RECORDS LiVE

Tamara: Look who I just ran into right now. This is Bed from the band BED.

Bed: I brought you some records.

Tamara: Oh my god, thank you so much. Thank you for coming to my home. I just redecorated.

Bed: Yeah, I love the place. It’s sick.

Tamara: Okay, we’re going to start heavy, guys, I think. Are we starting heavy?

Bed: Medium heavy.

Tamara: Medium heavy. I actually never listened to this artist. So, this is what Incubus is all about?

Bed: They’re really good.

Song Plays: Incubus – Wish You Were Here

Tamara: Tell me why they’re good. Why do you like this song?

Bed: For one thing, their singer is just so amazing. If you watch the live version of this song, he just has the voice of an angel and it’s beautiful. And then the guitar player…he just riffs and they do really cool sounds with the guitar that don’t make up the whole song, just parts of it. But the song in and of itself and the chord progression is so interesting. They don’t go overboard with it. I don’t know, it’s just a bunch of really good musicians putting it all together and making really good music.

Tamara: Nice. In particular, with this song, you said the chord progressions sound nice to you. Why do you put this in your rotation so much?

Bed: I really love how it goes from an acoustic melody in the beginning and then it breaks open and it’s heavy. The way it’s mixed is super bass heavy and then there’s like an acoustic guitar to bring out those transitions followed by a really recognizable, really just like nice hitting lyric. It’s about missing somebody and it’s about being in a bad place and just like wishing that that person for this guy was there during this hard time. And it bumps, it’s really good.

Tamara: Do you gravitate towards music based on lyrics? Are you a lyric person or can you enjoy a song if the lyrics are not well written?

Bed: I think both. What attracts me to a song more is the actual music of the song and then I’ll hear the lyrics later or until I look them up because sometimes, I don’t hear the lyrics in the song, I hear someone singing and then later I listen and I’m like, “Oh shit, tight.” And then this one’s cool because the riffs bump and he’s talking about finding UFOs. I’m a huge believer. So, I’ve connected with this song ever since I was a kid.

Tamara: It’s a really good song. I guess I wasn’t really sure what Incubus sounded like. I thought they would be a little bit heavier. Sorry guys, don’t cancel me. I don’t listen to Incubus.

Bed: Get her.

Tamara: Get her right now! How do you find inspiration for your own songs? Because I know you are heavily inspired by UFOs, but is it personal experience? Is it listening to other music and being influenced by them?

Bed: When it comes to inspiration, at least for the music of songs, I just play guitar until I find something that I resonate with and makes me feel a certain way. And then when it comes to lyrics, I try to channel how that song or how that progression that I wrote makes me feel. It’s almost like the song writes itself. Sometimes I’ll write lyrics in my phone, and I find the ones that resonate with what that piece of music I wrote makes me feel and then put it all together. Or sometimes I’ll take that line and I’m like, “Okay, that’s kind of on the spectrum of what the song makes me feel and then I’ll just go from there. That’s kind of how I write.

Tamara: How has it been going from solo producing your own work to working with a band?

Bed: It’s not easy, but I feel like now it definitely is a little easier because the guys are so talented and it’d be a waste and honestly kind of a crime to not have their input on the music. And it’s been so long. We do have our trouble sometimes, but at the end of the day, I just want to make music that people love and have the guys put their talent on. I think that’s what’s most important because that’s what makes a song really good, everyone doing their own thing. And then like I said, the guys are so talented that it’d be a waste for me to hold them back.

Song Plays: Joyce Manor – Heart Tattoo

Tamara: You have songs that people love, but is there a song of yours that you really love and are proud of?

Bed: That I’m proud of? Dang. There’s a lot. I mean, I’m proud of my music and I’m proud of the work that we do. I guess “Tear U Out.” It’s really fun. “Bullet” is really fun. “Spaceboy” was cool because I finally got to write about UFOs. I’ve been wanting to do that forever, so yeah.

Tamara: You’re a believer?

Bed: I am, very heavily. They’re real guys.

Tamara: They are real. Shout out if you believe in aliens. It’s been proven. Okay, Joyce Manor, I feel like this is very influential for a lot of the bands in your realm and the scene. What does Joyce Manor mean to you? How did you first discover them?

