Bethany Cosentino and Bully’s Alicia Bognanno seem in our Fall 2023 Subject with cowl stars Scowl, Yves Tumor, Poppy, and Good Charlotte. Head to the AP Store to seize a replica.
Bethany Cosentino and Alicia Bognanno, the voices and minds behind iconic indie bands, Greatest Coast and Bully, sit aspect by aspect in Cosentino’s LA residence. Business misfits turned staples, their friendship is undergirded by a mutual respect earned over the course of years spent within the music enterprise. After assembly on tour circa 2015, the 2 grew to become associates over a sport of arcade basketball, for which Bognanno took the crown. However as indie music entered the popular culture area within the early aughts, and have become topic to the feuding of bands fronted by ladies, Cosentino and Bognanno maintained an adoration that wouldn’t come to fruition till years later of their careers.
Now, towards the backdrop of Cosentino’s gallery wall of paint-by-the-number canine portraits, buying and selling Starbucks orders (iced espresso with a little bit little bit of oat milk and sweetener and matcha) and misremembering the drink of selection throughout their arcade basketball days (Corona-ritas or Jägerbombs), there may be an earned camaraderie. The pair have been introduced nearer during the last years by way of the shared lack of their pets Snacks and Mezzi — symbolic and lyrical fixtures of their music — administration adjustments, and the idiosyncratic expertise of being a girl in indie music.
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The factors of intersection of their work are as nuanced as they’re apparent. The songwriters behind their respective music tasks, each skirt themes of angst, love, loneliness, and rise up. Pulling on the identical thread with diverse depth, Cosentino wraps pop-punk melodies round her finger, whereas Bognanno frays the hem, letting the entire thing unravel with a grunge-inflected ferocity. And as Cosentino is taking management forward of her first solo album, Pure Catastrophe, Bognanno is releasing it, handing over the reins on her final album, Fortunate For You.
There’s a shared sentiment that some issues are out of their palms. The 2 discover magnificence in catastrophe as not solely imminent however anticipated — pure. Confronting the uncertainty of such magnitude, the one tonic is change itself. In Pure Catastrophe’s polished pop-rock manufacturing, Cosentino enters a brand new chapter. Self-reflective lyrics and triumphant melodies run by way of pop-rock manufacturing by means of Nashville producer Butch Walker. With youthful angst nipping at her heels, her new document traverses complicated themes of local weather change, grief, freedom, and management.
“Life can change on a dime. Something can occur. You might actually stroll out the entrance door and never come residence later as a result of some tragic factor occurred, particularly the world that we reside in,” Cosentino says. “It could have been very straightforward for me to go in [the] deep black gap of, ‘Nothing fucking issues,’ however as an alternative it actually impressed me to truly wish to reside my life.”
In a dialog between two iconic ladies in indie music, an “introverted extrovert” and an “introverted introvert,” the duo have as a lot to show one another exterior of music as inside it.
BETHANY COSENTINO: I really feel like each of the information we made are fairly formidable.
ALICIA BOGNANNO: We each took huge leaps.
COSENTINO: We actually have been one another’s pep speak system. Just about day-after-day, all day. We’ve recognized one another for a very long time. I really feel like we didn’t actually change into that shut till after each of our pets died. As a result of it’s such a selected stage of grief. It looks like shedding a toddler. I believe for each of us, our pets have been with us a lot by way of all of those completely different phases of our life, from beginning our bands whereas rising up.
So once I discovered that Alicia’s canine had handed away, it was possibly a pair months after my cat died. I despatched flowers as a result of after my cat died, I felt like I needed to present up and be supportive as a result of it’s simply next-level grief. Then I really feel we actually began to attach otherwise than we had earlier than. We additionally occurred to each be making these information, taking dangers. We actually needed to be one another’s cheerleader.
BOGNANNO: We have been each going by way of administration adjustments, which is a fairly intense relationship. I imply, I used to be with my earlier supervisor for eight years…
COSENTINO: Oh, my God, I used to be with mine for eight.
BOGNANNO: It’s an enormous relationship shift as a result of they principally know all the things about you and have entry to all of your stuff. It’s a extremely attention-grabbing dynamic, nearly like a breakup. However that is additionally Bethany’s first solo document, and this was my first time critically working with a producer, the place I used to be collaborating in a means that I by no means had earlier than. Often I am going right into a document cycle, and I’ve all the things demoed out to the T, and I’m simply getting in and having it engineered. So in that means, we’re each doing very unfamiliar issues, and it was very nice to have a help system. These three issues on their very own are fairly life-changing.
COSENTINO: On this business, the quote-unquote issues of a working musician are so particular that it may be arduous to know in your associates exterior of the business. When you speak to them about being overworked or doing press all day or it’s a must to go on tour, lots of people nonetheless take a look at you want, “However you’re residing the dream.” We’re very lucky to make a residing off our artwork, nevertheless it comes with plenty of problems — stuff that impacts your psychological well being.
BOGNANNO: I might say that’s the most important factor. It’s the psychological well being facet of making one thing so private and weak, after which placing it out for everyone else to determine the price of it. I do know that we each have an analogous mentality that each one you are able to do is genuinely the perfect you can. Create one thing that you simply love. From there, it is advisable do all this work on accepting the way it’s going to be acquired and never letting it validate you.
