Ep.2/ An Intro to Ginkgo balboa & their New eP “Balloon Duty”
Interview by: Venus Reed
Hi guys! My name is Venus. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I’m really excited! I have some questions for you both separately along with some about your upcoming EP “Balloon Duty”
For Mike:
Previously, you have mentioned that you come from a musical background with your family! Did you participate in theater programs with your brothers, or was that just not your thing? At a young age, how did you make your own talents stand out?
Mike Bednarsky: Good to meet you, Venus! I did participate in the theatrical arts as my brothers did, but not as much as them. We also all danced tap, jazz, and ballet, so that was there, too. I studied dance for five years. But back to the theatre thing, in the summer of 2001, the three of us were in a local production of the Stephen Schwartz musical, “Children of Eden,” which was produced by the Youth CONNection. I had a small speaking role, and I loved every minute of it. I loved being on stage, I loved speaking in front of an audience, I loved goofing around with the cast at rehearsals and backstage. There’s a particular rush that overtakes you when the lights go down after the last number, and the cast cheers in unison. That cheer essentially means, “Whoa, we did it!” Man, I miss that. I loved everything about it, but I was scared of the newfound necessity of it in my life. It was a lot for me at 10 years old. It was like a syringe for my ego, and as “Josh and Matt’s little brother,” I got a lot of attention. I felt like the baby brother of the entire cast, girls hugging me left and right. (Laughs.) I felt so adored. Maybe it was a grown-up concern, but I remember telling myself at that time: “You can’t have this.” Ever eat all the Halloween candy in one night, and regret it immediately? Yeah. Kind of like that. It took me years to recover from feeling and being concerned about that feeling. Decades, actually! I’m still unlearning it. What is it, some kind of fear of success? Or perhaps it’s the risk of relying so much on other people for validation. Maybe that’s the problem. I don’t know. (Laughs.)
You have had many other small projects besides Ginkgo Balboa, what has been your most favorite? Your genres are very spread wide, how do you choose a theme and sound for what you’re writing!
Mike: I guess that they’re “small projects,” in the sense that they’re there for my personal legacy, like a living will in the form of music, and therefore did not have to be vetted with any particular marketing in mind, at the time. But, with that said, it’s hard to pick a favorite, because despite my hard work on those solo albums, the production was always DIY, so none of them have actually lived up to what I envisioned them to be, although That Ashtray: At Least It Lasted While It Did was pretty close. I wanted a dusty piano room aesthetic for that album, an atmosphere I knew quite well growing up, thanks to spending ample time around music teachers in rehearsal spaces. I still love to hear that album from time to time. How I choose a theme is always driven by desire. The impulse, actually, that makes you say to yourself, “I gotta do this right here, right now.” That genre, or instrument, is calling out to me, at that specific time, and that’s when I start to get my hands dirty, scribbling away idioms and couplets. There’s been some limitations though, because of musicianship and engineering chops. There are sounds, genres, guitar riffs, in my brain, but I need to be able to articulate them on paper, and in the studio. For some ideas, that may never happen, but I’ve accepted that. The way I see my world, in my mind, is so vibrant that I sometimes live up there. I’m not crazy, I swear. (Laughs.)
If Ginkgo didn’t work out as planned, you’ve mentioned doing event work. Do you book your own shows?
Mike: I sometimes book our shows, yeah, but my events background is rooted in planning and coordinating an event, in and outside of the music industry. Usually, it’s live sporting events. I feel like if I were to book music artists, and JUST handle booking for music artists, then I’d probably experience some internal conflict from not making a living solely in performing my own, original music. But then again, I’m not just a writer, singer, or performer. There are everyday responsibilities that bring me a lot of joy, even though they’re not glamorous. I have to continuously remind myself of that whenever I get lost in Ginkgo Balboa.
For Benjamin:
Did you ever feel discouraged when younger from the labels you received in school? What did you excel in?
If, by labels, you mean record labels, I was signed to only one with Lafcadio (the metal band). I never felt any discouragement. If by “labels” you are referring to tourette syndrome and ADHD, there was a lot of discouragement there but I don’t think it came directly from those labels themselves. I mean, no one ever discouraged me by the labels, but I would say the discouragement came from external sources. I had teachers who would isolate my desk from the rest of my classmates because I was being too loud with my ticks. I remember thinking, here is an adult to whom I’m supposed to look up who looks at me with disgust. She must be right. She’s the all-knowing adult. I started to believe what she (and other adults) were thinking. I must be a bad person. I have something wrong with me that is (at the time) akin to a mental handicap (they really didn’t know anything about tourette syndrome back then). They thought I was contagious. That was discouraging. I’m not saying any of this because I want pity. People are cruel. But we have survival mechanisms built into us. I’ve always used adversity as a learning tool and become a better person because of it. I wouldn’t be the good parts of who I am without all that ridicule growing up. Not that I will ever thank my teacher and peers for bullying me and effectively making me a better person. I don’t credit them for it. I credit myself for moving past it. Gratitude should never be granted to ignorance.
You play so many instruments, what are some of your favorites to play with? What instruments would you like to incorporate into Ginkgo Balboa?
Ben: Guitar has always been my go-to instrument for songwriting and I would say that is the instrument to which I’m most proficient. I typically play mostly keys live, which is a challenge for me, considering I’m not particularly a keyboardist and, by no means, am I a pianist. I do love to play though. I have been trying to get into eurorack modular synths and would love to incorporate that into our live shows, even if we never use it in the songwriting process. We’ll do that if I ever figure out patching. Modular analogue synth is a confusing world of knobs and patches that intrigue then intimidate. You almost need at least an associate's level college course just to understand it and I’m only in the metaphoric first semester.
