Charlie Tooth talks to Bedroom Rehab Corporation

Bedroom Rehab Corporation – Interview

I've recently received the latest release from Bedroom Rehab Corporation titled Fortunate Some for review and JK mentioned an earlier release named Red Over Red. I was very impressed with both releases and asked them for an interview, which they kindly accepted. Here's how it went down with Adam and Meghan of Bedroom Rehab Corporation.

S.H.- Hey Adam, first thing I'd like to get off my head is what's in the name of the band? Is there any meaning to Bedroom Rehab Corporation?

Adam: “Honestly, it's just a random three words we came up with while trying to sort the name out. But the thing I will tell you is that we're very easy to find on the internet because of that name.”

S.H.- What's each of your backgrounds, musically? Where do the influences come from?

Meghan: “I am self taught, started playing when I was 15 and grew up playing in your typical basement/garage rock bands. I think most of my influences growing up came from local bands – I was blessed to grow up in a very thriving and diverse local scene in the 90’s. We had everything from rock, punk, indie, hardcore, metal to ska – I listened to everything and went to whatever show I could get to as a kid. I can honestly say I have been influenced by many genres of music and I think it’s definitely helped me to be open as a player.”

Adam: “I got a bass because in middle school a couple of kids were starting a band and they needed a bass player, it just sort of stuck. As with a lot of things in middle school that band didn't pan out. I didn't get into playing music until I was in my early 20's. I played for an emo band that never left the garage and a punk band after that. but I've always been more than a casual fan. My dad listened to a lot of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Judas Priest and things like that so I've always been into heavy music. A lot of grunge in the first half of the 90's and a lot of hardcore in the later part of the 90's and early 2000's. The doom thing is a pretty recent development in my musical repertoire. I've been reverting back to my past Sabbath Worship and grunge sensibilities with the BRC stuff. Big fuzzed out riffs and hooky choruses are both things that I've been programmed to want to to put in songs.”

S.H.- How are your live shows; being just the two of you? Is there looping of any kind, or is the record pretty true to the live experience? Any challenges?

Adam: “Looping is something I've contemplated but never quite gotten used to doing in a live setting. I have to do enough "tap dancing" with my pedals and I'm also tied to a mic for a lot of the time so looping would be just one more thing I had to focus on rather then just rocking out. I've been told that we have a pretty energetic live show and I would like to do all I can to keep it that way. Some of the noise parts in the songs may be either slightly less noisy or may not have a backing bass line like they do on the records but we do still put out a great deal of volume and manage to keep things sounding full. We build the songs to be played live and tend to beef them up in places for studio purposes so I don't think we're ever lacking in sound looking for a way to replicate the studio because of that fact. I also like the sort of random violence of unplanned live noise. In the studio I do a lot of thinking about the effects I'm using to create noise and may just let things run and freakout for a while and layer other strings of sounds on top. Live is more about a spur of the moment assault on your eardrums.”

S.H.- How did both of you meet regarding the band?

Adam: “We met through playing gigs in New London, Meg was playing in a rock 'n' roll sort of rockabilly band and I was playing in a punk band and we got to hanging out and we realized we had a lot in common musically that we weren't doing in our other bands. We also thought it would be a cool thing to have a bass and drum band in town as no one else had really tried to accomplish that as of yet.”

S.H.- Since my editor has the filthiest of minds I have to ask. Is there a deeper relationship outside of the music thing? Any extracurricular?

Adam: “No, we are not together, we both have significant others.” 

S.H.- Meghan, what would you say is a drummer that influences your playing style, if at all?

Meghan: “Well in addition to many local players here in our area, there’s definitely a few more known drummers that I think helped mold my style…  Abe Cunningham (Deftones) and Matt Cameron (Soundgarden) are huge influences. Travis "T-Boogie" Owen (Weedeater) also needs to be mentioned here as one of my all time favorite drummers - completely blows my mind every time I see him play… Just amazing.”

S.H.- Nice! You too Adam, any bassist or vocalist you can say: "that's the reason I do what I do".

Adam: “I'm not really a bassists bassist. I'm more interested in using sounds and since I play bass that's what I use to try and create them. I would say some of my biggest influences sonically are Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine and Jason Simon of Dead Meadow (both guitar players). I like huge swathes of sound and both of those guys are great at creating them so I try to apply those concepts to bass and BRC's songs. As far as vocalists go I think the Eddie Vedders, Chris Cornells and Layne Staleys of the world were my main influences, especially early on. Matt Pike's pitched growl and and the full on caustic shrieks of Black Metal vocalists are some of the styles I started to pick up as BRC got heavier.”

S.H.- I noticed reviews on your site. I always shy away from them when doing my reviews. I want to be fresh and not swayed. So after I finished I read a couple. I noticed a lot of reviewers really liked the song: When All You've Got Is A Hammer. My favorite happened to be: The Serpent, The Smiler. Maybe it's because I am a musician as well as a reviewer. What do you feel is your strongest song on the record?

Adam: “I think that ‘The Serpent The Smiler’ is the most interesting and fully realized song on the record. It's got a lot going on and I think it all flows together really well. It encapsulates everything we've done as a band thus far. I do think that ‘When All You've Got Is A Hammer’ is probably the most anthemic thing we've written thus far. I think our ability to bring a hooky chorus to a doom song is huge and I'm glad it wasn't passed over. I'm just overjoyed with the way the entire record came out and I think all four songs are a huge step forward for us. They take everything we experimented with on Red Over Red and meld it together and sharpen it to a much finer point.”

S.H.- What are your touring plans if any?

Adam: “Nothing at the time. We have a long weekend to Philly and Baltimore in January but that's the furthest out we've got planned. We do play a lot of stuff in the New England and NY areas so you never quite know where you'll find us. We like to keep busy and we are trying to expand our reach so you never know. keep track of us all over the internet to find out where we'll be playing next.”

Thank you to Adam and Meghan for taking the time out and answering a couple of questions.

(Written by Charlie Tooth)

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