“We’re Samba Screamo now - Skramba”: Inside the World of Internet Skramz Band Gingerbee

Gingerbee with Somersault interviewer Kade Homa before their El Puente Yokohama Japan show on June 26.

Gingerbee isn’t your typical screamo band; they're a genre-bending, long-distance collective making songs over discord calls, taking inspiration from Mario Kart, and layering in monkey drums for good measure. Before their Yokohama show on their current Japan tour, Kade Homa caught up with the band to talk about their formation, how Rate Your Music accidentally launched their careers, and the chaotic makings of their new record, 15 seconds at a time.

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Kade: Okay, so, first of all, who am I joined by here today?

Gustavo: I'm Gustavo. I'm in Gingerbee.

Dani: I'm Dani, I do vocals in Gingerbee.

Nick: I'm Nick. I play violin in Gingerbee.

Melody: I’m Melody, I do synths and drums in Gingerbee.

James: I'm James, I play sax and other woodwinds in Gingerbee.

Patrick: I'm Patrick, and I fill in on bass sometimes in Gingerbee. 

James: And you're in Godfuck!

Patrick: That's true.

Kade: So the first thing I wanted to ask was just about how you guys all met, how the band was formed, and where the name Gingerbee came from?

Melody: So, our band makes and records all our music over Discord, which is also where we met. I met Gustavo, like two and a half, three years back now, where I had just posted a demo of a random Your Arms Are My Cocoon type ripoff thing that I made, and I just posted it in a server called BSDJ. Gustavo just randomly sent it back and said like, “Hey, I put some guitar over this”, and I loved it. So I'm like, this is amazing, we should like start doing something with this. And so, we just kind of kept sending stuff to each other and eventually we found Dani, our vocalist. I heard a demo from the server that they made and I’m like, I love your vocals, please be in our band. Then eventually, I was in my high school's library when I was trying to think of like a name for a band, and a lot of bands at the time felt like they're bug related.

Gustavo: Big bug vibes.

Melody: There's like big bug vibes in this scene. 

Gustavo: Scene’s got bug ties.

Melody: Yeah, so I was thinking like a, like a cute little bug thing, and then trying to think of like, what a little mascot or something could be. So I thought of like gingerbread and a bee. I was like “Oh, Gingerbee, maybe that could work”, and then that’s just it. I made like a little MS paint, like cut out thingy, I like traced a gingerbread cookie from the internet. And I'm like, oh, this could maybe be like a little guy. So, it's kind of stuck from there, but people, they all just liked it. So, yeah, that's kind of just how it happened.

Kade: So the next thing I was gonna ask you guys about was Petal Dance. So it's definitely got more of a chamber pop type of influence, especially compared to the stuff that you released on Our Skies Smile. So I just wanted to ask, what inspired Petal Dance? Was there any specific artists, albums, or songs that kind of inspired the direction of it and why you wanted to head in that direction?

Gingerbee at El Puente Yokohama Japan on June 26. Photo by Kade Homa.

Gustavo: Yeah, sure. So, Petal Dance has definitely some Mario Kart vibes, listening to some Mario Kart, some Sonic OST. But then, like, bands like Glass Beach. 

James: I was trying to get really good at Mario Kart Double Dash with my friend, who’s like, totally cracked at it and you would play on like, there's like this dolphin thing you could play with your friends' GameCube games online. 

Which is really good if you live in a city by yourself, you don't have any friends. Like I did. And then, yeah, so just the Mario Kart soundtrack, was definitely, definitely in there. But I mean, I come from like a jazz background, so probably a lot of that sublimated through. 

Gustavo: That was our first. This was James’, the woodwind player, this was our first song with James, so we've sort of brought it in a more jazz direction. And then I was listening to a lot of Brazilian music, older Brazilian music that does have like a chamber aspect to it. So there's, like, some samba stuff and it's pretty jazzy. I ripped off the chord progression from this song called "Crash!!!!!!!!! Burn!!!!!!!!” by Forest Spirit [Sun on Your Back]. 

Melody: Oh my gosh yeah…

James: There's a lot of chords in that song.

Gustavo: Well, yeah, four of the chords are from that song. 

Melody: Yeah we ripped off four chords from that song.

James: You can’t copyright chord progressions. 

