Interview: Robby Bancroft on Obsolete Man, Breakers, and Life in Pacifica
Robby Bancroft. Photo credit: Kevin Burleigh.
If you drive past San Francisco, and all the way out to the coast line, you and your car will eventually meet the Pacific Coast Highway. In Northern California, the beaches are often overcast. But when the clouds part, the beauty of the beaches and California coastline is indescribable. Nestled right off the edge of the Pacific Coast Highway is the small beach town of Pacifica. It’s a small town, totaling around 40,000 residents. While residing in Pacifica, Robby Bancroft has slowly been building an entrepreneurial world of his own.
We first met Robby Bancroft years ago, when he was the frontman of a local hardcore band called Five Characters In Search of An Exit, an act that frequented the San Jose local music scene before eventually disbanding. Since disbanding however, Bancroft has not only re-emerged with a new act (Obsolete Man), but a plethora of projects that range from entrepreneurial to philanthropic. He is co-founder of Breakers Restaurant, a quaint diner-style restaurant located just a few steps away from the beach in Pacifica. He’s served on the Board of Directors for Pacifica’s Resource Center (eventually becoming the Development Coordinator for the Resource Center), helped with the digital side of a City Council members’ election, and he’s pretty much mastered the art of digital marketing as he’s worked to establish a firm to help small businesses achieve the results they so desperately desire through the usage of social and digital marketing.
The running joke, according to Bancroft? Many people think he could be the future mayor of Pacifica. But as I sit with him inside of Breakers on a Sunday morning in February, discussing his life, the path that he’s been taken on, and what he’s made of the opportunities he’s been given, I totally believe that he could be. We’re sitting in a booth inside the place that he and his father had put their blood, sweat and tears into bringing to life. The entire place is packed. A lot of people already know him; he’s greeting, shaking hands, giving hugs to people. He knows the town, the people, and the way of life in Pacifica. Over the hour that we got to chat, I spoke with Robby about his new creative endeavor (Obsolete Man), why having a creative outlet is absolutely essential, the formation of Breakers, how working with the town of Pacifica has been a life-changing experience, and a great deal more.
Note: This interview was conducted back in February, before the outbreak of COVID-19 that has essentially shut down the world for the next three weeks. Additionally, portions of the interview have been edited only for the purposes of clarity.
So you said that you basically started out doing emo covers from bands like Fall Out Boy, Senses Fail, things like that.
Yeah, but actually to try out for that band in high school, I sang some pop music or boy band stuff because I wasn't really into that kind of rock music yet.
Oh, you weren’t?
Nope, I was like a TRL kid. My first concert was NSYNC in Oakland I think with my older cousin. Then I got into Limp Bizkit and all that shit, but my first experience to really any sort of a rock scene was Not So Silent Night during my freshman or sophomore year [of high school]. That one was with, I wanna say, maybe Papa Roach and Deftones? But I remember that AFI opened, and Davey Havok was just like hanging out in the hallway afterward, and I was like, ‘Man, that guy’s leather pants are really tight, but they’re gonna be a huge band’ After that night, I was like, “yeah, I could totally be in a band! I could totally do this.” Then we started evolving from covering The Starting Line and Rufio to bands like Fall Out Boy and Senses Fail.
What was the band that got you to start screaming?
We were in my garage at my house practicing before a Boys & Girls Club show in maybe 2004 or early 2005. I remember that everyone was yelling at me like “Just learn how to scream!” And I was like, “I can’t fucking do it! What? You want me to do it like this?” (Robby imitates a scream) And they were like, “Yeah!” and I’ve had the same scream ever since. *laughs* It’s never changed.
I felt a really big vibe from The Chariot when I listened to the new band, in terms of the overall sound. It’s very chaotic, yet it’s all still very cohesive. One of the things you wrote in the description you sent me, though, was the term “power-violence”. Explain that to me.
So we started off as a power violence band, which is a sub-genre of hardcore. It actually got started on the West Coast. The bands were influenced by the skate and graffiti cultures, but it had that sound like... (imitates screaming/grunting noises). Bands like Spazz from Redwood City, Man is the Bastard and Infest from Southern California kind of established that really cool underground sound that everyone's trying to replicate now.
