Babe Club is the product of Corey Campbell and Jenna Desmond. Often joined by the artist, Meg Ha, the Charleston band have been releasing music since they debuted with ‘Hate Myself’ back in 2018. 2020 saw their return with three more singles and even a cover of Talking Heads’ ‘Road to Nowhere’.
I chatted to the band ahead of their debut EP, ‘Remember This Feeling’. Jenna and Corey are part of a small group of those who are dating, as well as being bandmates. Their closeness was immediately apparent when I asked how they were doing and they answered in perfect unison. As I commented on them being ‘in sync’, Corey laughed at being reminded of the American boyband, NSYNC. Their warmth and friendliness put me at ease as we began to talk about their wonderful band.
As the pair have lived together through this incredibly turbulent year, they told me how it affected their songwriting.
“Yeah, it definitely helped,” Jenna states. Corey goes on to say “I would come home and Jenna will have written a song and we can work on it right away. It fast-tracks the process, but then sometimes it can get over-saturated and we just need a break from Babe Club.”
Jenna then went on to tell me about the EP. “We wrote most of the songs in 2016 and 2017 and recorded them over six months in 2019 in Atlanta, which is about five hours away from where we live. It’s funny releasing music that we wrote so long ago, but each song feels like a small taste of where we’re going. We chose the title because making music is so joyful, but putting all the pieces together sometimes isn’t, you know?”.
Corey adds that “it’s also like a coping mechanism to deal with anxiety, but it can be a celebration of something, too.”
It’s felt like this EP came from a time and a place that’s a world away from where Corey and Jenna are now. As they told me about the frustration of creating a work of art and the conflicting emotions that it can create and is created from, it was evident that the final feeling when that body of work is released, is completely unique, thus the title, ‘Remember This Feeling’. Corey summed it up beautifully by labelling it a reminder of why we do this.
After having these songs for years, the wait was finally over and ‘Remember This Feeling’ was due to be set free into the world in March. However, a global pandemic had other ideas and Babe Club joined the long list of bands who had to sit on their music for a few more months. Jenna laughed as she stated that they would wait until June, “when the pandemic is over”. I wonder how that worked out. Five months later, ‘Remember This Feeling‘ is finally out.
Three singles that were already available feature on the EP, including ‘Together’, ‘Need A Girl’ and ‘Automatic Love’. Babe Club introduce the record with ‘Future Talks’, however, an emphatic rock tune with observational lyricism acting as a social commentary for life for adults who aren’t ready to grow up.
‘Future Talks’ is also the song that the duo said they are most excited to play live. “It’s the most rocking and energetic song; it’s very performative,” they agree. Corey paid attention to ‘Automatic Love, as well. “It’s the most orchestrated and classy we have, so when we play it live I think, yeah this is a fucking good song”.
We then turned our attention to ‘Together’. This track sent shivers down my spine when I first wrapped my ears around it, and the booming distortion of the bass will never fail to take hold of me.
“It feels so powerful when we pay it live. It’s kind of empty, so the vocals really feature and it’s less crowded.”
The beauty of ‘Together’ is in its attention to each instrument, creating a euphoric experience for the listener, which is something that bands so rarely achieve. Instead of over-complicating the song, they focus on the vital ingredients and assure that they’re perfect.
I shamelessly admitted to daydreaming about seeing that song in a live capacity, and they both assured me the bass thunders throughout the room as I have often envisaged it.
“It’s also cool because Jenna plays lead guitar in that song, which I usually play”, explains Corey. Jenna continues, “he’s a guitar player; I play guitar to songwrite.The guitar in that song accompanies my voice, it’s not that complicated!”
The music videos for Babe Club’s singles are another aspect of their band that I love. Naturally, I was excited to ask about the process of filming them.
“We did all of it ourselves! Jenna directed them, I shot ‘Need A Girl’ and then edited and coloured it. We had a friend of ours come over and shoot ‘Automatic Love’ because we’re both in it.”
“We’d never done anything like this before, but Corey insisted we buy a camera! What we do in the videos definitely reflects our music. We complement each other because I like storytelling and Corey is more technically-minded. We play similar roles in both music and film, but there’s also a grey area where it crosses over.”
The music video for ‘Automatic Love’ features The Flip-Flap. Explained by Corey as “a modern wonder of technological development”, The Flip-Flap is a hand-held box installed with a flash-light. Fans of the band can sell their iPhones and replace with them a shiny new replacement from Babe Club’s website: The Flip-Flap.
In regard to the future, the band have vowed to release more music next year, as they already have an albums worth of new songs ready to be polished. ‘Remember This Feeling’ comes to an end with ‘Expectation’, a lyrically superb track that ends the record immaculately. As the song fades out, it resembles the something you love drifting away into the distance, but with the comfort that it’ll return stronger and greater.
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