Mastering Destiny: A Conversation With The Fool
Interview ★ Alyssa Bushman ★ @lissyb_21 ★ 5 Minutes
A note from the editor:Recently, our magazine hosted a contest focused on highlighting small rock acts in The United States. We went in with the goal of finding “the best” rock band in each state that was submitted. This week, we’re featuring one of our winners from the great state of Nevada.
The Fool, photographer unknown
So please tell me the name of your band!
Charlie: We are The Fool!
And where are you based?
Alexa: We are a Las Vegas based band.
Charlie: We play a lot in Henderson and Boulder City, but we are a Vegas band through and through.
Awesome and can you guys go one by one and tell me your names and what you do in the band?
Nelson: I’m Nelson. I play bass.
Charlie: My name is Charlie. I sing and play guitar.
Alexa: My name is Alexa and I sing and play piano.
Mychal: Name is Mychal and I play drums.
Charlie: He sings sometimes. Don’t be shy.
Mychal: I try. I try.
Alright and how did you come up with the name The Fool?
Alexa: The Fool is inspired by my favorite tarot card. And it also just comes from like a kind of ‘master of your own destiny’ energy and taking charge.
Charlie: I like the hat with the bells. *laughs*
Nice, and how did you guys start playing together?
Charlie: Well we used to go to an open mic night. And Mychal and I had been playing for about a year and half at that point just dickin’ around and having fun all over Henderson, then I met Nelson. I was like this man can play guitar. Crazy good. And he can play wicked bass. And so I was like ‘please hang out with me’. And then Alexa and I met and she was singing some good tunes. I was like ‘please also hangout with me’.
Mychal: You didn’t even say the best part. She won that open mic night on her own. And she hired us as her band.
Charlie: Which is so fun! Honestly we are Alexa’s back up band. That makes me so happy. It’s a blast.
Alexa: We came together over this past summer through open mics and it’s been really really fun the whole time.
So that was actually one of my questions because obviously I know you guys personally! How do you think the open mics helped you guys form as a band?
Nelson: I would say just networking. When you’re meeting somebody at an open mic, you’re already meeting people who have taken the first step to getting out of their house and going out and playing. So you know, if you’re trying to meet people off Craigslist to form a band or stuff like that- If they’re just sitting at their home posting ads they’re not always going to be as committed. When someone’s going to an open mic, they’ve already made the determination they’re going out.
Charlie: Yeah they’re already two thirds of the way there if they’re brave enough to like get up in front of a bunch of random strangers. So you’re picking from a really good group to be able to work collaboratively together.
One other question I had was, who are some of your inspirations for the sound of The Fool?
Mychal: I guess I’ll kind of start.. I’m gonna steal Charlie’s first of all with Jamiroquai.
Charlie: Oh my God! You and I have that in common.
Mychal: No but that is a common one that we both like. And I love that it’s high production pop but at the same style of having its own unique style within that. I think that a line of one of the things that- And I really enjoy the fact that we don’t have a designated exact genre. We’re always in the studio and whenever we’re in there it doesn’t matter what it is as long as it sounds good.
Charlie: Mychal and I, our old band’s name used to be Yard Sale because you never know what you’re gonna get. *B dum tss* We call it boys night when we have a song that Alexa’s taking a break on. We bring Yard Sale back and Nelson will play guitar and I’ll play bass and we’ll play Cliffs of Dover like it’s guitar hero in 2011.
Alexa: Some of the inspirations for me coming into this band was like Fleetwood Mac. Some of the songs I love to do are like our Stevie Wonder songs or our Beatles songs.
Charlie: Our Daisy Jones songs too.
Alexa: Yeah Daisy Jones songs.
Charlie: Recent musical hit that was pretty cool yeah. I listen to a lot of Stevie Wonder. I listen to a lot of jazz. I also love… I guess a good word for it is like grumpy rock.
Alex: That’s a good segue to talk about like our original music too. I think that’s a good category.
Charlie: I think we write grumpy rock. And that’s a lot of fun. Definitely is very cathartic when you get to hang out with a bunch of people who you know have similar lives have similar experiences where you guys can sort of connect and process things together.
Alexa: Through music!
Charlie: Through music! It’s really really satisfying to see that happen.
Nelson, any inspirations?
Charlie: Nelson likes Sublime.
Nelson: I do like Sublime a lot. But when it comes to playing bass, Sublime is one of the bands that even got me to pivot from mostly playing guitar. I just fell in love with so many of the Sublime bass lines that I was like I have to get a bass guitar and learn how to play bass. It was so funny when I got one it was so alien, I couldn’t do what I wanted to do with it my first go at it, so I definitely had to spend some time making it not so obvious that I’m a guitar player playing bass.
Charlie: I’ll tell you what though you have had an eight or nine month head start. Well wait, how long have you played bass?
Nelson: Seriously started playing? Recently, although I bought a bass like ten years ago and just noodled with it off and on.
Charlie: Watching Nelson learn bass while having the knowledge of a guitar player already has helped me as a guitar player who is just now starting to figure out bass. You’ve sort of jumped those hurdles, so it’s been good to take some notes.
Mychal: My favorite is when I see Nelson giggling whenever we play that Billie Eilish song. You always have such a good time with Happier Than Ever. You’re always like mmm haha.
Alright and then I believe my last and final question was what do The Fool fans have to look forward to in 2026?
Charlie: So we are gonna try and do Henderson Battle of the Bands this year. So that’s exciting! A little local Nevada stuff for y’all. I will say that we have three exciting singles that we’ve been working on very very fun. They’re polished and you’re gonna have new music very soon. And after that new music possibly even sooner?
Mychal: That’s the plan.
Charlie: Mychal’s breathing heavy because he’s our producer.
Mychal: Yeah I do some of that other work too.
Charlie: It’s going to be a lot of fun. We cannot wait to see what The Fool can bring for you guys! Thank you!
Everyone: Thank you so much!!