So it was rooted in hardcore then.
Yeah, so there's even grindcore and thrash-core... we have all that in our music too.
Although we originally started out as more of a powerviolence band, a lot of other sub-genres of heavy music come through. There’s a lot of great local bands coming up from the bay too like Morning Coffee, No Right, Hands of God, Drain, and Gulch. It's a really good time to be in a hardcore band.
So give me a run down then: what’s the name of the band, who’s in it, what’s it all about?
We are Obsolete Man, which is actually another Twilight Zone reference (Robby’s previous band was called Five Characters In Search of An Exit; the name was also based off of a Twilight Zone episode). Believe it or not, I had no say in the name this time; this was all Gino. *laughs* Three of us are native to Pacifica. I live here, Gino (guitarist) still lives here, Devan (bassist) grew up here but lives in Berkeley now, and Scott (drummer) lives in San Francisco but he is originally from San Bernardino. We practice out in San Francisco right in the heart of the Tenderloin.
Obsolete Man. Photo credit: Danny Todd.
Obsolete Man in the recording studio. Photo credit: Danny Todd
To go off on a tangent, the last time we talked was in 2016. What were you doing with the city of Pacifica then, and what are you doing now?
In 2016, I had just left Apple to come back to the restaurant (Breakers) full-time. I was going to go back to school (SFSU), but I realized that I didn’t need to. I had joined the Board of Directors for the Resource Center. Within that year, I was the event chair of the most successful fundraising event they’d ever had, and a job presented itself, so I became the Development Coordinator for the Resource Center. I’ve been there for the last three years. I do Fundraising and Communications with our Executive Director. With this most recent fundraiser, we raised over $130,000 to support Pacificans with groceries, shelter, and any other critical services they might need. We’re the only social services agency in Pacifica that does this, so this work is really important to me.
I wear a lot of hats. I’m Robby the frontman, Robby from PRC and Breakers and I’m also in the process of launching a consulting and multimedia business. Since we last spoke I worked with a close friend who wanted to run for our local city council. I formed a team, we went to work and she eventually ran and won. It was one of the most demanding things I’ve ever been a part of. It was an incredible opportunity to learn more about what makes Pacifica tick, study its demographics and views, look at what does and doesn’t work during a campaign, all while working on an absolute shoestring budget. We had nowhere near the same budget that the other candidates had. They were predominantly backed by the real estate industry, and ours definitely wasn’t. It was a “for the people, by the people” campaign. We learned so much.
How large is Pacifica?
40,000 people. So about 13,000 households.
Is that as large as Santa Cruz, or smaller?
I’m not sure. I think Santa Cruz is bigger, but we get compared a lot to Half Moon Bay. But Half Moon Bay is, like, one downtown area and everything is right there. I’ve heard Pacifica be referred to as a “shotgun town”, which means that it is just one long city that’s in a straight line down the coast. So we have nine little exits that were unincorporated at one point, but now we are all Pacifica.
The running joke is that I’m the future mayor of this town. But I want to do the band, open up a couple more restaurants, get married, and have some kids before considering that. Because once I flick the switch (to become mayor), I’m going to make it a full time job. Being on the city council is a volunteer position, but it’s a four-year term and it rotates so each council member gets to be the mayor. In a perfect world, I would love to have those four years off from any other major project where all I’m doing is trying to get Pacifica to the point where everyone gets along and everyone is enjoying themselves.
I truly can’t wait for the day that you run, because I know that somebody is going to try to say “look at this guy! He’s in a hardcore band!” *laughs*
*laughs* I can’t wait. That was something that I actually struggled with during that campaign, in that I was considering running too. But now that I’ve seen how it works, I’m on a ten-year plan, and I’m just working on executing it, which has been fun. Thank you for being a part of it.
Obsolete Man in the recording studio. Photo credit: Danny Todd.
You said that you wanted to open another restaurant. What are your future plans for that?
It’s 2020 and our six-year anniversary for Breakers is in March. They say, “The first year is the hardest” and once you get past the 5th year, you’re a ”success”. It's definitely a lot smoother now. A couple of years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to sit down with you here on a Sunday afternoon. I would either be in the thick of it in the kitchen or dining room, or running a bunch of errands for the restaurant. We have a great team now and it’s not as stressful for me to be here.
