D

Nick: Dylan?

 

Dylan: Yoooo how’s it going?

 

N: So good bro we just got to Asheville about an hour ago.

 

D: Okay so you’re in North Carolina?

 

N: Yessir

 

D: Word, how’s the drive been treating ya?

 

Jack: The drive today was only about 2 hours, so no complaints there.

 

D: What was your last stop on the tour?

 

N: Yesterday we played Charlotte, it was our last show with worlds worst. A couple days after we met you in Austin we started a 10 day stint with worlds worst. So fucking fun dude.

 

D: Okay word, who are you playing with for the remainder of the tour?

 

J: Halloween from Philly is gonna play 3 shows with us.

 

D: In the age of the internet, how do you think that has affected the industry when it comes to distribution and getting music to new ears?

 

J: So, for me- I’m pretty bad with technology. I don’t own a laptop, I’m not really an internet kid and don’t record music myself. The only experience I really have is with distrokid. After (Amateur Heartthrob) everything was recorded, I got the files and used someone else’s computer along with my cell phone to upload it, and got it on streaming platforms. We got tapes made through a small label called Julia’s War and did the distribution ourselves. But in terms of the industry and everything, it really relies a lot on social media these days- that’s just kind of what pushes everything. Like with Julia’s war, we got traction from them posting on their page and followers of that scene seeing it, which was very helpful. Along with that, a lot of people reposted our music on instagram- so that gave us a little bump. In terms of listeners and all that stuff, we had a weird little interaction with spotify right after we dropped the record. We got on all these big indie pop playlists, which was interesting. I didn’t really have any strong feelings for it, I was happy that people were listening to our music. I do think that shit can get a little out of hand, like wrongly displayed attributes, listens and everything which some people think is very important these days. And not actually reflect where you are in the band and in the industry. So it happened and we like - you know in the back of your head you’re like are we blowing up right now but we kinda knew like this was just our first release, we’re laying the groundwork and we’re just gonna have to keep hustling if we wanna get involved in any of the bigger industry stuff or if were just gonna keep doing the diy thing for a minute. But to answer your question fully, I am relatively detached from all of the internet and all of the industry stuff. I just run the instagram page and write the songs, you know?

 

D: Okay, cool cool. So I have one more question for you, I was listening to a previous interview you did, and you talked about playing in some hardcore groups beforehand? I was just curious how that kinda compares to now, how you feel with the Bedridden project and the music you’re making now. Do you feel like you can be more open with it or -

 

J: Yeah, when I was living in New Orleans I was playing in a band called Waste Land (double check that) for a long time, and wrote a record with them. It was I guess cow-punk(y)? you would call it but there were some heavy moments. The record is called “A new type of worry”. They continued to play after I moved on and they’re still making sick shit. But yeah, I guess when I was growing up I never really had a “band” - that was like my first real band so I used to write very extravagant & full parts with a lot of notes. Just filling up a lot of space. And that worked for hardcore I feel like because obviously you want to have a very “big” sound. And then I kinda moved away from that, and when I left that band I was like “ I wanna do something else” I had been listening to a lot of MBV and different shoe gaze bands. And I started writing more dream-popy shoe gaze?  A little softer and slower, just a lot of mid-tempo stuff. Way more drone-y. So that was in New Orleans, Covid hit and the band fell apart, I had recorded 6 songs and just scrapped all of it cause I didn’t really like it & had a falling out with the producer. Then once I got to new york I feel like my mood shifted, I got a little more jaded. I had to work harder, struggle through paying rent and all of that. I started mixing the shoe-gaze and pop elements with some of the fast-fretted hardcore stuff that I used to do, and that’s kind of how I landed on what you’ll hear on Amateur Heartthrob & all of the stuff to come. It’s still heavy, still fast, but just a little more pop-centric than that blown out hardcore style. Like, the vocals still stay straight and pretty clean but it definitely still has some of those hardcore elements in the fast finger movements. From time to time I get comments like “how do you move your hands so fast” and I just tell em “ a lot of practice and I played hardcore for 2 years”.

