Now, usually I refrain from accepting invitations to the back of a van with two dudes, but two things put me at ease.  One, the van was not in fact, windowless.  Two, J.P. Caballero and Mickey from White Arrows were as charming as they were disarming, so I crawled into the Honda Odyssey (sidenote:  Hondas are not usually advertised as abduction vehicles) and sat cross-legged on the floor already certain this would undoubtedly be one of my most memorable interviews to date.  Mickey didn’t hesitate to pick up a guitar and I found myself lulled by hypnotic background music- and no longer upset I had forgotten my rape whistle in my other purse.

BNB:  Wait, your (J.P.) other band is Dios?!  I was kind of addicted to “you got me all wrong” in a serious way.  I’m having an almost famous moment right now.

WA: Yeah, in the back of a van, sitting cross-legged, with Advil.  We’re all high on Advil here.

BNB:  So introduce yourselves if you don’t mind

J.P.: Well, I’m J.P. Caballero, I play bass.

Mickey: I’m Mickey I play guitar, keys, and sing.

J.P.: And dances!

Mickey: And I dance, and play little bit of tambourine.

BNB:  So you guys really are a treat for the eyes & ears.

Mickey: Whoa.  Thank you for that!

J.P.: This is some real “to catch a predator stuff”

 

BNB:  How’d you all meet up?

Mickey: Well J.P. and I are half brothers, there’s a third brother in band- Henry.  He’s my (Mickey) full brother, and J.P.’s half.

BNB:  So you guys have a really good musical connection then, no?

Mickey: Yeah I mean, it made a lot of things make sense.

 

BNB:  Main influence behind your totally trippy tunes?

WA: Visually, Alejandro Jodorowsky, he’s an Argentinian director who did this whole series of these very psychadelic movies in the 60s that were kind of pseudo westerns or religious allegories.  Probably musically would be like Van Morrison- stuff that has a soul influence but is a little bit between rock and traditional black music.

 

BNB: Going off of that exactly, what do you mean “the blackest white band?”

J.P.: Well we’re white arrows, and the poster we have has white arrows in black on a rainbow.

Mickey: No, but our slogan is that.

J.P.: I think it makes less sense the more you try to explain it.  I think you just gotta take it at face value.

Mickey: Whatever it makes you think is probably true.

 

BNB: What would you do for a Klondike bar?

J.P.: Well, I’m REALLY trying to cut back on carbs right now.  Mickey?

Mickey: Well, I’m lactose intolerant so…I’d say nothing.

J.P.: Don’t you like how we take these questions and turn them on their sides?

 

BNB: If you needed to find an answer, would you go see the Goblin King, or the Wizard of Oz?

J.P.: The Oracle at Delphi.  I mean, she would like tell you what was up.  Did you ever see 300?  That was supposed to be the Oracle at Delphi.

Mickey: That weird hunchback?

J.P.: No, the woman that like floated around.  She would like get really high and the prophesize about the future.

BNB: Sounds like the caterpillar!

J.P.: Yeah except, not anamorphized, and, a girl.  I’m not turned-on by caterpillars.

Mickey: Ok great.  “The blackest white band not turned on by caterpillars.”

 

BNB: CDs always on heavy rotation for you guys?

Mickey: Bruce Springsteen, Kate Bush.

J.P.: For me mid-70s John Lennon.

 

BNB: Tours and shows lined up in the near future?

J.P.: Well, we have this residency every Monday night in August (www.clubspaceland.com) And we’ll be playing Sunset Junction (www.sunsetjunction.org)

 

BNB: If you could open up for a show, what would it be?

J.P.: The Cosby Show.

Mickey: The thing that would solidify us being “the blackest white band” would probably be opening up for Sly and the Family Stone.

 

BNB: Pre-show vice of choice?

J.P.: Umm…gum with artificial sweetener.

Mickey: Tostitos with a hint of lime.

 

BNB: Band-aids, or groupies?

J.P.: Was Florence Nightingale closer to a band-aid or a groupie?  I’ll take whatever side she was on.

 

BNB: Musical idol you would be totally tongue-tied around.

Mickey: These are good questions.

J.P.: Probably someone who doesn’t speak English.  I don’t know what to say to him- I don’t speak the language!

Mickey: Little Richard would be amazing.  Elvis.