New York band Bodega released their fourth album, All Inside Aquarium, on Friday 9 October, and frontman Ben Hozie says the group set out to make a rock record without any qualifiers. Speaking to NME, he said the band decided to make “proper rock without the ‘indie’ modifier”, pairing open-hearted lyrics with technical guitar solos. The record follows 2024’s Our Brand Could Be Yr Life.
The songs were written in New York but recorded in Leeds with producer Matt Peel at his studio, the Nave, inside a deconsecrated church. It was the first time the five members had lived together away from home for a long stretch and the first time they had recorded outside New York. Tracking happened in two sessions, with most of the upbeat songs done in winter and the slower drones and ballads in summer.
Hozie walked through the themes. Combustible and Backbeaten portray bitter rock lifers, Weather Me deals with a mind overloaded by information, and Pick Up The Check is about learning to think independently. His favourite, Astro Night Ride, describes a dream of riding a roller coaster at a space-station theme park with his late mother, and its structure follows the ride’s layout. He rejects the post-punk label and calls Bodega a conceptual rock band, citing Jane’s Addiction, Gang of Four, Delta 5, The Mekons, The Stone Roses and The Fall as touchstones.
He also spoke about the role of artists. Hozie argued that poets and critics help shape the future and that musicians undervalue themselves, saying: “Our world doesn’t recognise the value of the artist.” Asked about Ed Sheeran and the Macklemore row, he said a songwriter’s first job is to serve the song, and criticised Sheeran’s lyrics as platitudinous. On the online claims about the band Geese, he said the criticism sounded like career jealousy and that the real concern was corporations using technology to manipulate people.
Hozie said he became disillusioned with the New York scene between 2010 and 2013, when musicians were focused on personal branding, and that Bodega grew out of that loss of faith. He wants more rock bands to write hooks that can compete with Top 40 radio. The band never repeat a setlist and aim for spontaneity on stage, and they play headline UK shows in Manchester, London and Leeds next month.
