bugsy are: overwhelmed.
It was last summer, sometime in August when a band named ‘bugsy’ cropped up on my Twitter timeline, one of their tweets had been seen by several thousand people, and this prompted me to check out their music. My adoration was immediate, and before long I’d contacted them to write about their next release. Now several months later bugsy are back with their new single ‘overwhelming’.
From left to right: Alex Norman, Emily Schoonover, Griffen Desai and Shannon Maroney. Image Credit: Ev Speers
The Minnesota based bugsy consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Emily Schoonover (she/they), bassist and backing vocalist Shannon Maroney (they/them), Griffen Desai (he/him) on lead guitar and Alex Norman (he/him) on drums. Early demos on bugsy’s Bandcamp page are largely recorded by Emily Schoonover, dating back to 2018. The band started 2020 with their single and video ‘moody knows best’, preceding their EP release ‘Teratoma’, which came out in February that year.
I discovered to my sheer joy that each physical copy of the Teratoma EP is put together by the band, including hand-dubbed cassette tapes and hand-written liner notes on both their tapes and CDs - So I purchased a copy of the latter. Upon arrival I found a Memorex CD-R coloured in with bright shades of green, orange (maybe it’s red?), blue and purple. Liner notes explain who bugsy are and who the production team were, and a hand-written note from Emily thanking me for my order and wishing me a wonderful day was the icing on the cake.
This D.I.Y. approach to their releases isn’t just for their music, it also extends to the rest of their merchandise. On bugsy’s Bandcamp page, you’ll find hand-made t-shirts, earrings and embroidered sew-on patches. I can’t recommend buying into the D.I.Y. approach enough for the level of love and care put into every package, not to mention you’re supporting the artist in the most direct possible way. After entering into the studio again, bugsy released their next single ‘talk to you’ in September.
‘talk to you’ begins with the band coming into the song one by one. Strummed rhythm guitar from Emily is followed by descending notes from Shannon, then Alex and Griffen come in together. Emily and Griffen’s guitar parts are panned left and right, distinguishing them from each other. Shannon’s bass is down the middle and is loaded with that clear-cut treble sound you get when playing with a pick. Alex is heavy on the cymbals and totally throws himself at the kit, everything here is recorded well by Elijah Deaton-Berg, though I suspect a live performance by bugsy is a lot heavier.
Lyrically, talk to you certainly comes across as autobiographical; ‘i dont wanna talk to u either way and when u showed up uninvited to my house the other day, i kicked u to the curb like another stray, i dont wanna be near u anymore.’ Emily and Shannon harmonise well together, with Emily taking the first part of the verses alone and Shannon joining in and staying for the choruses. The vocal layers here are great, but I wish I could hear them more clearly. It seems dropping the vocals down in the mix is a signature part of their sound as this is also a fixture on their Teratoma EP.
The self-produced video for talk to you is a lot of fun, largely based around a green screen no bigger than a tablecloth hung up outside and the band performing in front of it. The size of it allows no more than two band members at a time, but the rest are occasionally filled in with the footage inserted behind them. Most of bugsy have the luxury of actually playing their instruments unplugged, but poor Alex is left to air-drum the track out. Though I must say, he’s very good. 10/10 air-drumming.
bugsy’s new single ‘overwhelming’ is their best so far. Beginning with more melodic guitar and the vocalists singing together, it’s great to hear those vocals given some more sonic space. Alex brings in bass, making the tempo faster than I initially thought it would be. I love the chorus lyrics, and most importantly the melody stays with you; ‘Take it as it comes, do you ever think it’s overwhelming? I don’t want to try, when everything is overwhelming.’ Once again, this track is recorded by Deaton-Berg, but something here is more forceful either in the band’s attitude or the quality of the mix compared with talk to you – which is totally to the song’s advantage.
The instrumental break towards the end is so much fun, with Shannon and Emily taking on the low-end chord parts while Griffen’s lead cuts through and Alex is just going to town around the kit. The additional reprise of the melodic introduction was a surprise, making me wish they’d just gone for another round of the chorus to finish the track off.
The video for overwhelming is another self-made wonder. With the weather a little chillier, the band recorded this one inside a house, and occasionally inside a bath too. Featuring extras in plastic creature props, you can’t help but gag along with the band in some kind of interactive reflex action solidarity. This time, Alex gets a snare drum but no sticks. The man simply cannot win. The headbanging scene on the sofa during the instrumental section is a marker of just how much of a laugh this band have together. Too often the media reports on bands that don’t get along, what about the ones that do, and tremendously so?
From left to right: Emily Schoonover, Shannon Maroney, Griffen Desai and Alex Norman. Image Credit: Kathy Callahan
1. Your new single 'overwhelming' has been released in a pretty chaotic time! Was it inspired by the events of the past year?
Emily Schoonover: It was actually not- we recorded the song in march of 2020, a few days before lockdowns began. At the time, we didn't know the full extent of what COVID would be like. Originally, this song and our last single "Talk to You" were going to be a part of a full length album but we never finished recording that version due to COVID restrictions. I honestly think that that was for the best because these songs work very well as stand alone songs and act as great transitional pieces for the songs that will be on our debut LP.
The song was honestly about an abusive relationship I was in at the time. Because of the nature of the relationship, I rewrote most of the lyrics right before recording. The relationship ended a few months later so a part of me regrets censoring myself to protect him/out of fear of him doing something bad when hearing it but I think music operates as a snapshot of a time and place. That's where I was when the song was recorded and that inherently has value too and will contrast well with what's to come.