 

D: Next, I’ve got a question for Nick

 

N: Talk to me 

 

D: So in the past 4 or 5 years there’s been a bit of a resurgence of shoegaze/ harder alternative rock, just curious what you think might have caused that maybe fashion trends or people looking back?

 

N: I actually kind of think about this often, I think it kind of circles back to your first question, I think the internet is a pretty crazy, driving tool in the culture - with spotify and everything and MBV getting re-released I feel like people just kind of found it. And I think people are just a little less concerned about what’s going on right now, and just looking back like “oh this stuff that happened was really sick” so they just kind of gravitated toward that particular sound. I mean it is really cool stuff. I kinda think too, ya know the 2010’s were such an indie-centric time. At least with my favorite stuff - Mac Demarco, Dive, Beach fossils. I think the world was kind of ready for something more - I guess angsty is the word that comes to mind. And honestly I think covid might have caused a little bit of that too. ‘Cause people were just fuckin stuck at home, bored - maybe feeling a little aggressive, and people just started making harder music.

 

J: Everyone recorded a covid record.

 

N: I genuinely think the internet has a lot to do with it too. On some timmy turner shit

 

D: I did some instagram stalking of course while doing research. I saw you have a solo project called “Astro Nick”?

 

N: Yessir I’m wearing my own sweater right now.

 

D: Hell yeah. Tell me a little bit about that- how long you been doin’ that for?

 

N: Ummm Astro Nick has existed since I was like 18 or so. I’ve been playing in a band since I was around 14 - I’m 24 now so about 10 years playing in bands. So - once I got to college, I was really into writing music. And like I was saying I was just always in bands, and there was some stuff that didn’t really work for the bands, so I just started recording it myself. Shoutout to my boy SleepHabits, he really inspired me. He would just make songs on his laptop, and I was like oh this is sick I can do this shit, so I started doin’ it. And yeah since then I’ve gone through about 10 different configurations of bands. Its- just kind of my own personal outlet because I’m a little bit more of a softy, I actually don’t really listen to hardcore or even shoe gaze or anything like that. I’m a very indie-centric motherfucker so that’s what you’ll hear with Astro Nick. But yeah it really started because I was kind of sick of drumming- you just don’t really have that much creative freedom, you’re kind of just doing what fits the song. So I just wanted to play guitar, and then I’m like okay well I’m playing guitar, I know drums, I can write songs now, so I just kinda started doin’ that.

 

D: Okay word, right on.

 

D: So for Sebastian - once again I was stalking via instagram and saw you have a page called Sasha’s room? 

 

Sebastian: Yup

 

D: Wooord- tell me a little bit about Sasha’s Room.

 

S: Well, um. Lets see- it kind of was something that fell into my lap, going back to talking about covid - um everyone was stuck in their houses and everyone was bored. In the house I lived in back in New Orleans, it was a pretty spacious house and we had a drum kit, had all these amps and instruments everywhere. And me and a bunch of musicians I knew just from college and from around town- just from playing shows a lot. I would always invite people over and we would have these big jam sessions and one day my friend Austin, he goes by the name (Wakai?) he’s a really cool rapper. He was the one who kind of pitched the idea, he was like yo you’ve got a really cool room and you always have musicians coming in and out of here just playing amazing stuff, what if you filmed some of it ya know? And he was really big on filming things - and I was like ya know why not? And it was just around the time that I tried to re-apply to be an engineer assistant at this recording studio, and they said they didn’t want to take any interns because of covid, and at that time I really wanted to learn how to record and I had no way of practicing it other than my own, writing my own songs and recording. So really it started out as me wanting to record bands just to get better at it. But then as it progressed I started getting more into filming, and I realized like oh wait this could be a really cool thing. It just happened to be the perfect outlet at that time, when we couldn’t really leave our houses. So I would just ask my friends at first and then it turned into just asking bands that I liked, and just grew into what it is now. And yeah, it’s helped me to record better- getting better at mixing and mastering, but has also brought about a love for filming.

 

D: Pretty dope man. So you and Nick are both from California right?

 

S: Yep.

 

D: And you’re all living in Brooklyn now you said?

