ALL INSIDE ‘ALL INSIDE AQUARIUM’: AN INTERVIEW WITH BODEGA’S BEN HOZIE
BODEGA HAS NEVER BEEN DEFINED BY A SINGLE GENRE, BUT THEY’RE OFTEN SERVED ONE REGARDLESS: POST-PUNK, INDIE ROCK, SHOEGAZE. But vocalist and guitarist Ben Hozie has been quoted saying “I just thought of us as a conceptual rock band,” and particularly with the release of their newest album All Inside Aquarium, I would be just as hesitant to pin them down with anything more explicit than “conceptual rock.” Accompanied by Nikki Belfiglio (vocals, percussion), Dan Ryan (lead guitar), Adam See (bass), and Adam Shumski (percussion), the group’s current sound perfectly reflects their usual surreal, intuitive, and whimsical lyricism. This album travels through not just genre, but era, attitude, intention; Hozie and Belfiglio’s voices trade off, chase, and reconverge. In one chorus, for the track ‘Pick up the Check,’ Hozie urges us to “think out of your/their trance.” Although it is quite easy to curl up inside the trance that is their sound, their lyrics are keen to remind us of worldly, far more pressing ones; it may sound like a tricky balance, but for BODEGA, it seems quite natural. We sat down with Ben Hozie to talk all things BODEGA.
PETTY: What does your songwriting process typically look like, and what puts you in the mood to create? Does your art inspire your music, vice versa, or are they semi-separate realms?
HOZIE: Often I am inspired to create after close contact with other art—lately novels have gotten the juices flowing. [Usually,] I free-associate in a notebook and write words before composing any music. I find that my melodies are less predictable if they are following written text than if I’m just starting from scratch, although some of my best songs have arrived with the guitar in my lap, improvised in the moment. Those moments are special, but I find they don’t happen unless I’ve done a lot of thinking and writing beforehand.
I tend to deal with similar themes in my films and songs… my movie PVT CHAT deals with many of the same themes as the BODEGA LP Endless Scroll; they were both concerned with how technology influences thought and persona.
PETTY: What inspired All Inside Aquarium’s album cover—any images or ideas that led to the roller coaster, planets, church, etc.?
HOZIE: All of the mini-sculptures Nikki made within the aquarium are references to the album; the roller coaster is from the theme-park dream that inspired ‘Astro Night Ride,’ the table-set references the date-gone-wrong in ‘Pick up the Check,’ and the church is the Nave studio in Leeds where the band recorded the new album with producer Matt Peel.
PETTY: What are your favorite details inside the miniature? How did you find the process of creating that miniature—for not just your cover, but also a music video; how was everything edited together?
HOZIE: Nikki spent about half a year creating the panorama that you see in all of the album art (and the 7” art). She recently found a green screen in a trash can and decided to use it for the ‘All Inside Aquarium’ and ‘Weather Me’ music videos. We filmed the performance stuff in front of our green screen in our living room and juxtaposed it with photography of her miniature and other footage (either stuff we shot ourselves or found footage).
There are so many easter eggs to BODEGA, past and future, within the aquarium, that I don’t think people will appreciate unless they’re looking at the enlarged album art. It would be hard to pick a favorite detail.
PETTY: Where are you most excited to travel on your upcoming tour? Any dream venues that you haven’t already performed at?
HOZIE: We are always excited to go to places we’ve never been before. Our current dream cities to play next are Tokyo and Mexico City.
PETTY: Other than your new album in October, what does the future of BODEGA have in store for fans?
HOZIE: There are lots of great tracks from the All Inside Aquarium sessions that may be revealed sometime soon. There’s also a new thematic pool of songs about memory and time that we’ve been working on for quite some time (pun intended). I’ve also been working on a feature film called JACK LONDON CALLING—starring Katie Alice Green from the band Priests, Peter Vack, and Nikki—a romantic comedy, set in the Bushwick punk scene.
