BellaMaine is just your average, Anacortes, band-next-door–until they get on stage.  Their colorful, spacey, washed-out melodies and poppy-chemistry is what makes their music immediately accessible, danceable, and downright loveable.  There isn’t an ounce of pretense in BellaMaine, they love writing music together and I’d vote them most likely to organize a potluck for all of their fans.  It’s hard to believe that their EP just dropped in March given the tremendous amount of buzz they’ve received by some of the most influential tastemakers in the Seattle scene.

Coming off of a sold-out record release show at the Crocodile and another sold-out show at the Croc this Saturday, May 4^th, BellaMaine is already lined-up to play Capital Hill Block Party as well as Bumbershoot.  Since first gracing the stage at CatapultFest in 2011, BellaMaine has emerged as group of serious artists who can create a tasty groove for a hungry Seattle scene.

BellaMaine is made up of Nick Thompson (guitar, vocals), Julianne Thompson (vocals, keys), Jordan Nielsen (bass), and Gaelan Sylvia (drums).  Nick, Julianne, and Jordan all met in middle school, while Gaelan is a somewhat recent add-on from Anacortes.

We had a chance to catch up with them in their retro-underground practice space (which is also the scene of their recently released video for their single, “Three Years”).  I was lucky enough to hear them playing through their set-list for tomorrow night’s show, and Gaelan made sure they stayed on track.  There was no joking around in this practice, as Gaelan sternly looked over his kit to remind everyone, once again, that it was “set-time” followed quickly by a coy smile.  This band is serious about creating an authentic community in their music-centric town and just as serious about bringing their communal creations to the masses.  This is the truth about their music and dreamy, hometown life, in their own words:

Catapult: First off, what is the number one thing you think people should know about BellaMaine?

Nick:  I’d say that BellaMaine is a family.  We’re all really normal people, we’re all friends and we actually like each other, even playing in a band together (band laughs).  Julianne and I are married and Jordan and Gaelan have wives too, so it’s really important that we’re close.  It feels a little like we’re all just one, big extended family.

Gaelan:  I’d also add, that in the pursuit of happiness, one must discover BellaMaine. (whole band laughs)

Catapult: Wow.  That’s quite a statement, I’m super glad I have a chance to attain happiness; I hope the rest of the world catches up.

Moving onward to creating happiness: How do you guys typically approach your songwriting?

Gaelan: Mostly stream of consciousness (laughs). I tend to get a beat going and Nick will write based on my rhythms.

Nick: Yeah, I’d agree with that. I find I’ll often get inspired in the last 10 minutes of my work-day and might write something and bring it to the band.  To me, melodies are more important than lyrics; so I’m always music first, lyrics later.  Julianne is the exact opposite.  She tends to do lyrics first.  Nick walks over to pick-up a binder This is Julianne’s vault of lyrics.

Catapult: Is that true, Julianne?

Julianne: Yeah, I’d say that’s mostly true.  I really like to write songs on my own and bring them to the band.  I often get a one-liner in my head and go from there.

Catapult:  Many of your songs are about relationships and there’s a lot of passion in your music. Do you and Nick ever write together, it seems like that there would be some natural chemistry there?

Julianne:  Recently we’ve started to write together more often.  A lot of times we’ll go down to the basement, which is also our practice space, and get the drum machine going on the “free” organ (Nick found it on the side of the road). He’ll pick-up his guitar and fool around with a melody and I’ll come in on the keyboard or harmonize.  Sometimes we come up with something great and sometimes nothing comes out of it, but we’re really enjoying the process.

Catapult: Your chemistry from the old EP is consistent with your new album, but the sound is pretty different. What’s been the hardest thing about changing your sound?

Nick:  I think the hardest thing was finding the time to do it. You know, to write all the songs to build a new set.

Gaelan:  Yeah, we either had to modify our current songs or write a whole new series, which is what we’ve kind of done and actually achieved (his eyes wide-open towards Nick).

Nick: Yeah, the transition time kind of sucked, because there were a bunch of songs we just didn’t want to play anymore, but we couldn’t write new ones fast enough because we didn’t live in the same town.

Catapult:  So you finally got it all together and your new EP, Anxious Mind is very engaging, lyrically and musically; what tracks are you most proud of on the new EP?

Gaelan:  I’m most proud of “Anxious Mind” because I just think it’s the most diverse song on the album and it was sort of the song that defined our new sound.  It was the song we were all able to latch-on to and build the album and our new sound around it.

