"Shy kids don't get sweets" Q+A with bdrmm
Q+A with bdrmm
Jordan Smith of bdrmm talks in this blank mood Q+A about the evolution of their sound, about to be revealed on their new album Microtonic. Taking their songwriting outside of the bedroom, bdrmm have ‘cracked it’ with a new blend of electronica and guitars. Jordan also reflects on the band’s development as part of the Rock Action label, giving their debut album ‘its flowers’ in church last year, what they have a lot of dads to thank for and where their sound might go next.
Microtonic will be released February 28, 2025 on Rock Action Records. If I had to pick one word for the mood of Microtonic it would be 'liminal', but in the sense that’s a destination you’re wanting to arrive at and hang out for awhile. And arrive they do, bringing the listener to a not-too-dark, but definitely grey space that feels firmly in the middle of something with dance beats, electronica and shoegaze haze.
Why the title Microtonic?
Microtonic is a drum machine made by a company called Sonic Charge. I initially got a trial to one of their plugins, Synplant, which used AI to replicate samples you fed into it, but I didn’t really gel with it. Microtonic was one that came along with the free trial and within seconds of opening, I knew it would be a big part of the sound that made up the new bdrmm record. It’s a versatile modular drum sequencer, and the sound design is akin to something like the Juno-60 where you can get to the sound in your head really quick.
You've referred to your 2023 album I Don't Know as the 'bridge' between early bdrmm and today's Microtonic - what exactly helped you to ‘crack it’ with Microtonic? What exactly is 'it' that you've cracked with Microtonic?
On I Don’t Know we wanted to introduce more synthesizers and electronics into our sound. There were a few songs that did that, but others that could’ve quite easily found their way onto the first record. After releasing the record and seeing people really respond to tracks like “Alps” and “Hidden Cinema”, it felt right to take the leap and try and do an entire record in that vein. It’s all a learning process.
The song "Microtonic" sits roughly in the middle of the ten songs on the album, sounding like an instrumental bridge between (a theoretical) side 1 and 2. I think of the interludes of Violator when I hear this song. What's the story with this tune?
Me (Jordan), Ryan and our producer, Alex, spent a few days in-between recording trying to develop a portfolio for film soundtracks at a friend’s studio in the middle of nowhere. We were around halfway through the recording for Microtonic and felt that the record was missing the opening tune to Side B. We’d recorded some ambient passages separately before this, but nothing really felt right alongside the other tunes we had recorded. One afternoon, I was noodling around on a Minilogue and created this patch and formed the main sequence you hear in the final track. We wanted to create something that felt like it could collapse at any moment. A sheer force that implodes. We’re chuffed with the way it turned out.
How did you approach the arrangement of songs on the new album? The songs from "Microtonic" onwards start, to me, to feel as though they are intensifying in their dystopian sound and mood.
It’s quite odd really because I feel all our records do this. Start with the floor fillers and gradually get more melancholic and introspective. It’s not intentional but I think it really works when you listen to the album in full. The idea of concept in an LP seems to be less common now but I think it’s something that the best records do.
What is the story behind the album art of Microtonic?
After the last record, I wanted to return to a more mixed media-based approach and bought a random Fujifilm camera before we went on tour last year. The results were mostly quite banal pictures of us having a pint in a pub or generally being idiots. However, a photo that I took really stuck with me. We played at a venue called The Garage in Barcelona and the green room was attached to a courtyard. It was open air apart from these grates that criss-crossed over one another when you looked directly up. Suspended from them was two halves of a mannequin. Both halves were tied to two pieces of rope fashioned into noose. I took a picture and thought nothing of it until I came home. Looking at the photograph again, it felt disconcerting, like faceless people frozen in time.
Are there specific artists/musicians/producers that have influenced your combination of guitar rock and electronica on the songs of Microtonic?
Radiohead are the obvious cornerstone for us whenever we even attempt to record music. More recently, however, our tastes have become directly influenced by the recording process and techniques used by artists like Burial, Boards of Canada, and Andy Stott. Really atmospheric electronica with off-kilter drum patterns. In terms of a combination of guitars and electronica, probably Fennesz too. I’ve been really enamoured with his work for a long time and love how otherworldly he can make an instrument like a guitar sound. As a purely atmospheric instrument, a guitar can be great, but the granular sound design of Fennesz’s music is something that’s really inspiring to me currently.
Can you tell us more about the song "Sat in the Heat"? To me, this is the song on the album that retains the most amount of shoegaze guitar sound while interestingly moved along with a glitchy beat.
It was a song that Ryan recorded whilst he was visiting his girlfriend’s family in Spain. It’s a long distance away from our grotty bedrooms where the tunes are normally made so I think it has more of an air of optimism than a lot of our earlier music does. It’s built around this repeating motif on a Drum Rack in Ableton, and then he brought that into the studio where I put some synth bass down, and Joe recorded some guitar over it. Con added so many layers of drums to it too. Think I spoke to Alex when he was getting the stems ready for us, and he said the ending of the tune has four different kits on it at once. Silly bastards.
How does bdrmm fit in with the Rock Action roster of artists? How have label mates supported your development?
Mogwai have supported us from day one. That’s why we’re on the label really. They fostered us on tour when we were all feeling like the band was over. Showing us that touring can be fun, but more importantly how essential it was to have a hand in everything that’s going on with your band – from finances to management to artwork. That ethos that has kept them going for so many years bled into the way we see the band now, and we hope to have a career as exciting and illustrious as them. In terms of other bands, we once played the same festival as Arab Strap and bumped into each other outside a corner shop, but think we were all too shy to say anything. Who knows? We could’ve been best pals. Shy kids don’t get sweets.
The band played its debut album in full at one of Sonic Cathedral's 20th anniversary shows last year - how was that given your evolution away from the genre you were known for? I was there, it was a great performance!
Thanks! It was great. It was nice to go back and give that album its flowers as it came out in lockdown, so we never really got to even tour it! Learning this new record live has been a lot of head scratching around synths and computers so to be able to tell that to fuck off and just make a loud din with guitars in a church was, excuse the pun, heavenly.
How has your fan base changed with the development of your sound? How do fans factor into your creative process?
I think we had a lot of older fans when we first started since shoegaze wasn’t as popular as it is now. A lot of people come up to us and say “my dad loves you guys, and that’s how I got into you” which is very funny. Thanks dads.
Have you ever felt at risk of losing fans as you've added more dance music elements to bdrmm's songs?
Not really. We just go into the studio and make the music that we want to hear. I watched this video of David Bowie talking about what he’d learned as he got older in the music industry, and in it he says that its terribly dangerous for an artist to try and fulfil other people’s expectations with their music. It’s an ethos that we adhere to.
What do you hope listeners feel when hearing Microtonic?
Hungry.
Are the new songs of Microtonic more challenging to play live?
Yeah, for sure. We’ve had to incorporate new elements to the live show that we wouldn’t have even thought about a few years ago. But that’s what makes it more exciting. We’d be in a bad position if we were complacent with what we were doing. It keeps us on our toes and makes the music more exciting for the audience too.
What is your idea as to where the band's sound might go from here?
Rockabilly.
Microtonic is released February 28, 2025 on Rock Action Records.
bdrmm tour dates, pre-order, and merch at » https://bdrmm.co.uk/