Hotbed is just warming up

Hotbed has come a long way since their dorm room days.   

An exciting new psychedelic rock outfit from Philly, the band cut its teeth at the University of Delaware’s college bar scene. There, they shared the stage with a wide variety of cover bands, and bucked the trend by regaling crowds with mostly original music. “It was an interesting scene, for sure,” laughs drummer Jimmy McKenney. While they slipped in a cover here and there to keep the masses on their side (The Doors’ “Riders On The Storm” and Sublime’s “Pawn Shop” were some early favorites), the bandmates prided themselves on standing out by making music that captures their unique and playful spirit.

It’s an ethos that’s stuck with them well past their time in college. While the band’s latest album, Forgot How 2 Chill, is replete with layered psychedelic textures and rhythms, their influences are many, from neo–soul artists to fellow Philly acts like indie group 2nd Grade. Chief among their inspirations, though, might be King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, whose genre–defying antics find a clear mirror in Hotbed’s own discography. This mixed musical heritage is a big part of the reason the band tends to shy away from labels. “You know, obviously, we’re an indie rock group,” vocalist/guitarist Jake Wipf says dismissively, arguing that their music resists reduction to such broad genre terms.  “We make a lot of feel–good music,” he admits. “You can call us a feel–good band, but at the same time, [our music] tugs on every emotion.”

The band’s latest project puts this variety on clear display, with each of its nine tracks reflecting a different aspect of the band’s multifold talents.  The album’s opener “Let it Breathe,” a collaboration with fellow Philly–based rock duo Echo Kid, is a mid–tempo ballad whose guitar line is fuzzy, frenetic and full of soul. “Fresh Air” is smooth and rhythmic, with stripped–down drums and a repetitive riff that support both Wipf’s wailing vocals and some classic psych–rock guitar licks. “Evil,” on the other hand, is slower and more emotional, sporting a jangly instrumental that serves to underscore Wipf’s heartfelt vocal delivery. “We didn’t have a concept album this time,” he explains. “We just wanted to put together these different feelings that people probably haven’t heard us play before.”  Despite the stylistic diversity from song to song, the album manages to hang together as a cohesive unit. There’s a certain maturity behind every word, and a level of polish to their output despite their dirty guitar tone.

That maturity isn’t surprising given Hotbed’s long history together. McKenney and Wipf were high school swim teammates before they were musicians.  Back then, he admits, Wipf didn’t even know McKenney played music.  For his part, Wipf spent much of his high school years teaching himself to play the guitar, treating music more as an emotional outlet than anything else. It took until college for the two of them, alongside former member Jonathan Diehl and current keyboardist Kevin Kruelle, to even consider playing music as a group. The moment they did, however, “it was everyone on the same page,” McKenney reminisces. Though Kevin had gone to music school and the rest of the group was self-taught, the band quickly found a middle ground that captured each of their unique technical skills and musical sensibilities. “We all came down or up to each other, in a sense, whether it was Kevin playing simpler, or us playing our ass off,” Wipf remembers.

While it may be difficult to capture Hotbed’s music in traditional genre labels, what’s abundantly clear is the value they place on independence and ingenuity. Though the band never had access to audio equipment or a professional recording space, that hasn’t stopped them from putting their songs to tape (metaphorically, at least) and recording demos with whatever tools they had on them. Wipf notes that quite a few of Hotbed’s earliest works were recorded straight onto his iPhone’s voice memos, with one of these rough demos even making it onto their most recent album. But the past few years have seen these old dogs learn new tricks — Wipf remarks with pride that they’ve been getting more professional since coming back from a COVID-era hiatus, experimenting with new methods of production on his brand–new laptop. “You getting a MacBook really opened the floodgates,” McKenney tells him with a laugh.

Hotbed has certainly upped their tech game in recent years, but their philosophy when it comes to making music is still to keep things chill, always. “I don’t ever think too much,” Wipf remarks. “Like, I get a little beat going and then the rest kind of piles up.” Though the lesson is simple, it’s something they’ve had to learn after years of trial and error. Meditating on how their style has evolved since the 2010s, McKenney credits their recent collaborations with Echo Kid musicians Christian Turzo-Egan and Brendan McHale for helping them loosen up and take themselves less seriously.  Wipf adds that being able to record with the duo made for “some of the best times that we’ve had making music ever. The way they do it is just so organic and so simple.”

Though Wipf acknowledges that the band has made great strides in their time together, their emotional core has always remained the same—the friendship of a couple guys from Delaware who have stuck by each other through it all. “It’s been an anchor in life, you know?” McKenney says of the band. “I’ve known Jake since high school. From Delaware to living in Philly for the past seven years, our friendship has been a through-line through all of that.”  Wipf adds that learning guitar helped guide him through some of the roughest moments in his life. “I lost my mom when I was really early on in high school, like freshman year,” Wipf says,  “But music kind of helped me move naturally through life, and the grieving process, and everything that I’ve gone through.” Fluctuations in their lives have at times pulled the band apart, but the stability, love and joy that keep Hotbed’s music feeling fresh has always remained.

Fun is at the center of everything the band does, from lyrics written on the fly to riffs that seem to come naturally when the time is right. At the same time, though, the band is deadly serious about their craft, having stuck with it for almost 9 years. “We still want to represent “us,” but where we’re at now, we feel a new energy,” Wipf proclaims. It’s apparent in “Shuttle,” the closing track of Hotbed’s most recent project, whose guitar line glitters and reverberates as if wafting out the door of a warm and inviting bar. Remarkably, the instrumental manages to honor their past forays into classic rock and ska while exhibiting all the technique and polish of their new era.

Keep your eyes peeled and your ears open—Hotbed is just warming up.

Hotbed will be performing at Kung Fu Necktie on November 7 with Sunshine Spazz.