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See Ryder Bach's Body Parts live at Berkeley Rep!

posted by Chad Jones on Thu, May 6, 2010
in At the theatre , Backstage buzz , Events

The Body Parts are an LA-based band helmed by Ryder Bach, a San Jose native, who plays Will in Berkeley Rep’s hit musical Girlfriend. Ryder sat down with Literary/Dramaturgy Fellow Rachel Viola to talk about his band, which will be playing live following the 7pm performance of Girlfriend this Sunday, May 9. It’s Mother’s Day, so bring your mom!

Rachel Viola: Hello, Ryder! Will you tell us about The Body Parts, please?

Ryder Bach: There are five of us right now. Chris Votek plays bass, Marie Ishikawa plays drums, and then we have two singers, Matt Sobel and Alina Cutrono. I play guitar and sing most of the lead parts. Matt and I were in a band before called, Get In More Fights.

RV: Called what?

RB: Get In More Fights, like something you would find on a Post-it note. That band was very folk-y. It had some violin and acoustic guitar, but because of some personal difficulties, that band broke up. So I started The Body Parts to sort of keep the things I liked about the old band but set them more in an upbeat rock band setting.

RV: So, you’re in Girlfriend and you play in this band, and what I’m curious about is, have music and theater always been intertwined for you?

RB: I started out singing in my dad’s bands, because my dad was a bass player, and he played with like, Johnny Mathis and crazy funk players in the ’80s . . . so I would sing in his band as a kid, and then when high school started, I started doing theatre, and I did pretty well, and then moved down to LA to do the acting-career thing, which can be very frustrating.  So I started the band to sort of have a place where I can put my, I don’t know, artistic convictions?

RV: Do you find that one feeds the other?

RB: If things are going well, then yes. Acting can get frustrating for me sometimes, and music is where I can put all my frustration, so the songs end up being about things like, you know, people not understanding you, or the difficulties of meeting people for the first time, and first impressions. I think about that: the way you perceive other people, and the way people perceive you, you know? As opposed to the way you actually are.

RV: Which is a super-interesting thing to think about, especially if you’re auditioning all the time.

RB: Exactly. It’s really all about how someone perceives you versus how you are, you know? Especially with Facebook and stuff and how the way you set up yourself is almost inseparable from who you actually are now.

RV: Does the name The Body Parts mean something beyond the obvious?

RB: Not really. One of the themes the band plays with is the literal interpretation of things, like perception. I also just wanted a band name that sounded like the Talking Heads, because of the fact that I really like the Talking Heads, and I wanted a band name that was sort of blank and could be just a blank interpretation.

RV: I think this is a really good segue into talking about some of your musical influences.

RB: Yes. Musical influences for The Body Parts, are obviously, definitely the Talking Heads and David Byrne’s whole sense of literal matter. Also, the Dirty Projectors and the way they approach music. I think most pop music these days is sort of meant to be turned down, meant to entertain you at any or all times. Like, you can use it as background noise.  With a lot of music in the indie-pop scene, which is where I think The Body Parts fits in. You have an album, and you’re like, “Man, I want to party right now.” So you turn the volume up, but then you’re like, “Yeah, oh man, now I’m riding in the car and I want to think about stuff,” so you turn it down. The approach that we take is that you’re not going to like our music at all times, but hopefully, you’re going to turn on The Body Parts when you really want to listen to us. We don’t want to be background music.

RV: So, I guess there’s a sense, and maybe this is really trying to forge a connection between theater and music, but you seem to have an obvious sense of theatricality, and there seems to be an idea of “taking the stage,” or commanding attention with music that doesn’t strike me as an “ego” thing, but more of a “pay attention to art” thing.

RB: Exactly! The thing is, I’m hoping you want to pay attention. I’m not saying that music that’s made for background is bad, but I tend to like things that don’t appeal to everybody, and I think I take a very specific stance on some things, and that’s what we’re trying to do as a band. So like, the guitar parts, for example, are not meant to be like pretty, you know? The guitar parts should be very specific.

RV: You can tell that from listening, I think.

RB: Especially live – I think then it’s a little more obvious.

RV: As The Body Parts, do you guys have future plans, beyond your Berkeley Rep show?

RB: Well, we’re going to record some new music in July, which is probably going to be very different from what we’ve already recorded. And then we want to tour this year, at some point, so we’re going to work on that.

Girlfriend continues an extended run through May 16 on Berkeley Rep's Thrust Stage.

Photos courtesy of Ryder Bach.