Music of the Mountains: Brian Bucca of The Full Tilts

Debuting as a group with their first public performance, The Full Tilts will play at Two Bears Bar and Grill in Idaho Springs on August 1st. Lead guitarist and singer Brian Bucca joins the podcast to talk about the new group, with host Jamie Lammers revealing his surprising connection with the musician.

Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagner. Stream her record Better off Dead here.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Hello there, everybody. My name is Jamie Lammers, and welcome to Music of the Mountains, Where to Be and What to See, a weekly series brought to you by the Mountaineer Podcast. This week's episode is one of the more surreal ones for me. I'll be interviewing the frontman of a new group called the Full Tilt, who will be performing in their first public show at Two Bears Bar and Grill in Idaho Springs very soon. The person I'm interviewing today is named Brian Buka, and I've never interacted with him as a musician, but I have met him before. So I was diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic in 2013, and I've been going to the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes in Aurora ever since. A few years ago, I started seeing the eye clinic over there as well for yearly eye appointments related to diabetes. Brian Buka is my ophthalmologist. I found his group, talked to him as Brian over email, and only realized I knew him when he introduced himself over the phone. You'll hear my reaction in the opening of the interview as I realize who I'm talking to. I'm super excited to be interviewing Brian in a musical context in this episode. Now let's get into one of the weirdest serendipities I've ever experienced as a journalist. My interview with Brian Buca.

SPEAKER_03 1:53

Alright. So do you mind just introducing yourself real quick?

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Yeah, I'm Brian Buka. I am the singer and the lead guitarist and the front man for the band The Full Tilt, Side of Denver, Colorado.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

Sweet. You know what? Hang on one minute here. You're based in Denver. Are you by any chance a medical person?

SPEAKER_01 2:11

A medical person? Yes.

SPEAKER_03 2:13

Oh my god. You're the Barbara Davis Side Clinic, aren't you?

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:18

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Your name looks familiar, but I didn't know if it was the same one.

SPEAKER_03 2:23

It is the same one. That's amazing. Okay. Well hello. You're performing with the uh the full tilts on Oh goodness. What's the date again? August 1st. August 1st at two bears.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Yeah, August 1st. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 2:38

Oh my gosh. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

I feel like we did talk about the fact that you were in music at some point, but I didn't realize that this was if there's any attempt of a person being interested in music, whether it's a kid or an adult, uh, you know, I run across that all the time. I'm willing, I mean, I'll break it out because I can talk forever. Uh type of stuff. So it's just a good way to make a connection to you know, make an impact, you know, and uh foster a relationship and trust. You know, if you have something in common with somebody and it's not diabetes, you gotta make it about something else.

SPEAKER_03 3:11

Absolutely. How long have you been working in music in the first place? How long have you been kinda coming into into the music world, all that stuff?

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Yeah, I mean, I started, I can tell you the day it started, uh, when I was 14. Let's see, I broke a string and I was riding my bike to Mississippi Music where I grew up in Mississippi, South Mississippi. Uh, and it started right around there, and I had to ride my bike to go get a string. Uh my dad's bike. He told me not to not to ride that bike because he was a big bike rider and it was just hanging in the garage, and that was my only way to go get another string. And uh by the time I rode into town and rode back, I mean it must have been eight miles or something in the summer Mississippi heat and humidity. Uh I was probably had a heat stroke. I didn't have any water and I lay down on my floor. But that that's how I marked kind of my beginning as far as when I started playing guitar. But you know, being introduced to music in my parents' truck as we were riding around the backwoods of Mississippi singing, you know. We used to have these bucket seats on my dad's Ford truck, and uh we would ride around unbuckled, and I would just carelessly sing, you know, the country music they listened to. Uh it started young, but yeah, started playing guitar around 14.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

That's awesome. And for the full tilts, what how long have you been playing in full tilts? How did the group get going? All that all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Well, the full tilts are a relatively new project, kind of just formed around, I think it was around maybe March or April, and uh a couple of my bandmates were in another band that dissolved, and I had known at least the drummer Steve for quite some time because we were in a band together when I first moved to Denver in 2007, and uh just trying to get back with him forever, and you know the opportunity presented itself sometime around April, and he brought his the guitar player in that band, Matt Martin, who's now our bass player, and Kevin Brown, who I've been in a project before, was recently mostly in the music scene, making his name made there um as kind of a side man, and he kind of went back and forth through different groups there. So it'd been about April, and uh we got together and we talked about you know where we wanted to go, and we decided to definitely give it a try. I think we all are kind of talented enough to put together a group and we just want to play music. So we just decided we've ever since then we just kind of worked on the music set list, trying to tighten it up. It's been about April, but now actually two bears would be our first public gig. We had a uh we had a private gig last week in Evergreen, but this would be the first event to public on August 1st, or two bears.

SPEAKER_03 5:53

Oh, that is awesome. Oh man. And so what do you what are you guys kind of hoping in terms of performing in regards to the set list? Like uh are you planning on performing more originals, more covers, a mix of both? What's the what's the set list composed of?

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Yeah, it'll definitely be a mix of both. I think we have about eight originals that we're gonna fit in there. Most of them, uh, you know, I think that encompasses probably about 15% of our set. Our goal, you know, I guess to kind of go back to your first question to elaborate a little bit more about the band at least, is you know, we'd love to get into the original scene and kind of go back and forth between, you know, the cover band scene, the original scene, but the original is really where where we would love to head, and we're just trying to figure out how to bust into that scene too. But at Two Bears, it'll be about fifteen, ten, fifteen percent original than the rest will be covers at that point.

