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The Bunny Gang performs at the Troubadour in Hollywood on January 21. Photos by Brittany Woolsey<\/em><\/p>\n For Nathen Maxwell, ‘revolution’ isn’t just a word tattooed on his left wrist. It signifies a change in his life.<\/p>\n Music was always a staple in Maxwell’s life; for half of it, he’s been the bassist for Celtic punk icons Flogging Molly, but as of late, he’s turned part of his focus to another project he calls the Bunny Gang, which will perform at Fingerprints Music in Long Beach on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Between the two bands and his family, Maxwell said that his sanity may well be tested, but it’s something he doesn’t mind.<\/p>\n And when Maxwell says music saved his life, he means it.<\/p>\n “There was a time in my life when I was a pretty dark and negative person,” he said. “If it wasn’t for music like Bob Marley and some of the uplifting punk rock records I was listening to, I don’t think I would have gotten out of that state of mind. My own music is a big part of saving my life, too.”<\/p>\n While Flogging Molly has played a huge role in Maxwell’s life, he said he was looking for a way to express his own creativity outside of the Celtic punk genre.<\/p>\n “I think the music demanded to come out,” he said. “I’ve been writing songs, and I just wanted an outlet for them. That’s really the bottom line. It’s just about the music. Obviously, I’m in Flogging Molly, but these songs don’t really fit in with Flogging Molly’s direction. I decided to create my own band so I could be free to do whatever I wanted musically and artistically.”<\/p>\n That’s when he came up with the Bunny Gang, a group that began as a solo project before developing into a full band in September of last year.<\/p>\n In its debut album Thrive<\/em>, the band plays songs filled with positive messages that mix reggae and punk in a way that sounds effortless and unique.<\/p>\n “It’s hard for me to describe the sound, and that’s one of my favorite things about it,” he said. “I do think it is original, but there are definitely influences of reggae, punk rock and everything I’ve listened to my whole life, which I can fill a book with. I’m a huge fan of The Cure, and that’s in there. I don’t even know what to call it. Maybe ‘Revolution Rock.’ I’m very proud of this music, I believe in it and I love it. Music is all about enjoying yourself and uplifting people. I think if people are looking for a good time and for something they’ve never heard before, they should come to the show and feel an uplifting vibration.”<\/p>\n The Bunny Gang will perform at Fingerprints, located at 420 East Fourth Street, from 7:00PM to 8:30PM on February 4. Admission is free, but reservations are encouraged by calling 562-433-4996.<\/p>\n {FG_GEOMAP [33.7716936,-118.1870083] FG_GEOMAP}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Bunny Gang, featuring Nathen Maxwell of Flogging Molly, will perform at Fingerprints on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":68129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[314],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-live-music","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2822"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2822"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"bunnygang1\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/bunnygang1.jpg\")
“I might be completely insane,” he said in an interview with the Long Beach Post<\/em>. “I think you have to be at least a little bit insane to be a musician. We’re not reasonable people. We have to do this. We’re on a mission. That’s the thing. Music is important. It saved my life, and it’s just something I have to do. Nothing’s easy, but I’m not in Afghanistan getting shot at and shooting people. I don’t have it that bad, I’d say. It’s a hard balance and I’m more of an extremist.”<\/p>\n