Nobunny is a one-man pop-punk band who has garnered comparisons to
the Ramones,
Hasil Adkins, and
the Cramps. His lo-fi singles and albums, especially 2013's Secret Songs, captured his unhinged appeal.
Nobunny is the alter ego of
Justin Champlin, who was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, and relocated to San Francisco, California.
Champlin first made a name for himself as the drummer with garage punks
the Okmoniks and later co-founded the Sneaky Pinks, a two-man punk-pop group. With
Nobunny,
Champlin streamlined the concept of the Sneaky Pinks by paring the consistent lineup down to just one person. Sometimes working solo and sometimes backed by a constantly shifting group of musicians,
Champlin began performing as
Nobunny in 2001, though it wasn't until 2008 that he made his recorded debut with the album Love Visions. Primarily recorded at home with
Champlin handling most of the instruments, the record was released by the tiny Bubbledumb Records label; it earned enthusiastic reviews in the underground music press and was reissued in 2009 by the somewhat larger 1-2-3-4 Go! Records.
In 2009,
Nobunny put out a single through Horizontal Action Records, "Give It to Me" b/w "Motorhead with Me," and a cassette-only album, Raw Romance, on
Burger Records. In September 2010,
Nobunny's second full-length album, First Blood, was released by Goner. After a relatively quiet 2011 with no recordings released,
Nobunny returned in 2012 with a single for Suicide Squeeze and an EP for Goner. He stuck with Goner for 2013's Secret Songs and spent the next few years plying his trade on-stage instead of in a recording studio.
In the wake of the
Burger Records fallout in mid-2020,
Champlin wrote a lengthy message on his social media detailing his misbehavior and retired the
Nobunny name and persona. ~ Mark Deming