Making Weird Great Again- A New Concept Perfectly Suited to these Weird Times

By Cole Young

You know what it is. Another project from some of the hardest working most committed musicians in the city, Christof Bedé and The Pierce Kingans teamed up on Four Seasons and are joined by Zachary J. Martin on part 2, Make Weird Great Again.

Although Four Seasons is already out digitally, Make Weird Great Again is coming out in April and both EPs are due to come out together on a joint tape with a rare O card so that you get each cover on either side. Both EPs are recorded and mixed by Bedé himself in his mom’s garage turned recording studio in North Van. All the instruments and vocals are done by the duo/trio with a tasteful amount of features from friends and fundamental bricks in the wall of local musicians including Cole Frizell, James Green and Matty Reed.

As aforementioned these guys hustle, they began their collaboration after playing in Yung Heazy together, one of Vancouver’s most successful acts of recent years, not only that but also have several other projects as well as individual solo projects as well. From Bedé’s psychedelic hip hop story collab with Bowl (Cole) Frizell to Kingan’s long resume of bangin’ garage/psych rock bands he’s played/playing in it feels like these guys are everywhere I look. When asked about his day job Kingan responds by saying “I work just enough to make the money I need to survive so I can go make more music.”. Even so, he was generous enough to make us all dinner before the interview.

The music itself ranges throughout the double EP, sonically shifting and digressing from spacey jizz-jazz influenced indie rock into poppy interludes met with a notable hip hop influence especially present in the production. A song on the upcoming part two Own Who You Are brings James Green back into the scene singing a song written by Kingan, however the warm richness of Green’s voice fits so well you’d never guess he didn’t come up with it himself. 

The songs shift lyrically just as much as the vibes. There’s songs based off of interesting words Kingan finds and decides to write a whole song around, something of a Kingan special at this point. “Im sure people know them but I’m just retarded and I’m like “Wow this word!””. Then there’s Manga Breakup which at first seems like a sad song about a lost love but when you focus in on the words you realize it’s actually about becoming enthralled in an anime comic, which is actually called a manga, there you go you learned something today, well I did at least. When asked about the lyrics Bedé couldn’t stop laughing saying “ Yeah, I was reading the manga [Suzuka] and Pierce has the idea of each song being a season so I wrote this one with fall vibes.” Then quickly got distracted trying to remember which songs connect to each of the seasons. 

This short and sweet double EP is perfectly blended and is so smooth and tasty you’ll often find yourself putting it right back on directly after crushing it. The mix of styles and singers keeps it fresh and keeps you fascinated the whole way through. It pairs nicely with a joyful doobie in the sun or a depressing walk in the rain, keeping you company no matter what time of year it is.