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A Decade of Coffis: 2019 Year In Review

  • Jan 5, 2020
  • 3 min read

We really outdid ourselves in 2019. Made a record, played more shows than ever, started a band, and we put off writing our year in review post for the entire year, and then some. A new record! How about that? Not bad, eh? But we have a really good excuse, I promise. We were really busy. Like really busy. Alright, not a great excuse, but let me explain.

On the second day of 2019 we started work on our fourth full length record. We went to 25th Street Studios in Oakland with Tim Bluhm at the helm as producer and worked for five days. Things didn’t slow down after that either. In February we got signed to a record label. Or we signed a record contract, or record deal, or whatever you want to call it. I don’t know. But the truth is we signed with a label called Blue Rose Music. Alright, what next? Well, we continued work on our record with Tim Bluhm. We started a new band with Tim, and continued working on the record. We got a new van! And continued working on the record. So as you can see I wasn’t lying, we were busy.


Coffis Brothers photographed in Oakland, CA on July 18, 2019 ©Jay Blakesberg

As we enter a new decade we’ve done a little bit of reminiscing and looking back at the last ten years as a whole. So check this out. On a Tuesday in May of 2010 we played a show at a venue in Felton that, at the time, was called Don Quixote’s International Music Hall. We went under the name “Jamie and Kellen Coffis” and our friend Kyle Poppen joined us for about half of the show. Over the next year we played a handful of shows, I graduated college and eventually we decided to started playing more shows as a band, made a record and started calling ourselves “The Coffis Brothers & the Mountain Men.” The years after we did all sorts of things. We played hundreds and hundreds of shows, all around the country. Sometimes we played for a lot of people and sometimes we played for far less than a lot of people. Sometimes we drove really far to play for those people, or no people. My brother and I started this thing with no real grand plan. We had started writing songs and, at times playing music together, but I don’t know if we ever had a real conversation about starting a band that would play hundreds of shows a year and make records. In fact, to this day I don’t think we’ve had a conversation about that, but we’ve just kept doing it. We didn’t know what the hell we were doing, or what we were even trying to do, when we started and we hardly know what we’re doing now, but we’ve learned a lot, we’ve gotten better (or at least we’d like to think we have) and we’ve grown up, if by no other metric than age. But we don’t need to go through all of this again. I think you know the story.


Coffis Brothers photographed in Berkley, CA on July 18, 2019 ©Jay Blakesberg

It’s been quite a year and it’s been quite a decade but who’s got time to stop and reflect? Thanks for all the support for the last year and throughout the whole decade whatever that was called (the naughts? the teens? the two thousand tens?). We are very grateful for all of you who may be reading this, for being a band, for having a label supporting us, and most of all, for having people who want to listen to our music and come to our shows. Happy New Year, folks. See ya soon.


25th Street Studios, Oakland, CA


Castoro Cellars, Templeton, CA


Roaring Camp, Felton, CA with Tim Bluhm


Park City, UT


Firestone Beer Fest, Paso Robles, CA


June Lake, CA


Humble Sea, Santa Cruz, CA


Bethel Rd Distillery, Templeton, CA


 
 
 

Deep Dive Into The Redwoods

  • Aug 30, 2019
  • 2 min read

We feel like we’ve made it quite known that this band started in the Santa Mountains and specifically in a small town called Ben Lomond. At the formation of the band all five members lived in the San Lorenzo Valley but that his since changed. Even Kyle, who grew up in Ben Lomond, now lives just outside the San Lorenzo Valley area, but we still claim Ben Lomond has our true home and although there is more than a little bit of tongue and cheek in our “Cougar pride”, our fascination with Bigfoot, or even our self-anointed “Mountain Men” moniker; the truth is we do love where we’ve grown up and it’s fun for us to talk about and show people our funny little town that is Ben Lomond.

A few weeks ago we played some songs and did an interview with Jim Agius and Tom Gaffey or the Onstage With Jim and Tom series that takes place at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma. The Santa Cruz Mountains often get brought up in these types of conversations but this one went a little deeper than most. I have absolutely no way of knowing this but I’d say you can’t find a podcast that has talked about Ben Lomond more than this one. So while that might turn many of you away, for all you Ben Lomond residents (current or former), small-town enthusiasts, or Coffis Brothers fanatics (yeah, you know who you are), we think this interview is right up your alley. And FYI, we do talk about topics other than Ben Lomond, such as Taco Bell, and music of course. We hope you enjoy. Here’s the link to the full interview and performance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqQVe4LMOXw&t=1009s

Also, it’s worth mentioning that we did play some music while we were with Jim and Tom. Here are the four songs we recorded that night at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma.