Opening Breakers was rough for me. I definitely have a little bit of PTSD from it all. Just having people talk to you like, “you should have all of this figured out!” While I’m like... we just opened, my Dad and I are being evicted from our house, our power is off, and if we make just $100 a day, that’s going to help pay our bills. It was very “make or break.” Just watching my Dad every day...the restaurant industry is not the kindest industry to people...but he loves it.
The truth is, no one is coming from outside of Pacifica and banging down the doors to open up a business here. So if Pacifica is going to have any successful business, it’s going to have to be run “for locals, by locals” and still appeal to visitors. That’s what we do here at Breakers, so I know this model can work at a coffee shop, at a yogurt place, even at a hotdog stand. I don’t know what we’re going to do next, but our goal is to do a little more, and to leave a legacy in Pacifica.
If you’re willing to go back and talk about this, I had no idea that you had gotten evicted.
Oh! So we gotta rewind. In 2009, the recession hit. If you go back and watch the movie The Big Short, they document what happened during that moment in time. We (my dad and I) were on the front line of that. So we were part of the first wave of families in the country to lose our home, but we didn’t realize, at the time, that this was happening all over. We fell behind on our mortgage. Our house ended up getting sold from under us. So not only did we get evicted after we were living in the same house for over 20 years, but I was watching my dad fighting this battle virtually alone, to keep me under the same roof he raised me under... I grew up real quick right there.
Yeah. You’re kind of forced to.
Yeah. My dad was also unemployed during some of that time. They call it “The Great Recession” but it was not so great. *laughs* So we lost the house. Lawyers [get involved], we were suing banks and suing mortgage companies. Winning in court, but ultimately losing because the judge said, “If I let you win this, the floodgates will open.” So we were having the system tell us that we were right, that you got taken advantage of, but then telling us that if you keep at this, if you continue to fight, “the banks will bury you in legal fees so you’re just better off starting over.” It was me and my dad against the world, and we still had our dream of opening our own restaurant. Around that time, I was doing a lot of traveling; I was working with Pinup Productions, we were working with a company called College Battle. When I came back from the college marketing tour, I needed a day job to get me by. My Dad and I were living in an apartment while trying to get an investor to help us open our restaurant. We had everything except for the money. That summer, I ended up applying for a position at Google on a whim, and I got hired. My dad was the general manager at a restaurant then but I eventually became the sole income of the household soon after that when he left his job to focus on opening a place of our own.
What were you doing at Google?
I was working on Google Maps. I still use stuff today that I learned during my time at Google. It was supposed to be a one off, random job while I focus on achieving my goal of opening a restaurant and dream of becoming a rock star but ended up being a very significant part of my life.
So I’m working at Google Maps, and my Dad and I finally found our investor, and we were like, “Okay, let’s get the ball rolling on the restaurant”. But it still took one or two years really to even get that going. The day that we actually opened the restaurant, I wake up, and the power was shut off in our apartment, and we had a three day notice to pay or quit on our door because all of the money I was earning from Google was going to my Dad to help put the final touches on the restaurant before we could open.
We eventually moved into a mobile home park in Pacifica to be closer to the restaurant and because that was the only affordable place who would rent to us. So we’re living in the mobile home park for about a year until a new management company took over, raises everyone's rent in an attempt to evict all of the residents so they can flip the property.
I went from no evictions in the first 23 years of my life to like three evictions within four years. Oh I forgot to tell you about the San Bruno house! So in between my childhood home and the apartment, there was this guy that was dying of Leukemia that was renting out a house that he owned to us. But we didn't know he wasn’t paying his mortgage, he was just living the rest of his life out with our rent money. So when he passed away, we got evicted because another company bought and flipped that house. Then we moved to the apartment, the mobile home, we rented another house for six months before the new owner of that decided to move in, and ended up at another house for two years that the owners said they wanted to sell to us, but that fell through. So now, I’m in an inlaw in the back of a friend’s house, while my Dad is living in an apartment that is down the street, living by himself for the first time in his entire life. We are happy! And we have our family business!