Julianne:  I really like playing “Three Years” at the end of every show.  It’s just a lot of fun to play and it feels like the cherry-on-top.

Gaelan:  Totally, it’s like an Easter basket, “Like, oh cool, candy.”(laughs)

Catapult:  You can definitely see that when you guys play it.  You all look like you’re having a lot of fun.

Nick: For me, “Single Life” was like the gateway drug to the new sound.

Gaelan:  Hmm, yeah…I suppose…it’s kind in contrast to my answer, interesting.  (Jordan laughs hysterically in the background.)

Nick:  It’s okay, you don’t ever tell the truth, Gaelan.

Catapult: Now on to the some more important questions: What are your favorite guilty pleasure albums?

Gaelan: [Ha, Ha] I listened to “The Lion King Soundtrack for like 7 years following the release of the movie.  Which would have made me like 15 or 16 years old when I finally quit it.

Catapult: What was your favorite song?

Gaelan: Oh, you don’t want to to know. Probably, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”?

Jordan: (laughing) It wasn’t, “Hakuna Matata”?

Gaelan:  I don’t know, the music at the end is pretty motivational.

Catapult: What about you, Jordan, any recent embarrassing music choices?

Jordan:  I don’t know, maybe Katy Perry with my wife or something like that.

Catapult:  Nice, throw your wife under the bus.  Julianne?

Julianne: Right now? The Disney station on Pandora.

Catapult: Beacause of your daughter?

Nick:  It has noth-ing to do with our daughter.  Julianne had a Disney mix tape before I dated her.  I think the only thing she listened to more than that was Lauryn Hill.

Catatpult:  Okay, let’s move on.  What do you remember being your most formative adolescent experience?

Gaelan: Oooh, that’s a hard one.  Probably when my parent’s told me I could do or be anything.

Catapult: Are you serious?

Gaelan: Absolutely.

Jordan: He’s lying.

Gaelan:  Well, I assume that they meant it, so…

Catapult: What about you Jordan?

Jordan:  Um, no comment?

Nick:  It was probably when Jordan and I first started playing music together in middle school.  I don’t know what it was, but being in our friend, Stefan’s garage, playing music, it made me feel like, “This is what I’m gonna do for the rest of my life.”  I don’t know what clicked in me.  I didn’t listen to good music, no one else in my family played music. I had no map, no specific direction, but I just knew, this is what I’m gonna do.  Never played sports after that, didn’t really do well in school.  Something clicked in me, and I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Catapult: That’s a great answer.  That kind of relates to my next question: What is your most significant rock and roll moment?  Wherever or whatever it was, what made you stop and remember the moment?

Julianne:  I think it was sitting on my friend, Amber’s roof and listening to Lauryn Hill through the window and singing our heart’s out.  There was nothing more fun than that.

Catapult: Totally. Anyone else?

Jordan:  I think mine has to do with my best friend back in Canada.  I had played the piano for many years and gave it up to play guitar, so I could play with my friend.  I remember going to the music shop with him and picking out all the sound equipment and instruments that we’d need for our “band”.  We would write everything down on a list and never actually got any of it.  But playing with my buddy made me feel like playing music was what I wanted to do. We were pretty awful. Actually, I think he was pretty good, and I was awful, but moving to the states and meeting Nick, playing music in the garage, that solidified it for me.

Gaelan:  When I was 16, I went to a local music festival, I think it was my first live show and there was a touring band called PAX 217.  They were a hardcore raggae band and I really loved them at the time.  I remember they were a fairly young band and I was watching the drummer and thinking, “He’s got to be my age and I don’t think I could look cooler or be cooler than to do exactly what he was doing.”  Their music was so tight and he had his snare tuned up so tight, like a ‘poppy piccolo’.  I went home and tried to play exactly like him.  For a couple years I probably played the same record over and over again, I could never quit.  I tried to sound exactly the way he made it sound.  So, if you’re out there, I trust you and I love you. That’s all.

Catapult:  Thanks, those are great. What about the worst show moment?

Nick:  Oh man, that’s a hard one.  How ‘bout don’t play in Fernadle, don’t even go there.

Catapult: Sounds like a story, tough crowd?

Nick: Technical difficulties.  Our tube amps didn’t have enough time to warm-up and we weren’t able to play through any song in its’ entirety.

Gaelan:  Oh man, totally. For me personally, as a drummer, it’s probably like, just when I get really excited and just start throwing in unnecessary fills (everyone starts laughing), just because I happen to be excited in the middle of a verse.

