A big shoutout to the following awesome people at the Columbus Music-Go-Round, Bethel Road: Brett, Hakim, Paul, Christian, Chris, and Connor. They keep us will-equipped, and provide great service and parts support, and even give us free trechnical advice. Also, major thanks to Don's luthier friend, David Blowers, for first class repairs and restorations, and for constantly searching the guitar oceans for vintage 60's Japanese models. The Very Best!

The Buddha Bums are Zen Cowboys. We are comprised of:

In the studio:

- Don Kloss, guitar, vocals, keyboards, harmonica

- Tim Hofmann, bass, drums, keyboards, engineering, production, mixing

Live band:

- Don Kloss, guitar, vocals, keyboards, harmonica

- Matt Carrico, guitar, keyboards

- Peter Domin, bass, backing vocals

- Maxwell Ridenour, drums 

     Paul?                                                  Ringo?                                                    George?                                                  John?

    Peter!                                                   Max!                                                         Matt!                                                      Don!

To stay true to the music and what the audience hears, we strive to not make use of devices such as pitch correction, quantizing, drum samples, post-production compression, re-amping, amplifier simulations, and other studio "tricks" that make music sound sterile, formulaic, and inauthentic, in the studio and live. We use real instruments, amplifiers and effects pedals. We believe that rock should sound raw but clear, have warmth, clarity, and depth of sound and dynamics. We endeavor to serve up the best elements of classic rock in a fresh package, and to give audiences a live show that will live as a keynote memory.

Follow us on facebook: the.buddha.bums, on Instagram: 1958donk, or on Tikkok: buddhabums, or else!

All Buddha Bums songs are written and copyright protected by Don Kloss, ASCAP.  All songs published by Buddha Bums Publishing, ASCAP

Friend, Brian Peirce, custom painted this outer space scene on Don's Telecaster, including pick-shaped planets on the headstock. Don used this during the band's January 18, 2025 debut show. Brian can be reached via Facebook or TikTok, if this type of artwork interests you.

Below is a photo gallery from our first live show at the Franklin Street Creative's venue, The Agora, in Hillard, Ohio on Saturday, January 18, 2025.

Below is an interview Don did recently with freelance journalist, Derek Fredriks:

Derek: Can we start with your influences? I want to compare what I hear in your music.

Don: Sure. My biggest influence is Neil Young, songwriting and guitar playing. I picked up the guitar because of his music. I was a drummer and when I heard Ragged Glory for the first time, something clicked and I wanted to do that. I've come to be a lyrical soloist, never wanted to be a shredder, still don't. I think speed playing sucks the soul out of the music. Brian Jones and Brian Eno have also been big writing insprations, along with , Joe Walsh, Pink Floyd, Redd Kross, Bad Company, Steve Miller, Okay Go!, Thin Lizard Dawn, and some others. Vocally, totally my teenaged rock hero, Alice Cooper.  

Derek: You music is straight-forward, no nonsense, no frills rock. Is that the intent, or do you hold back some desire to stretch out? 

Don: That's the intent. Short-ish verses that get you to a catchy chorus quickly. Vocal, lyric, and guitar hooks scattered around. Stretching out some is for live, but not beating the audience with fifteen minute guitar or keyboard solos. The solos often stick to, or are built around the vocal melodies. It's the punk aesthetic bleeding through.

Derek: There isn't a punk vibe or flair to what you do, though.

Don: No. but I was a big fan from my first brushes with it in the early 80s. I lived in Los Angeles from '84 through '88, so was a prt of that scene as a fan. I saw a lot of great bands in everything from famous clubs on Sunset to dumps like Fender's Ballroom in Long Beach.  What I appreciate is they got into the meat of the songs, said what they had to say, and got out. No fluff in the song construction. The Ramones were masters of this.

Derek: You lived in Long Beach, correct? Your song, Good Morning, LA, is about your experiences there... 

Don: North Long Beach, when Sublime house parties were a thing. The first night I was in my house, I was taking trash cans to the street and there was a gang shooting on the corner. Welcome to the South Bay, Ohio farm town boy! There were gang initiations in my front yard. Gang fights on my street. These people didn't live in my neighborhood, just came there to do their nastiness. Gang shootings as I attended Dodgers games. One morning my now-ex wife and I were going to work and saw a young woman apparently asleep on a bus bench on the corner by my work building. We found out in the LA Times that night she was actually the latest victim of Richard Ramirez. 

