Photo by Hayden Molinarolo

Transitional phases can be agonizing, but for Shady Bug, they make the tumultuous times sound like a breeze on their recently released EP, What’s the Use?. As has informed the creative process across much music being released today, its arrival comes on the heels of one of the one of the worst runs in mankind’s current millennial history, but on a more personal level, the breakups, life stress, and band reconfigurations that helped the trio of vocalist Hannah Rainey, guitarist Ripple, and bassist Chris Chartrand shed their skin and become something new and evolved even if the existential end purpose still leaves that one big question mark.

+rcmndedlisten spoke with Hannah Rainey via e-mail about working toward balance amidst the disorder, how this new phase in the band’s present form doubled as a form of therapeutic healing in lieu of what preceded it, and why you shouldn’t sleep on the sounds coming out of the Midwest.

+rl: What’s the Use?, despite its extended play form, feels like a cohesive culmination of where Shady Bug has been creatively to this point. It’s the first album you and Ripple have recorded with your now-permanent bassist Chris Chartrand as well as Jack Mideke of Smidley filling in on drums. Most bands would say these last few years have brought nothing but instability into the artistic process, but since the release of your last full-length, 2019’s Lemon Lime, it seems like Shady Bug found stability somewhere in the chaos…

Hannah Rainey: It may seem stable but it took a lot of change and work to get to this point! I had to make the hard decision of asking our drummer to leave the band in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. We didn’t have a drummer for a long time and began to practice with a drum machine so we could keep writing songs. We finally were able to play music with Jack in early 2021 and it felt incredible to have our full sound again! Creatively, I had a lot of time during the pandemic to process my emotions and experiment with my sound alone on GarageBand. I wrote the song “lizard” prior to lockdown but it really foreshadowed me finally making a huge decision (to part ways with my partner / drummer) and shed my skin. I was able to grow as a person and grow musically. It was also special and valuable that I got extra time to get closer with Ripple and Chris when we became a trio. We really solidified our dynamic and collaborative process, which losing a founding bandmate forced us to figure out but made us stronger. Losing a band member gave us some time to take a step back and reassess the entire project and how we wanted to approach it musically and with better communication. I am so grateful that we all respect each other so much and value each other’s abilities, even when we think of music so differently. We just finished up our first tour in three years, which went so smoothly and has shown us the progress of what we have cultivated artistically and emotionally. It was awesome.

+rl: And still, disruption — be it interpersonal, environmental, or political — is an ever-present force throughout the listen. On the track’s closer “lizard’, the first few lines in the lyrics hear you sing, “It’s that year, when you start to shed your skin / And your feet will peel just like a lizard,” reflecting a form of personal growth, only to hear you question its purpose by the time the track reaches its end. Do you find that writing through the weeds of it all helps gain some control back over that narrative?

HR: Like I said in the prior question, “lizard” predicted the future not on purpose! Expressing my inner thoughts and feelings through my music is super cathartic and releasing for me. For example, in 2018 my dad had a traumatic brain injury which dramatically changed his life and my entire family. I was going through the hardest time of my life, yet I had to play a show while my dad was in the ICU, which is what the song “popsicle” is about. The lyrics describe CBGB (not the famous one, but St. Louis’ beloved dive bar in south city) and trying to hide my distress but ultimately leaving the show abruptly. Writing this song was very healing and I still feel emotional performing it now. Being able to talk openly about how I am feeling and what I am going through is usually hard for me, but putting it to music is so therapeutic and helps me process what’s going on in my mind and heart. My lyrics are almost like my diary, but I hope people can listen and relate or feel something from each song.

+rl: You are also moving more visibly to the forefront of your sound on vocals while crystallizing the sweetness in the bittersweet of life whereas Lemon Lime and 2017’s debut tbh idk were very, for a lack of better words, up the alley of your label Exploding In Sound’s aesthetic in blown-out noise rock moments. Going for more pop doesn’t always work in every underground rock band’s favor, but there’s just the right fix of it here on What’s the Use? Was that a natural desire or something more concentrated?

HR: The pop sound became more prevalent after I created my solo project, Hennen, which I recorded all on GarageBand on my iPhone. The Hennen project started as a way to prove to myself that I could write all the parts of a song on my own, especially drums and bass. I experimented with more pop sound when writing alone, because initially I didn’t think it went well with Shady Bug’s grunge rock sound. But Ripple and Chris really dug the tunes and when we jammed on them we were able to make arrangements that were poppy but also massive and rocking. I personally love writing catchy hooks and melodies, it’s the most satisfying part of writing music for me. Our first album, tbh idk, also has a lot of songs that were initially for my solo set, and I think you can hear my love of pop in that album as well. The Shady Bug sound basically comes from me bringing a simple pop song to band practice and then me and my bandmates rearranging it into an art rock / noise rock song, adding elements that work against the pop form.

+rl: Middle America is happening in outsider ways right now. You’ve got Hattiesburg favorites MSPAINT and I talked to your St. Louis peers the Mall last year about everyone doing their own weird things for the punk and hardcore scenes, and then there’s Shady Bug, a warped noise-pop alternative to the melodic indie rock milquetoast of the moment. Sometimes it seems that the scenes out of the sight are the ones who get it most right. Who else around you inspires you and where you’re going?

HR: I’m always saying the Midwest scene gets sadly overlooked and coastal bands will always get more press. But that’s just me being cynical lol. St. Louis music culture has historically thrived off of its hardcore punk scene and math rock scene, which has inspired the in-between bands like Shady Bug. Maybe because we are so far from the music culture of the east or west coast we kind of do our own thing. Bands from middle America don’t really need to appease anyone else besides our small communities, and with that the music is pure and artful. We are performing our music for mostly our friends for enjoyment and art, not so worried about clout climbing. Bands who have inspired us over the years in the St. Louis scene include Glued, Little Big Bangs, Complainer, Jane Wave, Kids, Isabel Rex, and A Leaf in the Street. As for where we are going, I’d say it is inspiring to see fellow St. Louis artists like the Mall tour the country this year and see smaller communities such as Hattiesburg come to the forefront. I hope we get to tour more and bring light to more of the little guys. For example, we just played in Kalamazoo Michigan with the band Memory Cell, who were one of our favorite bands we played with on tour. We both have double angular guitars and play with time signatures and dynamics in a very unique way. It’s inspiring to find new music while on the road, especially in unexpected places.

Shady Bug’s What’s the Use? is available now on Exploding In Sound Records.