SPEAKER_03 6:43

So very cool. What kind of music do you guys end up focusing on?

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Well, anything that's danceable and singable, and uh we want to have an interact, you know, the crowd paying attention, interactions, you know, whether that's dancing or looking or foot stomping or snapping, whatever that might be, that's you know, that's fuel for us and kind of put on the best performance that we can. So, you know, rock and roll. There's some fast ones and some slow ones in there, but the original so far is kind of removed, I guess, from danceable singable. It's still rock and roll, but it's uh some of the songs are a little bit heavier. That comes from my metal background. Kind of goes like a metal blue is what it ends up being, some of this weird swampy metal blue.

SPEAKER_03 7:28

Fantastic. What are some of your favorite aspects about being able to to perform live and what's been cool about like gelling with with this group over the last few months?

SPEAKER_01 7:37

I you know, I like the crowd interaction. Um I've been out for a couple of years since my last project, and just anxious to get back and then perform. You know, I've I've been playing guitar for quite some time now, started writing music a while back, and you kind of you're sitting there in your chair and you're like, you know, this is nice for me to be able to do this. It's been a nice outlet for sadness and sorrow and joy. Um, but you know, at some point I started asking myself, you know, we need to start demonstrating this to people and hopefully bring them joy. And so that's I want to give that back.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

Absolutely. Yeah, and I'm assuming that's what you want people to take away from the shows as well, is just that that sense of joy and excitement.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Yeah, I mean god look around and live music is it does something for people, I think. You know, people go and see it and make a point to go to a concert, a venue, a bar, an outdoor event, and they do that for a reason, and I believe that people, you know, music is the the language of the world and you know it speaks to people in different ways, to their hearts and their minds. I believe it is a healing medicine. So I hope that they bring that away. And as far as performing with bandmates, and I I want to communicate with people, with my bandmates, it brings us closer. It's almost like going to war with your band of brothers. You know, you come up on the other side.

SPEAKER_03 8:55

Absolutely. Yeah, oh man. It with the full pilots performing for the first time in public very soon and with things kind of jelling there. What what are you hoping for the group? What plans do you have coming up to keep on developing?

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Well, we have a show, another one. We're gathering gigs and fast this weekend. Uh we have a show at the Roxy on Broadway in Denver on August 14th. Constantly trying to contact venues and get ourselves into there, uh, the Morrison Holiday Bar. We're in uh October. So, you know, I'd like to keep busy. Keep the show on the road and speak. And like I said before, you know, I keep developing and writing originals uh with the band and bringing that too. That's something that I really, really and I guess we all really want to put our efforts in more than anything is to creation and see what that does for people. You know, see if they dig it. And um we've had some pretty good responses from venues that have visited our website as some originals on there, like four or five originals on there, and uh they've all been really receptive to that. So I guess that's a good start in, you know, knowing that you're putting out something that people like, you know, but bringing that to the live music world is where I'd like to see this group go.

SPEAKER_03 10:12

Oh, fantastic. Yeah, I don't know. I I is there anything else just about the full tilts or other music stuff happening or other things happening that you want people to know about?

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Yeah, just visit our website at thefulltilt.com, Instagram at at the full tilt. We'll be putting all of that music together for our EP. I know we're pretty new, but uh I think it'd be really nice to have a product out for people to get their fans on. So I think we've got maybe a couple more songs to go before we're ready to do that. I have multiple songs that we're considering putting on that EP, but you know, five in, I think that's gonna be something that's gonna be our focus. So keep on the lookout for our up-and-coming EP.

SPEAKER_03 10:54

Fantastic. And yeah, I I think those are the big questions that I have on my end.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Great. Jamie, it's a pleasure.

SPEAKER_03 11:01

Yeah, it's a pleasure, man. It's great to hear from you.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Yeah, you too. I'll I'll see you uh in a clinic near you soon.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

Yeah, I'll see you. I'll see you next month, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Okay, great.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Thank you so much, Brian, for coming on board and joining us for the podcast. It was great having our worlds collide in this way. Brian's new lineup, the Full Tilts, will perform their first public gig at Two Bears Tap and Grill, located at 33295 Highway 6 in Idaho Springs on Saturday, August 1st, 2026, starting at 1 p.m. So be sure to check out their very first live show by heading to Idaho Springs. Thank you so much, everybody, for tuning in to this week's Music of the Mountains, Where to Be and What to See, brought to you by the Mountaineer Podcast. I'll be back next week with another episode, and we'll be back very soon with another episode of the Mountain Ear Podcast. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Podchaser, and more. And be sure to subscribe to the Mountain Ear today by heading to the mtnear.com and clicking on the subscribe button at the top of our homepage. You can also scroll down to find the Mountain Ear Media section of our homepage, where you can find us on Facebook, Instagram, at mtn.ear, and on our YouTube channel. Finally, if you have any questions or queries about the paper or the podcast, be sure to reach out to myself at mediatheMountainer.com, my co-host, Tyler Hickman at T Y L E R atheMountainear.com, our editor-in-chief Barbara Hart at infothemountaineer.com, and General Inquiries at frontdesk at the Mountaineer.com. We'll see you very soon. Have a great rest of your day.