Catapult: Sounds like the rest of you agree with this statement (band continues to laugh).

Gaelan: I’ve embarrassed myself dozens of times, just trying to pull off something I haven’t even practiced.  I mean, that’s the worst thing a drummer can do is try to solo during a pop song.  You’ll find I have a simple, subdued flair, just to overcome my years of over-doing it.  I try to keep myself pretty chill.

Nick: Yeah, but that’s what practice turns into when Julianne leaves.  Just like, all those fills come out.

Gaelan:  Whenever she leaves, everything I’ve ever practiced just comes out on the kit in like two seconds.

Julianne: Don’t just do it when I leave, guys.  I wanna be there too.

Nick:  Things mostly get good when Julianne leaves and I get on the kit and Gaelan gets on the guitar.

Gaelan:  Nick takes out the, uh…tie in his hair and lets his hair down and that’s when the power chords start.

Catapult:  Okay, this is a question I like to ask everyone:  If you could be a part of any era, anytime, anywhere, where would you be?

Gaelan: I immediately picture myself in Star Trek.

Catapult:  Which era?

Gaelan: Oh probably, The Next Generation. Captain Piccard: just let him be my dad…or my captain, either way I’ll listen to him.

Julianne: I just want to know Anne of Green Gables.  I just want to live on Prince Edward Island and go on an adventure with her.

Catapult: Anyone else?

Jordan: I think I’d want to live right now, where I am.  I’m pretty happy with my life.

Nick:  I guess I like the idea of speaking another language somewhere.  Like Italy in the 1700’s or something.  Just chillin’, you know, just hanging out, eating food.

Gaelan:  You could chill in any era, man.  You could eat food in any era…

Nick: I know but I don’t want anyone to tell me that I can’t eat something or do something, you know?  No, no, I take it back.  I want to live right now.  I like where I’m at right now.  But if it had to do with music, I’d probably be in Britain in the 60’s.  That’s where I’d want to be.  I’d wanna be hanging out with Jim Marshall playin’ AC30’s, some high watts.

Gaelan: Me too. Put me down for that, except with drumsticks.

Catapult: Speaking of choosing a place to put down roots, why did most of you choose to live in Anacortes?

Gaelan:  The town is super supportive of the arts, maybe almost to a fault.  But this town loves music and once they decide they like you, it’s almost like you become a hero or something.  It feels good; it’s really nice.  Look at The Lonely Forest guys, the entire town comes out to see their shows.

Nick:  When Julianne and I were deciding where to move from Lynden, we considered L.A. and Nashville.  We obviously wanted to put ourselves in the best place to we could to help further our careers.  But we kept coming back to Anacortes because we wanted to be somewhere where art was celebrated and where community was important.  We’ve met that in Anacortes at every turn.  We come from a culture where art isn’t really celebrated and this is a place where the arts are paramount. It’s preatty exciting to be a part of this city. We do want to travel and we want to play our music; we want to go to Lawrence, KS. But to be able to come back here, I mean, I don’t know why you’d want to come back to anywhere else.

Catapult:  So what would you say is your biggest challenge going forward?

Nick: I think that the double-edged sword is that we’re all married and have families.  I think that as much as that gives life to who we are and what we do, it also brings an added complexity.  It seems that at times it has forced our hand in how we run the band.  We really can’t just drop everything and get on the road and we can’t just pick up and move without pretty severe consequences.  They could be good consequences, but they would be severe.  Julianne and I are definitely on the same page with our careers.  We know this is what we are supposed to be doing, but because we all have families, it forces us to weigh our choices more carefully, particularly with our daughter.  But the bottom line is that there aren’t just 4 people in the band, there are 7.  So, we take everyone into account.

Catapult:  Speaking of going places, obviously you guys are really excited to be playing both Capital Hill Block Party and Bumbershoot, but can we expect a fall tour as well?

Julianne: Yeah, we hope so. We don’t know where or with who yet, but we’re hoping after festival season we’ll be on the road.

Catapult:  Congratulations, guys.  It’s exciting to see you getting the recognition you deserve.  We’ll see you at the Croc!

www.bellamaine.com

 

You can buy or listen to BellaMaine’s new EP, An Anxious Mind on iTunes/Amazon/Rdio/Spotify or at select record stores in the NW

(including The Business in Anacortes).

 

 

You can listen to their ep here,

and check them out on facebook here.