All Bluphoria’s discography, including their new EP Alone, is on their spotify!
Bluphoria is a psych pop rock band located in and around Eugene, Oregon. The band is fronted by Reign LaFreniere, who is lead guitarist and vocalist, along with Dakota Landrum on rhythm guitar, Rex Wolf on bass guitar and Ben Norman on the drums. Bluphoria was founded in early 2019, and has since performed at house shows, non-profit sets, and even selling out Oregon venues. Recently the band’s debut EP, Alone, was released on spotify. Following the release we contacted Reign and Ben to talk about their experiences with and passion for the local music scene.
Reign, Dakota, Rex and Ben pose for a photo by local photographer Paris Barton @pbarton_art
How did Bluphoria come to be?
RL: Bluphoria is kind of a passion project for me, I started it a year or so ago with some other members. The band started taking a more serious direction and that’s when I found Dakota and Ben. Soon after Rex had been going to a bunch of our shows and followed us and I happened to DM him asking if he was interested in joining too.
What are your major inspirations? How does this influence your work?
RL: Some of our most prominent inspirations are The Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, and Pink Floyd.
BN: My favorites are probably Led Zeppelin, Arctic Monkeys, Cage the Elephant, and the White Stripes. I’ve also been really into IDLES and King Gizzard for a while now.
What does the creative process look like for you?
RL: It usually is a mix of Dakota and I presenting songs followed by the band ironing out the kinks and brainstorming more ideas for them.
BN: We usually write the parts for our own instruments, and as soon as we’ve got that done we all participate in the arrangement and coming up with ideas.
How long has the Alone EP been in the works?
RL: I’ve been writing the Alone EP since about this time last year.
BN: We finished the recording process just before the pandemic, so around early March.
Do you have a favorite song off of Alone?
RL: Girl Like You would probably be my favorite.
BN: I really dig Is It True personally.
What's it like to be a black fronted band in a scene dominated by white fronted bands? How does it affect your writing and your performances?
RL: I think that there are always unwanted pressures and expectations when you are a minority within a predominantly white music scene. We are first expected to act, create, and be a certain way so it is important for us to challenge the narrative and be who we want to be. We prefer to be true artists and you can’t do that by allowing a community to create a box to stick you in.
Where do you see the band in 5 years? 10 years?
RL: Hopefully playing to bigger crowds and not having to worry about corona.
BN: Honestly I’m not sure. Hopefully on tour in some capacity.
When did you realize you wanted to start making music?
RL: About four or five years ago I picked up a guitar and since then I’ve been trying my best to get better at it every day.
BN: As a profession? Probably around 3 years ago, but I’ve been “making music,” as in playing, for about 10 years now.
How would you describe your sound?
RL: I’d say a mix of car commercial rock with funk, psych rock, and pop influences! Ben hates that answer though.
BN: Rock with psych and surf mixed in, but with pop songwriting.
Have you thought about collaborating with any other local artists? If so, who?
RL: Yes! We have a couple of collabs we are trying to do, mainly with a band called Honey and a rapper from Portland, Creme Brûlée.
If you could change anything about the local music scene, what would it be and why?
RL: Make it more inclusive to black artists. Too often there have been circumstances resulting in the discouragement of POC artists to join the scene. Our scene isn’t overtly racist but it does have it’s fair share a folks with hidden prejudices.
How much time do you typically spend practicing and rehearsing?
RL: pre-corona we were practicing 3-4 times a week. We’ve been in the process of moving into a new house so practices have been put on the back burner for now.
BN: I try to practice on my own as much as I can. Once we get this move done hopefully full-band practices will be more frequent.
What is the biggest difficulty you've faced while being a musician?
RL: I’ve often been told that I should allocate more time to more popular forms of music that coincide with my race in culture, for example, I’ve often been told that I should rap or sing R&B or that rock music makes me “white” somehow. As a musician I am trying to change the narrative back from rock being a predominantly white genre and give the power back to its true pioneers, African Americans.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
RL: that’s a hard question, it depends. Most of the time, when I have nothing to do, I spend time with friends or write more music.
How do you define success and how do you measure up to your own definition?
RL: I don’t think I’ll ever measure up to my own definition of success, it’d involve me time traveling to a point in time where I could play a huge music festival on mars so...
BN: I’d like to be able to make music my primary source of income. We’re pretty far from that right now though. Also yeah playing Lollapalooza would be sick. Or touring Japan.
What is one of your performances like visually? What's the energy of the room typically like?
RL: Live shows are so much fun because it gives us the opportunity to feed off the crowd. I feel like we bring a lot of energy to the stage and try less to be a couple of dudes just presenting their newest music and more of a show where we try our hardest not to bore the living hell out of you.
BN: Most nights the crowd response we’ve had has been super energetic, and that reflects back into us when we’re playing. It makes for a positive feedback loop of energy, and it’s super fun.
How often does the band or members of the band hang out when not working on music?
BN: Pretty much every day, since Reign and I live together now and everyone else lives close.
What qualities do you think make you stand out as a performer?
RL: Idk, I’m not afraid to try something I’m not sure I can pull off. For example, I often would play guitar with my teeth or behind my back while on stage and it took until this past year where I could pull it off successfully. Now the audience will have to endure my shitty moonwalking until I can master that too!
BN: Don’t come to a show until he’s got the moonwalking down. It’s bad.
What advice would you give someone who wants to start making music?
RL: Just do it, don’t isolate yourself and always work with others. I feel like nowadays it’s less likely new musicians will play in front of crowds but that is the only thing that can really organically grow your audience unless you somehow are the luckiest person on earth. People you meet at live shows can help you find more opportunities so always be open to that.
BN: it’s really just a matter of putting yourself out there. Once you take the step into becoming a “musician” it’ll get easier and easier to find outlets and opportunities. Also, practice as much as humanly possible.
What are your favorite and/or go-to pieces of equipment?
BN: I just got a new Ludwig set from 1966 and I will never buy another drumset again. Probably.
Photos by Paris Barton @pbarton_art on instagram
You can find Reign and Ben on instagram @reignchecked and @benniebobjoe. The official Bluephoria band account is @bluphoriaband on instagram.
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