Meet Ammo Bankoff | Musician, Photographer, Filmmaker

I am from Southern California. I was born in Los Angeles but lived in Riverside until 7th grade. My family then moved us to San Clemente (a city in Orange County) to get away from a pretty rough area. Lot’s of gang shootings and not the best school system. It was a huge change for me. With one week left of 7th grade, I was shipped off into the throws of some foreign beach town with those who didn’t take lightly to a new kid in town.

Although I did love hearing the ocean at night and the smell of salt in the air, I was never a creature of the day. Surfing, tanning, and beach days were usually out of the question and those being the norm gave me few options for friends.

After painfully making it through eighth grade, that summer I attended a family gathering with my parents’ long time friends. I was close with their kids and their son gave me a cassette tape with Ramones “I Wanna Be Sedated” on it. I listened, and it piqued my interest. Although it didn’t quite click just yet, I remember thinking how cool this kid was. I may have even had an innocent young crush on him and that was enough for me. That was my first introduction to punk.

Later I started high school. Never belonged, but at least there were more people around than in junior high. I ended up hanging out on the side of the school, essentially where all the rejects, punks, and weirdos congregated. For a while, I simply watched. Then slowly I started hanging out with all these older kids. They were into abstract music and interesting things I had never heard before.

I got wind of some record store down the way in Laguna Hills called Underdog Records and once I started ditching school to take the bus there, that was it. My life’s trajectory was set. The first time I went there I got my hands on an anarcho-punk record ‘Tube Disasters’ by Flux of Pink Indians. Approaching a guy at the front counter with a spiked mohawk about a foot tall, I asked if I could listen to the record. I listened on a record player they had set up with headphones. That was that, I was a convert. I bought the record, brought it home, and moved my parents’ record player into my room. I still own that record to this day complete with a long scratch on the A-side from an incident with a dog.

Growing up in Orange County was strange to me. An odd mix of money, drugs, religion, and denial. And with that comes some rebellion, so I did get to see some great bands when I was pretty young. I saw DI play the Depot in San Juan Capistrano with about 4 other people there, a highlight for my young self. I would hitch rides to places like the Glass House in Pomona or The Showcase Theater in Corona and the Smell in DTLA to see bands like The Adicts, TSOL, The Adolescents, and Saccharine Trust.

Being in that scene made me feel alive and gave me something to do with my anxious self. I started taking photos of these creative people and then I would develop the film in my high school photo class. I ended up dropping out of high school around 10th grade and signed up for a photo class at my local college just so I could use the darkroom. I was so enamored with everyone’s appearance. The way they dressed, their hair, their attitude. And it looked glorious on Tri-400, my favorite black and white film.

Being around all these crazy weirdos were so inspiring that I ended up picking up a guitar that I stole from a friend (Thankfully still a close friend). And from there I’ve been playing music ever since. My style has evolved from punk/post-punk into a dreamy ethereal sound, but my foundation and love of OC/LA punk and crust punk will never fade.

Eventually, I made my way to LA after getting fired from some shit job at 17, but it gave me more opportunities for photography and music and that’s all I cared about. I feel lucky to have been able to catch many of the same bands that we’re around back when punk started flourishing in the 70s. Growing up in OC definitely had a profound effect on my life and shaped who I am today.

My creative focus has always been on music. Right before the pandemic hit I was working on a record for my solo project that goes by AMMO. As soon as everything shut down, my friend/drummer/bandmate Alex Posell and I decided to dive into the project since we now had plenty of time. From March to May 2020 we worked on the record which resulted in 8 completed songs.

I wasn’t ready to release the record, but I knew I wanted to release a few singles. And since I had the time I figured I would make some music videos. I had already released a video for a cover song of The Sounds “Total Recall” that I edited together with royalty-free footage, but I wanted to do something a little more involved for the next two videos.

I shot the video for “Rose + Crown” in Elysian Park with friends Chris Slater and dancer/Pilates instructor Erica Lawless with a simple dance concept I had. The third video was an underwater video shot in a pool in the Hollywood hills for my song ‘A Cold War City”. This video was definitely one of the most ambitious videos I have shot. Jenny Baumert is an amazing underwater videographer and she was so helpful with the vision I had. You can check out all three videos here: https://www.youtube.com/c/musicbyAMMO