It’s a leap year and that means, this February, we get twenty-nine days of Victoria dreamy indie rockers, Wise Child as The Zone @ 91-3’s Band of the Month.
Wise Child is made up of vocalist Jaya Bremer, lead guitarist Roger Eldridge, rhythm guitar Randy Baragar, bassist Pat McTaggart, and drummer Brendan Pye. The band describes themselves as a dreamy combination of technical, melodic and honest music that reaches deep, with a touch of shoegaze, surf and pop nostalgia, chiming guitar hooks overlie soaring and washed-out rhythm guitar.
Wise Child are the type of band that would suggest getting frosty chocolate milk shakes at Paul’s Diner and doing their Band of the Month photo shoot at the same time. Rocktographers never turns down a free milkshake.
On a grey and rainy late January evening, Tyson Elder grabbed a coffee with Jaya Bremer from the Victoria-based indie rock band to chat about Idle Hands, and their long overdue tenure as The Zone’s Band of the Month.
Tyson Elder: I’m excited that Wise Child is finally Band of the Month. We’ve been pushing for that for a long time.
Jaya Bremer: Thanks! We are excited too. You’ve been our cheerleader for sure.
TE: Do you know which song is going to be featured this month?
Jaya: Hurricane.
TE: I was wondering what song it would be. I thought maybe the single might be Pretty Boy or Idle Hands.
Jaya: Oh that’s interesting. Neither of those made it into our top three choices we gave The Zone. It’s so funny. Everyone in the band has had a different song in mind that they thought would be our Band of the Month single.
TE: While I was driving to the interview I put on the record and spent most of my time trying to figure out which song it would be. In the grand scheme of things Hurricane makes sense though.
Jaya: When Jon Williams from The Zone approached us about being Band of the Month he really wanted to use Hurricane. He told us that it really had connected with him and he’d listened to it like 2000 times. I’m glad that it resonates but I feel like it fits less classically with that modern rock Zone vibe. When I went back listened to Hurricane in the context of the whole album I’m not sure I would have pitched that song to them.
TE: I think standing out from the normal vibe is a good thing though. I like that The Zone and Jon Williams are taking a chance on something different.
Jaya: Hurricane is a sentimental one. I still really love it and I’m excited to hear it on the radio.
TE: I’m excited that people will hopefully discover your record, Idle Hands too. It’s very dreamy, shoegazey, concise and truly a fantastic record.
Jaya: Like most artists I am my own harshest critics. It’s sounds weird and cocky to say this and I but I am so proud of this album. It feels like it is is at such a high level and quality. There is nothing embarrassing about this record and rarely do you get that. Usually you find little moments where you cringe a little. I’m so relieved to say that I don’t have that. I still identify with my lyrics and often catch myself thinking “hell yeah! This is a fucking good album.”
TE: I know a lot of independent releases are try to cram every idea they have into the record. Idle Hands flows and is pithy and stays the course. You start at one point in the record and end in a new place but you followed a path properly there. I find that a real treat as someone who listens to a lot of local music I love when people put their foot down and say this is who we are and what we are doing. Wise Child really crafted something beautiful with this record.
Jaya: I think a lot of that comes down to Randy Baragar joining the band. He was able to connect the dots and make things more fluid somehow. Roger Eldridge can so different sometimes and we have such different styles. A lot of the time we’ve found it hard to marry what my instincts are with his and I feel like Randy is just this middle ground. He’s super relevant and always listening to new things. He’s really inspired and obsessed with tone. He knew exactly what we are trying to do and has helped us do that.
TE: Randy has a great personality that is somewhere between you and Roger. I can see where he could see both of yours and Roger’s ideas and figuring a way to bring them together.
Jaya: I feel like Randy is listening to the whole picture. When we were recording we hadn’t finished writing Diminish. Everything had come down to the wire and it was a really insane time for us when we pulled this album off. I had only written half the lyrics the song and planned on finishing it while we were in the studio but I just never had a chance to sit down and write. I was so freaked out about it on the morning I was supposed to record the lyrics for the song. That’s when Randy just disappeared for about half an hour and I was probably hyperventilating. Then he came back and was [in Jaya’s best Randy voice] “Jaya, I wrote a verse… I don’t know… I think it’s kind of getting at what you mean in this song.” I’ve never ever sang anyone else’s lyrics in any original song. No one has ever suggested even a different word to me. When Randy came back with it I was so moved by the lyrics he’d written. I recorded them twenty minutes later. It really does capture these very conflicting and difficult emotions. Somehow he really got it. I was blown away. He really saved the day.
