If you think your job is hard, try baring your soul and putting it out there for people to judge. Phew! Pittsburgh dreamgaze band Colatura tackle the art of making art on their new song “Suffer Dude.”
Jennica Best from Colatura recently spoke with WYEP's Joey Spehar.
What’s your musical history up to this point?
I have always been surrounded by music. My parents are both opera singers, so I was born into a family of performers. It wasn't until I was about 10 though that I learned that there was music other than classical music, and I have been slowly veering farther and farther away from it ever since, though I still love classical music with all my heart. My grandmother was a piano teacher, so that was my first instrument. I didn't actually learn how to play a stringed instrument until I met Digo and we decided to start a band. For the first couple years I was our bass player and then eventually switched to guitar, because playing bass and singing is hard lol.
How do you describe your sound?
We skirt a lot of indie genres, but lean shoegaze and dream pop. I have been calling us dreamgaze recently. Our vocals are too loud to be traditional shoegaze, but our guitars are too fuzzy to be indie pop, so we lie somewhere in the middle, with some post punk, jangle pop, and surf influences too, especially in our earlier stuff. Some songs are more dreamy, some are more heavy, but definitely fuzzy guitars and pop melodies throughout.
Tell us more about the song "Suffer Dude." What inspired you to write it and what does it mean to you?
Suffer Dude is about being afraid to take risks and be vulnerable as an artist, because of a fear of being criticized or judged. It can be scary making music and putting your heart into it and then putting it out in the world for people to say they don't like it. And then having to also make content in order to market it and be this online personality that has to be vulnerable for people to relate, but not too vulnerable because then people might think you're not cool. It can be exhausting worrying about what will do well and sometimes it's easier to just not put yourself out there at all. I personally put off taking the leap on performing for way longer than I should have, because I was terrified people would think I wasn’t good enough. And that’s what "Suffer Dude" is about. It's about being afraid to be vulnerable and trying to convince yourself that you're okay with sitting on the sidelines while others take the risks but knowing deep down that it’s a lie. When we decided to record it, we reached out to Aron Kobayashi Ritch, who is the bass player in the band Momma and a sick producer, and he helped us bring it to life.
What was the first album that really changed your life?
Honestly probably all of The Beatles' albums. They were the first band that I really got into once I learned there was music other than classical, and I tore through their discography and couldn't listen to them enough.
Who are some other Pittsburgh artists you think more people should listen to?
We've been big fans of feeble little horse for a while now. We also recently saw this band Eyewash live, that was great.
Any other super interesting things about you we should know?
Music is my life. I am a mastering engineer, so whenever I'm not working on my own music, I get to work on tons of other really cool music. Digo is also a mixing engineer and producer and a lot of the time he will have me assistant engineer for him in the studio. I feel really lucky that I get to spend all my time doing music in one aspect or another.
Colatura are:
Jennica Best - vocals/guitar (she/her)
Digo Best - backing vocals/lead guitar (he/him)
Devan Davies - bass (he/him)
Alex Kirkpatrick - drums (he/him)
