Hi, everyone! Recently, I sat down with Ben Hozie of the Brooklyn-based punk quintet BODEGA. The group was founded in 2016 after Hozie’s old band, Bodega Bay, was on its way out. Since then, the group has released a pair of LPs. Hozie, who is co-singer/songwriter of the group, works alongside Nikki Belfiglio (singer/songwriter), Madison Velding-VanDam (guitar), Heather Elle (bass) and Tai Lee (drums). Together, they pair witty lyrics alongside minimalist instrumentals, and I think they have a pretty unique sound. After hearing some of their work, I was very interested in learning more about Hozie’s troupe.
bazzreviews: Which artists or albums influenced you to start a music career?
Ben Hozie: There’s a lot of answers to that. The first Jane’s Addiction record was the first record that really blew me away in grade school. I wouldn’t have the same answer today, but that was a record that first transported me to the world of rock music. One album I’m influenced by when I write music for BODEGA today is The Who Sells Out. It’s their most conceptual record, pre-Tommy and Who’s Next. It’s made in the form of a radio broadcast, with fake ads and everything. They tried to say that our music is essentially just advertising and nothing more, very tongue-in-cheek stuff. That record taught me that there can be concept art in rock music.
br: How did you meet the other members that formed BODEGA?
B.H.: I met Nikki at an of Montreal concert, and I met Madison through other bands that he was involved with. Heather briefly lived with Nikki and I, and became our bass player. Our newest drummer, Tai, was coming to a lot of BODEGA shows, so we talked to her and found out that she played drums in the Off-Broadway show, “Stomp”. She was looking to do something else that was more fulfilling, so we invited her to join us. We don’t use a full standard kit for our percussion, it’s more deconstructed a la Velvet Underground. In live shows, Tai plays floor tom and snare, while Nikki plays a hi-hat across the stage.
br: I’ve heard you guys are known for some pretty cool live shows, do you guys prefer those environments over studio work?
B.H.: Neither one is better than the other, but we approach them in completely different ways. When we’re in the studio, we want to make pop recordings that are super short and catchy. To me, live shows aren’t even about the music, it’s about creating an event like theatre. To create a moment where anything can happen, we’ll stretch songs out to being fifteen minutes long or something.
br: I saw that you guys got to tour with Franz Ferdinand a few years back, how did working with them help your career evolve?
B.H.: They’ve been super kind to us, almost like mentors in a way. They give us advice on how to stay creative and how to keep the band healthy. From a practical point of view, we had to learn how to play in front of a much larger audience. We went from playing shows with 200 people to venues with over 2,000 people. I learned one small thing from watching Alex [Kapranos] (lead singer) perform, his stage gestures go up and down instead of left to right. When you have so much headroom above where the players play, it’s just so visually interesting to watch something like that.
br: Can you describe how you guys go about making a song?
B.H.: Every song is different. Usually, it’ll start with an idea from me or Nikki. I’m pretty old school, I like to write with an acoustic guitar, a pen and a pad of paper. The lyrics will usually come first, while a lot of people like to make a riff or a melody beforehand. Writing lyrics first gives me an idea of what the cadence, meter and tempo will be. I’ll then get a chord progression and vocal phrasing worked out, then bring it to the band. Madison will take on more of a producer role, and he’ll edit my ideas to figure out what the guitars can do that won’t make the song boring. The bass and the drums have the grunt work of carrying the song along. Minimalism an important part of our band, and it’s almost like we’re working by the process of subtraction. We don’t have kick drums for percussion, and we won’t put in specific guitar parts that a lot of other bands might use. As Brian Eno once said, “The most powerful button in the studio is the delete button”.
br: Throughout many of your songs, I’ve heard a lot of amusing, somewhat humorous, lyrics. What makes you guys strive for that kind of writing style?
B.H.: I make films on the side of music, and I make songs like I would a short film: I’m trying to find the musical form that captures what thinking and feeling is like for me. What you said earlier about our lyrics being cynical, you’re not wrong. We definitely try to critique the modern world and point out the absurdity of it all, but I always like to say that our band is kind of romantic. We wouldn’t be saying these things if we didn’t think that they could change for the better, and I would hate to think that our band is a bunch of negative Nancys. We’re very open-hearted, we try to laugh and find the sweetness in the music. That might not be apparent on first listen, so that might partially be our fault.
br: What’s more important to you- lyricism or production value and instrumentation?
B.H.: It depends on the song. They don’t necessarily have to be combating each other, because in order to hear the lyrics, you need to have a certain production style. Lyrics don’t mean anything on paper, but a common misconception with our band and other wordy lyricists like Bob Dylan is that they’re poets who are saying their poetry out loud. That’s not entirely true, because the way the words are delivered is what makes them stand out.
br: When you guys are recording, do you guys like to get something perfect or do you prefer improvising?
B.H.: You can never get something perfect, so the goal for us is to love the process and get it to where it feels complete. We’re seeking the definitive by chance, but we definitely don’t want something to sound unfinished. A lot of our best songs have been written in less than twenty minutes. While it can be spontaneous, you need to go through a lot before you find something that sounds good.
br: Does BODEGA have any projects in the works?
B.H: Yeah, we’ve been working on an EP for a while now. We just finished tracking it, and we’re going to start mixing it in a couple of days. We don’t have a title yet, but we know that it’ll be out this summer. We’re doing a quick tour with another band from New York called Gustaf, and then heading out west to tour with B Boys. We’re then going back out to Europe, and we’ll come back in the fall to hopefully start working on our second full-length.
br: What music goals do you and the band have for the future?
B.H.: Honestly, we just want to stay productive. We want to live the life of constantly playing cool shows and recording great music. We don’t have anything specific in mind, we just things to happen by surprise.
I would like to thank Ben for giving me his time for an interview. I am also very fortunate that he offered me a list spot to go see them perform in Columbus. For those who are looking for a unique take on punk music, these guys deliver. Thanks so much for reading this article, and more awesome content is heading your way soon!
To listen to more of BODEGA's music, go to https://bodegabk.bandcamp.com/
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