Members of South Jersey’s April Mae & the June Bugs use 60–70 gallons of cooking oil each month to fuel their tour bus. Photo: Reno Iorio Photography
If you’re driving along the Turnpike and your nose detects some bus exhaust that smells strongly of french fries, you’re likely cruising behind the tour vehicle of April Mae & the June Bugs.
The genre-bending, vintage-inspired musical group doesn’t just play tunes. They hope to aim bright headlights on the issues of recycling and compassion toward the environment when they travel in style in their funky 1998 Ford E350 eco-tour bus.
That’s because it’s fueled by carbon-neutral-recycled cooking oil.
“We’re making mileage out of waste,” says member Tony Mascara Jr., of Millville, noting that, in addition to the environmental benefits, there are economic ones because, unfortunately, “the pump will eat your tour money.”
The group, founded in 2010, consists of Mascara and Moorestown residents April Mae Iorio and her husband, “Catfish” Dave Fecca; a fourth musician, Topher Horner, of Ambler, Pennsylvania, frequently joins the trio in local performances. All are dedicated environmentalists.
The Iorio-Fecca home, for example, which is adjacent to Moorestown’s wetlands, is heated by a wood-burning stove stacked with logs that Fecca forages, collecting fallen trees rather than cutting any down.
A bonus of this painstaking activity is his creation of a song, “I Chop Wood.”
The band has had the bus since 2011, and Iorio custom designed it herself. Its Powerstroke Turbo 7.3-liter diesel engine was converted shortly after the purchase, using a Vegistroke kit that Iorio says “was designed specifically for that engine.” Connecticut mechanic Pieter Efthimiatos completed the kit installation, including a secondary fuel tank for the veggie oil. Mechanic Russell Steele of Milford maintains the bus’s veggie-fueled system.
The cooking oil used to fuel the bus is donated by an eatery in Philadelphia. Photo: Reno Iorio Photography
Iorio points out that “the waste vegetable oil (WVO) that we use has the additional benefits of cleaner emissions, including fewer asthma-causing particulates, and recycling WVO for fuel keeps potential waste out of landfills and the environment.”
The magic bus, as Fecca describes it, does require diesel fuel to start and finish each road trip, “but only 5 or 10 minutes using diesel are necessary,” he notes. “When the oil gets heated enough from hot rods, the system automatically switches from diesel to oil.”
He says they get 15 miles per gallon, as opposed to 10 with diesel. “And cooking oil is biodegradable, so it’s not toxic to the environment,” he says.
Sulimay’s, a diner-style restaurant in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia, donates the used cooking oil. Iorio and Fecca pick up 60–70 gallons every month, and Fecca filters all of it.
Iorio points out that creation of the special bus was inspired by the legacy of one of the group’s heroes, iconic singer/songwriter/activist/environmentalist Pete Seeger, who drove a 1988 Ford Ranger solar-powered electric pickup truck for short trips.
April Mae & the June Bugs’ mantra is “It’s all about the boogie,” so naturally, their means of transportation is known as the Boogie Bus.
The Boogie Bus can be spotted traveling here and there in the Garden State and well beyond, including music festivals and other venues in destinations like New Orleans, Alabama, Tennessee and New England. One of Iorio’s compositions, “Memphis Bound,” honors the group’s performances there.
During their upbeat and quirky shows, Iorio, in vintage garb, accompanies herself on a washboard, her hands encased in steel-tipped, elbow-length black gloves. She also throws in a few kazoo and toy-horn performances, plus a little tap dance here and there.
Among Fecca’s unusual stringed instruments are a quirky cigar-box guitar, handmade by his Moorestown neighbor Gerry Thompson; an electric guitar; an electric banjo; and a family heirloom, his uncle Louie Fecca’s mandolin, dating from the 1930s or ’40s.
Mascara’s vintage-style instruments are a standing cocktail drum kit and an upright bass, which he spins like a top from time to time during performances.
When upright bass player Horner performs with the combo, Mascara switches to percussion.
The three describe their sound as “deep vintage vibes,” or “roots, baby, roots,” as Fecca puts it. Their performances include standards, vintage obscurities, and songs composed by Iorio and Fecca.
When they’re not performing, Fecca operates a home business, Dave Feccas Guitar Repair, and Iorio handles all administrative, preproduction and booking tasks.
Mascara serves as recording engineer and coproducer when the group records at his Millville studio, the Audio Lab. Mascara and his wife, Andrea (whose musical talents “stop in the shower,” according to her husband), have two daughters, Madison and Macy, and a one-year-old grandson, Mason. Horner and his wife, Marge, are the parents of Lily and Sam.
A discography of the trio’s full-length albums and singles, all available for purchase, can be found online at aprilmaeandthejunebugs.com.