Secretly, I’m waiting for a small downturn so that one day I might be able to buy our old house back. But It’s kind of come full circle, because of what I’ve learned working at the Resource Center, for example, nearly half of Pacifica is considered low income and essentially can’t afford to live here right now. My dad and I understand that deeply, it’s like, who’s going to serve your food? Who’s going to run these places you love? Even the business owners are struggling to survive.
I didn’t know that was a thing that was happening here.
My friends are moving out in droves. They’re moving to start families in Brentwood, Antioch, or they’re going to Portland, Seattle...Everyone is getting pushed out because the people who work in San Francisco can’t afford to live in San Francisco, and they’re like, “oh we just discovered this cute little town! (Pacifica)”
A lot of people in Pacifica want to keep it that secret beach town, and then on the other side of the spectrum, there are the developers and real estate folks who are like, “no, let’s make it a cool little tourist town like Monterey and Carmel.” Then there are all of us who fall somewhere in the middle of all that. It needs to be Pacifica, our own brand of Pacifica. We have cannabis now, we have good restaurants, we have good school districts and good teachers, but we’re losing them too. So how can Pacifica solve their own problems, but not look to be something else? Pacifica needs to be its own brand. There’s a lot of movers and shakers here who get that. Because the Internet, people have discovered our small town, so how can we make that work for all of us?
With the things that you’ve been doing at the Resource Center, how does that factor into some of the things we just talked about and how you’re helping with that? Is that something that falls under your job requirements?
I’m grateful that a majority of that does fall under my job description and is part of my work plan, but at the same time, I’m a native of Pacifica, so whether I’m at the Resource Center, or at Breakers, or working with another small business or political candidate, I’m seeing the same people, just with a different hat on. For the first time in a long time though, I’m becoming more comfortable with being myself when I show up in a room, because I kind of already know where we’re headed.
I’m just trying to rise the tide in Pacifica. And now, it’s also benefiting the band because now that we’re adults, we have our own opinions, we have things that we want to do, there’s the things that we’re putting into our music both on personal and professional levels.
Running a fundraising campaign is no different than running a new menu item campaign or dropping a new EP. You just plug in the different content deliverables. The form of communication is the same, it’s just through different avenues. We want the new consulting agency to be your one-stop-shop for your small business marketing needs. Small business owners don’t have time to investigate how to do every little thing that they need to get done for their business to thrive. I’ve already done the work in a lot of different industries. If I can help them in that way, then it will all be worth it.
Robby Bancroft in the studio with Obsolete Man. Photo credit: Danny Todd.
Will that be just for small business here in Pacifica or anywhere else in the Bay Area?
I think because I don’t have a clone of myself, it will just be in Pacifica. Technically, I’m on vacation from work, but on the 21st of February, I’m going to be sitting at Table 23 here at Breakers (that’s the meeting table). Because I have business plans to go over, new potential clients that I need to talk to who are all from different walks of life in the city. Some are people that are a part of the older generations that I’m trying to help understand the power of social media.
Once we officially launch, I think we’re only going to take three to five clients on, ideally in Pacifica. Right now we’re just focusing on Pacifica, and then the world. *laughs*
And then on top of all of this, you’re commuting to San Francisco for practice, and then to shows in places like San Jose?
Yeah, so I’m currently traveling for just the band only. Driving is the one thing I don’t miss about the band life. I’m actually driving the same truck that I drove when I was recording my first EP when I was in high school. Like, this truck just won’t die. So I’m back to driving this truck to pick up our equipment in SF, driving it to the X-Bar in Cupertino. I just got a little bit bigger of a belly, a little more hair on my chin, and a little less hair on the top of my head, but I’m right back here in the local music scene. I’m excited to be back!
What do you think has changed within how the local scene that we were a part of has changed into the local scene now? Is there still something there, and what’s your take?
