Interview: Bellends

David M Rangel / August 3, 2026 / Interview 

Bellends is a Milwaukee, Wisconsin band who play a sonically savory merger of in-your-face punk, hook-laden pop, and cinematic folk/Americana, often with an underlying Irish-style sensibility. Their single “Pocket Knife” from the upcoming full-length So it Goes was chosen by online music and culture website The Milwaukee Record as one of 2025’s Top 15. And for good reason, as one can practically sense the sweat, the taste of Tullamore D.E.W. and wild, uncontrollable dancing that likely takes place when the song is played live. The band also have a very natural ability to easily take that sense of catchiness and accompany it with a feel of flowing poignancy, as heard in the very movie soundtrack-sounding “Fuck You Kate Bush; I Love You”. 

We caught up with band members Marco Conley (violin, mandolin, banjo), Cutter (bass), Eoin McCarthy (guitar, tin whistle, vocals), Jake Wild (guitar) and Biju Zimmerman (drums) fresh off a tour of the southern United States to talk about their upcoming record, the band’s origins and other components of this group whose members are veterans of other notable acts in the Milwaukee music scene.

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Indy Review: First of all, thank you, gents for being here and making your respective introductions. Tell me what Bellends means. I don’t mean the actual meaning, but what does it mean to you? What does it represent?

Eoin: With Bellends, we just wanted to play rock ‘n’ roll. We weren’t trying to form one silly genre and just play one kind of pop music. It’s a real open form of music overall. I play tin whistle in one song, and then fucking punk music and then later a sad country sounding song, all in the same set. It’s all just rock and roll. 

Indy Review: Yeah, I’ve noticed you really expanded on your sound from the first record. You’ve brought in a lot of pop punk sounding stuff, but it also can get deeply introspective like your song “I’m a Mess”. 

Jake: Well, the actual definition of the word also fits us, as well. We are a bunch of dickheads! 

Marco: Not me!

Biju: So it all stemmed from the beginning as just a solo record. Eoin asked me to drum on it. It started out as two songs and then became a 10 song record. Everything was written in studio and it was just Eion and I. And I ended up kind of coproducing as well with Ryan over at Hi-Five Studio. And Eion asked “should we just do a project?“ So we ended up doing shows with just the two of us. He introduced Jake, who was initially the bass player. It was us three. A friend, Dan Hinz from Hello Face, Carolina and The Benjamins filled in on lead guitar and he also came into the studio and winged it. The name Bellends came later on. It was initially actually just Eoin and Biju. Just generic as fuck! 

Eoin: Yeah it came together pretty quickly, I would be surprised if it was even a year. How long were we in the studio for? 

Biju: It turned out to be a collaboration of tons of friends playing on it. It was like a free will thing where people would ask “What do you want me to play?” And we were like “What do you want to play?” This was for the first record.

Jake: Yeah and we all played on the second album, this current iteration. But I will say it was the same kind of thing like with the first album. I would show up and Eoin would be like “You have 15 minutes to come up with a guitar part.” And I was really sick with the flu for like half the recording. And one day Eoin said “Ok, you can go home now, but thank God we got it!” 

Indy Review: I’ve observed you guys going from a relatively unknown band, to playing much bigger shows, very quickly. How did that happen?

Eoin: I think it’s because we were all just very seasoned musicians. We’ve all been doing this for so long that we just knew a lot of people, have good contacts and play really well together. It was easy to get everyone in the same pocket and get everyone playing well together.

Biju: We weren’t learning. We were all playing. From the beginning we all gelled really well. When Jake started playing lead guitar, Eoin got Cutter in to play bass. We all locked in really well. Jake and I locked in as well, from being drums and bass. And there was a relationship between Marco and Eoin from playing together for years in Whiskey of the Damned. 

Jake: The first time I ever played bass in a band was playing with Biju on drums.

With that first iteration, we had a lot of chaos with the lead guitar. I was literally learning to play bass with three leads! So, many times I would look back at Biju and be like “Ok, we’re going to lock in and whatever anyone else does is what they’re going to fucking do!”

Biju: When it came to Eoin, I always loved his songwriting. He was asking me for about six months to check out his band. Finally, I caved. And I listened to his stuff and it did not sound like a local band! It’s not like other things! So when he brings stuff to the table, it’s not fully done and we all collaborate. It’s not like him just saying “I’m the artist.” We are all in on it. He always brings stuff and says “Help me”. 

Eoin: I know three chords, someone has to know a fourth! 

Indy Review: Your website says you guys are in amalgamation of different backgrounds. What kinds of musical backgrounds did all you guys come from?

Eoin: Marco and my main band was Whiskey of the Damned. That’s Celtic punk.

Cutter: I was in a few hardcore bands; Danger Whore and Morrigan. 

Jake: I was in a band, I guess I would call it garage rock, called Sauce Hound. And I had another one, we’re actually getting back together, called Wolves With Virginia. We kind of had to re-create that band, but we will be doing some acoustic stuff coming up.

Biju: I was in Camden, with BJ and Ryan, two guys I grew up with.

