This week on ‘RichardThinks Band Of The Week’, we have Arabella who hail from Southern Maryland. We sat down with Arabella vocalist, RJ Bunda, to discuss the band’s origins, their latest release “Through The Motions” and much more. Check out the complete chat below, and be sure to tune in every Tuesday for a new edition of “RichardThinks Band Of The Week”!
For more information on Arabella, be sure to ‘Like’ them on Facebook and follow the band on Twitter!
First, can you please introduce yourself & tell us your role in the band.
Hey!, my name is Rj Bunda and I do the vocals and write the lyrics for Arabella
With so many bands emerging in today’s scene, how do you believe Arabella stands out?
That’s a hard question because there’s so many bands out there now like you said. I like to think it’s the drive we always have in writing and performing that makes us stand out. Over the past few years, we’ve all gone through a lot of changes trying to get this band to be a full time, touring band, so I know the guys put a lot of passion into their writing and performance because this is one of the few things we have to express ourselves. So I think just from the energy and connection we try to make with people is what helps us stand out!
Can you give us a brief history on band ?
Arabella started a little over 3 years ago from an old band called Son of a Gun. They didn’t have a bassist so I hopped on board and started playing bass and doing backup vocals. Overtime, we parted ways with our old vocalist and I tried out for full time screaming and they let me take over as we started finding a full time bassist. Our old friend Tommy Windsor was our full time bassist for about the past 3 years until we had to part ways and now we have our new basisst Billy Figueredo who’s been more than a great addition to the band.
How did you pick the name for the band?
Our guitarist Chris is really into pirates. When we were debating a new name from Son of a Gun, he had brought up the idea of Arabella Drummond which is a famous female pirate in pirate storytelling. We thought the name fit cause it didn’t sound really heavy and we’re not trying to be this band with a crazy name since it really wasn’t any of our styles, so we cut out Drummond and went with Arabella.
If you could pick three words to describe your band, what words would you pick?
Loud, beer, heavy
What has been the biggest accomplishment for the band to date?
I think just what we’ve come to as a band today. We have played big shows with big crowds which we’re all grateful and lucky to be a part of but, I think our biggest accomplishment is being able to work as hard as we have and be able to share ideas and work together as a whole.
Arabella has been a band for three years now what keeps the band motivated to continue ?
I think people coming to shows and everyone in this band refusing to let anyone quit if we get the feeling like it’s not gonna work out. We could have the worst day but once we all get on stage and just see the faces and see people screaming, moving, drinking, yelling, etc. it makes this band push even harder and stay motivated.
The band released “Through The Motions” last year, can you explain the writing process for this release?
A lot of the stuff is older songs when we started out. It’s a beginning process and some songs were already made with the old vocalist. Most of the time Chris or Dave would come in with guitar riffs and Niko would make a drum rhythm over it and we slowly work it into a song. I try to write a lot so I have a lot of options going into the song so during the riff/drum process, I try to piece words and lines into while we jam it out and see what we get. Looking back I think we all wish we could have changed things but we’re all proud its been accepted the way it has!
Of all the songs that appear on the EP, what song are you most fond of and why?
Open Air and Fate & Virtue are the songs I’m most fond of just because they’re the newest songs we wrote onto the cd and they were written around a time I was going through a lot of stress so lyrically it has helped me. Plus we just sat down and the songs clicked really easily. It’s always a great feeling when things run smoothly in the writing process.
How does the album artwork correlate with the EP title?
Through the Motions was based off the idea that this is a new start and we’re gonna be going through the motions of life and what it has to offer. There’s no telling what’s gonna happen but this is what we have so far and this is our emotions put into 7 songs. The cover was our idea of a picture of the waves and open water going through motions just like the title. We thought it was kind of a cool idea!
Are there any plans for a follow-up to “Through The Motions”?
Oh yeah, we just start recording a single very soon entitled “Old Beginnings” and soon after, we begin recording another EP once all the writing is done! Hopefully it’ll be done by December and people dig it. It’s looking to be a lot heavier and I’ve been trying my best to make the lyrics as emotional as possible.
What’s next in 2013 and beyond for Arabella?
We hopefully will get onto the road soon to promote the new release! We’ll be doing a lot of writing until our show with Thy Art is Murder on December 7th in Springfield, Virginia! From there, hopefully we’ll be working hard and touring, getting this show on the road!
13. Anything else you would like to add?
Just wanna thank anyone who’s bought a t-shirt, cd, said hey to us, said thanks and just given us their time and been patient with us through writing and through our hard times we encounter. It’s a great feeling knowing someone wants to talk to us and give us their time and likes our music, for that, we’ll always be grateful. And thank you man for letting us be a part of this interview. If anyone wants to personally contact us, email us at arabellamd@gmail.com and http://www.facebook.com/arabellamd, be sure to like the page to please! Thanks man!
RichardThinks.Org 
Enjoyed the unknown info! Stoked for the new releases, keep on keeping on dudes!