enough times that we no longer have any doubts about who we are nor any confusion about what we’re doing. Marc can say things like “Key of E-flat up to the bridge, then move to the dominant key and bring it home with an E-flat dominant seven,” without any of us going goggle-eyed on him.

Gage Courtois is our lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist. Gage picked up his first guitar at age 15 and played the high school garage band circuit through the rest of his teen years. As a member of Bad Influence, Gage is living his dream of singing and playing in a rock ’n’ roll band. His Zen place is up on a stage in front of a group of people who are having fun jumping up and getting down with his music.

Dean Kaler has always been our drummer, besides our landlord. He’s been banging on skins since a boyhood friend showed him how to play the drums more than two decades ago. He teamed up for a few years with Mel Snipes in a band called Confusion and then started Bad Influence after Confusion broke up. By the way, Dean’s wife, Sara, plays the role of scheduling manager, PR director, team cheerleader, and virtual mom. She talks us up and cheers us up. She’s “there for us” to an amazing degree.

Marc Petak, our lead guitarist, has been picking and shredding for more than 30 years, and has played in numerous bands in the area, opening for notables such as Greg Kihn and for Y & T — back when they still called themselves Yesterday & Today. Marc played in the band Germhead for ten years, traveling all over the state to promote their original music. One Germhead song, called “Was She Yours?” was featured in a nationally broadcast PBS Documentary about the history of the Barbie Doll. Marc hooked up with Bad Influence, he says, to re-kindle the rush that he gets when “playing kick-butt rock,” to paraphrase his colorful depiction of our music.

Michael Mandy (me). I’m the band’s bass guitarist. I majored in Music Recording, and Sound Engineering at USC in Los Angeles, with a Minor in Jazz Guitar. While still in school I worked at various times for Dick Clark Productions, Pasha Records, and was an engineer at Pasha’s Recording Studio. In 1988, I actually studied for a while at Hollywood’s famed Musician’s Institute. I’ve performed on the Cable Access TV channels in Pacifica and Palo Alto. I was featured on 107.7 FM (The Bone), on their morning Local Band program, and played the County Fair circuit including Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Mateo counties.

We don’t cover other band’s songs very often, but generally perform our own original music. We spend a lot of time learning other bands’ styles and songs because that helps us to discover our own unique sound. We then take time to write music to our own style. Gage does a lot of the lyrics; Marc is the germ-head and our riffmeister. Marc will often provide an idea and Gage a theme. In fact, we often all work together and develop a song by bouncing ideas off one another. Other people get involved, as well. Sara helped write one of our songs, and my wife, Aurora, another.

Our processes of composition are really incredible sometimes, because we are all coming from different places, which creates a lot of depth in our repertoire. Gage listens to a lot of modern stuff, for example, while I’m stuck in the 80s. Marc likes to be busy — playing something, pushing, improvising. He wants songs to get busier; I want them simpler. It’s a great thing! Some of our songs are the results of genuine synergy — the product turns out to be a piece of greater energy and excellence than the sum of the parts that we brought together to make it happen.

Already Having Fun
We don’t have a lot of detailed plans for the future; we’re trying to get through the next year. We want to put out a new disc this year, and every year from now on. Someday we intend to have our own section in Tower Records, right before Bad Religion and right after Bad English. Not just in the B section! Our own card! That would really be bad! Once that happens to any band, it knows that it has arrived. It is the equivalent in the music industry of an actor having his or her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Right now we have a four-song demo CD as well as merchandise available on our website, at www.mybadinfluence.com, including t-shirts, tank tops, and thongs. You can also view more photos of the band than you probably would ever care to see.

People ask about our name. We were together with our families in one of the early gatherings. Sara Kaler was serving drinks to the other wives and trying to get their kids to play video games. “Sara, you’re a bad influence,” I said. We all busted out laughing and it dawned on us that we had found the band’s name. This band is all about having fun and providing people a release-valve from the daily grind. We put on a show designed to make it worth people’s time to come to our concerts. We’re meeting a need and helping to bring some nightlife to the area.

We’ve actually had problems with being too popular. Union Jack Pub in Pleasanton won’t let us back. Too many people come when we’re there — and then they don’t want to leave. The place only holds 80 patrons and 120 fans would end up standing around laughing, cheering, and dancing. A big line would form at the door; nobody could get in until someone left. Dean went out for a smoke one time and guys started jumping up and down trying to take his place in the building. “Can any of you guys play drums?” he asked. I guess we’re moving our audiences the way rock was designed to move them. Paul Stanley, himself, would approve of the way we’re rock’n East County these days.

I will conclude by saying that there’s really nothing in our name. We’re not actually a bad influence, at all. We’re just a buncha guys having fun with music and helping others to have fun along with us.