Bonnie Kemplay: Bursting Out Of The Bedroom
One way of artists supporting artists is to select them for a slot at one of their gigs, I’ve found a lot of great musicians this way. But for the past year this avenue has indeed been closed, making it more difficult for artists to be seen by people who aren’t their audience. It’s interesting then that an artist I would find through a support slot would shine a light on this particular musician through a competition covering their latest single.
Hailing from Edinburgh, Bonnie Kemplay currently studies electric guitar at The Royal Northern College Of Music in Manchester. Her music has been described as ‘Indie Sadcore’ with inspiration coming from modern American artists Soccer Mommy, Clairo and Julien Baker (also a member of the much acclaimed band Boygenius). Bonnie Kemplay would release her first single entitled ‘Maybe’ in the summer of 2019.
Artwork for ‘Maybe’. Image Credit: Vinny Wolf
‘Maybe’ begins with a mixture of electric and acoustic guitar picking in pretty layers - if you’ve ever played Life Is Strange, you’d concede that this song fits right in with the soundtrack material. I wouldn’t call this lo-fi, as the production far outweighs the simplicity of that label. It’s certainly closer to bedroom pop though. The addition of glockenspiel later in the track is a great production tool that elevates the mood, it’s a shame that section doesn’t last longer. This is preceded by a bassier tone that could just as easily be played on keyboard, electric guitar or bass guitar, it’s difficult to tell but regardless it has a place amongst the sound.
Outside of the music, the opening lyric sets the tone for the rest of the song; ‘Running round your feet all day, I love that everything that you’d say, I don’t know why, I thought about you all the time.’ Bonnie Kemplay’s vocal is recorded simply without the overcrowding of ad-libs or backing vocals, this allows the melody to shine and drives home the emotion Bonnie puts into delivering the lyric.
Released almost a year later, Bonnie Kemplay’s second single ‘Waiting For You’ is driven by a constant electric guitar picking, surrounded by atmospheric synths. Bonnie’s vocal is more clear and centre, the backing vocals that hum the melody are a real comfort. There are strings here too, bringing the clarity of the real thing, a rarity in an artist at the beginning of their career, and ultimately an asset offering longevity to this recording in particular. I imagine in a full band performance, the piano at the end being extended. Don’t be put off by the term ‘sadcore’, this song is a real dream to float on.
‘Just get ready to melt… How insane is Bonnie’s voice? And the percussion’s so clever. Again…this is what I mean…this is not about having the biggest, bravest, most huge amount of music libraries and music production skills like that, it’s so simple and so beautiful and so creative, and I loved it.’ – Orla Gartland (accessed 30.12.20)
I would be doing a disservice to Bonnie Kemplay if I didn’t share the song by which I found her. ‘Pretending’ is the latest single from Orla Gartland, the first from her debut album coming in 2021. Gartland ran a competition called ‘Pretending re:imagined’, the idea being that you enter a cover of Pretending into the running which could take any form, and the winner would receive a brand new Fender Player Series Telecaster in sunburst. Pretty cool right? There were around 400 entries, and Bonnie Kemplay’s made the top 5 which featured in Orla Gartland’s live stream where she picked the winner, who was Gustavo Almeida.
And the cover is so true to Kemplay’s style. The thing that really drew me to it was the use of sampled percussion, helpfully demonstrated in the video. The delayed scissors, scraped tennis racket and reversed deodorant spray are a stroke of genius. Listening without the video, you’d have no idea. It shows that sounds really can come from anywhere. This is all a great companion to Kemplay’s acoustic guitar playing, subtle backing vocals and keyboard layers.
To close out 2020, Bonnie released ‘Blushing’ which shows her music is on an upward trajectory. Atmospherics and a combination of electric and acoustic guitars open the track with Bonnie’s vocals clear and strong. But it’s when the drums come in is where this song takes off. The production here is Kemplay’s best so far, if this was from an album, Blushing would be the lead single. The music doesn’t rely solely on guitar though, there are keyboards of different shapes and sizes trickling through.
The lyric to Blushing is relatable if you’ve ever been caught in a confusing break-up, where ultimately you just want it to be over and out of your mind. ‘I don’t wanna talk about it anymore, I don’t wanna think about you anymore. It’s not that you’re bad, it’s not that I’m good, it’s just we don’t balance each other out like we should.’ With the expanded production, this is certainly not bedroom pop anymore. Could Blushing be a taste of what’s yet to come for Bonnie Kemplay?
1. Your new single 'Blushing' kicks your music up a notch, what inspired the lyrical content on this one?
The lyrics for ‘Blushing’ came at a time where an important relationship in my life was coming to an end. When I started writing I was in a state of frustration and felt reluctant to deal with my current situation, hence the repetition of ‘I don’t want to’ in verse one. Once I had written the chorus chords, I felt like the lyrical content needed to match the sort of uplifting vibe. I went for a reflective approach. It’s a bit of a cliche but I think it’s definitely harder to reflect on the good memories of someone over the bad ones. I hadn’t really faced my previous feelings of adoration and fondness of this person, so that’s the route I went down for the chorus. There’s a weird metaphor in the second verse about teeth. I broke my front tooth when I was nine and since then my anxiety often manifests in teeth dreams. I don’t often have these dreams, maybe once a month, but there was one week where I had them like seven nights in a row. It felt like a sign.
2. You've released three singles so far, 'Maybe', 'Waiting For You', as well as 'Blushing', how did those recordings come together? Are they self-produced?
