One On One With Bedroom (Noah Kittinger)
Interviewed by: @jadelawhoon
I’m pretty sure we all have vivid memories that are conjured by the most random sounds. Old songs that your parents listened to over and over, or just something you hear and then BAM you’re right back in that same setting, same feeling or memory. For some reason, Bedroom’s tunes do that to me.
I can remember being 16 and feeling completely alone, the lyrics overlapping in my head as it was overanalyzing isolation. But make no mistake, these songs aren’t songs you lie up late at night to listen to to just dwell, they’re all so hopeful. It’s so easy to make a sad song, but to put a twist on it that makes it subjective enough to apply to anything is amazing.
The face behind Bedroom is Noah Kittinger, a seventeen year old kid living in Nashville, TN, that stays up late with his music and records live from his bedroom. Imagine if Youth Lagoon, and Beach House minus the female vocals made a baby and you get Kittinger’s Toys EP. A project made out the darkest depression. His synths and dreamy guitar loops with heavy drowning filtered vocals puts you in a place you’ve never been. As if all of those songs were made as comfort blankets for anyone that feels like they don’t fit in, or someone who’s waiting for a life change. “Wandering around this empty house alone, waiting for someone to call my phone, I’ve been waiting for nearly 13 days
I swear to God someday you’ll know my name.” As sad or lonely as those lyrics may seem, the background music is completely cheeky and whimsical. You can’t help but twirl around your living room floor. You can’t help but smile, and from beginning to end I’m confident that you’ll find yourself building your own story to this short five song EP. Luckily His new project vivid is dropping today, and I am so excited after Toys to see what he comes up with next. I was also lucky enough to get a brief interview with him, going over his new project Vivid, and discussing his process through it all…
Introducing Noah Kittinger of Bedroom
Deftune: I was blown away when I found out you were still in high school, considering the complexity of your Toys EP, who or what influenced you to start so early?
Noah: I’m not really sure. I guess just the need to vent what was in my head is what influenced me to start this when I did. I also just wanted to start releasing music seriously and see people’s reactions to it.
Deftune: Tell us a little bit about your new project, “Vivid” you plan to release soon…
Noah: Vivid is an album that I started making/recording right after the release of Toys. I experimented a lot on this album. I was listening to a lot of electronic based music while making it, like xxyyxx, Gold Panda, Slow Magic, artists like that. I tried a lot of new things.I did some field recording/sampling on most of the songs. Like you’ll hear people talking and stuff in the background a lot, like people in a cafe or something. I feel like making this album was a learning experience for me. I did a lot of new stuff and it was really fun to make.
Deftune: Through out your last project Toys, I saw this reoccurring theme of waiting on something or someone, almost as if isolation had taken over, and feeling alone had consumed you… was there a certain occurrence that sparked the vibe of this EP?
Noah: Yeah, I was just really lonely for a long time. So I decided to write an EP about it, to release what was in my head into music. So yeah I’d say loneliness is what really built the vibe for that EP, I’ve heard it has a really sad feel to it. I like that.
Deftune: What was your favorite advice or feedback you got after releasing your music?
Noah: There were a lot of great reviews about my EP, or any music I’ve released. A lot. It’s hard to say which I find the most attractive. But I really liked the review Hazy Acres did. Here’s a quote from his review:
“Listening to his album, while staring into the vast wonders of the smokey mountains this past weekend, with my best friend/wife, I kept thinking of all these experiences I’ve had throughout my life. There’s some real heat in these memories, heart break of the highest order, all while trying to figure out what the hell to say, if not, how to say one word right to anyone. Toys just blew me away with its honesty, and integrity toward life, then I find out he’s just a kid? WTF!!!”
I dunno, I think that review really showed me other people’s reactions to my music. I also like reading comments on uploaded videos of my songs on youtube from other channels, I like when people say “Woah this is really good.” or just a simple “i like this”. It shows people are actually out there listening and enjoying you know?
Deftune: If we viewed your recently played list, what kind of artists/ music would we find?
Noah: You’d find a lot of Michael Myerz, he’s a rapper. A really good one. Look him up. He’s also a really cool guy, we have dreams of making music together someday. But you’d also find that I’ve been listening to Mesita’s latest album, “The Coyote”. Hmm.. what else. Death Grips, Beach Fossils, oh and the new DIIV album. My friends and I were listening to that while blowing stuff up last night. It’s so good. Yeah those are probably my most played artists/albums right now.
Deftune: What the ultimate goal in doing all of this, the rich and famous aspect, or “getting the girl”, or something else?
Noah: I mean I definitely want this to be what I do for a living you know. I don’t care about anything else but this, I’m hopeful this will be what I do for the rest of my life. I just want to be able to make music and tour and meet awesome people.
Deftune: If you could choose any one in the world to tour with or open for who would it be, and why?
Noah: Awh man that’s hard haha. I think I’d say Foals. They all seem like extremely fun people to be around, and they make incredible music.
Deftune:Your lyrics are written in a very easy way, saying the most with the least amount of words, I envy that, what’s your writing process usually consist of?
Noah: I usually start making an instrumental and eventually record lyrics over it later on. I rarely write anything down. Like my lyrics are made up on the spot, I record them and remember them later on. I don’t think I could ever sit down, write a song, perfect it, then record it. It all happens in the moment really.
Deftune: If it weren’t this, you writing and making music, what else would you aspire to be?
Noah: I’d probably be.. uh I don’t know. As cliche as it sounds, I can’t see myself doing anything else. I mean I like skating and art and stuff. So maybe that? I dunno
Keep up with his new releases/ shows through his Twitter and Facebook.
