Band Of The Week #155 - Baby Boys
This week’s Band of the Week is Minneapolis based mischief-pop trio Baby Boys - who have just released their debut album ‘Threesome’ via Transgressive. Made from members of Hippo Campus, Lupin and brotherkenzie - this album certainly keeps you on your toes and make you question the word ‘genre’ as they push it’s boundaries in ways that you have never heard before. They took a moment to talk to us about the album came together.
Hey there Baby Boys, so your album ‘Threesome’ is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
Stupendous and strange. We worked super hard on this album in a very short amount of time (9 days) and having been waiting on the music to show itself for over a year has been an interesting experience. But it always is. Every piece of music you present to the world brings a mixed bag of feelings. Grateful and stoked this one is finally seeing the light of day.
It is branded as mischief pop - so what behind the scenes mischief did you get up to in the studio? Where was it recorded?
Since the beginning of this band the three of us have encountered some bizarre shenanigan-making basically every time we meet up to work. Most of the record was made at BJ Burton's studio in Minneapolis, which we had full access to in the fall of 2019, and there was no shortage of late nights washing hot sauce out of our eyes, or wrestling, or skating to the nearest gas station for more cigarettes. Injuries were sustained.
Individually you come from a variety of bands - so how did you all come together to make Baby Boys?
We've been performing and making music together in various projects and bands since high school but Baby Boys was berthed out of a studio jam session the summer of 2018 in Minneapolis. It developed pretty quickly and naturally into a practice in saying yes to our musical instincts and bouncing whatever ideas we had off each other.
This kind of all began with iPhone sound memos - can you tell us a bit more about that?
Our writing and recording process for this album began with a collection of voice memos and whatever demos we had floating around at the time. We hit the ground running and started to fuck with those bits and pieces in our computers, chopping up whatever we thought was worth listening to and seeing what happened. There's a lovely texture to iPhone audio recordings and that ended up becoming a huge asset to the sound of this album. The mysterious link between something as archaic as nostalgia and something so universally consumed as the iPhone is fascinating to us.
There is an energy of ‘yes to everything’ when it comes to this album, was that your intention?
For sure. Working on as many projects as we have over the years, we established early on that this band's mantra is to maintain momentum when working and believing that every idea is on the table, no matter how absurd. It's a free space, without tethers, and that promotes balance in what we're all trying to achieve. Through this we've found that our best ideas float to the top.
Did it create a sense of empowerment when it came to your music?
Joy is more apt.
What are the key themes and influences on the album?
Brotherhood, Love, Yes, Booze, and Sticking it to the man.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album? If so, which one and why?
One of the first tunes we tracked was Cannonball and there's a line in there about smoking a frog and becoming a deity. This line stands out because of the fond memory of none of us being able to sing it properly because it was so fucking hilarious and we couldn't stop laughing. There's a bunch of moments like that on this record and it tickles us to this day. Being tickled by your own music is a decent indicator you're doing something right.
Now the album is out there, is this a one off moment for the three of you? Or will you be heading back into the studio to make more music?
The creative and emotional reset that this project has become is too important for each of us individually for it to be a one off. Baby Boys is due for more studio time and the plan right now is to head back in this summer to see what we can come up with next. Once things start opening back up again we'd love to tour this record and hopefully let that inform new musical endeavors, but until then we'll be as mischievous as possible.