Yeah my stuff is self-produced! I started out making demos of my music on Garageband on my computer at home. When I demoed ‘Maybe’ I thought it had potential to be polished up and released. I think the fact that the production was really minimal meant I could mix it to a standard that I was happy with. I got Logic for my seventeenth birthday so I’ve since produced all my stuff on there. I demoed ‘Waiting for You’ with the strings and piano recorded with midi and then got some friends to re-record the parts with real instruments. My friend Toby Ollis mixed and mastered ‘Waiting for You’. From the start of writing ‘Blushing’, I knew I wanted the production to be bigger than my previous tunes. I tackled the majority of the production by myself with some very helpful prod/arrangement advice from Karl Ziegler. Once I was happy with all the sounds, arrangement, parts etc, I sent it to Toby to help me finish it off. He did a few bits of additional prod and completely elevated the track with his magical mixing skills. Seriously, absolute wizardry.
3. You're studying electric guitar at The Royal Northern College of Music, what's the guitar-related equipment you use on these recordings?
My guitar set up for recording so far has been very simple. I feel like I’m exposing myself a bit here but I literally always use the ‘Natural Strum’ logic preset for guitar. It’s like my starting point. As far as my clean tone goes, I just record from my Quilter amp into my Scarlett 2i4 interface. In ‘Blushing’ I have an overdriven guitar in the second chorus and for that I used my usual set up with the addition of my Joyo overdrive pedal. Nothing fancy here, all that matters is that it sounds good!
4. Your tracks not only feature guitar, there are keyboards as well as other instruments, do you play those too?
I do actually play keys, bass and drums but people at my college can play them a hell of a lot better than me, so I tend to ask them to record. In ‘Waiting for You’ I had access to a beautiful Steinway grand piano at my college and got my good friend Jed to play. I also recorded my friends Molly and Mali playing violin. On ‘Blushing’ I emailed the project to my drummer Mark and bassist Ollie to record parts. I’m very fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of very talented musicians who are willing to record for me. I probably owe them all pints though.
5. I love the artworks for 'Maybe' and 'Waiting For You', who put those together? Did you give them much direction on what you wanted?
Ah thank you, yeah Vinny Wolf did them! I usually have a pretty clear idea of what I want, I sent him a rough concept, colour schemes and image inspiration etc. As far as I’m aware I don’t think he does much cover art but he’s a great graphic illustrator and his main thing now is professional stick and poke tats. He’s ‘erasendaboveus’ or ‘erase.end’ if you want to check out his stuff.
6. You took part in Orla Gartland's 'Pretending' re:imagined competition, where did your household objects percussion idea come from?
I just wanted to be as creative as possible with it and I thought sampling some sounds in my room would be cool. I’ve definitely seen people such as Jacob Collier create beats with sampled household objects. I’ve also taken influence from my flatmate Jed who does a lot of sampling and kind of taught me all I know about creating beats on logic. I swear when anything makes a cool or interesting noise, Jed’s like ‘sample that’.
7. Going further back, who were the artists that inspired you to be a musician when you were growing up?
As a young tot the first artist I remember thinking was really cool was Avril Lavigne. Initially I was only interested in playing guitar so I think I was drawn to her guitar driven music. Later on I got really into singer/songwriter folk music, people like Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Damien Rice, Civil Wars, KT Tunstall etc. Ed Sheeran was my first proper obsession, he inspired me to start writing songs and to sing. At fifteen my dad showed me Julien Baker’s NPR tiny desk on YouTube and it was absolutely revelatory. It took me into a whole new world of music in which I’ve been completely engrossed in since. She was a massive turning point for me, I knew exactly where I wanted to go with my music.
8. It's been a weird year of course, but great music has come out in 2020. What have you been listening to this past year?
2020 has been a fantastic year for new music, I’d go as far to say my favourite year for new music in my life time. My top three albums of the year are ‘Punisher’ Phoebe Bridgers, ‘Songs’ Adrianne Lenker and ‘Petals For Armor’ Hayley Williams. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of those albums. They’ve all inspired me a lot, it’s like they’ve opened up a whole new world of production, arrangement and writing ideas for me. I have to give some honourable mentions to, ‘Marigold’, ‘Color Theory’, ‘how I’m feeling now’, ‘Folklore/Evermore’, ‘Fake It Flowers’… the list could go on forever and that’s not even including great EP’s! So yeah, my ears have been blessed this year.
9. With the on/off status of live performances at the moment, what was your last live performance like?
I was actually fortunate enough to perform to a live socially distanced audience at my college in October. It was part of a series called ‘Thursday Lates’ and was live-streamed on the college website. It was so lovely to play live again. Even when I was nervous before and during the performance, it was like a nice familiar feeling I hadn’t experienced in a while. Of course the post-performance buzz is the best bit. I miss gigs a lot… hopefully 2021 will be full of them.
10. With all of 2021 up for grabs, what are your plans for your music?
When covid is over (fingers crossed), I’d love to just get some gigs! One of my main goals of 2021 is to write/record a six track E.P, it would be really nice to have a work of music released. I’ve also got a few writing sessions planned with some artists at my college in the new year, so maybe I’ll be releasing some collaborative stuff too!
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Reference:
Pretending re:imagined live stream (2020) Hosted by Orla Gartland (accessed 30.12.20) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b09qUDsQmT0
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Follow Bonnie across social media on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @bonniekemplay.