 
 
 

Tim Bluhm and The Coffis Men

  • Jun 25, 2019
  • 1 min read

We’ve got a pretty fun weekend ahead of us. We’re playing in Big Sur, Fairfax, and Chico and we’re opening shows for Tim Bluhm each night. That alone would be enough reason for us to be excited. But that’s not it. For each of these shows we will be playing a set as the Coffis Brothers and also playing a full set backing Tim Bluhm. I try to make these blog posts informative but also kinda silly and not too serious. This one isn’t any different, but before we get to the silly and not too serious part, I do want to say that we’ve long looked up to Tim and getting to be his band is a huge thrill for us. We love the songs we’re playing, and we’re just really excited to get to show this to audiences. In between a week in Hawaii and a week rafting down a river in Idaho, Tim took a little bit of time to chat about this new band and these upcoming shows. Here’s the interview with Tim Bluhm.

Kellen Coffis: Thanks for joining us, Tim. How are things? Tim Bluhm: I’m doing fine, just wrapping up a few things before heading into the mountains for a week. KC: We love the mountains over here at coffisbrothers.com. We’re very familiar with them. Looks like you’ve been super busy working, so can you tell us what you’ve been up to this last week? TB: Oh, I was busy hanging out in Hawaii. It’s been a tough summer so far. KC: Sounds like it. What island were you on? TB: Big Island. Lots of lava there. Some of it is brand new. KC: I’m more of a small island guy myself. I prefer the less touristy places like Oahu. There’s a great Cheesecake Factory over there if you ever make it back. TB: Yeah you guys don’t get out of your mountains much, huh? KC: It’s been a while. Anyway, let’s get to the reason why we’re here. Looks like you’ve got some shows lined up. Anything you can tell us about these shows or is it just the same ol’ Tim bluhm playing the same ol’ Tim bluhm songs? TB: Oh yeah, I meant to ask you guys if you would play these shows with me. KC: I’ll check our calendar but we could probably pull it off. Maybe we can call it Tim Bluhm and the Coffis Brothers and the Mountain Men. What do you think? TB: That might be too many syllables there. There are already enough syllables in the lyrics to last us a year. KC: Well, you’re the songwriter so I’ll trust you on the syllables thing. Calendar says we’re free. Let’s do it. What songs do you want to play? TB: The songs are pretty straightforward. Actually, maybe there’re a couple weird things. But I’m sure you’ll do great. But we definitely won’t have time to rehearse. KC: So is this a new band for you? How’d you find these guys? I imagine they must have outlasted dozens of other contenders in a rigorous audition process, right? TB: Um, yeah. Pretty much. We played one show together, the closing set at Hipnic XI, and it sounded really good to me. A really full, yet dynamic band with expert harmony singing.

KC: You’ve played in many bands throughout your career, in what way is this one different? And why, with only one show under you, have you been so vocal about calling this the very best band you have played in? Or did I make that up? TB: Did I say that? KC: Must have been someone else. Anyway, tell us about these upcoming shows and generally what you will be doing at these shows. TB: I would say I haven’t played in as many bands as some guys my age, but a few for sure. It’s fun to mix it up and to play songs that don’t get heard much. That’s the cool part of playing with new combos. I can play songs that aren’t Hips songs but they sound good with a band. Joking aside, we’ve worked up a long list of my songs from my new record, my previous 5 solo records and some brand new ones, too. KC: Well, we can’t wait to hear it/I can’t wait to play it. I see you’re playing in Big Sur, Fairfax, and Chico next week. Those are great towns. Have you spent much time in any of those places? TB: I love all of those places and I have spent lots of time in each of them. My new house is a couple blocks from the Fairfax venue. KC: Well, thanks so much for taking the time to sit down with me. I’m really looking forward to the shows. KC: Can you add me and a plus one to the guest list for the weekend? KC: Also, I might need a place to crash in Fairfax. Got any room for me and four other guys? KC: Maybe we can carpool or something? Ya know, save some gas money? KC: Tim? KC: Alright, see ya Thursday.

 
 
 
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