Indy Review: Were those The Faceless Neighbor guys? I still have a cassette of that, from like nineteen ninety something. 

Biju: Yeah, that was recorded by The Gufs front of house guy, Luna. And we ended up mixing it at Smart Studios (former studio of Garbage’s Butch Vig) on the Gufs’ time, it’s called bumper time. The Gufs recorded their debut album at Smart Studios and they finished early, and the leftover time was already paid for. And to keep my chops up, I joined the band with you guys (Saville Row). And then I started a band called Camden that recorded with Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie and toured with them. And then I was in a band, called Carolina with Dan Hinz from The Benjamins. It’s good to be back playing again with Bellends. 

Indy Review: The video for your song “Pocket Knife” gives the viewer a very good look at the vibe of the city of Milwaukee. What’s the meaning behind that song and also the hotdog suit?

Jake: Hot Dog Fest! We have to give a shout out to Hot Dog Fest! Hot dogs are kind of our spirit animal, I think we would all agree.

Biju: I actually started a thing called Hot Dog Fest. It’s been going on for three years, it just happened a few weeks ago.

Eoin: The hot dog suit was just to be funny. I think basically that song, was about being stuck where I was. I had just started this relationship with a girl… and I just didn’t want to come off as this person who was stuck in just one spot in their life. And I was thinking, I’m not dying here, this is just a stepping stone. I’m moving up. I think that’s where the basis of that song came from.

Indy Review: This is the age of “scrolling culture and free music. In 2026, it just doesn’t seem like people really care as much about music anymore, other than being passively engaged. Why do you guys keep doing this?

Biju: Because we are all just dumb musicians, and we don’t know what else the fuck to do.

Marco: Yeah, and you definitely have to love playing music. I’ve been playing since I was four years old and do not plan on stopping. So, just as Biju was saying, getting our chops up, keeping them up, that’s a way to say it, but also for just the love of music.

Biju: And this outfit is great, because we have nothing but fun, honestly. We’ve never really had any kind of argument or anything like that. It’s just laughs, as you can tell through this interview.

Jake: And to piggyback off what Biju said, once you become a musician and do it long enough, it’s just what you do. You don’t even have a choice. That’s your life, that’s your friends. That’s just the environment that you’re living in, that’s who you are.

Biju: We all vibe very well together.I mean, just today at practice, Jake was doing some extra vocals on a song. And I said, that’s awesome!

Jake: So why the fuck don’t you do that all the time? I was thinking, shit he should be doing that all the time!

Eoin: The music industry changes so ridiculously quick. It wasn’t long ago that CDs overtook records, and then digital downloads overtook CDs. and then vinyl came back. And people‘s attention span is going to change, the music industry is going to change. So there’s no point in us going to try to change in order to suit the music industry, which is really going to just come back around and do the exact same thing. Right now we are selling vinyl. We don’t even press CDs.

Biju: I have a quote from my good friend who was in the band Etiquette back in the day. He said “Rock and roll will never die, it’s just like a black leather coat and jeans.” 

Indy Review: For the last number of years I’ve noticed there’s been kind of an underground cult following for cassette tapes. People between 15 to maybe 30. I don’t think it will be making a comeback like a vinyl, but it’s interesting to see it being kept alive.

Eoin: Almost every show we play, there’s somebody selling cassette tapes. And especially punk bands, they’ve really started to bring back cassettes. 

Cutter: I remember recording one of my first bands on cassette tape and then bringing them to shows and throwing them up on stage, hoping that the band playing would pick it up. Hopefully they would listen to it in their bus, all the contact info was written on it…

Indy Review: And buying cassettes off the back of Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine…

All: Yeah. Hell yeah!

Indy Review: You guys all come from diverse musical backgrounds. How do you come together when writing a typical song?

Eoin: Generally, I’ll bring a song to the table and, like they said earlier, look for help. And then people will work out a lead part and we’ll work through bass lines and stuff like that. I’ll walk into practice, with a basic idea of a song in my head and how it’s going sound. I’ll play it once and then it will become completely different. And that’s fantastic. I mean, he’s going to play a completely different beat than what I’m hearing in my head. And that’s why it works.

They are all way better musicians than I will ever be.

Marco: That’s so funny, because I look to him to find out what he wants, what I can produce or make, and it probably doesn’t come even close to what he’s thinking. But sometimes it really does work.

Biju: The cool thing about this outfit is that Jake and Marco are leads, and they work well together. They gel together. They play off each other. And they end up playing a cacophony that really works.

Cutter: Everything comes together very organically. It was weird for me because these guys are way more seasoned than I am. I’m just used to super basic stuff and we feed off each other and it really works very well, even though we all have different backgrounds. This is probably the fastest music Biju has ever played. And the slowest music I have ever played.

Indy Review: Are there any last thoughts you guys want everyone to know?

Eoin: Europe; we’ll see you soon ! 

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If you live in the Milwaukee area, Bellends will be having their official record release party at Club Garibaldi on August 28th. Listen to their single “Pocket Knife” here!