Nashville Scene Music Cover Story Article 20979457 Bully Art Losing

The flames shoot two, mayhap three feet into the air, and Alicia Bognanno's face lights up from the hot orange blaze.

"This is why I wanted to come here!" she says, delighted by the dramatic result of the hibachi chef spurting oil onto a hot griddle at West Nashville's Ninki Japanese Bistro.

Information technology's late September, and Bognanno's band Great — which also features bassist Reece Lazarus and guitarist Clayton Parker — is ane calendar month away from releasing Losing, their follow-upwardly to 2015'south critically acclaimed full-length debut Feels Like. Though she's admittedly a bit nervous nearly the release, Bognanno, Lazarus and Parker are all relaxed and happy, and not just because the chef is now entertaining us past foolishly juggling an egg with his metallic spatula.

At this point, a few of Losing's first singles — "Running," "Experience the Same" and "Kills to Exist Resistant" — have already been historic by fans. Bognanno's days have been filled with phone interviews for U.S. and British printing, as well as a photo shoot in New York's Chinatown. Earlier this afternoon, earlier coming together the Scene for hibachi, Bully received a shipment of freshly printed winter tour posters created past one of Bognanno'southward favorite poster artists, Jay Ryan.

It is, as they say, all happening.

Simply every bit y'all might gather from its title, Nifty's sophomore try isn't the sunny, experience-good record you might expect from a local grunge-popular band on the brink of world domination. Losing sucks — whether you're losing impact, losing innocence, losing focus or losing yourself — and on Losing, Bognanno explores a lot of loss, diving headfirst into the complicated emotions associated with expiry, heartbreak, isolation and more.

The consequence is an especially personal effort, a batch of songs that are blistering and malaise-ridden, but which still boast a wink toward playful pop. Bognanno's non wrong when she says it tops Feels Like.

For a infinitesimal in that location, though — later parting means with drummer Stewart Copeland (Casey Weissbuch, formerly of Diarrhea Planet, played drums on Losing, and Wesley Mitchell will join them on their upcoming tour) and their label, Columbia Records imprint Star Fourth dimension International — the ring had to wonder if a second anthology was even possible.

When Bully broke onto the Nashville music scene in 2013, the ring was almost immediately a hit. Bognanno — an MTSU grad who studied under seminal record producer Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio in Chicago and besides engineers and mixes all of Bully'southward music — was revered for writing buzzy rock songs with measured amounts of pop hooks and punk angst. Their debut EP, released in 2014, came with a heavy dose of '90s nostalgia cheers to the singer's penchant for analog recording methods, and fans were mesmerized by the band's live performances. Onstage, Bognanno effortlessly unleashes thick and fuzzy guitar noise while showcasing acrobatic vocals that shift from a sweet, soft croon to a gnarled Cobain-esque scream in one breath.

Information technology was articulate Slap-up was destined for greatness, and greatness came quickly. The EP received loftier praise from respected national outlets like Pitchfork, New York and NME, and that same year they played Bonnaroo and CMJ Music Marathon while too scoring coveted local opening slots for adored acts like Superchunk and Those Darlins.

In 2015 they signed to Star Time International, a subsidiary of Columbia Records — so, in a sense, they were labelmates with Beyoncé — and Feels Like was released that spring to even more critical acclaim.

That's when the whirlwind really began.

Much of that year was spent on the road. March and Apr brought a West Coast and Canadian bout with JEFF the Brotherhood. In May they went to Europe, and in June they toured the W Coast with Best Coast. The summer was peppered with festival appearances, including SXSW, Lollapalooza, Pop Montreal and Pitchfork. In August they performed the song "Trying" on Conan, then they hopped around the U.S. and Canada again through September and October earlier crossing the pond once more for another European tour in November. 2015 ended with half a dozen Australian dates in December.

Whew.

When Smashing finally came home to Nashville — back to a city that, perhaps, had changed as much as they did while they were on the route — Bognanno struggled to discover her place.

"It's very shocking," she says. "You go from nonstop traveling and constantly being around people to but isolation. When we came habitation, our task was to write the second record — I write [at home], we practice [at home], I record the demos [at dwelling] — so at that place aren't really whatever boundaries or lines of when I demand to cut it off and maybe chill out or talk to some other human existence.

"Stopping to make the second tape was something we had to practice," she continues, "but with that going on, and the election and but other things in my personal life, it was weird. Information technology was a whirlwind. A lot of that comes through on the record."