COSENTINO: We all know that that’s the rational strategy to it, however I believe most artists wrestle with a concern of being not acquired effectively or getting dangerous evaluations or any of these issues as a result of it’s a really weak factor. Everybody needs to be liked and accepted for who they’re. However I believe that regardless that we each know this and would inform this to one another on a regular basis, generally it’s simply actually useful to have to inform someone else as a result of once you hear your self say it, you’re like, “Oh, I’ve to use this to myself.” We might say that to one another backwards and forwards over Voice Memos. Like, “Keep in mind bitch, you gotta let go.” We “Jesus take the wheel” one another loads. That’s certainly one of our favorites. That and YOLO. We’ll textual content one another, “YOLO, babe.”
BAGNANNO: Mine is YOLITA.
COSENTINO: However critically, Alicia and I met many, a few years in the past, and each of us have grown a lot. Once you’re within the public eye, even at our stage — we’re clearly not Katy Perry well-known — however when anyone has entry to you and your life, it’s actually arduous to evolve. I generally tend to essentially determine as what the general public perceives me as, so I actually wished to make this document as a result of I obtained so bored with being perceived as one factor. At this cut-off date, I’ve to decide on myself and do the factor that I wish to do. I believe we’re each experiencing that by means of completely different circumstances.
We’re very comparable in plenty of methods, however we’re additionally so completely different. I believe you’re much more introverted. I’m an introverted extrovert, the place I may be very “on.” I understand how to work a room or play the sport, however afterwards, I would like to depart for my alone time.
BAGNANNO: I’m introverted introverted. I’m means worse in social conditions. I don’t have a capability to show it on. I’m not good at networking or social media. It’s actually exhausting to me. After I drank, I felt like I used it to faucet into being like everyone else. I might escape from being in my head, nevertheless it by no means obtained simpler. I simply needed to settle for that I’m actually not going to be that particular person.
COSENTINO: I believe we each wrestle with that, like impostor syndrome. I typically really feel like I’m unfit of the eye that I get. I consistently inform folks I don’t know the right way to play guitar. I’m not a guitar participant. I don’t know any of the technical stuff. I’m not a musician. However none of these issues really matter. So now I’m proudly owning all of that. On this document, I’m actually singing and actually keen to be like, “I’m a singer.” I began singing actually younger. I took opera classes, and I used to be all the time hiding. As I obtained older, I actually began pondering, “Wait, I’d really be a very good singer.” [On] this document, I used to be actually asking myself, “Why am I attempting to faux? Why am I insecure?”
BAGNANNO: That’s type of the evolution of vocals once you begin a rock band.
COSENTINO: Properly, additionally indie rock. I believe [in] indie rock, there’s this concept that you simply’re not alleged to be a very good singer. So I believe I used to be alleged to have a cool indie voice. However this was my first time actually doing my very own factor, not having to run it by one other particular person. It was simply me and Butch, my producer, and a few session musicians. By way of the inventive, too, simply having the ability to make my very own decisions has been very crucial for me and my progress as an artist, however [as] a human being, too.
Certainly one of my greatest anxieties is folks feeling like I’m abandoning Bobb [Bruno] or Greatest Coast. It was very arduous on me, and I like him a lot. I’ve recognized him since I used to be actually 16 years outdated. It was a really intentional resolution to hold all that up. I don’t know the way lengthy it’s going to be. Perhaps it gained’t ever come again. Perhaps it’ll come again subsequent yr. I don’t know. I’m very lucky to have a collaborator and buddy in Bobb Bruno, who helps me by way of that. I really feel like plenty of my concern stemmed from a misogynistic viewpoint of ladies can’t select themselves.
BAGNANNO: That’s why I used to be in a quote-unquote “band” for therefore lengthy. Everybody was like, “How dare she be the one one?” That was the explanation to come back out and be extra like, “It’s been me the entire time.” I nonetheless get requested about it, however no person else has ever written for Bully. I believe it’s primarily as a result of it’s rock music, and I don’t use my identify, nevertheless it’s me.
COSENTINO: I bear in mind getting shit from folks to principally cover how a lot I contributed, nevertheless it’s simply desirous to be the peacekeeper. Bobb and I actually did collaborate, however do you suppose a man was writing these songs about “I want you have been my boyfriend”? It was very a lot a collaborative factor between me and Bobb, however I used to be the only songwriter. So it was all the time my tales and my lens life and my experiences. So I made the choice to be like, “I’m gonna stroll away from this and begin performing music underneath my very own identify, make my very own document, and do a completely completely different fashion of music.”
I wished it to be mine. I actually wanted a brand new canvas. I had all these experiences by way of the pandemic that made me actually reevaluate my priorities. That was the primary second I spotted life can simply change at any second. You may actually stroll out the entrance door and never come residence later, particularly on the earth that we reside in the place there’s shootings and political upheaval and chaos on a regular basis. It could’ve been very straightforward for me to enter a deep black gap of, “Nothing fucking issues.” However as an alternative, it actually impressed me to truly wish to reside my life.
BAGNANNO: I obtained fairly into Dharma talks years in the past, so I positively already had some moments of being within the current as a result of that’s all there may be. It’s simply acceptance of impermanence.
COSENTINO: I spotted that I didn’t relate to that id anymore, of Bethany from Greatest Coast. I had outgrown myself — that’s so painful. That’s why the document is known as Pure Catastrophe. It’s additionally a commentary on the state of the world and local weather change. However I additionally really feel like I skilled my very own kind of pure catastrophe. I felt like my core and my basis was breaking. However it’s all introduced in a means the place it’s catchy. You may sing alongside. I don’t wish to stare down into darkness for too lengthy as a result of then I really feel I simply change into the darkness. So I hope that individuals can hear it and really feel impressed to permit themselves to evolve.
