Sierra Haager of Bed. on July 26, 2015—click to see more photos by Henry Novak from PDX Pop Now!In 2015, Bed. was booked to play the final day of PDX Pop Now!'s annual festival. Taking the West Stage at 4:10pm on Sunday, July 26, the slow-fi rockers launched into their half-hour-ish set and some refined ears in the crowd quickly took notice.
Here's how it happened in real time:
4:29pm
Cary Clarke, one of the fest's original co-founders back in 2004 and the current executive director of Young Audiences of Oregon & SW Washington, tweeted at Larry Crane:
@LCraneTapeOp I think you'd be into @thisisbed
— Cary Clarke (@ClarkeCary) July 26, 2015
4:33pm
A few minutes later, Crane, the man behind Tape Op Magazine and the legendary Jackpot! Recording Studio (where he's recorded Elliott Smith, The Decemberists, Sleater-Kinney and Summer Cannibals), responded:
I am loving @thisisbed We must own same records! Bed! Record with me! https://t.co/E8Nvc7Kpmq
— Larry Crane (@LCraneTapeOp) July 26, 2015
Bed. were obviously stoked to find a new fan and the two parties ended up chatting after their set. "I remember watching him [Crane] drop his headphones and get all tangled up and thinking to myself, 'Wow, he's a person just like me. I drop stuff in public,'" recalls Sierra Haager.
Tossing and turning around the local scene for a few years since that fateful afternoon, Bed. have continued to slowly but surely churn out fuzzy shoegaze, notably their well-received 2016 EP Klickitat.
Yet all the while, the husband-and-wife team of Alex and Sierra Haager did end up in the studio with Crane, laying down tracks for what'll be "our upcoming album, our first full-length," Sierra Haager says. The TBA effort was entirely produced, tracked and mixed by Crane at Jackpot! "Alex does rhythm section stuff and I do guitars, pianos and any other bells and whistles that show up," she says.
The Larry Crane-produced and Jackpot!-recorded "Girl" will ultimately appear on Bed.'s debut LP"Girl" is one of those future album songs.
"The song isn't exactly for my mom, but it's inspired by her," Haager explains. "Her life has been shaped in many ways by men who treated her as a resource and essentially bulldozed over her needs and well-being—her dad, my dad, and one of her other long-term partners in particular. It's a love song for women, in a general way. It's about wishing for a world in which women and femmes can live without the constant weight of feeling that they must serve and perform for men."
Although we may have just missed Mother's Day, we can still honor the women in our lives and set an example for our kids. The Haagers themselves are new parents so whatever time they're not dedicating to their band or boutique agency Public Display PR is focused on "keeping busy with our four-month-old son, Otto. He's a wonderful, hilarious little squid," she says. "We are so tired."
