Hi, I'm Bonnie

I started interning at Drive-Thru in either 1997 or 1998. I had gone to see Blink 182 play at the Ventura Theatre and River Fenix opened up for them. I instantly fell in love with them because they kinda sounded like Blink Jr. and I was totally into that. I bought their cd and a few days later noticed that there was an email address for the record label, which was located in “the valley”, a short drive from the suburbs of Thousand Oaks. I sent an email asking if they were looking for interns because I was interested in working in the music industry. I was 16 and had just gotten my driver’s license and I was pretty sure I knew what I would be doing for the rest of my life. 

Richard Reines wrote me back and then I started making the trek up the 118 to work out of a garage on the afternoons I didn’t spend working at the mall. I remember on my very first day interning I met Barbie from Rx Bandits and we talked about our mutual love of Jimmy Eat World. I also remember being BLOWN AWAY by the wall of cd’s that Richard and Stefanie had lining their living room. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. 

I interned at DTR when they signed New Found Glory and Midtown, on the same day. I remember how excited RnS were about these bands they had found and when they gave me that Midtown EP that Pinball had released I went home and put it on my CD player and sat down and listened to it while reading all the lyrics. I’m pretty sure that Midtown became the only band that mattered to me on the very first listen of that EP. 

By the time Drive-Thru signed The Starting Line I was a full time employee at the label and I’m pretty sure we were working out of a legitimate office by then. I remember sweet baby Kenny calling me on Valentine’s Day and singing to me over the phone and thinking that I would do anything I could to help that band because of that phone call. 

The best thing that happened to me while working at Drive Thru though was meeting my best friend, Randy. The night I met Finch we all went bowling and Randy and I talked about our two favorite bands being Jimmy Eat World and Blink 182. Our friendship was pretty much cemented in our first conversation. After bowling we all went to the movies and Randy rode in my car with me where I played him Refused, who he had never listened to. I was fortunate enough to visit them in the studio when they recorded both their EP and their full length. I even autographed some of the cd’s that were pre-ordered when What It Is to Burn was released. 

Anyway, I absolutely LOVE the list of albums that Jason Tate wrote and cried a little reading it because I have about a million memories associated with each of those albums and feel so incredibly lucky that I was able to be a part of them.