Perfect Saturday Night music from Coed Pageant. Mellow with a nice kick, cool guitar and very pretty harmonies. These two make some nice tunes, lyrics you can start to sing along with after one listen, catchy and with just enough fuzz and reverb, good work, so if your looking for some new tunes to listen to on a Saturday Night you are in the right place……
Meet The Band…..
Hi our name is…. Coed Pageant
People say we sound like….. Yo La Tengo and Mates of State
We are….. Bradley and Gretchen Bergstrand
We are originally from….. Illinois
Who are some that have an influence on your sound??
Sufjan Stevens, Mates of State and The Mountain Goats are probably the biggest overall influences.
The first time we all decided to get together and make some music… We kind of met playing music…I think the first time was in like 2005 at a big musical get together among mutual friends. We worked on a few random music projects over the next few years but we didn’t play in a band together until 2009 when we were in our old band The Palace Flophouse.
Books we recommend …
Bradley: I just read Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon which was totally awesome. His book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is one that I would recommend to everyone.
Gretchen: The Harry Potter series.
Can you tell us about the process you use, from writing the songs all the way through getting the album ready?
Doing things ourselves is very important to us. We write, record, mix, master and produce the physical copies of our CD all in our home. Just last week we were gluing together cases on our living room floor. As for the writing process, it varies a lot but for the latest album I (bradley) did most of the writing and .Gretchen kind of came in later and edited and made suggestions that made the songs album-ready. We are usually about 50-70% done with a song when we start the recording process. We had a friend help with mastering and a friend do the cover art, and now we have a pile of CDs ready to sell.
Our craziest gig ever was….
There are a few that come to mind but the strangest was probably when we played at a nursing home in the middle of the day. They only had one mic and no mic stands and the youngest person their was probably late-70’s. They were really nice and then we played a different more typical show at night but we ended up staying overnight in the nursing home in one of the rooms they use to advertise. So we slept in a room with an old tv and like old people artwork. It was a good time.
If you could pick any time to travel back to for music, where would you go and what year would it be….
Gretchen: San Francisco in the 1960’s
Bradley: Pacific Northwest in the early 90’s.
Growing up ,at home we listened to…..
Bradley: The first album I remember being obsessed with was August and Everything After by the Counting Crows.
Gretchen: classic rock, mostly Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, and musicals
What tunes are on heavy rotation for you…
Bradley: I’ve been really into The Front Bottoms. I think their song “Twin Sized Mattress” has definitely been my most played over the last 6 months.
Gretchen: Penguin Cafe Orchestra has been sounding really good. I mostly listen to my Pandora station “classical for studying” and it plays a lot of instrumental songs I like but I can’t recall any particular names!
If you could open for any Band right now who would that be and why?
mates of state. they are like our older cousin.
If you could give any advise to the kids who are just picking up their 1st guitars or drum sets and want to be in a rock n roll band , what’s your advise?
do what feels right and don’t be afraid to suck for a while.
When you are touring and have some time off , where could we find you..,.,
Bradley: We always have big plans to explore and really see the sights but we usually end up getting tired and chilling at a coffee shop.
Gretchen: I think we split it up pretty evenly, doing some work at a coffee shop but also trying to see some sights and maybe taking a hike or going somewhere nature-y.
The one thing we want you to remember while your listening to us
Bradley: It could be worse. Just kidding. You will get more out of it if you give it some focused attention. It’s hard to do that nowadays, but I think you get what you give.
Gretchen: I think it would benefit you to give it more than one listen with headphones.
listen to the new Album….
released 17 October 2014
Written, recorded, & produced at The Palace Flophouse in Chico, CA. Mastered by Chris Learned (chris_learned@hotmail.com)
“©” 2014
With: Jesse W Johnson (extra guitar on tracks 1 & 6)
Art by ROOFTOPHOWL STUDIO (rooftophowl.com)
and you can follow/keep up with Coed Pageant….