Hi, everyone! Sorry for a delay in new content, I've been pretty busy this last week. Anyways, here's my interview that I did with Cole and Tammy "Bambi" Browning. They are the husband and wife team that founded the Portland synth rock group Reptaliens. In 2017, they released their debut LP, FM-2030. Science fiction runs deep in the band's origins, and this is just another nod to that. They named this album after a famous Belgian philosopher and transhumanist of the same name. Because of the success their first record had, they became signed to Captured Tracks Records in Brooklyn. This label is home to other famous indie artists like Beach Fossils and DIIV. In addition to touring with famous bands like STRFKR and of Montreal, the Brownings and company released their second LP, VALIS in late April. They recently wrapped up a tour for that record as well. Hearing about their background so early on in their career made me very interested to reach out to them for an interview.
bazzreviews: Which artists or albums inspired you to start a music career in the first place?
Bambi Browning: This is embarrassing, but I have to say it’s the Red Hot Chili Peppers. That’s pretty much all I used to listen to in middle school and high school. I used to be obsessed with Flea, I still am today. To a lesser degree, that is.
Cole Browning: I don’t know if I could track down a specific artist or album. However, I remember that I was listening to a lot of punk bands when I first starting to join bands and stuff. A lot of the punk stuff was so simple, and it made me realize that I could do that, too.
br: I know you guys were the founding members of the band. How did you end up meeting the other members, though?
B.B.: We’ve all been friends through the music scene here in Portland. Our drummer [Tyler Verigin] used to play in a five or six bands at once, so he was always out and about. He knew a lot of people we knew, so we asked him to join our band. At that point, we had already been playing with our guitarist, Julian [Kowalski]. We met him through that group of Portland musicians as well. We’re all super great friends and get along really well.
br: As a husband and wife team, how has being in this band together helped your relationship grow?
C.B.: Like anything, when you do things with other people it brings everyone together. The band is busy and we’re always doing things.
B.B.: We love working on things together, whether it’s setting up tours or recording. I think that we round out each other’s personalities very well.
br: I understand that you guys are huge science fiction fans, but how did you guys come up with the band’s name?
C.B.: We get asked that a lot, but I can’t really recall how it all came together. I think some of us were just sitting around, and we were rattling stuff off. Someone heard Reptaliens and went crazy.
B.B.: Yeah, we had been thinking for a couple of weeks about what we wanted to call our band. We had a few names that we didn’t like. As Cole was saying, it just kind of happened when we weren’t thinking too hard. After that, we immediately created our Facebook and Instagram account because we were that obsessed with it.
br: In the past, you’ve gotten to tour with respected indie bands like STRFKR and of Montreal, what have those experiences been like?
C.B.: Those shows are super fun. I love playing bigger venues. The guys from STRFKR have been friends with us for a while, and it was basically fifteen friends hanging out every night for a few months. With of Montreal, we didn’t know any of the members going into the tour. Afterwards, I’d say we all became pretty close. Both bands give such theatrical live shows, and we have our own on-stage routines also.
B.B.: Like Cole said, we do some pretty exciting stuff on stage. All of our costumes lie in the green room at each venue, but they never get washed afterwards. Every backstage we go to smells really bad after we leave!
br: I’ve heard that Reptaliens known for some pretty crazy live shows, would you say that you prefer performing live rather than doing studio work?
B.B.: They both have their own high points and low points. I love the recording process, as we do a lot of it at home. However, the pressure of having that final product nailed down gives me some anxiety. Playing live allows you to connect with so many people, and that sends a very unique energy your way.
C.B.: I definitely like playing live way more. Recording is frustrating, but playing live is where all the fun happens.
br: Can you describe your process for how you go about making songs?
C.B.: It starts off with something small like a chord progression, and it builds on top of itself. Bambi and I do all the songwriting, so we’ll go with an idea and then bring it to each other. We’ll then do a rough recording then add new stuff or take away things we don’t like. It’s almost like we write more as we’re recording. As we’re finishing that up, the lyrics will usually start to manifest. Once the recording process is done, we take it to the other guys and learn to play it live.
B.B.: If the recording process gets frustrating, or we’re not laying down any ideas, we tend to step away from it. We never record anything unless we’re actively enjoying ourselves, that's one of our biggest rules.
br: What’s more important to you- lyricism, or production value and instrumentation?
B.B.: That’s a tough one. We try to put 100% into every part of a song. I don’t know if one has more importance over the other.
C.B.: There’s a lot of songs that I like where songs have stupid lyrics, but the melody and recording style sounds really good. I think I could almost go towards the production value over the lyrics. Some of the basic “ooh-la-la” type lyrics could either sound really good or end up sounding s----y.
br: I know you guys just released VALIS in April, but do you have any other projects in the works right now? C.B.: Bambi will be leaving on tour in a different band, which she can tell you about.
B.B.: Yeah, I’m going out on tour with this guy called Bryson Cone. I’ve been playing with him for about two years now. It’s more of a passion project for me, I just write basslines for him. I’m not super involved with it, but I have a really fun time working with him. The music we do is kind of like “jazz goth”, very synth-heavy. There are pop-based melodies, but it sounds really dark at the same time. We’re playing in San Diego with one of my favorite artists of all time, Gary Wilson. He’s an amazing guy, he makes super avant-garde music.
br: What other music goals do you have for the future?
C.B.: We’d love to keep touring, and we want to head out to Europe or Australia in the future.
B.B.: I’d love to keep working more on our performances and stuff, make our sets look a little stronger. Other than that, we just want to keep writing awesome stuff!
Thanks so much again to Cole and Bambi for giving me their time to interview! I had an amazing time talking with them. They are a promising young indie group that is going to turn heads in the future. For those who haven't listened to VALIS or any of their other music, I suggest you do so. They really do make some amazing music! Thanks so much again to all of my readers, more amazing bazzreviews content is coming your way soon.
To hear music from Reptaliens, go to https://reptaliens.bandcamp.com/
