New Orleans rock band War Bunnies makes space for growth and getting loud on debut EP (2024)

There aren’t a lot of frills in War Bunnies’ music. And that’s exactly how the three-piece New Orleans band wants it — direct, in-your-face rock that demands to be played loud.

The members of War Bunnies — lead vocalist and bassist Sabrina Stone, guitarist Aaron Younce and drummer Ana De Ferreira — have each played in New Orleans rock and punk bands or had their own solo projects.

Stone has been a guitar-wielding singer-songwriter playing solo material for years, first in New York City and then in New Orleans. Younce, who is originally from the West Coast, plays bass in Southern soul-rock band Them Ol’ Ghosts and co-owns the shop Strange Guitarworks. And Ferreira, who is from Brazil, drums with the heavy, bluesy psych band High Black River (formerly Spitfire) and several other outfits.

With War Bunnies, the trio from different parts of the Western Hemisphere wanted to drill down on simple yet charged up songwriting. That focus can be heard on the band’s recently released debut EP, “What You Wanted,” which is out Friday, May 17, on streaming platforms. War Bunnies plays an album release show at 8 p.m. Sunday, May 19, at Holy Diver with Allision and Kevin Comarda. Cover is $10.

“It took Aaron souping up a bass for me to be like, all right, I’m gonna lean into this instrument and play less busy and get into the heart of what songs are,” Stone says. “With like five notes, you end up having a much more direct message.”

“That’s sort of a hallmark of our sound, is just letting this space be part of the music,” Younce adds. “There’s only three of us on stage anyway. There’s only so much noise we’re making anyway.”

While “What You Wanted” is a full-on alternative rock record, there’s clear punk and metal leanings in War Bunnies’ music. They’re not doing anything frantic or overly aggressive, but the band is setting up a groove and a mood and allowing space to be a character, Younce says.

Stone and Younce started writing music together in 2021. The two first used a drum machine, which can be heard on “Space for You,” their blunt “token break-up ballad” — “I didn’t mean to make you feel like you didn’t mean anything, but you didn’t.”

They quickly realized the drum machine wasn’t going to give the energy they wanted in a live show, so Stone and Younce convinced Ferreira (already busy with three original bands) to join them on drums.

War Bunnies had their first show as a trio in August 2022 at Zony Mash at a party for the New Orleans Arts Rag, which Stone founded and edits. Anyone can be a war bunny, Stone says, and the band has since built a following of war bunnies around New Orleans.

Stone, Younce and Ferreira recorded the six-song “What You Wanted” last year at Artisound on St. Claude, and the album was mixed and mastered by audio engineer Justin Armstrong, who has worked on albums by Deftones, Liz Phair and Audioslave.

While the song “Space for You” is about a break-up, there aren’t a lot of songs explicitly about exes on “What You Wanted.” It’s an EP about picking up the pieces and growing — radical self-care, Stone calls it.

“With the band itself, there’s been a lot of growth and healing as a theme because we’re close friends,” Stone says. “And each time we present anything to the group, there’s this encouragement: Yes, that deserves to be bigger. That deserves to be louder. That deserves to be shared.”

War Bunnies also plays Sunday, June 2, at The Drifter with Daria & The Hip Drops. Find "What You Wanted" and more info at warbunniesband.com.