Bed: So honestly, I used to play competitive paintball and those homies all kind of got me into Joyce Manor. At first, I wasn’t really into it. I was more into the surf indie kind of stuff. And then I got older and then I was like, “Hey, this stuff kind of bumps,” you know? And then they were just writing about life, you know? This was a song that really got me into them because it’s talking about a tattoo. It’s cool because it’s like a euphemism for love and it may not be perfect and it may hurt at times, but it’s what he wants. I love when artists write about something that can apply to different things. Joyce Manor was that band for me. All their songs bump, they’re fast, they’re aggressive, their melodies are so pretty, and it wasn’t hard to get into the rest of their music.

Tamara: What mood do you need to be in to listen to this?

Bed: Maybe when I wake up, you know? I want to get pumped.

Tamara: Is that a gym playlist song?

Bed: Oh, definitely.

Song Plays: Basement – For You The Moon

Tamara: How many of these songs are gym playlist songs?

Bed: Honestly, kind of all of them.

Tamara: All of them? Okay, this is the band Basement. So, I’m honestly not familiar with Basement.

Bed: Oh, really?

Tamara: Yeah, I’m not like well-versed in music guys. I don’t know why I’m doing this. I can just talk on a stage, I guess.

Bed: Well, I’m glad I get to put you on.

Tamara: Yeah, I love this show because I just get put on by all my friends and all these amazing musicians.

Bed: Yeah, Basement is one of those bands that they’re just… they write such theatrical music and I love music that’s different from intro/verse/chorus. You know, kind of like a formula, but they write music that sounds big. Like this song comes in with that single little riff but it has such attitude to it. It makes you feel a certain way and then then they just all just come in. And then his voice is just so pretty, and I love the contrast between his melodies and the sound of the song. It sounds huge too and I love music like that.

Tamara: Is it the classic instruments of a rock band like guitar and bass?

Bed: Yeah, pretty much.

Tamara: Okay do you ever look into how they create such a full sound?

Bed: They run full stacks. I saw them last year at the Palladium and they run full stacks.

Tamara: Can you describe that for the people who don’t know?

Bed: Yeah, so if you’ve ever gone to a show and seen a guitar amp, there’s usually a big speaker box. They run two of those, so it’s almost as tall as Zach from Famous Friend, with an amp head on top of it so you get like literally a wall of sound. It sounds huge and what I love about setups like that is that it pushes air. You can feel it and I love that. It was it was crazy being in the pit and then also feeling that not just from the guitars but also from the bass. It’s chaos and it’s beautiful I love it.

Tamara: What’s your favorite thing about live music playing or participating in it?

Bed: I think the energy definitely. I love that we’ve been fortunate to have really cool shows where people just go crazy. We’ll kind of kick it off and then I feed off of them and so it’s kind of like a feedback loop where I’m feeding off of them, they’re feeding off of us and it’s just energy, you know? We’re all just going crazy and shout out to all the photographers out there capturing the moments.

Tamara: I know they got it. They got it!

Bed: Shout out hifriend (Michael Arroyo). I love playing shows and being at shows and just being able to let loose and put it all out there.

Tamara: How do you bring the energy to a crowd that’s not receiving it?

Bed: I try to get people moving. It’s funny, sometimes, on our little channel on Instagram I’ll be like, “I need sleeper cells to start the pit for us.” They come through and then I’ll just get super hopped up on caffeine and try to make people move.

Tamara: Okay but I heard you didn’t have any caffeine today to prep for a chill vibe.

Bed: I’m nervous for this.

Tamara: No, he’s not nervous he’s doing so great.

Bed: Thank you guys, thank you… Don’t look at me.

Song Plays: Title Fight – Numb, But I Still Feel It

Tamara: Okay now we’re going crazy. Title Fight – “Numb, But I Still Feel It.” Tell me everything you love about this song right now.

Bed: First of all, there’s so much controversy about which is their best album. For me this is their best album. This is the first song on their album and it’s just that beginning. It just continuously builds up and up and up and then it just comes in with “What did you know?” It’s insane. Their riffage and the way that they write.

If you listen to their first record, they have insane guitar parts and they were touring almost all of America when they were like 15. Writing riffs like that. I try to play them and I’m like, “Bro I can’t fucking keep up. Damn this is insane.” Their melodies are crazy. Ned’s voice is just so aggressive, and it has such an attack. He just knows how to use it and the way they both contrast each other is perfect in my opinion. Their tones are insane too. I’ve seen a lot of their live footage because they don’t play anymore. They’ve really inspired my live shows. They’re just one of the best bands out there in my opinion.

