Q&A: Ben Quad is Racing Towards Their Second Album ‘Wisher’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY STEWART SHORT ☆
BEN QUAD IS FEELING HOPEFUL—The surging post-emo band is gearing up to release their second album Wisher next month and have recently dropped two catchy, high-powered singles, “It’s Just a Title” and “Painless.” These songs and their upcoming record represent a poignant new stage in the evolution of the band and their versatility as artists within the emo genre.
With these new tracks, Ben Quad continues to expand and evolve their signature sound, as they each contain the fan-favorite sonic hallmarks of the bands past releases while further exploring the bounds of the genre. The signature shreddy midwest emo guitar riffs and the screamo accoutrements of the band’s Ephemera EP are once again on display in the band’s new releases, but the latest addition to the band’s sound are the catchy melodic nods to 2000s era emo that feel nostalgic and fresh at the same time. Lyrically, Ben Quad is still grappling with heavy introspective emotional themes, but the band is taking on a more hopeful perspective when diving into those topics.
Wisher releases on November 14 via Pure Noise Records. Luna Collective sat down with guitarist/vocalist Sam Wegrzynski, guitarist Edgar Viveros, and bassist/vocalist Henry Shields to talk about the band’s latest single and what we can expect from the upcoming album.
LUNA: Thank you all for sitting down with us. I want to start by asking about “Painless.” When I listen to that song, I'm blown away by the style and sound you've put together. I was getting all of these flashbacks to 2000s era emo—Hawthorne Heights, Taking Back Sunday, Mayday Parade—just this wave of nostalgia. How did that sound come about? How did you put that together?
WEGRZYNSKI: I'm pretty sure I speak for everyone, I think it was specifically trying to nail that feeling that you just said. I think it was trying to bring it back to the stuff that we love listening to. Make it nostalgic but new is just kind of the vibe. Edgar, what do you think?
VIVEROS: I think that song specifically, I immediately wanted it to sound like Taking Back Sunday. Henry and Sam are trading off vocals in it; that is pretty much exactly homage to that kind of style. I like it a lot because it's signature sounding; it sounds like a Ben Quad song, but at the same time, we're going out there and being like, “Hey, let's just make a 2005 emo banger.”
LUNA: That's awesome. You mentioned it still sounds like a Ben Quad song. You've got all those 2000s era trappings, but at the same time you're still doing all those super shreddy midwest emo riffs. Was that a fun sort of balance to play around with on your end?
VIVEROS: Yeah, for sure. It's always fun putting in new styles into our music. Last time we put a release out, Ephemera, we did the whole heavy post hardcore thing, and I was still doing the tappy, shreddy stuff, but in a new context. Even on this new record, we’re doing stuff beyond pop punk. We're doing full on pop songs and the grungiest sounding shit you'll ever hear, and it still has tapping and crazy leads in it. It's fun to do all that stuff in different contexts.
WEGRZYNSKI: Yeah, I've always said, no matter what we do, as long as we've got Edgar and Isaac holding it down with their insane fills, it's going to sound like Ben quad.
SHIELDS: Exactly.
LUNA: You mentioned this blend of genres and sensibilities. That song in particular has got this pop sensibility and this catchiness, but lyrically, it's this very raw and honest rumination on loss and grief. Can you talk about working with that balance and making sure it all lands right emotionally?
VIVEROS: I feel like one thing that you get more confident as a songwriter, all of us, it's touching on subjects that are a lot more heavy and stuff like that without it sounding corny. I think that's something we always run into in the studio. It's like, man, we have this subject that we want to talk about, whether it's love songs or songs about loss, or songs about politics even, it's easy to get in your head about, like, “Man, what am I saying? Is it coming across too corny in a way?” So I think when we went into the studio, it felt like we were a lot more intentional, and we were also very more like, “Let's just say what we want to say, without being too caught up in our heads about it.” I think the song is very heart on your sleeve, just say what you want to say. I think that's what I like about it. We didn't spend too much time trying to be as poetic and artistic as possible with the lyrics. We really just wanted to say what we wanted to say without ruminating on it too much.
WEGRZYNSKI: I think honestly, to boil it down, it's honesty. We were really just trying to be as honest as we could. Edgar's just a riff machine, so the music flows naturally. It feels like that part's easy, and then the lyrics come when we're just trying to be honest. I think “Painless” was one of the only ones that we had before going into the studio, wasn't it Edgar? Because you had been ruminating on those lyrics and that melody for a while.
VIVEROS: Yeah, that one was the most finished song going into the studio. I think we were pretty prepared compared to other times. We had most of the instrumentals completely finished, and we kind of went in there with the lyrics like a third of the way developed. That one was super easy to write for. That studio experience was us just being honest and just really sitting down and being like, “Alright, let's just put our thoughts on the paper and just fucking put it out into the world.”
LUNA: You mentioned going into the studio with “Painless” being the most put together song. Is a lot of the writing process done in the studio for you guys?
VIVEROS: Yeah, instrumentally, we prepped really good on that. But lyrically, I think we do a lot of it there.
LUNA: Oh, wow.