Bognanno is reluctant to get into too much detail about Losing's lyrical inspiration — "I'm not gonna talk that much about my personal life considering I shouldn't have to, I shouldn't accept to requite that sort of information up," she says. Fifty-fifty and so, information technology's impossible non to at least partially decipher the source of some of her frustrations.

Opening rail "Feels the Aforementioned" buzzes with the maddening restlessness that settles in late at nighttime while fighting the losing battle of forgetting an ex: "Cut my hair I feel the same / Masturbate I experience the same … Feed my dog I experience the same." Bognanno's lyrics echo attempted escapes from unwanted thoughts.

"Guess There" is a bit more than lighthearted, with Bognanno projecting that post-bout haze over a noodling, distorted Congenital to Spill-ish guitar riff, but "Blame" takes a sharp, dark turn. Though it sounds like one of the brighter songs on the album, with its perky, playful guitar dancing over a bouncing bassline, the lyrics retrieve a heavy relationship that appears to be wrapped up in pain, booze, guilt and blame. "Either Way" is some other undeniably heavy melody, wherein Bognanno grapples with the thought of someone'south eventual death. "I want you either fashion," she howls in the charging chorus, "even if you can't stay." Simply the vocal that stings the most is "Focused." It's Bognanno's favorite, and it's the song that, when the band commencement heard the demos, left a lasting impression.

"I could tell right away it was something different," says Parker.

"It got me out of a songwriting rut," Bognanno says. "That was the beginning ane, that moment of, 'Oh, cool, I'thou non totally fucked. I tin can do this. We can do this. We can do the second record. It's gonna be OK.' "

The song has a lingering persistence — a patient, rubbery bass line steadily marches on for much of the song while Bognanno recalls a loaded moment in an quondam friendship. "And I still remember / what you went through when we were 16 / You lot explained information technology to me then but / a few years after I felt what yous hateful." The song has an eerie quiet before information technology furiously climaxes, with Bognanno unleashing whatsoever rage has been pent up, maybe for a decade, screaming out, "I'k trying to stay focused! I'grand trying to stay focused!"

It all culminates into one shattering howl that rivals Live Through This-era Courtney Love: "I'Grand GONNA Impale HIM!"

"I didn't actually want this record to go as heavy every bit information technology got," says Bognanno, "but I don't feel like I have a lot of control over information technology, because if I e'er sit downwards to write a song, I'thousand not e'er gonna write virtually something that's non bothering me. That's just the nature of the fashion that I write. Out of that comes a lot more than things that can be on the bummer spectrum. Because it'due south harder for me to exist like, 'I'yard happy, I dear my dog,' you know?"

She'south quick to point out that Losing isn't a total killjoy.

"At that place's lighter stuff, similar 'Guess There,' which is just an anthem for everybody who wants to stay at home and exist antisocial, or 'Spiral,' which is pretty, 'Whatever,'" she says with a laugh. " 'Y'all Could Be Incorrect' is lighthearted, [about] watching somebody succeed at a much more rapid pace than you, and being happy for them and trying to not be envious at the same time.

"But at that place is a lot of stuff, similar, 'Seeing It,' which is clearly a very heavy song that kind of touches on sexual assail," Bognanno says. "And 'Hate and Control,' which is plainly almost the political climate and the election."

When it came fourth dimension to name the tape, Bognanno sabbatum down with the concluding list of songs and listened for a common theme — it was undeniable that Losing is littered with the concept of losing, even if at first she didn't want to admit it.

"I call back [the title] just tied it all together. At the time, or at to the lowest degree within the twelvemonth I was writing it, I felt discouraged ofttimes, and flipping through the record, I was like, 'This could be a somewhat accurate representation of some subliminal message in each song.'

"I don't desire it to sound so disappointing, or so discouraging," she continues. "Information technology's non supposed to be similar, 'Wah, we detest life!' [Laughs] We probably should take gone with a different album title."

Losing album art

Bognanno is friendly, even goofy at times, especially when egged on by her bandmates — "Girl on the Road is my secret blog, and it only happens in the van," she says virtually only one of the ways the ring members entertain themselves during hours of driving. But she besides has a very commanding presence. She dominates the conversation over dinner, only she isn't pushy or precious about information technology, and she'due south non reluctant to take control — she does the bulk of Swell's songwriting.

Information technology'south not surprising to hear she knew from a young age — even in a big family defective other musicians — that she wanted to exist a musician, and she wasn't taking no for an answer. But there wasn't much of a music scene where she grew up in Rosemount, Minn. "I knew 1 band, and the guys were seniors when I was a freshman," she says. "That was it for our whole loftier school. Then if information technology was going to happen, it was going to exist elsewhere.