Tamara: Nice. Hell yeah. So probably one of your favorite bands? Do you take inspiration in your music at all from them?

Bed: Oh, 100%. Definitely.

Tamara: Go in depth about that. What do you listen to in a Title Fight song and think, “Hell yeah that would be great in a BED song?”

Bed: Definitely the guitars. They’re so heavy and their tones are just on point. I love the aggressiveness of the voice. I’ve been experimenting more with yelling. I’m still finding my voice, but I feel like Title Fight are good people to draw from and good vocalists to replicate or at least try to do stuff like that.

Tamara: It’s kind of making my heart race. This is probably the perfect gym song.

Bed: Yeah, I’ve hit a lot of PRs to this.

Tamara: Nice.

Bed: It’s crazy. The drummer, he drums for a band called Citizen now, his beats are insane. It’s a constant kick sometimes, and he knows where to place them. That’s what I love about this band too, their drummer is insane.

Tamara: You have a really good team of musicians in your band now. Was it hard to lock in the perfect people to evoke that live element you really want?

Bed: With this current lineup, no. What’s really important when you start a band or when you form a band is chemistry. What I found with my drummer Joey, he’s in another math rock band called Collars, is that I’ll be like, “Oh, try this on the drums,” and we have such good chemistry that he understands what I’m going for. He’s so locked in I don’t even have to tell him anything. I throw a riff at him, and he knows exactly what to play. A lot of the time it’s even better than what I had in my mind. When I make demos at home, I leave a lot of space open because I know he’s going to cook on it.

Tamara: You trust him. There’s that trust there.

Bed: Yes, exactly. And then it’s the same thing with my bassist Kenneth. He’s such a good musician and listens to so much music that he’s totally locked in. He knows that as a bass player he has to be locked in with the drummer, so they work together on levels that I don’t even understand.

Song Plays: The Smashing Pumpkins – Jellybelly

Bed: Then there is Albert, my guitarist. He does so much. First of all, he’s a phenomenal guitar player, and I’ve actually learned a lot from him. He’s so knowledgeable about tone and technique that it amplifies the band. It’s cool, it makes the band better in terms of guitars. And we love the Smashing Pumpkins and bands like that with crazy guitars, so we work off of each other from that. It’s sick.

Tamara: Was Smashing Pumpkins a band you listened to in your youth? When did you first discover them?

Bed: Yeah, definitely. I started listening when I was maybe 11 or 12. I had a teacher in sixth grade that was an archaeologist, and he was also in a punk band. I got to know him over the years, and he brought his guitar to school, I brought mine and at lunchtime we’d jam. There was this one girl that was a drummer, so we all jammed. It was the first time that I had ever been in a little band, and it was sick. We tried to do Smashing Pumpkins songs. He put me on to that band, and over the years I’ll come back to them. They’ve definitely been very inspirational to my band.

Tamara: How did you first start taking music seriously and start creating your own songs?

Bed: When I first started doing it, it was a little hobby. But then the shows started getting bigger and the opportunities got really interesting. We were part of our scene, and I started throwing my own shows for fun and putting my music out there on the internet. I never really took it seriously. When you start a band, you think it’d be cool to be able to tour the world and do this for a living, but you never think it’s actually going to happen.

Then one day, I threw a show in my backyard. Yungatita actually played that show. That was cool. The day after, I was in my bed with post-show depression, chilling. I saw this TikTok about manifestation that said, “Repeat after me: I do not chase, I attract. What comes to me will simply find me.” I thought, “Fuck it, it can’t hurt,” so I did it. Literally not even five seconds later, I got followed by my favorite band. They hit me up and asked, “Hey, want to go on tour with us? First show is at The Fonda Theatre and it’s sold out.” It was insane, I almost threw up.

I called my drummer and asked what he was doing. He said, “I’m on my way to work,” and I told him, “Dude, we got hit up. Check the band page.” He was like, “Oh shit! I almost crashed.” Ever since then, we’ve been blessed to get really cool opportunities. Labels started hitting us up and it started feeling serious. We’re still not quitting our jobs or anything, but we’re definitely in a better place. There’s light at the end of the tunnel. Even if there wasn’t, we’d still be doing this.

Tamara: What are you manifesting this year? You don’t have to talk about the big ones, the baby manifestations.

Bed: I guess health, wealth, and happiness.

Tamara: Good. This was amazing, thank you so much for being here.

Bed: Thank you for having me. I love your apartment!

Tamara: Yeah, thank you.