Gustavo: That's true, that’s true. There's like a ton of chords. How did that song happen? Oh, Lamp! Lamp! We ripped off Lamp. Yeah, like Lamp.

Dani: And we knocked off… What's that Brazilian artist?

Gustavo: Oh, uh, Cartola. Yeah. There's this old Brazilian guy from the 70s called Cartola. And we just straight up stole the exact lyrics and melody from one of his songs.

Melody: All our music is just plagiarised. 

Gustavo: Yeah, we plagiarise everything.

James: Great artist steal.

Melody: Yeah. It's how we get away with it.

Gustavo: But we wanted to go in that direction because we could. And we got Nick, our first collaboration with Nick, Nick talk about it.

Nick: That was awesome. That was probably the first set of songs I think y'all brought me on for that. And at the time, I was, I'm still in college, but I was playing a lot in the symphony, and that's really, I'd been a violinist for about 10 years, but that was the time I started to kind of come around to orchestral music and really appreciate it for what it was. So I wanted to use that to my advantage and incorporate in that. So there's a lot of layers and a lot of different moving parts that kind of interact with each other. And I wanted to apply that to something awesome like Gingerbee.

Gustavo: Yeah, and we also had a great trumpet player, Joy on there. We had a cello from Jacob West [from] Summer 2000 on there, and some upright bass, some upright bass and piano for my friends in college, Julian and Matijs.

Dani: Yeah, list all the instruments you used. 

Gustavo: It's gonna take like two minutes

Melody: A lot of percussion instruments we used.

Gustavo: Yeah, a lot of different percussion instruments. There's a gong on there.

Melody: There's a gong on there, that's true.

Gustavo: Yeah. Played a bunch of different guitars, I played keyboard, Glockenspiel, different types of Brazilian percussion, like a cuíca, which is like this friction drum, they call it, like a monkey drum. You just go ooh ooh ooh! Yeah, that was really fun to play. The new record has that too.

Kade: Awesome! So, with so many different instruments being a part of your recording process at this point, how do you guys kind of start looking to record a new song? Do you start with any specific instruments? Are there any specific sounds that you go after? And then from there, how do you start to layer all the different instruments?

Gustavo: I'd say the process is different for every song, pretty much.

James: It's kinda random. There really is no process. 

Gustavo: Yeah, sometimes it starts with the piano, guitar, sometimes it even starts with the sax part, or like a big choir type thing. How it layers.. I don't know, we just pass it to each other. And then we get in call and we're like, does this work, does this not? 

Melody: Yeah. A lot of our old process was just like one of us sending a demo and then being like, oh, we could like do this with it and then sending it back. And then, oh, we could do this with it. Send it back. A lot of it was just like me sending like random demos and then Gustavo putting guitar over it and then us being like, oh, we should make this nightcore and then like speeding it up by like 200 BPM and making it like seven cents higher or seven semitones higher. That was sort of our old process, and there's a bit of that still where we just like go back and forth. But yeah, there really is no set process. It kind of just is random.

Gustavo: I'd say we make our songs like…

Gustavo: That already sounds awesome I'm so excited. 

Nick: That is so cool. (In reference to the that same street soundcheck coming from the venue)

Gustavo: I'd say we make our songs like 15 seconds at a time. 

Melody: That's a good way to put it.

Gustavo: The sections, the new songs are like, mostly just, like, changing vibes every 20 seconds or so. 

Kade: Another thing I wanted to ask you, it's been a little over two years since your debut EP, Our Skies Smile, released. Before you released it, did you have any idea just kind of how good and wide of a reception it would receive? I mean, it's propelled you into performing across the world. Did you ever think that it would get to that point? 

Gustavo: No.

Melody: Yeah, it kind of, it came out of nowhere. A lot of it, like, our EP kind of blew up on the website Rate Your Music out of nowhere, and that like, really propelled us. But yeah, no, we had no idea that this thing would become this huge. I remember when it did and eventually the band Your Arms Are My Cocoon followed us and we all freaked out. We're like, what the fuck? Like one of our favourite bands did. 

Gustavo: When we got the Your Arms follow, that’s when we knew we’d made it.

Melody: Yeah exactly.

Gustavo: Everything else past that doesn't matter. 

