Interview by Tony Cannella
By all accounts the Baltimore based band Bad Seed Rising totally killed on this summer’s version of the Warped Tour. With the band set to release their full-length debut this was a good time to catch up with lead singer Francheska Pastor. Here is what she had to say.
First of all, Welcome to Femme Metal Francheska. Bad Seed Rising are set to release your new album, “Awake in Color”. How would you describe it?
It’s a very diverse record. Every song is pretty different. It doesn’t really sound like the last one, “A Place Called Home”. Lyrically every song has a different theme. It’s also contradicting because sometimes it’s kind of hopeful then the next song is kind of depressing, whatever’s happening in my mind.
Can you talk a little about where the inspiration came from during the writing and recording process for “Awake in Color”?
For “Awake in Color” we kind of had inspiration from a bunch of different bands and songs. We would have like rock bands, some metalcore bands, R & B, soft R & B and we kind of drew inspiration from that.
You filmed a video for the song “Fighting Gravity” which is really cool, by the way. How was the experience of filming the video?
It was cool, it was fast. Usually when doing videos, it takes a lot of takes, but we really only did like six takes of us playing through it.
Lyrically, what is “Fighting Gravity” about?
It’s a love song. I wrote it at a point in my life where I thought I could never fall in love. I though love is ridiculous, it’s just a horrible concept, but I was proven wrong. It completely changed me and it’s constantly changing me.
“Awake in Color” is your full-length debut. Was it easier or more difficult this time around in the studio than on your EP “A Place Called Home”?
It was easier. Before we were just kind of writing music to write music, but now we are actually chasing after something, which is kind of cool.
You spent the summer on the Warped Tour. How was that experience?
It was hot and dope and cool. There were so many bands and so many people. It was a little bit overwhelming, but it was fun.
Once the album is released to you have a tour schedule set up?
We’re touring with a band called Islander and Palaye Royale is also on the bill. That will be our third tour with them so far this year or within a span of a year. Yeah, it’ll be cool. We’ll be jumping on that and we’re going to be doing it for a month. There will be more dates added that we don’t know about yet. It sucks, because I want to know all the dates (laughs).
Bad Seed Rising are really young in age. Do you feel like you’ve had to fight that much harder to earn respect from your peers?
Not really. There are times when we do have to prove ourselves but it’s usually for a label, but for the most part everyone is like, ‘Wow they’re really talented’ they respect us. I don’t know, we just do it for the music, we don’t really care about other people’s opinions.
How do you respond to fans and media who sometimes focus more on the age thing than your music?
Usually people that ask me now, ‘Oh how old are you? I’m just like, I’m nineteen. How are you?’ (laughs)
Well Francheska, we’ve come to the end of this interview. Thank you for taking the time to talk to Femme Metal. In closing, do you have any final words for your fans?
Check out our album and we hope you dig it.
Links
facebook.com/badseedrisingband