Page 56 - ION Indie Magazine NovDec 2020

Funky Bonz has been around since 1993, touring the Southwest and playing with bands like George Clinton
& Parliament Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins, AWOLNATION, Fishbone, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Squirrel Nut
Zippers, The Green, Weapon Of Choice, Leftover Salmon, Dread Zeppelin, Ozomatli, Kinky, Supervillians,
Lionize, The Slackers, Iration, The Specials, Ballyhoo!, Katastro, Jason DeVore & Authority Zero, Rebelution,
and too many more to mention. In their hometown of Tucson, they have been awarded 6 TAMMIES (Tucson
Area Music Awards) as well as quite a few runners-up and individual awards.

Funky Bonz most recent release is a 20-year career retrospective that includes two new songs and the
anniversary rerelease of the 1997 album "Nightmare on Groove Street," which includes their latest recording,
"Brown Chicken Brown Cow." Funky Bonz’s current line-up includes Brent Kort (vox), Doug Floyd (guitar),
Mark Lee (bass), Mike Hoeffner (drums, vox), Tom Kennedy (tenor sax, vox), and Ryan Roscoe (soprano
sax).

Marty Haviik: Brent, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to dig into the mind of Funky
Bonz. I’ll skip the chit chat and dive right into the meat of this interview. Please share with our readers
what Funky Bonz is all about. Why the name Funky Bonz?

Brent Kort: Funky Bonz is a multi-genre dance party rooted in funk but encompassing elements of rock, blues,
reggae, R&B, metal, Ska, and whatever else we can get to fit. The name Funky Bonz is ambiguous to our
genre but implies ‘Fun Dance Band.’

MH: How did the band get started in your music journey and how long have you been doing music?

BK: Bonz started in 1993. I had been playing some of the music I wrote in high school with a guitarist I met
in college. Luckily for me, he knew some amazing musicians from where he worked, and the rest is history.

Photo credit: Marty Haviik