TE: Would you do more collaborative things with Randy?
Jaya: Yes! I had Randy and Roger come in for an evening and lay down guitars on my solo album. Going forward anything Wise Child related will have to include Randy. Our creative process doesn’t work without him anymore. He’s so critical to our sound. Randy, Roger and I are this trio now and it feels like if one of those pieces was missing it wouldn’t be Wise Child. It would be a completely different thing.
TE: It’s important in bands that you work together. If you can’t function without each other maybe that’s a good sign for those projects. Bands need to be collaborative.
TE: Wise Child’s live show can be quite a bit different than your recorded version though. The energy you and the band put out is something else. I remember you spending just as much time on the dance floor as you did on stage during your album release party at the Rubber Boot Club.
Jaya: That show was so much fun. When we first started I hated only singing but now that I play keys on most of our songs I really appreciate the moments where I can be weird and just get in there with the crowd. I feel like I get to enjoy the show from the audiences perspective and watch the boys do their thing. It’s nice to step back and see what is going on up there.
TE: The boys do a damn fine job up there.
Jaya: I love watching Randy flailing his big hair. I’ve never been in a band where someone has had bigger hair than me. I think he’s surpassed me.
TE: Is Wise Child is working on new material?
Jaya: Yeah, we only have one completely finished new song but I’m so stoked on it. It’s called Leisure. I’m really antsy to book dates with Colin Stewart, but the boys are telling me it’s too soon. I want to hear it recorded so badly. We have three other songs that are getting there. They are being massaged into something right now. My goal for 2020 is to record a new EP. Four songs; keep it chill.
TE: Did you record Idle Hands with Colin Stewart?
Jaya: Yeah, we recorded at The Hive. We spent two weeks non-stop out there with him working on the record. It was really good. Leading up to it was one of the most stressful and daunting times I’ve ever felt, but once we were in the studio it really flowed. As a band we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make this album. We had government funding and it felt like the culmination of everything we’d been working so hard on for so long. It felt like everything was weighing on these two weeks. There was this countdown to recording that we’d been planning on for eight months. About a month before the recording some members changed in the band and we had to rewrite a bunch of things, throw out some songs and write some new ones. It really came down to the wire.
TE: Wow, that does sound like a stressful time.
Jaya: Studio time really makes everyone bring their A-Game. You are so present in what’s going on and the rest of the world just disappears. You’re just there in the moment and focused on what you’ve been working on your whole life. You reach deep and deliver. I think that it is exciting to be in a space where you get to do at your best.
TE: Being out at The Hive I’m sure it’s even more isolating. You can’t just walk to the coffee shop because it’s several kilometres away.
Jaya: You are in these deep dark woods. I did some trail running out there to move and clear my head. Colin Stewart is a dream to work with as well. He’s the most chill dude. His energy and vibe really helped tone down our stress and nerves going into recording. It was really appreciated.
TE: He’s a true professional. I love that he’s been producing and making all of these local records now. It really has stepped up the recorded work of the local music scene. All the stuff with Oscar St. Records is fantastic too.
Jaya: He has the credentials to be like more choosey, more sceney, or have more of an ego, but he is still about the music. If he likes what you’re doing, he’ll work with you.
Jaya: I finally paid off of my half of the record two months ago. I’ve been giving Roger little lump sums here and there. Pretty soon after I was like… “so should we book our next session?” [Laughs] I’m hooked. I’m really excited about the new stuff we are writing. As a band we are in a really different space now and we are in a different chapter of our lives. All of our lives have changed a lot, but the fact that we are still together and these relationships are still there means something. I think we can bring different things to our songwriting. It’s a new chapter and I’m excited about how that will reflect in the new content. It feels like an appropriate time to be writing new songs. I think we are finally starting to get back to being creative.
Tune into The Zone @ 91-3 all February 2020 to hear Wise Child’s single Hurricane. That song, and two others tracks from their album Idle Hands, are available for download on their Band of the Month page. Rocktographers is proud to be a supporting sponsor of The Zone’s Band of the Month program.
You can catch Jaya Bremer performing solo as JAYA in Port Renfrew at the beyond sold-out Song & Surf Festival happening February 14th-17th, 2020.
Wise Child will be performing an exclusive and intimate Zone Record Store Session at Vinyl Envy at the end of February. The only way to get into this show is to win tickets from The Zone @ 91-3.