Melody: I remember I was like in the middle of an Overwatch game and I quit my game to call with these guys and be like, we got the Your Arms follow, let's go!

Gustavo: Your Arms follow was like… 

James: It's all downhill from here. 

Gustavo: When we were making the record, our probably biggest hope for it is that our influences would hear it. And people in our scene would hear it. But now it's grown.

Melody: Now we play with those people and it's like crazy

James: We’re playing with Your Arms in a little bit.

Gustavo: Yeah, in like 20 minutes.

Nick: Yeah, I think it's crazy because I've always; I had been listening to Gingerbee. I think, I know I joined after Our Skies Smile, but I'd been listening to Gingerbee, I'd been listening to Your Arms, and I'd been listening to that same street. And I remember seeing the tour for that same street and Your Arms are My Cocoon and thinking, "Damn, I'll never be able to see that.” And it's just, it's crazy that I'm able to share the stage with them.

Gustavo: Yeah, we're here.

Melody: We're here. For real.

Kade: Speaking of touring in Japan, are there any specific cities that you're especially excited to visit on this tour? Whether it's to perform there or whether there's anything you want to see in those cities?

Gustavo: I want to take the gang surfing if we have time. In Shōnan.

James: I want to go to the Deer Park.

Gustavo: Deer Park? Nara Deer park?

James: Yeah, the deer that bow to you, that sounds kind of awesome.

Kade: Yeah, they really do bow to you. Yeah, it's really awesome.

James: I'm hoping we can fit in.

Dani: I'm excited to see moreru. Is that how you pronounce it?

Gustavo: moreru, yeah.

James: It’s a band.

Dani: I'm still really excited to see them. You know, I'm excited to hear them too.

Gustavo: There’s this Mexican restaurant called El Puente.

James: I kind of regret not giving myself more time in between, because it would be nice to see some of the countryside. It seems like Japan has a lot of nice rural parts, but I don't know how easy that is to get to.

Gustavo: It's very beautiful. You can take the train.

Melody: I did like a little, like touristy day trip, like tour thing with a guide like to see like some spots at Mount Fuji. That was like a few days ago. And it was, thankfully a really nice day. It was only kind of cloudy. The took us to a nice little village, like a traditional village area and like Fuji Fifth Station and that kind of thing. It was really nice. And I'm glad that I got to be able to do that. But outside of that, yeah, I think all the cities are sort of, they have a lot of exciting stuff to do, I think, even though I don't think we have a lot of time, but I still think we're going to see a lot of cool stuff. So I'm excited.

Kade: So, you're touring in Japan now. Are there any other countries across the world that you want to play shows in or any specific cities, places?

James: Australia sounds cool.

Gustavo: I've heard the Australia scene is pretty banging.

Dani: I've always wanted to go to Spain. The punk and garage scene over there seems pretty crazy.

Melody: I've always wanted to play a show in my hometown, which is Toronto, in Canada, and thankfully we're gonna be able to do that. This year in August playing New Friends Fest, it's like, a dream come true for me, and I'm very excited.

James: Honestly, Japan's kind of as cool as it gets, I feel like. I might quit after this

Melody: Well, it's kind of like one that bands want.

Gustavo: Yeah we're breaking up in like five months. We gotta go to Brazil, though. We gotta come to Brazil.

Dani: I’d love to.

Melody: Yeah, we gotta live the meme and come to Brazil.

Gustavo:Yeah, there's a pretty good scene in São Paulo. I think we could get a show. 

James: Pretty good music down there.

Gustavo: Yeah, pretty good music.

Gingerbee at El Puente Yokohama Japan on June 26. Photo by Kade Homa.

Kade: You mentioned before how that influence we spoke about before is affecting songs on your new record. Could you tell me a little bit about it?

Gustavo:Yeah. So we all pretty much love Brazilian music from what I know.

James: Yeah.

Gustavo: James, yeah. We've all been getting into it. Bans like Novos Baianos and then more Brazilian, like bossa, jazz type stuff.

James: Milton Nascimento.

Gustavo: Yeah, Milton Nascimento. Really good stuff. And we've all liked that for a really long time, and then getting to bring it into this new record, I got all the Brazilian percussion instruments, so we kind of get that authentic vibe.

James: ooh

Gustavo: And I'm singing in Portuguese on, like, four of the new songs.

