BETCHA
Photo courtesy of Charlie Greene
By Alexandra LeBaron
BETCHA has had many iterations – psychedelic rock, alt rock, folk, and americana are just a few of the genres that the group has explored. But the bandmates, who met in college and lived together until recently, are bonded by their shared love of music and passion for performing. Their electric live shows are what the band does best, and their loyal fanbase sings along to every word.
I spoke to lead singer Charlie Greene about his reflections on creativity and upcoming ambitions for the band.
AL: I know you guys just released the Jaded EP. Can you tell me a little bit about that? How do you think it’s different from your previous music?
CG: It's funny because Spotify labeled it as an EP, but what we've been doing is we've just been waterfalling all our singles basically. We’re working our way toward a record, but I think after you add five or six songs, they just label it an EP. It's so funny, because somebody said, “We loved the EP!” And I was like, “Yeah, I guess it is an EP right now.” But it'll probably become a record at some point.
For us, we really wanted to send it more on an alternative, heavier kind of rock, nostalgic kind of vibe. Especially with the more recent singles, that's just something we've tried to be really intentional about. Some of our EPs in the past have been dance songs, and psychedelic songs, and rock songs. And for these ones, we're just trying to make everything a little more like cohesive.
AL: During COVID, you guys left your record label. How did stepping away from the label influence a change in your creative process?
CG: We wrote hundreds of songs, but the only ones that came out are the ones that everyone liked. You had to get the whole machine behind you. Now, even though we have a new team around us and maybe we'll sign with another label at some point, I think we've just realized there's just so much creative freedom in not having that person that you're trying to appease. We just want whatever we love to be priority number one, as opposed to what a marketing plan or radio plan is.
AL: Do you think that that a lot of musicians are moving away from big record labels and are more interested in owning their masters and having more ownership?
CG: Especially when we signed, back in 2017/2018, things were so different. Back then, the only way to really break through was to have a big label behind you and use their connects to climb you up the ladder. But now, so many people, even some of the biggest names, just do it themselves. They blow up from their own marketing and go viral and their sound gets huge.
In terms of what a label can do for you, some people that need that, but some people who are more natural marketers and more natural video people are just good at promoting themselves. There's not really a need for a label besides a huge budget or if you want a fat advance.
AL: I know you guys met in college. How do you think that your friendship outside of making music has contributed to your cohesion as a band?
CG: Up until two weeks ago, we pretty much all lived together. We've gone through so much in the band world with these bigger companies and felt very isolated and alone at times. I think for us, just being in it together no matter what has caused a very strong bond.
There’s very few people that you can spent 10 hours in a van with every day for two months straight. You’re gonna have a deeper connection with someone like that, just spending so much of that time with each other. But we've always just been buddies first. I think that meeting in college and all being more social friends first, the friendship comes before a band argument.
AL: You mentioned that you guys have made all types of music: psychedelic rock, alt rock, and folk. What type of music has been your favorite? And do you think that you evolved towards a certain direction for a particular reason?
CG: For us, we love playing live so much, and we tour so much, that I feel like our music has progressed into the music that we want to play live. We love having the hypest, most full energy raging show that there can be. I feel like now, we're at a point where when we write, we think so much about how it's going to translate live. That’s moved us toward songs like Jaded and 5am and Gray Skies. We just love to rock out on stage. Some of the folkier, more emotional, more psychedelic stuff is really cool, and I feel like that is still a part of us, but it's not the focus right now.
AL: You were previously known as Wilder, and then you had to change the name after another band called Wilder wrote you a cease and desist letter. How did that name change influence a shift in the band's creative focus?
CG: Wilder felt very folky and Americana rock-esque, whereas Betcha feels very open-ended. With Betcha, we suddenly had a blank canvas. We could do anything with this name.
Betcha sounds like it could be like a British drill rapper and also a jam band. It feels like we had this ability to be anything, and sonically, we've really rode with that. Just having that freedom to not box ourselves in actually turned out to be an opportunity to explore something new.
AL: You mentioned the recent show you did in Salt Lake City. What was that experience like, playing in a city that you’ve never played in before?
