Bony Macaroni - The Big Bucks (2023) Hi Res

There are not many bands – well, at least there are not enough – that are able to tell their personal story with lyrical depth, while being catchy and not taking themselves too seriously at the same time. The reasons for that are simple: First of all, this is probably THE artistic goal that most artists are striving for and, secondly, it takes more than just musical brilliance, one has to be a good and honest human being as well. It’s not an exaggeration to assume that emo poppers BONY MACARONI do the trick. Their album debut ‘The Big Bucks’ is an autobiographical, anti-capitalistic concept album protesting the influence of ‘big money’ on our society. It deals with loss and toxic cycles, both romantical and economical – good-humoured and in a VERY catchy manner.

The main topic of the ’The Big Bucks’ is financial ruin. “The whole album’s story is based on the time period between 2010 and 2020”, singer and guitarist Stefan ‘Bony’ Bonestroo explains. “There was a whole string of events that, at the time, felt like a total loss of everything to me. The main event that triggered this series of events was the 2008 financial crash and the following crisis. Unfortunately, I experienced the aftermath of this for the better part of my teenage years. I watched my parents work themselves till the point of sickness. My dad was working two jobs, one during the day and one during the night, just to cover the debt. Though it felt like this was never going end, they got out of it. Capitalism is a ruthless and evil system, and though it claims to reward work and effort, it does no such thing. It rewards greed and egomaniacal tendencies. I believe we will continue to experience the crises inherent to this awful system, until we get rid of it.”

BONY MACARONI are clever songwriters, though they don’t leave the impression to overthink things. It can be wild or anthemic, beautiful or weird. They know how to turn their creative ideas into catchy and exciting songs that never fail to get their message to the listener, no matter if they need to get a personal story off their chest or a razor-sharp comment on a more global issue. In a nutshell: This is “your new favourite band” material, while the influences come from many different places. “We’re pretty diverse in our tastes”, Bony explains. “We’re fans of powerhouses like WEEZER, DEAD KENNEDYS, and OASIS. But we’re also huge fans of emo indie darlings like THE HOTELIER and PHOEBE BRIDG-ERS.” Lastly, you have to add the band’s (live) appearance to get the full picture: “We’re all super serious about the songs we write and how we perform them. We’re less serious about the whole ‘quest for rockstar status’ thingy. We would just like to keep it real and enjoy every interaction with people who dig our music.”

The songs on ‘The Big Bucks’ are shaped by Bonestroo’s personal stories, who wrote the album in 2020 while living in Philadelphia. There is ‘Grind Me into the Paste’: Probably the most punk-infused song which is about “the shittiest fucking job” that Bony ever had – working in a chicken slaughterhouse. “There’s the cruelty of killing innocent animals for food, but there was also the cruelty of grinding away in a cold-ass factory for insanely low wages while your brain feels like it is slowly dying”, he states. “I still vividly remember the 16-year-old me biking to work, seeing trucks full of weeks-old chickens parked out in the blazing hot sun, knowing full well I would be packing their wings and breasts in boxes later that day.” Despite the personal content, the perspective is always universal. Everyone who’s not part of the 1% can relate to the album’s songs. On top, there are also tracks like ’Hollow’, revolving around love or rather the opposite of it: “It’s a song about abuse and a toxic relation-ship, but also about the inability to process what is happening while you’re in it. Most of all it is an attempt to digest a desperate and devastating couple of years.” An album literally full of stories.

On ‘The Big Bucks’ BONY MACARONI are successively revealing that they’re more than just a traditional emo band that’s whining about the loss of love (even though they’re great at that, too). Their record is about losing money and losing a sense of purpose while everything is around you seems to be in a constant state of decay. “But worry not”, Bonestroo reassures once more. “BONY MACARONI are here to make decay sexy and infectious.” For Fans of scene darlings like THE FRONT BOTTOMS, MODERN BASEBALL or THE HOTELIER.