Matt Kadane and his brother Bubba knew they were destined to make music together by the time they had reached Middle School. Growing up in the small city of Wichita Falls, Texas, the brothers were raised in a musical family. Their grandmother was a terrific ragtime piano player. Their father was obsessed with jazz, pop, and the burgeoning outlaw country movement emanating from Austin, Texas. Music was a constant in their home, and as soon as they were old enough, the boys began music lessons.

Eventually, the brothers would go on to form the great indie outfit Bedhead in the late 1980s. The band was slow, laconic, deliberate, and minimal. It was the perfect antidote to grunge, when that movement stormed the musical gates in 1991. Undaunted by the new sounds of that era, Bedhead doubled down on their commitment to slower songs and stripped back arrangements.

During our discussion, Matt shares the story of building Bedhead from a band of brotherly love into a fully functional four piece that would garner critical acclaim, and allow the band to tour the world extensively. We talk about the ephemeral nature of shows that happened in an era before smart phones and social media. Those were nights that existed in a moment, and then were gone forever, making them seem all the more sacred.

Bedhead were unfortunately lumped into a 1990s subgenre dubbed “slowcore” that also featured bands like Codeine and Low. Matt and I talk about the reductive nature of lazily lumping subcultures together based on nothing more than the most obvious parts of the music. That train of thought then leads us to a fulsome discussion of why we remember what we remember from a given era, often leading to just one or two artists from a movement being canonized, while the rest of the movement just fades away in time.

We learn the lessons behind the ending of Bedhead as Matt began to pursue a Ph.D and a career in academia. Still, the songs kept calling, and Matt and Bubba soon mounted a new band they dubbed, The New Year. That outfit featured a new rhythm section, but carried on many of the same auditory hallmarks of Bedhead.

Eventually, Matt secured his doctorate and began a teaching career as a history professor, leaving music on the backburner. Still, even when talking with Matt Kadane, Ph.D today, you can still feel the fires of indie rock burning bright within him.

Come join me and Matt Kadane for a great chat about brotherly love, slowing things down, and a whole bunch more.

Cheers,

Matty C

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