One of the primary goals of every band should be finding a sound of its own. This, of course, is not easy. First, many of the best sounds are already taken. And in the event you may think you have a sound of your own, chances are you probably haven’t listened to enough music. Not to mention it’s pretty tough, even impossible, to cast aside your own predispositions long enough to come up with something that doesn’t sound like something more than a mosaic of your favorite bands.
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But cynicism aside, there are wedges and windows for the super-imaginative, where unclaimed styles are available like carpet remnants, odd lots of material that don’t really go with anything but look kinda cool hanging on the wall. Because of its wildly eclectic noise scene and because most of its participants don’t give a rat’s ass about wide exposure, Providence artists have managed to snag an impressive number of remnants. Badman, for their part, has pulled one down and made it their own. “When we first moved here,” says singer-songwriter-co-founder Andrew States, “we concentrated on not writing songs the way we had written them before. We focused on figuring out what made a song good. We had been writing good parts to songs, but we weren’t clear on how to assemble a good song.”
Together for more than 10 years, Badman moved here from Denver about four years ago. In the Rocky Mountain State, the band had developed a decent following in a fairly insular scene, but decided to move East in an attempt to cover more cities. “In Denver, if you wanted to go on tour, it’s more of a project,” says States. “The first city you hit to the west is Las Vegas which is 12 hours over the mountains, and east, you have a day’s drive to get to St. Louis or Kansas City.”
States, along with bandmates Tyler Hayden and Alec Tisdale, rolled into Providence in a van and a car, knowing no one and having nowhere to go. “We slept in the car for a couple weeks until we found a place,” States says. “It was confusing when we first moved here, especially when you’re coming from a grid city like Denver.” On their first night, the police rapped on their window to find out what in hell they were up to. “They told us it wouldn’t be safe to spend the night where we were, so they escorted us to a parking lot downtown where we wouldn’t be bothered overnight. It didn’t look like a bad neighborhood during the day,” says States. “We found a nice shady tree to park under, too.”
Badman got to work, playing when they could. “At first it was daunting. We were kind of like the brother-in-law on the Providence scene. But over time people realized we weren’t assholes and they accepted us. Everyone’s been very cool and supportive, bands like Nefarious, Sweetthieves, and Spheres. Providence has a very strong base and it’s really creative. Everyone’s doing very cool and very different kinds of music.”