James: Totally Brazilled out.

Gustavo: We're pretty Brazilled out.

James: We’re hoping to sell one Brazilian copies.

Gustavo: Yeah. We're samba screamo.

James: Yeah it is, we actually are samba screamo. That’s kinda the vibe of the next album, skramba.

All: Skramba?

James: That's good. 

Gustavo: Yeah, that's horrible. Wow. 

Kade: On the note of the new album, record, EP, whatever it ends up being, what can you guys tell me for people who are wondering when new music's going to be coming from Gingerbee?

James: I don't know. Soon

Gustavo: Within like 30 days, hopefully. We have all the songs almost done.

James: It's very close to done. It's like 98% done.

Gustavo: I would say it's 98% done. We got the cover art, like, everything's ready to go. We're just in Japan.

James: So we’re just like, fucking around right now.

Gustavo: I’ve got my laptop, I'm going to work on it while on tour.

James: Can we swear on this?

Melody: Can I say fuck is that ok?

Gustavo: Yeah. Should be done soon.

Melody: Coming soon. Coming soon.

Gustavo: Coming soon.

James: Very soon even.

Gustavo: It's very good.

Nick: Really good.

Gustavo: I will venture to say that it is very good.

Melody: I think it's okay.

Gustavo: I think it's very good.

Nick: Kind of pushing it there.

Gustavo: I think it's quite excellent.

Nick: Okay, okay.

Kade: I know there are a lot of people, myself included, who have been introduced into the skramz and emo scenes and really gotten more into it, especially with labels such as BSDJ and Fragile Recs. Are there any expectations for physical releases for the new record?

Gustavo: We'll probably do them ourselves. Yeah.

Melody: If anything, they'll come eventually.

Gustavo: We're not gonna do an immediate physical release.

Melody: Yeah, it's not going to be immediate. We're gonna, like, take some time after Japan to figure it out, and probably even after New Friends Fest. We're gonna take some time with it.

James: It's gonna be cool.

Melody: It's going to be cool, but we are just like kind of burnt out a little bit through like making shit and like playing shows.

Nick: The logistics aspect of being in a band is pretty crazy.

Melody: It is, yeah. It's quite something.

Gustavo: And a long distance band is pretty crazy. Yeah, long distance relationship. Gingerbee’s like a polycule.

Melody: It really kind of is like, because like when you're with a band, you're like, oh, when is this person going to respond? When are they free? It's like all that kind of shit.

Nick: Three different time zones right?

Melody: Yeah, something like that.

James: Working over the internet is challenging for sure.

Gustavo: And we got jobs and school.

Melody: It's It's like a nice workflow, though, I think. Like when it gets going, it really gets going. Yeah, it works really well for us, I think, so.

Gustavo: We can lock in.

Melody: We can lock in when we need to. But, yeah, coming at some point, physicals.

James: Soon, before the end of the year.

Melody: Soon, but not like very soon. Like, before the end of the year, hopefully.

Gustavo: And they'll be by us, except for vinyl, because that's really expensive, so we'll probably get someone to upfront the cost for vinyl.

Melody: Yeah, well, we will, we'll figure it out.

James: If you want to give us several thousand dollars, PayPal gingerbeeband@gmail.com. 

Gustavo: Anyone want to drop four grand on us? 

Melody: Is that the PayPal?

James: I think it’s the PayPal. We should make it the PayPal after this interview.

Kade: Public application for funding Gingerbee vinyl. 

Melody: Yes, please please.

Gustavo: It would be kind of cool. We don't actually need money.

James: No, we do. Speak for yourself.

Gustavo: We're only in it for the money is the thing.

James: Screamo is hella lucrative.

Gustavo: Really lucrative business.

Patrick: Shout-out.

Kade: Well, I think we'll probably call it there. So if we’ll have everyone sign off?

Gustavo: Signing off, Gustavo Nome, Gingerbee.

Dani: Signing off, Dani, passing it to Nick.

Nick: Signing off, Nick.

Melody: Signing off, Melody's Dreams, passing it to James.

James: Signing off, James, stay safe.

Patrick: Signing off, Patrick.

Kade: Alright, thank you guys.

Listen to Gingerbee’s EP ‘Our Skies Smile’ below and keep up with them on Instagram here.