WEGRZYNSKI: It's kind of fun to do it there, though. I feel like it's hard for me, at least, to write honest and real lyrics if I'm distracted by normal life, everything around me. We had the opportunity this time to destination-record. We went out to a spot for a couple weeks in New Jersey. To wake up in the morning thinking, “All I have to do is write today,” this is awesome. I think we all had ideas for songs going in. We had themes, we like to come up with themes and that, but I honestly feel like it was the most that our lyrics had flowed out of us in that time span. I think we wrote almost all the lyrics for most of the songs in like that first week Edgar, while Isaac was doing drums, if I'm not mistaken?
VIVEROS: Yeah, there was a lot of time, first week. I think this is the case with most recording sessions, you track the drums first, just so you have that song structure locked in, so me and Sam didn't really have much to do that first like week, so we really sat down. I think most of us, we would write little quips in our fucking notes app, or have this melody in my head that just sticks. Partially you come in with some of these ideas, but a lot of it was us just sitting down with that pressure of, “Alright, we have three weeks to do this. Let's sit down and really do this.” I think that was kind of our workflow that time around.
LUNA: You had your first LP, I’m Scared That’s All There Is, a few years back you had some singles in between, along with the Ephemera EP. So what did the origins for your upcoming LP Wisher look like? When did you realize it was that time that you're ready to make the second LP?
WEGRZYNSKI: The easy answer is daddy label said it's time. We finally had the funding. We had the backing for it. We had the means and the funds to be able to really make it happen. Other than that we had been wanting to anyway. Ephemera was just for homies, for the fans. We promised we would do that, and I feel like if we hadn't done ephemera, it probably would have been coming around that time anyway.
VIVEROS: Yeah, Ephemera was just us having fun, just doing a little follow up to “You’re Part of It,” saying, “Hey, we can keep going heavier if we wanted.” I’m glad we did that record because it feels like such a natural progression from our first album to doing the heavy stuff, and now this new stuff is a combination of all of that previous work. To answer your question, yeah, it's just natural progression. We put out an EP, we suddenly have all these new influences. We know we're not afraid to get heavy, and we know people are receptive to it too. It works with the time frame, labels asking for us to do it, we had just got off a tour, we have like, five months of nothing, because we all basically quit our day job. So besides that, I'm teaching guitar lessons and playing video games, so I have nothing to do. It all just falls into place, and it's just just about like hunkering down and writing when you're not touring, really.
LUNA: You’ve talked about taking a more hopeful perspective, and still approaching heavier topics on this album, but with a certain more positive outlook. Can you talk about finding the ethos for this upcoming album?
VIVEROS: I think this one is just a reflection of who we are right now as adults. The first record was us being a little bit more gloomy about outlook on life. I’m Scared That’s All There Is, it's kind of like that connotation, like, damn, it's going to keep being this way forever. With this one, we want to continue that theme, but explore it in a different context. What I get from the record is that things are still going to be shitty, that’s like the most unavoidable thing in the world. But I think looking back on all those moments that make all of this worth it, just works so well in propelling you for the future. It's like, damn, I'm not looking forward to the state of the world in like six months, but I like hanging and chilling with the homies, so I'm going to hold on to that.
LUNA: You've put out the two singles so far, and you've also had some music videos to accompany them, and they're both absolute cinema in their own specific ways. What was making those like? Were those fun to put together?
WEGRZYNSKI: Yeah, it was so much fun. We got to work with our friends as well, someone who we had met on our first full US tour, so full circle moment too, They're in a better position. We're in a better position. It's really cool to see how far all the homies have made it, and now look at us. We're putting out these crazy videos. I think Edgar looks the coolest in that “Painless” video and the “It's Just a Title” video as well. Scalzo has got an eye for Edgar. He knows exactly where to put Edgar. It was some of the most fun I've had in a long time. It was very cool to feel like an actual rock band for those moments. I feel like videos are kind of out of style, or they were for a long time when we were coming up, and so it was really cool to feel like we were actually doing it.
VIVEROS: We went to a movie studio kind of place where they filmed real movies for the “Painless” video. It was crazy. That was one of the first times I felt like a real band. I feel that feeling when we go on crazy stages, but never not in that context. Whenever we went into that studio setting, I was like, “Wow, this is like what Blink feels like every day.”
LUNA: You've got a couple of tours upcoming. You're going on tour with Koyo soon, and then you've got one with Arm’s Length early next year. Are you guys looking forward to getting back out on the road?
VIVEROS: Hell yeah. That's honestly the biggest thing I'm looking forward to, just being able to play the record, especially abroad. I didn't think we'd be able to do that. It's really exciting.
LUNA: To end on a dumb question, the name of your band is obviously a nod to pod-racing legend Ben Quadinaros. Were there any other d-list Star Wars characters that were considered for the name? Was there ever a Kit Fisto iteration of the band?
WEGRZYNSKI: You know what’s funny, I actually feel like Kit Fisto might have been mentioned at first. That might have even been the first name, but I think Ben Quad was really the only one we talked about. We thought we were so smart and clever, picking the guy who literally doesn't get to race. We thought we were so clever, picking the dude whose pod immediately malfunctions. I think it was immediately Ben Quadinaros. There still is some merch out there somewhere; our first couple t-shirts had Ben Quadinaros, the full name on it, and then people didn't know what that was, and they couldn't pronounce it, and so we just shortened it.
