Oklahoma four-piece band Ben Quad—composed of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Sam Wegryzynski, bassist Henry Shields, lead guitarist Edgar Viveros, and drummer Issac Young—are more aggressive than ever on the band’s new EP, Ephemera, out now on Pure Noise Records. The EP brings up ideas of change and rejection of the status quo with the single “I Did Not Create The Rules,” setting the stage for the main conflict of the entire album.
“The last screamo song we put out had that political message,” says Viveros. “We wanted to push that further with this new record. We wanted to expand on that lyrically, dig a little deeper, and focus more on tangible action.”
The band has released three split EPs and their 2022 debut album, I’m Scared That’s All There Is since their formation in 2018. Those records, alongside tours with Hot Mulligan, Arm’s Length, and Forests, have helped establish Ben Quad as one of the emo/indie/punk bands to know—a hybrid of all those scenes and sounds that works incredibly well, both live and on record.
On Ephemera, the band knew that they wanted to go in a political direction. In “I Did Not Create the Rules,” Viveros points to the litany of imagery of burning things down, something that symbolizes “how we feel at this point … It feels like nothing is going to change until action is taken.” Lyrical subjects of the EP include societal decay and anger with one’s environment and directing that anger into action. The message of the record, according to Viveros, revolves around the idea of being able to “do more to bring change into our lives.” Out of this political fury come a set of songs that combines the personal and political to devastating effect, ranging from the title track to the cathartic “You’ll Get Nothing and Like It.”
Taking sound cues from Underoath and Page 99, Ephemera signals a momentary shift to a significantly aggressive style that 2022’s I’m Scared That’s All There Is.
“I fucking love Underoath. That was such a formative band for me and the rest of the guys like that band a lot too. For us, we were trying to play music that was in the style of the stuff we grew up on for this record, like heavy Underoath and heavy Alexisonfire, and bringing in the screamo stuff like Page 99, blending those two together. We went into it wanting to play fun music.”
For Viveros, Ephemera also involves an increase in the band’s confidence in their sound and lyrical insight. “Our usual stuff is baby stuff, soft Midwest emo, so it was fun to break out of that comfort zone and just play something that people weren’t expecting. This stuff is even heavier than the “You’re Part of It” song. Confidence wise, I’d say we went into it wanting to make music that we liked so it’s probably the most confident that we’ve been. We wrote one of the songs—the title track Ephemera—in two days in the studio session. As songwriters, it’s the most confident we’ve ever been, being able to hash out song lyrics and guitar parts in the studio.”
The recording process for the record was broken up by the band going on tour and illness, a break that allowed extra contemplation and consideration of what they were creating. “We all got sick while we were recording, so we all had to take a month-long break and then come back. It’s cool to have someone local and we can just drive up whenever we need to.” The break also gave the band time to “digest instrumentals” and brush up on vocal skills Viveros points to Wegryzynski learning how to scream as being a breakthrough moment for the EP.
“Sam’s screaming sounds good on this. The break gave time for everyone’s vocals to rest and see where we wanted to go with these songs.” Produced by longtime collaborator CJ Cochran of Outline in Color, Viveros says that the vision for the EP was for the band to sound “more like Page 99 than Underoath” and Cochran helped the band hone their sound to match that. “He helped us move over to Underoath a little bit more and I think the record sounds great.”
Ultimately, Viveros is proud of this record and is thankful for where the band is at this point in their career. “Our first big break was touring with Hot Mulligan last year and ever since then, a bunch of doors have been opened for us. It’s crazy. All the bands that I worshiped in high school are my homies now. Especially on the last tour, being able to hang out with these people has been cool.” Ben Quad toured with Prince Daddy recently, and are now friends with the band.
“I loved those guys in high school so being able to just bug each other now through text is funny to think about. Being able to tour with cool bands like that and play shows with Four Year Strong is tangible proof that the band is doing good.”
Ephemera is out now, and you can order it from Pure Noise Records. Follow Ben Quad on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok for future updates.
Photo courtesy off Miranda Jayne
