Bully has been getting a lot of attention. Fronted by Alicia Bognanno, who wears all the hats of songwriter, guitarist, singer, and producer/engineer, and consisting of Stewart Copeland on drums, Clayton Parker on guitar, and Reece Lazarus on bass, they are friends who came together to work on Bognanno’s songs. And with a grunge rock dynamic that’s the perfect match up to Bognanno’s melodic and direct vocals and lyrics, distorted guitar, and hook-laden songs, it’s easy to see why Bully is being talked about. Their debut album, Feels Like, was recorded at Electrical Audio, the Chicago studio headed by Steve Albini where Bognanno worked for a time developing her engineering skills, which she put to use recording the album. Multi-faceted, Bognanno’s original talent is demonstrated on the great tracks that the band’s been putting out, like “Too Tough”, “Milkman”, and “Brainfreeze.” Taking the risk to leave Minnesota and head to Nashville to focus on her music turns out to have been a very smart move. Northern Transmissions wanted to hear more from Bully, as the band gains fans and critical acclaim. Alice Severin spoke with Alicia Bognanno about writing the songs, recording, and what comes next.
NT: And you gave up the day job at the Stone Fox. How was that, to decide ok, this is going to be full time now, the touring and the music?
AB: It felt good. Because obviously, if I could only just do Bully, I would like to do that. But, at times it’s a little bit stressful because I can’t really say that I’m ever financially stable because of it. And also we spend so much time sitting in the van, I get a little bit nervous that I’m not engineering as much, and I don’t want to become a worse engineer because of it. I don’t know, I’m just trying to find a balance. But it’s definitely good.