Derek: There is a fair amount of story-telling in your songs and not a lot of the usual relationship, brooding, or ranting songs. I think mostly of songs like Schrodinger's Cat, Christopher Lee, Good Morning LA, Buddha, and others. Did you get that from Neil Young or Alice Cooper, too?

Don: I don't believe so. I've been writing and publishing poetry for 20 years. It's all from being a good observer of things around me, coupled with my viewing everything I see and hear as potential material in some way or another. My English Education degree doesn't hurt. Someone who influenced me, a New Jersey poet, once said, "All the world for poetry is grist". Zappa also apologetically, stated that everything is fair game. I follow that idea and attitude.

Derek: Is Zappa an influence in any way? I don't hear it in your music.

Don: No, Frank is one of those people I greatly admire, like Buckethead, Adrian Belew, Peter Frampton, and John Dwyer. I listen to their playing intently, and can't decide whether to work harder on my playing, or throw my axe off a high cliff. 

Derek: Let's switch gears a bit. About you and the vintage Japanese guitars, is it the appeal of nostalgia? Investment? Something else?

Don: It started as nostalgia with my first, a Kent double-cut what appears to have some Kawai components on it. I drooled over those for years in the Sears and Ward's catalogs as a kid and teen. I wanted one so bad, but never asked for one because I new my parent's couldn't afford it. They were already doing without so my siblings and I could have and do things to enrich us. I saw that guitar and it looked very much like it had never been played. I had this vision: As I drooled away, some other kid got this guitar. It amused him for a week or two, then found it's way into a closet where it stayed for about 54 years. Then it got sold off to the used gear store. I had to have it and it's mint condition case. The asking price was well less than it's value. Done deal. The more I learned about these guitars, the more quirky and interesting I found them as opposed to the few modern styles that dominate the market. And they sound and play killer! Give me a zero fret, big horns, and foil pickups, any day!

Derek: How many do you own now?

Don: Eleven so far. They are an investment because I'm like a bloodhound for deals. I have purchased each for way less than it's current value, and that will just keep going up.

Derek: What's your favorite so far? A Silvertone?

Don: No, a 1969 Lafyette Kimberly Bison. Huge horns, zero fret, four gold foil pickups! Four switches and six knobs! Beautiful emerald green stain that shown the woodgrain. I think some Japanese marketing guy must have told his peers, "The more knobs and switches we but on it, the more the kids will want it! Can we go for five pickups?"

Derek: How did you meet the guys in the band? Is there a story there?

Don: Peter and I connected through a website that's like a musician's Craigs List. I jammed with him and Max a couple of times and it was good. On the third occasion, he asked if I'd mind another guitar player joining us for a jam. I was cool with it. That was Matt. I got the guys to try playing a couple of my songs, showed them what to do. I felt it immediately click. It helped a lot that the three of them had been jammong together for a couple of years. I asked them afterwards if they would like to join up for the Buddha Bums. 

Derek: And they all said yes? That doesn't seem to happen often.

Don: Exactly. After months of searching and frustration, and seemingly no one interested in what I was doing, I was practically wetting myself! It was like Neil finding Crazy Horse!

Derek: You've had your debut show. What's next for the Buddha Bums and you?

Don: Bringing the guys into the recording process. We've already started writing a couple of songs together. Tightening up our performing as we get more used to playing with each other, and just more familiar with each other personally. I'm on the hunt for gigs once spring hits. We'll be at full bore by then, for sure. Building the actual show. I have a lot of ideas on the theatrical side of things. I intend to bring audiences way more than four guys in jeans and black T-shirts playing songs. No one in central Ohio is doing it. Enjoy what we do, criticize us, make fun of us if you want, but I refuse to be boring.

Derek: Thank you for taking the time with me, and for being so open and easy to talk with.

Don: Anytime, man. Want some green tea with loquait? Godzilla Vs. Mothra is on soon...