Lakeland, Fla., may not be known for its punk rock drag queens, but the performance arts band ButchQueen and the Bad Habits aims to change that with “Bare Grits,” the group’s debut EP released May 5.
“In a conservative town, friction caused a blister which pressure-popped and neglect allowed to fester,” their official release reads. “ButchQueen and the Bad Habits take no prisoners and make no apologies. Fusing energetic live music with bizarre theatrical experiments, this group isn’t afraid of kicking up a little dust.”
“The band is notable for its hardcore, ska and rockabilly influences, bringing an old school sound with a new age angst,” it continues. “With their debut EP, the band has no problem letting it all hang out – ‘Bare Grits’ – five songs of doom and debauchery. The band [is] targeting Florida and other East Coast engagements as well as coordinating a summer tour… ButchQueen and the Bad Habits is a punk rock unit out for blood.”
“It’s so conservative around here,” vocalist and guitarist Nolan Nada says of Lakeland. “There’s not much happening or that you can get into, so a punk rock band with a drag queen just seemed like the only answer.”
Nada is joined on vocals by the front-queen Fredi X and on guitars by Hell Nada, with bassist Skeebo and drummer D. Licious rounding out the group’s five mostly LGBTQ members. He describes the band and its music as iconoclastic, stressing that they’re against the status quo and celebrate themes of diversity and individuality.
“Punk rock is a very wide term, there’s like all kinds of sub-genres,” he says. “Ska would be like a fast, punk rock reggae. But we deviate from that norm. We play jazz, we play blues, we play straight rock ‘n’ roll and Fredi raps. We just use the term ‘punk rock’ because it’s a good umbrella term to do whatever the hell you want; you’re punk rock, you do what you want.”
Above all else, Nada stresses the band’s inclusive nature. “That’s kind of the big thing about punk rock, but that’s definitely a big thing about us specifically,” he says. “That’s the whole point. To me if you look at each member, we’re all totally different; it’s not like traditional punk rock in that sense because not everyone looks exactly the same. We’re all unique individuals. That’s the big thing with us: everybody’s welcome.”
It’s that directive that’s reflected in the group’s writing process and performances, both in their five-track debut and at events like Ms. Gay Lakeland, Tampa Pride and the Orlando Fringe Festival. “We just embrace different topics,” Nada says. “We throw out some poetry and then I’ll take that back to the lab and try to form that into a song and make the syllables make sense, make things rhyme and make it fit to the structure of the song.”
Nolan does the “core writing” with Fredi X, advising that “the band just kicks ass. They just do what they do. You could pretty much show up with that band, with any piece of music and just start playing. They melt right in; they’re just natural musicians.”
“Working with my bandmates has been an awesome adventure,” D. Licious agrees. “I’m in constant awe of their musicianship. The musical receptivity and creativity they display pushes me to become a better drummer. We’re free thinkers who want to liberate the minds of an Internet-centered world.”
The musicians have played together for nearly 10 years, though they’ve been known as ButchQueen and the Bad Habits for only half that time. D. Licious, the group’s newest member who Nada calls “an original member more than the last guy,” joined during the group’s self-titled “drag rock opera” featured in the aforementioned Orlando Fringe Festival in 2017.
“We never did anything serious until Fringe last year,” Nada says. “It was just an offshoot [because] we’re a performance arts band and we do that kind of thing. We were kind of like, since we’re already characters in the band, Fringe makes perfect sense.”
The group pulled the EP’s titular “Bare Grits” and “Whole World is Watching Me Blues” directly from the musical. “We’ve been wanting to record for a while; it’s just hard, it’s expensive and everybody will record for you but it’ll be terrible,” Nada says. “We were just biding our time, figuring out when it was the most affordable and the most high-quality and we fell on this guy Kenny Evans.”
The EP was produced by Lakeland’s Kenny Evans, owner of the city’s 1,600-square-foot Electric Media Group. Evans specializes in music production, audio mixing and videography. “I love taking an artist’s vision and helping them mold it into something amazing,” Evans professionally advises, “something they never thought possible, and something they can be proud of for many years to come!”
“He just hooked us up,” Nada says of the group’s 168 studio hours. “It was the perfect time right after the musical and we were able to record some of the songs we’ve been working on the last couple of years.”
Nada believes that those years juxtaposed with today’s political climate have given new weight to the band’s message. “The past eight years were very liberal and progressive things were happening,” he says. “It almost seemed like there wasn’t as much of a need for rebellious music. You didn’t have to rebel, you could walk down the street and feel a little more comfortable.”
“But now we’re trying to ‘Make America Great Again,’” he adds, “so I’m saying make punk a threat again. There’s gotta be backlash to what’s going on. I’m not trying to get political here, but the Trump situation’s pretty scary. The ‘Make America Great Again,’ that’s pretty scary. When was it ever great? If we look back 100 years, we’ve got some things to talk about. With a political climate of that nature I think punk rock and just anything against the status quo is more relevant than ever.”
Nada says ButchQueen and the Bad Habits’ trajectory thus far has meant the world to him, pointing to their EP’s heavily attended launch concert in Lakeland and their well-received “Bare Grits” music video on YouTube.
“It means so much to me. I want people to see the band,” he says. “But I think the most important thing, what matters most to me, is that we are all-inclusive. Everybody is welcome here, come throw down; if everything else is missed… that would be fine with me.”
ButchQueen and the Bad Habits’ “Bare Grits” is available now on Spotify, iTunes and most major music platforms. For more information about the band or for booking information, visit facebook.com/Butchqueenandthebadhabits or contact badhabitsbooking@gmail.com.