"When I brought up the idea of wanting to exercise music, my parents were just like, 'What the hell are you thinking? At that place'south no style. You don't know shit most music.' And I didn't."

Bognanno felt pressure from her parents to get a degree, and one of her high school teachers, Jeremy Bartelt, told her about Eye Tennessee State University, which offers a Available of Science degree in audio engineering.

"I was actually thankful for information technology," she says, "because that was his way of pedagogy me how to present this thought to my parents with them even so being cool with information technology, and that'due south how we came to an agreement. They were like, 'OK, y'all tin go do stuff for music if in that location's a four-year degree.' That's how I ended up there."

It was in college that Bognanno discovered her preference for analog recording, which is a big part of what makes Not bad'south sound on record distinct from a lot of the ring's peers. Recording to record ways there'due south no digital pinch, making for a more than genuine presentation of Bully'south grunge pop — a sound that has garnered comparisons to '90s faves like The Breeders, Pixies and Nirvana.

"I was going through college and starting to get to my upper-division classes, which was really cool considering it was actually the first time in school that I was doing well," Bognanno says. "Just I remember being so frustrated with the software — a lot of the answers were to restart your computer. To me that was so frustrating.

"You take to know how to work [recording software] Pro Tools if you lot want to be an engineer, and I totally become that," she continues. "Information technology'south more affordable than tape, and it's easier for students, but once I did some research on Electrical Audio, I realized they had the tape machines, and I actually wanted to larn more about them. I love it — information technology's much more of a physical process. You can see what's going on, you're pressing 'play' and 'record' on the actual machine instead of in the estimator."

In 2011 Bognanno continued her analog education with a student internship in Chicago at Albini's Electrical Sound — where The Breeders, Pixies, Jawbreaker and The Mountain Goats have recorded, to name just a few — and her skill and dedication impressed the notoriously misanthropic Albini, who's known for his piece of work on Nirvana'southward In Utero, P.J. Harvey's Rid of Me, Pixies' Surfer Rosa and countless others. In 2015 Albini told NME: "Alicia is maybe the pinnacle student intern nosotros've ever had. Her work ethic was tireless and constant. She was a fucking joy to accept in the studio. If everybody in the studio worked as hard as Alicia, and so everybody'southward records would be Number Ane hits."

Both Feels Like and Losing were recorded at Electrical Audio with Bognanno at the captain, but leading a pack isn't always easy, especially for a woman in a male person-dominated industry. It can come with a lot of unjust speculation and discredit that can lead to doubt and shame. Bognanno, like whatever talented woman, is non immune.

"When I starting time heard virtually imposter syndrome, it was in a Throwing Shade podcast, and I was like, 'This is my life, described to me — this is blowing my heed right now,' " says Bognanno of the syndrome, a persistent fear of being exposed as a fraud. "I know exactly where mine came from, because it is function of why I take a really difficult fourth dimension giving myself so much credit — because then many things that happened when Bully was starting, someone would say, 'You got that because so-and-so wanted to fuck you.'

"I'm lucky that at present I know better, and there's so many awesome female musicians who take called bullshit," she continues. "It's just a shitty thing that I think women have to bargain with. I don't think men — information technology doesn't faze them. They can get up and play. No 1's judging them, no one'southward gonna say shit similar that to them."

Though much of Losing's cloth is culled from the dread of feeling defeated, at that place are moments when Bognanno finds the strength to fight dorsum — information technology'southward only her nature. She's been fighting to become where she is for most of her life, after all, and that relentlessness nigh notably makes an advent on album-closer "Hate and Command," in which she lulls softly merely assuredly, "You can't define my meaning / Who are you to stand up me all the same / You don't like it when I'm aroused / Tough shit, learn to bargain."

Maybe it's not that Bognanno is losing — it's that she'southward refusing to play at all.

With the album recorded, at that place was still the question of who would release it. Bands don't normally escape a major label without a few scars or horror stories — artists accept lost rights to their ain music or been forced into long-lasting, momentum-killing limbo with binding contracts — but Cracking got lucky with Star Time.

"Nosotros definitely felt the slowness of a major characterization," says Bognanno. "It'due south a huge visitor that'south the main source of everything for us, [and] nosotros were a smaller indie-rock ring. We had the option to leave and be somewhere where nosotros could be more than of a success, compared to something like a subsidiary of Columbia, where Beyoncé is a success. We approached them and voiced our opinion, and they were really absurd with it. [They said] 'We're non gonna trap you here.' It was actually nice."

