Getting Candid with Bay Faction [INTERVIEW]
We’re getting candid in our interview with Bay Faction.
Born out of an online message board, Bay Faction emerged in the Boston DIY scene in 2015 with the debut of their self-titled record and quickly garnered a cult following. Following the band’s hiatus from 2020-2024, Bay Faction is now marking their highly anticipated return with new single, “Drive Home.”
We talk to Bay Faction singer James McDermott about the decision to bring the band back and what he learned in the process of taking time away. We also discuss the 2023 re-release of the band’s self-titled album and James’ own realization the songs had taken on a life of their own with fans. Plus, we get into how James’ songwriting style has evolved to include a new level of vulnerability.
Listen to the full interview with Bay Faction on Name 3 Songs podcast and find a transcribed excerpt below.
Name 3 Songs: I’m so excited Bayfaction is back in general because you guys came onto the scene in like 2015 and you would have been 20 years old. So almost a decade has gone by since then. Obviously a lot has changed with the band and in your personal life, growing older. And so in Bayfaction’s music, you write a lot about intimacy and romantic relationships, and after listening to the new batch of Bayfaction songs, it’s clear that your personal relationship with intimacy has shifted over the years and the way that that’s reflected in your lyrics is really interesting. Do you feel that this is because your personal relationship with songwriting has changed or do you think that this is just a part of getting older and having a better understanding of your own emotions?
James: It’s always a bit of both. I think I’ve become more bold as time has gone on. And it’s something I’ve been really scared of – like solidifying in age. That’s something I see in a lot of my older relatives.
Some of it has [changed] because of the songwriting changing. But I think the songwriting is only as good or as relevant as what’s going on in life and how able you are to express it. I’ve definitely done a lot of work to get rid of any kind of blocks that keep me from what I actually want to say. My earliest memory of songwriting is finishing something and listening to it back and feeling I didn’t actually say anything even remotely close to what it is I set out to do.
And a lot of it’s just like, as you get older, you have less time in general. So when I write, now, it’s usually way less frequent, and it’s for shorter periods of time. I’ve noticed that in doing that, it keeps me really focused.
You mentioned that when you were writing when you were younger, you felt like you didn’t necessarily write the things that you intended to. Was this a process of understanding your own emotions or was it letting things out into song and seeing what happens?
Yeah, part of it is but a lot of it is the subconscious release. It’s like when you have a dream you wake up and you’re like, wow, I never want to feel that way again. And you feel that way the whole day and there’s no reason as to why you do. That’s a big part of it. Another part is that I’ve done a lot of work to become more concise with my language as I’ve gotten older. And I do this when I speak. I will yap and yap and yap about nothing, and that happened in the songs.
Something really good about that was that I was able to develop a lot of characters that were very personal to me. And at the end of the day, it kind of became this therapeutic practice – by hour number three, you kind of figure out what it is you’re after.
Even if it wasn’t what you set out to do at all. I think that’s my favorite part about songs – you can hear somebody if they’re really being honest with themselves. There’s always a subtext to a song. That’s also something I focused on getting good at – how to say as many things as I can at once.
The characters in the first album that you wrote feel very real, and I assume that they’re based on real people. On that note, you took the first album off streaming and you felt like it was too personal. It kind of feels like you’re figuring out a new way to tell similar stories.
They are personal to me, but I think the characters in the self -titled record, and future characters, are these archetypal kinds of figures. And that’s a thing that I learned about people when I moved to New York from Boston back in 2017 or 2018.
And kids now call it like NPCs or whatever. It’s like really truly like so many personalities are duplicated in people over and over and over again. So those characters [on the album] are the most opaque personality types stuck into one.
Does this method of writing help to channel your emotional vulnerability in a way that doesn’t feel so vulnerable?
100%. 100%. Because there’s stuff that Jasper would do on the first record that I would never do, like ever, ever, ever. And I think it’s the same reason people write such extreme characters in film and TV is that – it’s easier to view common human behavior when it’s turned up to a hundred, you know?
And it’s easier to write about it if you just change the name. People are kind of dumb in that way, where all of a sudden I can say anything I want. And it doesn’t matter. We see this today, and there’s a big thing happening with DJs wearing masks again. It’s like the horse girl. And I totally get it, and I love it. You don’t want to have an entire career based off ketamine if you’re a person but if you’re a horse, that’s hilarious.
It’s like the artist persona that rock stars of yore really leaned into. And we’re even seeing it with Chappell Roan. And it sounds like you’re also doing that in your lyricism. But in thinking about the fact that you guys went on hiatus for four years and you came back. Are you thinking more about how you’re going to present yourself in order not feel as mentally and emotionally overwhelmed with these songs?
No, I had to grow up and I think that’s the bottom line. By nature if you’re gonna do this with your life, you just have to be out there. And actually one thing I’ve learned is to hide less because – back to these archetypal similarities in people – that’s the reason my favorite artists are who they are is because I see so much of myself in them and I can understand them so well.
And for me, the point of being in entertainment is to give people that too. And that has been the biggest challenge for me. Like everyone wants to be cool. Everyone wants to be mysterious, you know, but it’s just not the point.
So I’ve been doing a lot of work to be just as honest as I can. And it’s actually easy because you have to do less. You just have to be yourself. It’s like kindergarten all over again.
Jenna and I were talking earlier about how music is one of the most accessible art forms. And yet so many artists seem to struggle with the idea of being perceived. And it sounds like you did that grappling – like, okay, if I want my music to be heard, like I need to be perceived and be okay with that. What was that process like for you coming to terms with that?
A lot of it was like self -forgiveness. I think that was the big thing over COVID when everything was shut down. That was like the point where I was just like, okay, I have to just, I have to be okay with who I am. And I will never be any of my idols. I’ll never be anybody that I want to be. And there’s a level of forgiveness you need to reach.
These are things that you have to do to become aligned with yourself as a person. Every time you step out of the house, you’re not riddled with anxiety because somebody might find you out. And I think COVID helped a lot. My family helped a lot, getting close with my parents, getting close with my sister, not feeling like I just hatched from an egg as this weird character that I didn’t recognize.
It’s almost like these songs, especially the early songs, were so personal to you. You wrote them in your teen years, and released it when you were 20. At that age, you’re feeling so much all the time, like really big highs and lows. It sounds like you had to detach yourself from it because that body of work had taken on its own life. Did you feel like you had to have some separation in order to figure out who you were?
Yeah, totally. To grow up again, to finish maturing. I think I was kind of a late bloomer in a lot of ways. And I was really nervous about it – like the insecurity of being an artist comes in and it says like, what if they forget about me? And I had to be okay with that. And luckily, [the fans] didn’t, which we’re blessed to have [them].
I think separating from it was really important and also just relearning everything. The hardest part about improving is that you have to destroy progress. I hate that. It keeps me up at night and it’s something that we’re going to do over and over again.
In a year, the band is going to listen to “Drive Home” and be like “My God, what did we do? Why did we do that?” And we have to just be okay and just continue moving.
Listen to the full interview with Bay Faction on Name 3 Songs podcast available on your favorite podcast platforms.
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