ONErpm City: Houston, TX (USA)

5Q: Basement Batman

It’s a big week for us, because our most anticipated local band is releasing their debut LP, Season 1 by Basement Batman, and we’re pulling out all the stops for them. The D.C.-native, Bushwick crew combines alt-rock tones with heavy hip-hop beats to jazz the crowd. The guys talk with us about sports, Bushwick music and getting a line of credit from the New York Times.

LISTEN: Season 1 (Rdio Playlist)

Explain the branding parallel between sports and super heroes with Basement Batman?

We love sports, especially basketball and football. None of us are particularly into comic books or superheroes, the name just kinda came up and we liked the sound of it.  The branding of our logo is really just a response to two strong icons in pop culture, one being part of our band name and the other our favorite sports league.  We enjoy social commentary and also love ripping off pop culture, plus the logo just looks sweet.  

Which teams do you side with?

We all grew up in Maryland outside of Washington D.C. together so we are all diehard Redskins and Wizards fans.

It seems what’s going well for you guys is that you’re beat-heavy. Was that something you expected to happen before making the songs?

Our sound has always been heavily beat-influenced because Will (drums) and David (bass) produce everything from a hip hop background. We have been making beats for about 10 years together and at the core everything we do is a good hip hop beat.  A staple of our sound to this point is the looped and programmed drums.

Bushwick seems like the hotbed for Brooklyn bands these days. How cluttered does it feel over there? 

We have been lucky enough to call Bushwick home for over two years now, and living here has definitely impacted the development of our sound.  It doesn’t feel cramped here because we love meeting new bands and its exciting to hear new bands and musicians popping up all the time from Bushwick. It’s very inspiring here and we like being a part of the new Brooklyn movement out here.

Few bands can say they got a line of praise from the New York Times. How did you find that?

We are happy that the NY Times thinks we “bleed cool” haha.  We agree.  They wrote us up because of a show we played at Glasslands in Brooklyn.  

ONErpm City: Accra, Ghana