So this is interesting. I recently just had a conversation similar to this. I used to work for Pinup Productions in that really big era of Warped Tour. We actually worked with you a lot, because you sponsored events, played shows, stuff like that. Now, in the social media age, sixty-year olds are on Facebook posting about how “We were there when “x” or “y” came out.” The technology is getting quicker and there’s more platforms and opportunity than ever. I haven’t even really had a chance to dive into TikTok yet. If you can explore those new things where the attention is, it’s not as scary or dangerous as people make it out to be. You need to try new things and see what happens, it’s the same with the music scene, specifically the local scene. Pop music was really cool, but now I heavy music is coming back. Warped Tour shifting its business model is a sign of the times, but there are way more opportunities to get your music out and connect with people than only playing shows. But there’s a lot more noise, so what are you going to do that’s going to separate you from the others? Everyone is spending more time on their screens now so you need to bring the show to them! The “shortcut” you're looking for is putting your head down and doing the hard work, but a lot of people just want to skip to being the rockstar, or skip to having the cool job, and that’s your own ego and lack of patience getting in your way.
To wrap this up, where will the digital roll out for Obsolete Man be? Where can people find the music, show info, etc.?
Yes! I’m very excited about the new project. It’s funny that you do pick up on the sound of The Chariot/Norma Jean with our music, because I get compared to Josh Scogin (vocalist for ’68, The Chariot, ex-Norma Jean) a lot, so I’m totally down for that. I think I even kind of look like him a little. *laughs* But he’s got that good Atlanta accent. Gino loves power-violence music like Spazz, Charles Bronson, and Mind Eraser. Devan is into all kinds of shit, especially Punk/Hardcore bands like Ceremony, Nerve Agents, and Bracewar. Scott is into anything heavy and chaotic like Animosity and Converge, so that’s why we’re getting a little nastier with it. Gino’s like the band Mom, Devan’s like the band Dad, and Scott is like the kid you’re not allowed to swear in front of. Then I’m the crazy uncle who comes in and is like,“Why don’t we do this?! It’ll be great!” We’re operating as a total unit right now. The EP is going to be available online and is part of a dual-cassette release. Cassettes are coming back now! It’s a dual-EP cassette release with Rekt from Redwood City. They’re pretty much the only hardcore band in the Peninsula right now, so we’re excited to play with them. We’re playing the San Jose Peace & Justice Center on the 21st of March, and the Knockout in SF on the 22nd. I think our rollout is going to start on the 1st. The first single and video is going to be for “Violence”. We’ll have shirts, hats, cassettes, and stickers available on our website (obsoletemansf.com) and at shows. (Editor’s Note: These shows have since been canceled due to the COVID-19 crisis.)
That’s the other kind of stuff I love doing. Like, when I’m on stage, that’s the rush, but that’s only for like fifteen minutes. Even though it stresses me out, I love participating in the logistics of everything, sending emails to venues and press outlets, the back and forth tweaking of the artwork and content for the release. For people to appreciate this work at the end of the day would make it even better, but we’re already such big fans of our own band that I don’t think anyone can really shut us down at this point. Because I really don't care if you don’t like the band; I’m doing this to survive so that these other things I'm working on don’t suffer. That kind of creative outlet was the only thing that I was missing from my life when I talked to you back in 2016, until now.
Additionally, Breakers is open 7-3pm daily, 145 Rockaway Beach, Pacifica, CA. Visit pacresourcecenter.org to learn more about the Pacifica Resource Center.
Obsolete Man’s debut EP, A Short History of Decay, can be purchased on Bandcamp. In light of recent events, we recommend purchasing the album on Friday, March 20th, as Bandcamp has announced that they will be directing all income made from artists’ sales directly to the bands, rather than taking a cut. This is a massive help to independent artists, so we encourage you to purchase through Bandcamp.
You can follow the band at all of the channels listed below. Additionally, in light of COVID-19, Robby has been working with the Pacific Resources Center to keep everyone informed with the following resources included below.
For health-related coronavirus updates, visit https://www.smchealth.org/coronavirus; to learn how the County is responding, visit: https://cmo.smcgov.org/eoc.
COVID-19 PUBLIC CALL CENTER: Call 211 for non-emergency, non-medical questions (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) OR Text “coronavirus” to 211211 for updates!
Obsolete Man
www.obsoletemansf.com
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Twitter: @obsoletemansf
Instagram: @obsoletemansf
Obsoleteman.bandcamp.com