Expect ... nice?

"When we were on Star Time nosotros really merely worked with two people, and they were awesome," says Bognanno. "And they gave united states of america 100 per centum creative control — I don't regret information technology. I mean, nosotros needed to sign with them. Honestly, we did — nosotros wouldn't accept gotten a van."

Now Corking is on Sub Pop, the Seattle label lauded — or blamed, depending on who yous ask — for the Northwest's early on-'90s grunge explosion, and currently home to a diverse roster including Sleater-Kinney, Downtown Boys, Shabazz Palaces and Father John Misty. It's a perfect fit, really. Not only is Bully sonically a band that Sub Pop would've courted in the '90s, but the characterization, also, has long identified every bit a group of losers. "LOSER" has been emblazoned across Sub Pop'south T-shirts for decades, and in 2007 they established a scholarship fund chosen the Sub Pop Loser Scholarship. The band laughs when the coincidence is pointed out.

"We did not remember well-nigh that," says bassist Lazarus of the album-name coincidence. "The tantalizing part nigh Sub Pop, and signing with them, was the possibility of the Slap-up and Sub Pop ideas that would brand something that was greater than the sum of the parts."

"How rare is it that the label post-obit in itself is greater than the band following?" adds Bognanno. "That's a really rare situation."

Plus Sub Pop, perhaps better than any other record label, would know how to all-time handle a band that has drawn comparisons to its own early-'90s artists … despite the band's intentions.

"I had no intention of resembling a '90s band," says Bognanno. "I was born in 1990. I did non grow up with Nirvana. They were at their biggest in '94, right? I was four."

"I grew up in Seattle, and I used to say I hated Nirvana as a child because they played them on the radio station all the time, and you lot hear people busking it," says Lazarus. " 'Why practise people similar this band? I don't sympathize.' I wasn't old enough to get information technology. I had to sit downward and actually listen to Nirvana records to try to figure it out."

He laughs and hangs his caput. "Embarrassingly late."

"I hateful, Pod by The Breeders was i of my favorites," adds Bognanno. "I wasn't thinking of it as an era as much as a couple of bands I actually like that came out of that time period. Honestly, if we're gonna exist put in any category, I'one thousand glad it's that one. A lot of badass bands came out of that time. But I recall a lot of it has to do with us [growing upwardly] in a time where electronica was actually big — at that place's a ton of slapback and reverb hiding vocals, which isn't a bad matter. Only when I was in higher, nigh bands I heard, that was what was going on. Nosotros're two guitars, bass, drums — the vocals are pretty directly. They're not actually covered in a lot of effects, and they're up front end. I think that reminds people of music that's coming out of that time."

One notable fan reminded of yesteryear? Patty Schemel, erstwhile drummer for Pigsty (and electric current drummer for 50.A. pop punk band Upset), who wrote Bully's new bio for Sub Popular: "I love Bully the way I love Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr. and The Breeders," Schemel writes. "Their sound takes me back to the stripped downwardly and thoughtfully engineered songs that haunt me long afterward they're gone and never get onetime."

As dinner wraps up at Ninka — without even a unmarried onion volcano, but any — the members of Bully say they're more excited than nervous about putting Losing out into the world. They're unfazed past the barrage of hurdles that came at them over the past twelvemonth, and they're looking forward to finally hearing what people accept to say about the culmination of their hard work.

Well, at least Lazarus and Parker are.

"I feel like we made the record we wanted to make, and aye, manifestly I would really love for people to love this record, just I think we honey this tape," says Lazarus. "Information technology's not out there to be pandering."

He laughs.

"I know Alicia does not experience that way. But I desire people to fucking hear it. That's all."

"I am a nervous wreck," adds Bognanno. "I just panic. I merely desire it to be out. I know we all worked our asses off and really worked hard for this i. In the end, I can't beat myself upwardly too much. I truthfully think it's a lot better than the first tape."

A few weeks after the waiting game was finally over — Losing premiered a week early as office of NPR'south First Listen characteristic. Not only did NPR give the tape a glowing review, just fans immediately loved it, also. "Face and brain, fully melted," wrote i listener on Swell's Facebook page. "SOOOO FUCKING GOOOOOD!!!" wrote another. Other fans, chiming in from as far away as Italy, Republic of chile and the U.K., filled their comments with heart emojis. Tickets for shows on Cracking's winter tour — they'll hitting the East Declension and the South through November and December and the West Coast in Feb and early on March — are already starting to sell out.

After all of the doubt and the heaviness and the hard work, it looks like Losing might be winning.

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