 

S: Yes

 

D: Okay cool- so how does the music scene compare in Cali to New york?

 

S: Hmmm. Tough question - I may honestly need help from my bandmates on this one because I’m sure we all have our own take on it. Me personally I’ve always kind of preferred music that comes out of the East Coast and the South over the West Coast. But at the same time there’s still a lot of music from the west coast that I still really love. Obviously I think the Northeast in general, it’s a little bit harsher and people have to grind just a bit harder- people are a little bit more guarded & hardened. And so I think a lot of the music that comes out of the east coast- you’ll find that there’s a little bit more grit to it, there’s a gonna be a little abrasiveness in there, whereas on the west coast it’s got a little bit of a softer approach. There’s that loosie-goosie west coast type of attitude I guess where it tends to be a bit more bright and uplifting. However I will say there’s some crossover - Jack’s gonna talk now:

 

J: Yeah I don’t know I was just thinking about it, hearing Sebi talk. Everyone - not everyone I should say but a lot of people in New York and LA, these epicenters for music- are transplants. So it’s kind of this situation where you carve out your own space wherever you live so in Philly, the J-War bands and stuff, and then in LA there’s Milly & Rocket. They’re kind of doing a similar thing. It really comes down to everyone’s takes on things and how the city treats them, what their influences are, ya know - who you looked up to when you were young. You just kind of find you place in whatever city you live in based on all of that. I feel like now, in the big cities where all the music is happening - there’s not really any particular vibe that goes through the whole city. I feel like it’s more about how did you end up there, who did you meet, what group of people did you come across and how do you vibe together, ya know? But yeah, I mean we’re all transplants too. I went from Chicago to New Orleans and now to New York. You’ve just gotta find your place, your scene. Gotta find your people. And that’s where original music will start to come outta ya.

 

D: For sure.

 

D: Okay so when y’all were here you said you went to In-N-Out. I gotta know, what’s the standard order?

 

N: There’s only one order at In-N-Out. Fuckin’ double double with grilled onions - animal style. And then also animal style fries- just as much sauce as you can eat.

 

S: I can agree

 

N: It holds up man, even in Texas

 

J: I’ve had it twice cause I’m from the midwest haha

 

D: So how are y’all feeling about Texas?

 

N: Ahh we love Texas! That’s honestly been the highlight of the tour- Denton was awesome,

Austin was sick too. Big shoutout to Stab! Stab was fucking sick.

 

S: Shoutout to Trauma Ray too- I feel like Texas is a big home to really good musicians all around, I feel like it could be the school systems, or I don’t know. I just feel like a lot of people there are well versed in the arts at a young age, and by the time they get to their 20’s they’re all just mini prodigies. 

 

J: Yeah I feel like Texas right now is big on the emo scene, I feel like Austin in particular- like back when I was doing the punk shit, had a really sick hardcore scene. Like Institute and Glue and Shredder, all these really sick hardcore bands. And then- like myself, a lot of these guys started making shoe gaze. It’s funny how that works. But yeah shoutout to Texas- but fuck Beerland.

 

D: So I’ve got another question for Jack- do you have any new Bedridden tunes in the works?

 

J: Absolutely. We have a 10 song record basically written. We’re in the process of demo-ing right now, we have about 6 demos done. Once we wrap that up, it’s looking like late January/early February we’re gonna get in the studio in New York with Erin Kovyroshyvish(?), who we did the last record with. He is the man. The best producer I’ve ever worked with or heard anything come from in the last 10 years. I stand by that dude I think he’s the best. So yeah, we’ll see. Were gonna spend a little bit more time on this, it’s gonna be our first full length. And a lot of the songs that we’re playing on tour right now are new, we’re just kind of testing the waters with those and we’ve gotten good feedback so far, so super stoked on that. The stuff that I’ve been writing over the past year, I’m pretty proud of it- I think it’s a lot more thought out but still has those hooks to it, so yeah- stay tuned! We’re gonna shop it- might come out in a year, might end up being two years, who knows? But yes, it is coming eventually.

 

D: I will be on the lookout most definitely. I’ve actually gotta head out in a few minutes, but it was an honor to talk to you guys once again.