Category Archives: concert

Bugs in the Dark puts me somewhere between a strangely playful childhood nightmare and a sultry sexual fantasy. Meow! Their new music video directed by Keith Hamilton perfectly mirrors their noisy Brooklyn punk-rock, pull my hair and make me scream sound. Front woman Karen Rockower took some time to fill me in on how the band came together and what they’re up to the next few months, including SXSW and a mini-documentary featuring the band!

MWL: Can you give me a little background on how the band formed? When, where?

KR: The band was formed in 2007 by guitarist/vocalists Zach Glass and myself  along with original drummer, Julia Lomax. We were living in Brooklyn and had been playing music for a while and had the idea of starting a rock band. We liked the idea of challenging ourselves by writing without bass. The goal was to write music that didn’t have easy or obvious progressions, while keeping it fun. Our original drummer, Julia, moved to California and is now the mother of two beautiful boys. We played with a few different people before we found our current drummer, Rich Crescenti. He’s the first one we’ve been able to write new material with since Julia left. We’re so happy we found him!

MWL: Tell me about the name Bugs in the Dark , how did you come up with that?

KR: Coming up with band names is always a challenge. I feel like I have a running list of 5 great names that always disappears when I need it. We came up with “Bugs in the Dark” based on childhood fears combined with the idea of a shot in the dark. The name suited the creepy feeling of our music, but also has a childlike quality to it. In NYC it’s easy to feel like just another bug in the dark scavenging for enough support to keep you going.

MWL: Do you remember the first time you picked up an instrument, which was it? When did you recognize your passion for creating music?

KR: I have been playing music my whole life. I studied piano as a kid, but never did well as a student with structured lessons. I always sang. I studied voice through high school and started playing the guitar my senior year of college and that’s when things really clicked for me. As soon as I learned my first two chords I was writing songs and have never stopped. I found I did better musically when I taught myself in my own way. My approach to music is totally based on feel and inspiration.

MWL: Who are your musical and non-musical influences?

KR: Zach and I love Sonic Youth, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, PJ Harvey, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, The Clash, The Pixies, Pavement, Elvis Costello (and Presley), Sleigh Bells, The Kills, Blonde Redhead…I could go on and on. We’re both really attracted to similar kinds of tension, heaviness, poetic lyrics and counter intuitive melodies. Rich has a different pool of taste, which we’ve found to be really cool in what we all bring to the band. Non-musical influences range from movies to Walt Whitman, news stories, dystopian novels, flowers and our dog. Everything really.

Bugs in the Dark- “Gasoline”

MWL: Do you write all of your songs?

KR: Yeah, we write everything. Once we played a Kyle Minogue cover when we performed at an Australian event on Anzac Day. That was really fun, but we never kept it going.  We recently had a Kickstarter campaign in which one of the rewards was to cover and record a song of the supporter’s choice. We have an assignment to do a classic rock cover that we’re hoping to release soon.

MWL: What is your writing process?

KR: As a band, we really love to write together. Often Zach or I will come up with a basic song structure and bring it to rehearsal and we’ll workshop it until it comes together. Sometimes we’ll just start playing something new out of nowhere and have a new song within an hour. That’s the most magical feeling. But we love the process as well – our last song took us a month or two to finish and we loved working on it and are proud of how it turned out.

MWL: Are you writing anything now?

KR: Yes! We have a lot of unfinished things that we are hashing away at. We’re always writing and re-working old songs. It keeps things fresh, which keeps us motivated to get to the rehearsal space.

MWL:  How would you describe your music?

KR: Someone recently wrote that we were “Ferocious Sex Rockers”. I thought that was pretty bad ass. We’ve been referred to as “Apocalyptic Rock Perpetrators” and “Awesomely tense”.  I’ve always thought of us as creepy art rockers. We play indie rock, but it’s not straightforward. It’s also not just noise. There are melodies and there’s enough repetition to give the audience something to hold on to. I do think that our music has an element that is only tangible when seeing us live. There’s a connection and energy in our performance that there is no way to record.

MWL: Do you have a favorite song? One that means the most?

KR: I always have a favorite, but it changes. For me it’s about how we’re locking in as a band at any given time.

MWL: Any favorite bands or musicians you enjoy collaborating or playing with?

KR: We have some friends in LA that we met in Pittsburgh who we love. They use to be a band called Medic Medic but now they’re performing as Lakookala. Locally we love playing with Raccoon Fighter, BAMBARA, Butchers and Bakers, Gone Bad, Unstoppable Death Machines. We recently played with JAPANTHER in Brooklyn and we opened for Jeff the Brotherhood in Halifax, which was great; and we’re gonna play with Seasick Mama in Austin next month.

MWL: What are your hobbies, every day life… what is it like?

KR: I have a solo project and I play guitar in another band (Seasick Mama). I work as a tattoo artist, which I love because it’s another creative outlet and it’s very social. I get to spend most of my days drawing, tattooing and playing music, which I’m very grateful for. Zach and I have a dog, Trolley, who we’re madly in love with. We love food and road trips. Zach is part of a video blogging puppeteer group called Glove and Boots. They are super fun and creative and you can see their episodes on youtube. Rich records/produces other bands and teaches audio engineering, so his life is very centered around music from the performance to the technical.

MWL: What are you listening to these days?? Any recommendations?

KR: I’m listening to the Kills right now. I am loving Sleigh Bells these days. I like the recent Middle Brother record and I’m bored by the most recent Florence and The Machine album. I love the new Bjork record and I keep going back to Bat For Lashes for inspiration.

MWL: What’s new with you? Anything in the making? Recording anything new, videos, planning any tours?

KR: We’re getting ready to play a DIY music festival being held at Tommy’s Tavern on 2/24 and then we are heading to Austin for SXSW. We’re not officially in the festival, but we’ll be playing some parties down there and having a little crew film us. We’ve  been filming a lot of our recent shows and we’re hoping to combine all this footage to have a cool  mini documentary coming out soon.

MWL: How do you feel about the music industry as it stands today?

KR: It’s a great climate for new music. All the great material out there keeps the fire under our ass to keep creating.  We know we have a lot of fans because we’ll often get texts like “my friends in LA were just saying Bugs in the Dark is their new favorite band!”. And we haven’t played LA for a couple years now, so someone out there is sharing our music with all their friends and we just hope they keep spreading the word. Social media is our best friend. It’s amazing what Facebook can do for a band. We have never had any formal label support, which has been a struggle at times, but we do love the freedom to do what we like. We’re incredibly proud of all that we accomplished in 2011 with touring through Europe, releasing a new EP and playing the Halifax Pop Explosion. Doing that kind of stuff without support is a real challenge.

MWL: Anything else you might want to add before we conclude?

KR: Bugs in the Dark rocks! You should come see us live and get our stuff!

Bugs in the Dark- “Aaron”

Well, no one says it better than the front-woman herself! Check out tour, event, and release info on their website!

  By: Katie McVeay| Beat-Play Ambassador New York| crookedsunshine|Music Without Labels & Beat-Play, LLC