The tension between the push and pull of opposing forces—heavy and soft, the beautiful and the ugly, the darkness and the light—is a well-explored dynamic in music, but there is something about Bound’s thoughtful and deliberate pursuit of divergent atmospheres that leaves behind a deep emotional resonance. The Washington, DC quartet’s debut LP, No Beyond, skirts the line between dreamy reverie and thunderous intensity, utilizing elements of dreampop, shoegaze, post-rock, and doom metal to weave an immersive tapestry of brooding sound.
The group, which consists of primary songwriter Bryan Buchanan (guitar, vocals), Trish Harris (keys, vocals), Kotu Bajaj (bass), and Dan Richardson (drums), will perform in Atlanta for the first time on Monday at the Bakery. For Harris, who lived and worked here from 2002-2015, the performance marks a special kind of homecoming, a return to the city where she first immersed herself in the arts. In anticipation, we spoke with Buchanan and Harris about their new album, the state of the DC scene, and what they’re looking forward to the most on their tour.
What’s the music scene like in DC nowadays?
Trish Harris: Much like Atlanta, DC’s music scene—at least the part that we exist in—is small enough to be a community and accessible. You don’t need to know anyone in high places to get a foothold. But it’s big enough that you continue to see new bands, meet new people, and hear new sounds when you don’t expect them.
Bryan Buchanan: Quite a few new venues have popped up in recent years, especially smaller rooms, which I think has been a very positive thing for developing local bands and bringing in good touring bands that the larger venues won’t book. Everyone knows DC for punk, and that continues to chug along. But underground metal is flourishing here now too, thanks mostly to one tireless promoter and a couple of those new venues.
How would you describe your new record to someone who hasn’t heard it before?
BB: Melancholy, doomy, dreamy, synthy… I don’t know. Soundwise, I’m extremely interested in how other people describe it and what genres they hear in it, but I have very little interest in describing it myself. I know this is the one question where the elevator speech should come rolling out of me, but I struggle with it—or I resist it, anyway. Talking about the creative process and the ideas behind it is easier.
TH: How about… An immersive album that roughs you up emotionally in a way that feels good?
If your band had a motto, what would it be?
BB: At a recent show, I asked the lighting guy to turn the disco ball off when we played. I offered the following explanation: “This is not a party.” Does that work?
TH: I’m not sure we want to be a band that has a motto.
What are you looking forward to the most on this tour?
TH: Visiting and sharing old homes and haunts.
BB: Stopping in Jacksonville to have dinner with my sister.
What do you plan to listen to in the van? Any favorite road music?
BB: I don’t usually like listening to music—or anything else—when I’m in a vehicle with other people. I never really thought about it until friends started mentioning it to me. I guess it’s because I like to leave the floor open for conversation or something. So yeah, in the van I’ll just let the others put something on if they want to.
TH: Go-go.
Have you ever played Atlanta before? What were your impressions?
BB: Yeah, I’ve definitely hung out in Atlanta, but this weekend’s show will be the band’s first one there. And it’s a special one for us because Trish lived in Atlanta for a long time, so it’s kind of a homecoming for her.
TH: I lived there from 2002-2015, and I love it dearly. Both the city and I changed a lot in that time. Visiting these days is bitter and sweet and humbling as it sheds light on the ways we’ve both continued to change. I find that Atlanta has matured in unexpected ways and discover with surprise that I have too. In my Atlanta days, I was a theater technician and designer. In that time I must have worked over 1,000 performance—music, theater, dance. But I was never a performer. Performing music is a somewhat new thing for me—more sweet than bitter.
How do you judge if a show is a success or not?
TH: With the album, everything was very deliberate. For example, it’s exactly 60 minutes, songs never resolve but flow into each other, everything follows a progression that ends up looping back on itself, etc. We’d like to give a performance that echoes some of that intent.
BB: Yeah, we try to create an immersive experience—for ourselves and for the audience. The hope is that we get everyone into a reflective headspace and hold them there. That’s why our set is unbroken sound from start to finish. But I guess the main criteria is if it felt good to us. We have to somewhat reimagine the songs and transitions in a live context, because a lot of what we did on the record is hard to replicate with only eight arms.
What are your plans after the tour is over?
BB: There’s some more album promo to do. We’ll do a Northeast/Midwest tour soon. But mainly, we plan to buckle down and write the next album. We have a lot of ideas about where we want to push ourselves musically and thematically. Trish does all of our art, and she has some irons in the fire.
TH: I have a video in the works for one of the songs on No Beyond, and that should be out soon. But after that, I’m excited to start fleshing out the musical and visual aesthetic of the next album.
Bound will perform on Mon., Aug. 20 at the Bakery alongside Juna, Virgil, and Uhm. Doors open at 8 p.m. Admission is $5.
More Info:
Web: boundlives.com
Bandcamp: boundlives.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @boundlives
Instagram: @boundlives
Twitter: @boundlives