CG: Salt Lake City is crazy because there's no age restrictions on any venues. The Mormon population is big there, so there's no alcohol. Because of that, the venues are all ages, which is super sick because there's all these high school kids who are getting to go to all the shows.
In Nashville, most things are 18 and up or 21 and up. But in Salt Lake City, you have 15-year-olds who have no ego about going crazy at a show, whereas a 19 year old wants to look cool in front of their friends. So at the show, everyone's at a level 10, and no one cares what anyone thinks. So it's just such a different energy, and I think that’s universal across the music industry; we’d been dying to play Salt Lake City because I had always heard from friends that it’s the craziest show the tour.
AL: What's one memory from tour that sticks out to you?
CG: There was one time that I think of as one of my favorite memories from touring. We had just bought this new technology that Chevy sold us – I think it's similar to OnStar or something like that. It's more for car crashes, but they had mentioned that they can recommend restaurants for you. So we're in the middle of nowhere – Virginia, I think. We had just left a show, and I was kind of drunk, and we had no idea where to go. So I decided to use the OnStar feature and said, “Hey, we’re in this town, and we’re looking for Hibachi.” And I think this woman hadn't gotten a call for a restaurant recommendation and her whole career, so she was really confused. It got to the point where I was laughing so hard that I couldn't put a sentence together. And I think she was worried that we were in a car wreck, and it was just a big nightmare. But that was a really funny memory.
We also just played like a Renaissance Festival. That was interesting, you know, having elves and blacksmiths listen to you play rock music. So that was definitely a notable concert.
AL: Haha, yeah that sounds interesting! Do you have a certain song that you're particularly proud of? And if so, why is your favorite?
CG: The next single, which we haven't announced yet, is called I Wish You Would. I think that one's pretty crazy. I feel like it kind of opens the door to a new side of Betcha that is maybe my favorite side. I like some of the more emotional stuff on the record that’s not necessarily geared towards playing live. And I think this is just like, such an ode to Radiohead, and has some of a 1975-vibe while still being very us. For the dedicated, diehard fans that love Betcha and love all of our discography – I think it’ll be a fan favorite.
AL: What do you think is a distinctive element of a Betcha song?
CG: We love a sing-along, anything with big anthem choruses. We always shoot for the chorus just has to get stuck in your head and is the climax of the song. I think Ben's very distinctive in his guitar playing, and we have a lot of nostalgic elements to us, but it doesn't pinpoint to like any, like, one specific band. I once this LP shapes up and we have like a full, 12-song body of work, I think that will become more clear.
AL: I know that you said Joshua trees a really special place for you in the band. What was the experience like filming a music video there and just getting to perform in that space?
CG: Joshua Tree is our favorite spot ever. I'm sure we'll plan out a trip to go there sometime in the next six months. It's just such an oasis for us, and we've just had so many big band memories there. We went there to write and shoot a music video during COVID, during heavy lockdown, we just drove in our van for three days across the country avoiding people and got an Airbnb there. That was a big escape from reality for a while. I think just like scenic-wise, it just speaks to us so much. So incorporating that in a music video was huge, you know?.
AL: In terms of making music videos, what is it like to add to a visual element to a song and expand the creative process that way?
CG: We do it for pretty much every song we put out. We always have some type of visualizer, which I feel like is really rare, mainly because we've just found a way to do some DIY where we're not spending more than a couple hundred bucks on it. For some people, maybe that's not their forte, or they don't have like the equipment or skill set to do that, so they have to go out and spend thousands of dollars. But I love like at least putting something visual together for us, even just a lyric video, because I grew up like always wanting to have a visual with music and music that I love.
AL: What are you most excited for in the band’s future?
CG: For us, just getting a first album underneath us and then moving forward. I think we're a band that would love to do a concept record.
Right now, we're just trying to write the best songs and make the best music we can, and then that's all going to put itself into a project, like The 1975, Phoenix, Coldplay, and Radiohead have done in the past. They do a really good job at saying, “Here are the flavors for this album, here's the colors that we're going to paint with.” And I think that's what a great concept record is. After we get one or two LPs under our belt, we’re definitely going to explore more cohesive themes for a record.
Alexandra’s BETCHA picks:
Swim Naked
July
Closer to The Sun