Los Angeles is often described as one of the key cultural homes of rock’n’roll for good reason.
It’s a town where classic ’70s and ’80s bands made their start, and where musicians swagger about the place with a devil-may-care attitude, lured in by the madness that becomes part and parcel when you’re playing Satan’s blues.
Californian punk brats Bleached are well acquainted with the demonic draw of Tinsel Town, and lead singer Jennifer Clavin stresses it was her negative experience with this lifestyle that fuelled the creation of their new aptly-titled album Welcome The Worms. “‘Desolate Town’ I feel like is maybe my most personal song on the new record,” Clavin explains. “I’m just talking about this time in LA when it got dark: I felt like I didn’t know who my real friends were. Were they my friends because of drink? I feel like I rose above that and in this song, I show it.”
Clavin is hesitant to discuss details when explaining the themes underpinning Welcome The Worms, though it’s evident that the piece was born out of some truly troubled times. “It kinda was like I was just hitting rock bottom again and again,” she says. “I guess something would happen and I would feel it was rock bottom. Then I’d convince myself it was fine and I could drink again, but when that third rock bottom came, I thought, ‘My God, this is bad. This lifestyle is not okay.’ I called my dad, and I feel like when you call the people you’re closest to – the people you care about most in your life – it’s serious.”
There’s still a healthy smack of regret in Clavin’s Californian drawl; regret that the lifestyle took such a toll on her and the band. But despite all that pain, any dark feelings she has are countered by a distinct enthusiasm for the music she was able to make as a result.
“I feel like LA is such a big city with so much energy and so many people trying to make it with whatever their art is, but it’s also easy to find people that wanna like, suck the life out of you,” she says. “You’re down to partake in the nightlife because you wanna lose yourself. But it’s easy to get sucked into the lifestyle and it does take away from working on your art. I mean, it takes you away but it gives you a lot to write about, a lot of feelings. But ultimately living that lifestyle – it isn’t easy.”
Much of the material for Welcome The Worms was written and recorded in the desolate Joshua Tree desert, where Clavin often retreated. “I would escape to the desert. It’s really pretty there. You don’t know anyone. Then you come back to LA and you’re like, ‘Okay let’s do this again, drink and do drugs till 7am’. Now I don’t partake in that lifestyle anymore. Now it’s purely about the band.”
Clavin isn’t the only former wild child in the group: her sister and lead guitarist Jessica Clavin and bassist Mikayla Grace also acknowledge that they too went through the grinder, but as Clavin explains, they didn’t realise it until they were reading the lyrics together. “There’s like, an unspoken understanding,” Clavin says. “We kind of do things different ways. Me and Jessie will write together. Mikayla joined us on this record and that opened it up to more material: it’s just cool the three different ways, with three different writing styles. Three different experiences creates more dynamic within each song. That’s what we want to do: create something real.”
Though that distinctive Bleached quality is evident all across Welcome The Worms, Clavin drew strength from a range of new touchstones, mixing up her songwriting process and paying tribute some new acts in the process. “I feel like there’s bands that I will always listen to,” she says. “Bands like The Cure, The Smiths, Fleetwood Mac, Blondie; they will be with me forever. But then there are bands that we were inspired by just for this record. I got obsessed with Nirvana’s Unplugged record: those songs are amazing in their raw form. I wanted to make sure I could play every song on acoustic guitar and make it still sound good. I was inspired vocally: now I try and scream and growl more, especially where there’s a part that calls for it, especially where there’s more emotion.”
Fans and newcomers to Bleached can soon experience that growling emotion live, as the group head to Australia for the first time. “We’ll make the songs sound good but we’ll have fun too: that’s the point of a performance,” Clavin says. “We try our best to lose ourselves in the show – our fans do the same, so we can all have fun together. I really don’t know anything about Australia other than it’s beautiful, so I’m gonna rely on the people we meet to tell us where to go, eat, things to do, shop. It’s fun knowing nothing.
“I’m so excited,” she continues. “I’m kinda like, fearing the plane ride because I heard it’s really long, but other than that I feel like I’m excited for everything, every city.” A long-haul flight Down Under will be a walk in the park for these girls, compared with the time they’ve spent breaking free of the tantalising grip of the City of Angels. Good on ’em.
Bleached play at Newtown Social Club on Saturday October 1; and also Yours And Owls 2016, Stuart Park, Wollongong, from Saturday October 1 – Sunday October 2 with Chastity Belt, Bec Sandridge, Ball Park Music and many more.