Coming from the underground scene was a large part of your music inspiration, are you still in the underground metal scene? Who are some of your new day favorites?
Ben: I haven’t really ventured back into the metal scene in a while. Sort of just stopped listening. Not that I don’t like it. It’s a part of me and who I am. If not for growing up in the metal and underground scene I would have never taken this art as serious as I do. That scene helped me to understand non-pop music. It was the first genre that showed me that there is a world of styles and types of music and I don’t have to resort to the mediums that only showcase a select few, i.e. the radio or your personal streaming algorithm (which can become stagnant). Slayer is the Pink Floyd of metal and I’m proud to have been able to see their last show ever at the Forum in Inglewood, CA. What a great show.
For Both:
The closing track of “Balloon duty” is “SIMF”, what does SIMF stand for? The track follows a back and forth chase of love interest, is this based off a dormer partner?
Mike: “SIMF” stands for “She Is My Friend.” For me, there isn’t one particular person the song is about. I definitely have had partners who could inspire my performance of the song on stage, but my lyrics did not come directly as a result of anything, no. I think Ben wrote the chorus to this one though, so I’d be curious to hear his take.
Ben: For me “SIMF” is about the frustrations of when a relationship monogamy goes stagnant. Where the excitement of something new eventually turns to comfort and that comfort becomes mundane. You eventually long to leave and start the cycle over again. This perhaps is not something everyone goes through, but it’s definitely a problem for a lot, and it’s no doubt something I’ve gone through in the past. That’s sort of the emphasis when referring “she” to a home I stray from and a gum I chew tasteless.
You are both versatile when it comes to making music, how did you settle on this indie synth pop sound that Ginkgo Balboa has?
Mike: I’ve always had a thing for the ‘80s sound, and my love for modern synthpop was arguably built off of that. I have to thank the early-2000s VH1 TV program “I Love the ‘80s.” That was my introduction to a large swath of bands and songs I likely wouldn’t have learned of otherwise, and that would inform my music taste for years to come. In 7th grade in particular, I was all about retro, and it wasn’t quite trendy yet. Thanks, VH1, for the tip. (Laughs.) I also liked the way the interviewees reminisced on camera. I was naive to think that those were a bunch of best friends waxing nostalgic for the world to see, but my perception of that was a pivotal realization of how much a people-person I am. Anyway, for me, I think that I’ve inherently wanted to experiment with a synth-y pop of some sort, so the formation of Ginkgo was when the stars aligned.
Ben: I’ve always been intrigued by new sounds that are so novel that they haven’t quite caught on yet, but those new sounds have to have an accessibility hidden in them, right? If top 40 music was a house on a hill with french doors and metal was a brick building with no doors, the music to which I gravitate is a building with a hidden door. You only get in if you find the door and not a lot of people will be there, so you get to enjoy the room with a select few like-minded people who, like you, found the door. It’s an exclusive club. I feel like this genre, as poppy as it may sound to some, as accessible as it might appear to others, it seems to me, this genre, if you wanna call it that, is that building with the hidden door.
You guys came together in 2019, right after began the COVID-19 pandemic, did that pandemic help you to come together and write or did the distancing cause issues?
Mike: It helped us focus on social media presence, but it hindered—well, prolonged, really—our growth in other ways. We had spent months writing and recording our eponymous EP, and just when we were going to have the big reveal for friends, family, and the general public/would-be fans, the lockdown began.
Ben: The writing process starts in the studio, so it seemed like I had all the time in the world to write at that point. If anything, the pandemic gave me the time and focus to write more, in that regard. But because of social distancing, Mike and I weren’t able to write together very often. Nothing was streamlined and communication was slow. Things just kind of took longer to see the finish-line.
Though you both have your eyes set on this band, is there any other genres, projects or anything you’d like to create in later times?
Mike: Absolutely, where do I begin? I want to make a rugged Americana album like Ryan Adams’ self-titled one. I want to make an entire blues album, covering an array of blues bases, probably—plucky guitar blues to happy hour piano blues. And—this could become a Ginkgo Balboa direction—but I want an album that greatly channels Purple Noon by Washed Out. I feel like I’ve mentioned Purple Noon in, like, a dozen interviews, but it’s that good. Right now, I’m enjoying The Party’s Over by Talk Talk. Fantastic album, underrated band. I want more of that eerie, dramatic synth on the next Ginkgo wave. That would be fun.
Ben: I always wanted to start a Radiohead tribute band. Then again, that might not be as appealing as one might initially think.
Have you considered touring!? What would your dream set design look like? What tracks are you bringing to the stage?
Mike: We’ve been wanting to make that happen for quite some time, but we, as a collective, have gotten a little overwhelmed with all the moving parts of touring, with this fragmented world of music venues, post-apocalypse. Someone in our live band is a young dad, for example. But we’ve had a big meeting recently, and therefore, we’re closer than ever! We’d probably bring our entire catalog to the stage, or be prepared to, as that’s under 3 hours of songs to pluck from, but I personally would like “Something Animal” as the opener, with a long, drawn-out intro, building the anticipation— to a sea of applause, of course. And “SIMF” would be our closing song, most of the time, but longer as well. We’d really lean into that menacing synth melody, and make its emotional resonance all-encompassing. Does that make sense? (Laughs.) Just go see us when we’re in a city near you, everybody. You’ll see what I mean.
Ep.2/
“AN INTRO TO Ginkgo Balboa & Their NEW EP ‘Balloon Duty’”
Photo by: Shaun Michael Chilton
