Opening for The California Aggie’s Winter Couch Concert, Budget Cut’s trio is making the Davis music scene their own
By SAVANNAH ANNO — arts@theaggie.org
Lead guitarist and vocalist Brandon Ramirez, a fourth-year electrical engineering major, drummer Johnny Moeller, a fourth-year chemistry major and bassist Em Gollnick, a third-year microbiology major, make up Budget Cut, a budding trio band in the Davis music scene.
“None of us ever said ‘We wanna be in a band together’ until [Ramirez] came along,” Moeller said.
Ramirez, who first sought out Moeller and the band’s original bassist, Paul Zhu, spoke to the process of forming the band last year.
“I started performing as a kind of solo act with backing musicians,” Ramirez said. “Towards the end of summer, I was thinking it’d be really cool to have a sort of supergroup, where you have the best of a bunch of different worlds in one band and make the kind of music where everyone’s in their own world.”
Ramirez, Moeller and Zhu — and later Gollnick — fit that bill to a tee.
“Later, [Zhu] just got too busy,” Ramirez said. “I’d played with [Gollnick] a lot and I knew they were absolutely insane on bass. We have great musical chemistry, and [Moeller] is probably my favorite drummer in Davis.”
With past experience playing the drums for Nineteenth Operator, Highway Terrier and various other local bands, Moeller was able to adapt his playing style across all genres.
“I don’t really have any inspiration, I never liked any of the songs people asked me to play and I didn’t like playing the instrument at all,” Moeller said. “I never played any ‘music,’ I just played whatever I felt like in my garage. I tell people I’m a blank slate because of that: My background is nothing but messing around, so I can be whatever anyone wants me to be.”
Similarly, Gollnick’s musical strength lies in their love for a variety of influences across all styles.
“I originally started out playing jazz bass and it slowly morphed into everything else,” Gollick said. “I’m originally a drummer, I play drums for Incidentals, and that band is way more metal-focused, so I try to incorporate that as much as I can into my bass playing too.”
When Gollnick joined Budget Cut as a bassist, Moeller remarked that he fit like a missing puzzle piece.
“We were messy, but it was fun,” Ramirez said. “It became more polished when [Gollnick] joined and things felt more cohesive, more like a real band. I wanted all of us to be equal forces.”
As lead guitarist and vocalist, Ramirez also described his own playing style and sonic inspirations.
“I’m much better at guitar than vocals, but I’ve gotten to the point where I can get the job done,” Ramirez said. “It’s one thing to be able to strum chords and sing, but it’s another thing to be able to play as if you’re guitar soloing while singing, and that’s a part of my brain that wasn’t opening up until this band.”
While Ramirez’s vocals have been his largest area of growth while playing in Budget Cut, his talent as lead guitarist takes center stage in each of the band’s performances.
“In terms of my actual guitar playing, there’s this class of guitar players with a very particular style,” Ramirez said. “Most players separate rhythm and the lead: you do specific chordal rhythm where you’re playing one-note, maybe two-note lead lines. But there’s this collection of players — Jimi Hendrix, John Mayer, Stevie Ray Vaughan — where they essentially merge the lines. You play rhythm and lead at the same time, and that’s just something I really love.”
Together, the trio became a kaleidoscopic blend of funk rock and blues, according to Gollnick.
“It’s all old-people-music, like Jimi Hendrix,” Moeller said. “People either know it and worship it religiously, or they don’t care at all, but think it sounds cool.”
Outside of Hendrix, the band also covers more modern inspirations, like The Smashing Pumpkins, alongside songs more traditionally in line with their style.
In the future, the band hopes to take on heavier tracks and experiment with a grunge sound, as well as pursue original songwriting.
“I haven’t necessarily brought anything to them yet, but I will say, we are moving towards some sort of release,” Ramirez said. “I can’t really talk about it.”
Whether it’s a cover or a new original song, Budget Cut’s performances are a testament to their cohesiveness as a band — aligning with each other by ear and reinterpreting classics as they play.
“I get a lot of creative liberty in writing base lines for stuff, when we cover songs I don’t play it exactly how it’s written down, either,” Gollnick said. “We play it so it’s just recognizable enough to the audience, but not too recognizable that it’s just a copy.”
For Budget Cut, a five or six minute song can turn into a 15-minute live session, introducing new rhythms and patterns into older classics.
“It’s more fun that way,” Ramirez said. “If you want to hear a cover exactly like the record, pull up Spotify and get your airpods out and listen to that song. We want to give our own twist to it.”
As Budget Cut continues to perform across Davis — a regular on the lineup for Partridge Records’ live shows — the trio looks forward to growing alongside the music community they’ve become so entwined with.
“It’s the live aspect of it that’s always really fun to go and see,” Gollnick said. “I’m pretty close with all these people. I’ve been playing in Davis for about three years now, and I’ve got my other band, Incidentals. I love those guys and they’re some of my best friends so it’s nice to have that community.”
While Gollnick divides his time between Budget Cut and Incidentals, Ramirez and Moeller also play with local band Highway Terrier on the bass and drums. Spread out across the community, the three have come to deeply appreciate Davis’ relationship with live, local music.
“Everybody is so cool in the music scene, that’s honestly the best part about it,” Moeller said. “It’s not even the music — I think the people are just cool, and maybe that’s why I do it.”
On March 12, you can see Budget Cut perform with friends and fellow local bands Love, Georgie and Nineteenth Operator in The California Aggie office basement. Located at 116 A St. and beginning at 6:30 p.m., the Winter Quarter Couch Concert welcomes everyone to come experience Budget Cut live.
“In Davis, it feels like there’s a huge music boom,” Ramirez said. “There’s just a lot; they’re everywhere. When I go back home, I don’t hear anything about the local bands, but here it’s just all the time. There are so many bands popping out and it’s so cool. It’s gonna add a lot of unique character to Davis history.”
Written by: Savannah Anno — arts@theaggie.org
