Happy weekend music fans,
Today we are giving you our exclusive interview with Rihaana (vocals/guitar) and Ben (bass/backing vocals) of Fake Bodies.
Fake Bodies is a D.C. area band that is working on something new. Their last record came out in 2018 (they have three albums in total), so this third one—whenever it comes out—should be great to listen to.
Rihaana and Ben shared their experiences with us, whether it was performing with a member of Fugazi or the meaning of Fake Bodies’ old work.
The Riff: Can you tell us about the start of Fake Bodies?
Rihaana: Well, I'm the last OG member. It was me, my friend Evan, my friend Joe and my friend Zach, but his last name is Coffie, so no one calls him Zach; they just call him Coffee.
It was us and I remember, for the longest time we didn't have a drummer because drummers are hard to find, especially that young because no parents want their kids banging on the drums in their house, because it's just annoying. So for the longest time, it was just me and Evan just continuously playing and looking for a place to practice. [Our friend] Greg let us play in his basement but it just got weird because, if you guys aren't doing lessons, then why are you in this grown man's basement? Basically, “You guys can't be here for so many reasons”, so he kicked us out and then Fake Bodies gathered around. That lineup lasted a good year and a half. We just mostly did the shows on the Nova scene, because there was a lot of house shows in the area that have since got shut down. We put out one EP, called Bleach & Wine; it has seven songs. I think it’s good.
Ben: It’s great. I like that one.
Rihaana: Thank you. I think it's so hard to recreate the songs because I wrote the songs with a second guitarist in mind. Joe is a phenomenal guitarist. I don't know how he does it. He writes stuff that pisses me off, but it's really good. It pisses me off because it doesn't have to be that complicated, but it's good.
Things fell apart, Coffee left the band, Joe moved to Florida. So it was just Evan and I, and then we recorded not much, when it was just Evan and I. We had a bunch of guest drummers. Theo, the current drummer, being one of those drummers, and then Evan left for L.A.
The Riff: Did Ben join right after Evan left?
Rihaana: Yeah. We played a show in December at Comet Ping Pong, where we had a dumb song called The Sad Tales of a Trapezoid that I wrote in freshman year of high school, which is literally about a trapezoid. Then, I thought it would be cool if Ben played the guitar while I just take over the vocals and sing and that's what we did on Comet Ping Pong. I just handed him my guitar, because that’s an easy song; three chords. I just told him to play and then we started playing at night. That’s the first time that he’s played with us but never as one of us, if that makes sense.
Ben: That was a great night. We got to open up for Brendan Canty’s side project. What was—
Rihaana: Super! Silver! Haze!
Ben: Oh man, that was so good. To be able to share the stage with a member of Fugazi, that was—
Rihaana: Unheard of. . We were backstage and then he said, “Me and my friend Dave”, and I asked, “Dave?” and he goes, “Yeah, Grohl.” I thought, “This is wild.”
The Riff: Let's talk a little bit about Bleach and Wine. Where did you get inspiration from the tracks that you wrote for that?
Rihaana: Well, I wrote all of the songs. It was a lot of high school angst. Just like, I have a crush on this boy, or I'm just severely depressed when I wrote the song, or, “I'm mad at my mom, so I wrote this song.” It's real simple stuff. The only inspiration that didn't come from me personally was a song called Chimney Boy, which was written about my friend. It's unfortunate because both of his parents were heavy smokers and people at school would call him “Chimney Boy.” Then he picked up smoking, which I'm pretty sure is generic, and now he's a heavy smoker and he always smelled like cigarette smoke. So everyone still calls him “Chimney Boy”.
The Riff: That's really unfortunate. I remember in elementary school, we had someone who kids at the school would call his last name “smoke something”, because his parents were heavy smokers too and he would go to school with a heavy smoking scent.
Rihaana: It's kind of a diversion, but I think it's incredibly selfish for parents to smoke around a child. I understand it's an addiction, but stay outside with that stuff. Don't introduce the idea to them, especially when they're so impressionable.
The Riff: What was the goal for Chimney Boy? Was it a reaction of like, “screw bullying”?
Rihaana: In all honesty, because we were really cool friends, he would drive me and my friends to school every day, but he would also get high beforehand. Mind you, school starts at 7:30 AM, so he's getting high at 7:00 AM, Monday through Friday, which is ridiculous, right? I've never, partaken in that, at that time. Then he came to me and said, “My friends keep calling me “Chimney Boy.” I asked why, he told me why and I said, “Yeah, because your car smells like smoke.” He then says, “Funny you should mention that—“, he was listening to Johnny Cash and then he said, “You should write a song about me and call it Chimney Boy.
I wrote the line: “He's doing nothing wrong, just smoking hash. He’s singing along to Johnny Cash.” It was centered around a riff that I wrote in music theory, but in terms of lyrics, it was just about him being understanding that, this is who I am, but also taking pride in it. So really, it’s his song.
The Riff: What was the inspiration for I Want To Be In Your Pocket?
Rihaana: For I Want To Be In Your Pocket, I wrote it as the point of view of a stalker, but it's when you know there's a line between stalking your crush and just having a crush. I wasn't flirting with that line as much as I was just fantasizing about it, if that makes sense? I was like, “I'm not going to do this, but if someone were to do this, just be obsessed over somebody—it's just a boy.” So this whole phrase, “I want to be in your pocket, I want you to take me everywhere with you, I'm infatuated with you, I want to be this little toy in your pocket.” That's how that came along. It's very silly lyrics but it's just about a crush.
Most of the songs on Not Much—and most of my songs in general—are about my depression and it's hard for me to express it in a meaningful way. People always ask me, “What are you thinking about, whenever I'm depressed?” and I tell them the truth. I'd say, “Not much”, because there's literally nothing in my head. So that's a recurring lyric throughout the songs; there's not much in my head. I know I said all of this but disregard that because there's not much in my head.
The Riff: How often does Fake Bodies perform?
Rihaana: A few times a month.
The Riff: Where would you perform?
Rihaana: I mean, as of late, a lot of our shows have been centered in D.C. The funny thing is, we decided to focus on writing and stop playing shows before the pandemic hit, because we were writing for the new album. Then the pandemic hit, so I said, “Well, now it's time to perfect these songs, so I might as well keep writing.” By then, we agreed to only meet up to practice new material, rather than old material.
The Riff: How does it go writing new material during a pandemic? Do you go to each other's houses? Do you do something where you're Skyping? How does it go?
Rihaana: We tried doing demos at fan’s place but we just thought that we weren't ready. Then the pandemic hit and—
Ben: I know it’s not your fault.
Rihaana: Yeah, I know. So I just took initiative. I said, “You know what, these are the songs I want to be on this album, I'm going to find out their BPMs and figure out all the parts of it. I'm going to record it and do some shitty ass demos all by myself. I'm beatboxing instead of playing drums. Ben can attest that it's just awesome.
Ben: It's a fun listen. You’ll never hear them, but I’ll just say that. You’ll hear them in a more evolved form.
Rihaana: Yeah, but it gets the point across. So that's what I'm doing. It took me about like two months or so because I've been recovering from a head injury, so I haven't been all that hooked up to electronics lately. That took me a minute and then I wrote a few new songs for it, which are proof of concept and I've sent it out. That's where we are right now. We're just waiting on Theo, our drummer, but because he's an essential worker, he’s really busy. He's packed up on hours right now.
This interview was edited for concision and clarity.
Photos by Hannah Stimson.
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