Our third ‘Mo-Wave interview also comes to you from the very noisy but very friendly Chop Suey greenroom. Tyler Morgenstern stole a few moments with Bryn, lead vocalist and guitarist of so-called “queermocore seagaze” four piece Wishbeard, who hours before hard charmed the room with their dreamy, heavy, driven, noirish pop.
How long have you been playing together as a band, and where are you from?
March 17th was our one-year anniversary as a band! I’m from Seattle, Brighton (bass) is from Marysville, Washington, Res (keys) is from Florida and Jude (drums) is from Maryland. And I guess I moved here from Mississippi.
What draws you to ‘Mo-Wave?
Well. Being gay for one. But also I think a lot of us recognized, around the issue of marriage equality, when we were having that conversation in Washington…there were a lot of fundraisers and benefits and shows and concerts for marriage equality, but there were no queer bands. No gay bands. Not that it’s not good to be behind a cause, and it’s important to have allies, but I think that, at least for me, I see ‘Mo-Wave as an opportunity to be queer and be with other queer musicians and be just as good as anyone else.
But also, being queer is a part of who we are, but it doesn’t define us. And I hope that even though we’re recognized as a queer band, that we’re seen as a really great band, and that people hear our music for what it is. I think all my band mates would say that.
What do you think can be done to make more stages for queer artists?
I think a lot of that is our responsibility in identifying as queer. There’s been a lot of shows we’ve played that have not been queer-oriented. And it’s funny, as a band, we joke. Because it’s always the shows where we’re playing to straight bro-ey dudes with beards (which is funny because we’re called Wishbeard), but they’re always the ones who come up and go “Oh man I love your stuff! It was so good!” And it’s funny for us, but I still think that there’s a lot of responsibility for queers to be visible.
We have to make an effort to be visible, and something like ‘Mo-Wave gives us an opportunity and a platform to do that. We all identify as queer in our bands, and it’s something that we talk about and hold close. But we still take being good musicians as something really important–practicing good musicianship and being a good band and being dedicated to that. If people connect with us for being queer, that’s awesome. But if they connect with us for being queer and for our music, that’s awesome, too.