Generally, I just did feel overwhelmed, sad, useless and at a loss. I didn't know who I was or what I wanted and everything just hurt and "overwhelming" was the only way I was able to describe that feeling at the time. I just felt like a bad person all the time because I was so distant and disconnected from the relationship I was in. I was just floating by in every interaction I had with him and was scared I was a bad person for it. I was just living every day by floating by, feeling awful and overwhelmed but disconnected from myself and that relationship. Now, being almost a year away from that I know I was just doing what I needed to do to protect myself and I know I wasn't a bad person, I think that clarity didn’t come until much later and this is just a snapshot of how I felt at that particular time of my life.
2. Recording and mixing was done by Elijah Deaton-Berg who you've worked with before, what was it like to work with him on this track?
Emily: Yes! Our first EP was recorded by Abe Anderson and we worked with Elijah to mix it. For the first EP, I was able to sit down with him and do mixing with him. These tracks were different because most of it was done virtually due to COVID. Lots of back and forth over text with notes, a few zoom meetings. I really appreciated working with Elijah because I lack a lot of vocabulary to describe mixing type of stuff and Elijah was able to decipher lots of my weird notes into an actual song. I really liked working with him and appreciate his dedication and willingness to work through so many different mix versions.
3. I love the artwork for 'overwhelming'! Who made that?
Emily: I did! I do all of our art. I just kind of painted a bunch this summer, wrote all the lyrics on a sheet of paper and glued my favorite doodles onto it and scanned it. I made it to match the "talk to you" art which was a bunch of pictures I was initially going to throw away!
4. I have some thoughts about the video, but mostly what made you put plastic toys in your mouths to the point of making yourself gag?
Emily: Honestly, I had no real vision~ Me and shannon just went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of stuff that spoke to us and improvised most of the shoot! It's the first video we've shot on a real camera instead of on my iphone so it was very fun to do~
My main idea was just to do stuff that looked cool and bugs just made sense to use because our band name is "bugsy".
Griffen Desai: I gag on plastic dinosaurs to cover up the pain I feel knowing that I will never know the joy of seeing a real life dinosaur.
5. Whose house did you film the video in?
Emily: Me and Alex live together and it was all shot at our house! Big shout out to our roommate Evv (They/them) (who's in a band called "Evv") who helped us with some behind the scenes in the video!
6. Emily, you appear on earlier demos on bugsy's bandcamp page largely as a solo artist. Did you form the band? Where does the name bugsy come from?
Emily: yes, the project is mainly songs I write and the bandcamp was just where I put some demos I'd recorded. Last year I wanted to turn it into a full band and asked various people I'd known in my life. Shannon and I knew each other vaguely from a band I was in in the past, Alex was my drummer from an old band and Griffen and I met in a class I took in college. None of them knew each other prior to the band and we all just kind of became a band and later on best friends. I say it very genuinely when I say that they're all my best friends now.
7. I've got to ask about the 'Teratoma' artwork. Are those actual teeth in the photo?
Emily: yes! the teeth are mostly all mine (some are my sisters) and the hair is also mine! The idea behind that art was "things i'd outgrown" so it was my old teeth, old stuff from my childhood bedroom. I used to bleach my hair all the time and it was a defining part of my "look" and one day I cut all of the blond off and used that in the art to kind of showcase the transition into "who I am now" while honoring who I was.
8. Alex, what was the first drum-kit you owned and did the snare sound as bad as mine?
Alex Norman: I don’t remember exactly what kit it was but it was an all black percussion plus kit. Everything about it was pretty subpar so it’s very likely that it sounded as bad as your snare lol
9. Griffen, there's a video of you playing the harp on the band's instagram page. Tell me more about that, how long have you been playing?
Griffen: Well I’ve been teaching myself for about a year now. it’s always been a lifelong goal of mine to bring the harp into more contemporary music, and bugsy is my first real chance to get the train rolling! I’m particularly inspired by the artist Dorothy Ashby, as well as a lot of lo fi hip hop.
10. Shannon, with you adding backing vocals to 'overwhelming', is it possible you might sing lead for some bugsy songs in the future?
Shannon Maroney: Obviously never say never, but since Emily writes the songs for bugsy, it’s always been assumed or communicated that Emily will sing lead and I add harmonies whenever it feels good to do so. I’m also in another band where I sing lead and write the songs, and I really enjoy my role of playing bass and adding harmonies in bugsy. If it was ever an option down the line, I would definitely be open to it, but we haven’t gotten to that point.
Emily: shannon's band is called allergen
11. A question for everyone - what have you all been listening to recently?
Emily: This week I've been listening to a lot of Liz Phair, Placebo, Momma, Gully Boys and Radiohead!
Shannon: I’ve been listening to yasmin nur, Mitski, and my bloody valentine a lot
Griffen: I’ve been listening to nujabes and number girl. Both Japanese bands
Alex: I’ve been listening to AKAI SOLO and Kate Malanaphy, that’s that
12. With two standalone singles in a row in 'talk to you' and 'overwhelming', is there a bigger release on the horizon? Another EP perhaps?
Emily: we are working on our first full length album currently, release date is still TBD but we are very excited!
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Visit bugsy’s Bandcamp page to purchase their music in both physical and digital formats, as well as hand-made t-shirts, earrings and embroidered sew-on patches!
Follow the adventures of bugsy across social media @bugsyband on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
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