Music Q&A with Ben Kaunitz of Bug Love
Photo courtesy of Ben Kaunitz
Multi-instrumentalist, Ben Kaunitz, has been writing and recording music under Bug Love since 2017 and last month, he released a new record titled Judge! Aside from Bug Love, Ben also plays in The Obsessives and Snail Mail! In this Q&A, Ben talked about his new album, how he stays positive, and more!
Congratulations on the release of Judge! My understanding is that you had been working on the album since your last release, Beautiful View (2017). How are the records similar to you? How are they different?
This one definitely took longer! With Beautiful View, I more or less knew from when I started making it that I was working towards an album. I went for a lot of variety in the songs pretty knowingly. The songs that ended up on Judge and I have had a long and emotional story together it feels like. I went through many different phases of what I wanted to do with them, which to include in a release, etc. In the end I think they sound quite cohesive, which is really cool to me considering almost all of them were recorded over close to 4 years, and in many many different locations. A close friend of mine said that the first album was too repetitive for his liking, and the second isn’t repetitive enough, if that tells you anything!
What does Judge mean to you?
I settled on the plan to do an album and largely which songs I’d finish for it around the beginning of the pandemic, and I was spending a lot more time with my parents and family than I had since high school. My relationships in my family are great, but of course being in such an isolated environment together brought up a lot feelings of judgement, both of myself and of the people that raised me, mostly. I’d guess a lot of people can relate to this, especially in the past year or two. I noticed that a lot of the songs came from times where I was really kind of punishing my own worldview and brain, and when anxieties about my friendships and social dynamics were really sharp and paralyzing. Looking back on it, I feel like I can identify every song as kind of an emo judgement song, or an elated song about casting away the judgement, like “Lush Life” or “Think Twice”. I was going to call it Judgement at first, but I thought Judge was snappier.
What is your favorite song off Judge?
I’m happy to say all of them were my favorite at some point while working on it. I don’t think I could pick just one, I love them for different reasons. “I Want It All” sums up the personality of the music and the lyrics in my mind the most, and it feels like the sort of flagship song in my heart. I’ve had “Lush Life” for the longest, and I feel like I’ve been through a lot with it, so having it done makes me really proud. “Larger Than Life” came out of me the easiest, so it’s hard to say! “Think Twice” might be the catchiest.
How has making music under Bug Love been different from making music in other bands you’ve been in?
Bug Love was what I started calling my stuff around the time I went to college and didn’t have my high school band anymore. I wrote a lot by myself as a teenager, but I had a lot of practice with my bandmates too. This was the first time I didn’t really have much of anybody with equal investment to bounce things off of, and it’s been both freeing and emotionally wrought to mostly make songs this way for the past few years. I write with my friends all the time now in smaller ways, but in the future I’d be very open to and excited about the possibility of expanding what Bug Love can be, or doing something else entirely with another person I vibe with. I think writing and recording alone will always be a large part of the soul of how I like to make music, but I like the balance. That all said, I had a lot of help on Judge from friends who tweaked structures with me and tracked parts, and I learned just as much, if not more, more from my time playing and recording with other people than I did alone over the past several years.
What country would you like to visit and play in someday?
Japan! I’m going there soon with Snail Mail, the other band I play in right now, quite soon, but it would be amazing to go somewhere like that with my own music. Right now, honestly, I’m just excited for when health risks die down and we can be playing shows at home in DC. I’ve lived in Philly for a few years, so coming home and seeing shows here has been great!
What's the best piece of advice another musician ever gave you?
There’s a great book called Mixing With Your Mind, where the author (among many other golden nuggets of wisdom), says that you need to let consistency be your personality. No one song can be your everything, and if you just keep at it and apply what you learn from one thing to the next, you will get better. There’s an Ed Sheeran quote as well that adds to this in my opinion, about how you need to finish even your bad songs, or those ideas might end up in the next one. For me, it’s all just about staying consistent and dedicated, and knowing that obstacles are opportunities for improvement.
We all have our days where it may not be going as well as we’d like. People deal with their worst days in different ways. What helps you get through the bad days? How do you stay positive?
It’s really hard, and I don’t tend to force myself to play or write when I’m off put, but there are definitely times I had to really push myself to inch to the finish line every day while working on Judge, especially when most of the mixes had been amorphous works in progress for a long time and it felt daunting. I do think establishing disciplines and learning how to take the first step when you’re in a bad mood is really important though. It may sound funny but taking competitive video games seriously has also taught me a whole lot about what I believe is a good mentality. The skills of improvement are all transferrable.
Thank you for taking the time for this Q&A. Any last words or final message for the readers?
Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy the music. Send me an email at buglovemusic@gmail.com if you feel like it! I hope everyone has a healthy and fun 2022.