Veterans of the stage and studio, Perro Bravo are more focused on the grass roots approach to bringi I never stopped coming back. To Freedom.
Perro Bravo’s guitarist and singer Michael “Miguel“ Happoldt explains “I first came down to Costa Rica with Brad Nowell and Sublime in 1993. About 5 years ago I started bringing the band down to surf and do shows and its just sort of grown.“ The band has played about a dozen shows in Costa Rica in the last 5 years from Playa Guiones all the way down to Pavones. Perro Bravo was started by Miguel an
d is rounded out by Greg “Mudd” Lowther on drums and Mike Long on bass. Miguel began his musical adventure as a member of the group The Ziggens and then Sublime. He played with Sublime between 1991 and 1993 and produced and mixed the band’s first album, 40 Oz. Among many contributions to this landmark record, Miguel sang the lead vocals on, Scarlet Begonias (with Brad adding the classic middle bridge) and played the guitar leads on the bad religion cover, “We’re Only Gonna Die For Our Own Arrogance”. After signing with a major label in 1994 Sublime recorded its break through self-titled record. The band enlisted several veteran producers but still Miguel was involved with every aspect of the music and even played the lead guitar on the international smash hit, “What I got“. Miguel has since been called the un-official 4th member of Sublime by the international press. When asked about the classic, “Caress Me Down,“ Miguel offers, “The song is about the 1st time we visited in 93’ and a little bit about Tijuana. I love the Costa Rica references so for us it’s sort of mandatory to keep that song alive on the stage. Brad would have been stoked on how insane Ticos and Ticas get when we play it.”
After the passing of Bradley Nowell in 1996, Miguel helped form the, “Long Beach Dub Allstars,” and produced the group’s first album for DreamWorks. In 1998, Miguel released the first two records from a then unknown act named “Slightly Stoopid“ on his Long Beach based label, Skunk Records. Miguel entered the studio with Slightly Stoopid again in 2002 and the results were the group being signed with a Warner Brothers affiliated label. Miguel continues to work with Slightly Stoopid to this day and was responsible for their 2008’s, “2 AM“. Kyle McDonald appears on Perro Bravo’s Demo cd. Miguel also produced two songs for Slightly Stoopid’s upcoming 2015 release. Veterans of the stage and studio, Perro Bravo are more focused on the grass roots approach to bringing music to the people and a DIY ethic in the studio. The sound is similar to Sublime and Slightly Stoopid but is also more guitar-based. When asked about what to expect Miguel offers, “We like to try and sound like an old school skunk sampler live: Sublime, Long Beach Dub Allstars, Slightly Stoopid and The Ziggens all rolled into one. I love playing those songs because I have a deep connection to all of those groups. Surf, punk, dub, and rock, that’s the formula. Lately I’ve been doing some crazy dub effects from stage like Alborosie and s**t, it adds a whole other dimension.”
