A Night at Rumba Cafe - Space Kid
An exclusive interview with the members of the band "Space Kid"!
Music is, among many things, a universal connector. Though technically a purely physical phenomenon, describing it as such would be, in a word, wrong. It transcends space and time. Nothing captures this feeling quite like a live performance. The feeling of complete oneness with a group, the deep rhythmic impression that can surround and completely fill you, and of course, the unique connection between artist and audience.
We were given an opportunity to experience such an event and interview the four bands who performed at a concert this past December! The show was hosted by Rumba Cafe, a quaint little bar with an open concert floor at 2507 Summit Street right across from Used Kids Records. It was two days before Christmas and the place was packed by the time the opener was set to perform.
Space Kid
The first performance of the night was “Space Kid”, an incredibly talented up-and-coming trio of Worthington high schoolers who describe their music as “sunshine garage rock”. They did an amazing job setting the tone for the rest of the night, playing with a contagious energy and obvious passion for live performance.
Space Kid has a near supernatural ability to make the listener feel as though they’ve traveled back in time to the surf rockin’ 1950s. Their lead singer (Pat) really knows what he’s doing, he’s the pinnacle of the rock and roll singer, calling back to artists like Elvis and Michael Jackson. He really loves his craft, and The Bobcat Press is all about it. One song that stood out in particular was “Take it Easy” from their latest EP titled, “WANTED”.
Absolutely worth giving a listen if you haven’t already, it gives a good introduction to the group and their style! We also recommend checking them out in person as that’s always going to be better- they play about once a month in town.
Here’s a link to their stuff so you can check it out!
And here’s our exclusive interview with them- enjoy!
[Pat as vocals/guitar, Riley on bass/vocals, Liam on drums]
Band Origins / Background
So what part of town are you guys from? Are you guys from downtown Columbus?
Pat: Worthington. Worthington kids.
Cool. So how long have you guys been playing together?
Pat: Playing together for like three years. Playing out for a little bit over a year now. Our first real show would have been the Halloween Summit show... We played a lot of backyard stuff for our friends just to get used to it, but our first real one was a Halloween show and we played third of the four bands, which was awesome. It was a fun time- we all dressed up.
How did you get into that? Like how did you get the gig?
Pat: We had played backyard stuff and we were friends with the headliners. We reached out to a bunch of bands about putting on a Halloween show and we knew that the band that headlined would have a big draw and they were friends of ours, so we asked them.
Who writes your guys’ lyrics?
Pat: [It was] mostly me doing the writing, like I'd bring a rough version of a song and we'd hash it out. But now it's definitely become more collaborative, like we’ll have a little bit of an idea of what we want to do or Riley will bring an idea and we'll work together more rather than it already being written.
So how did you guys form the band? Did you guys know each other from school?
Pat: We met in 4th grade.
Wow. All three of you?
Pat: Yeah, all three of us.
Riley: We (referring to Liam) met earlier.
Pat: Yeah, they met earlier but I moved from Clintonville to Worthington and yeah, we just... all liked music and eventually it all worked out that in early high school we [started playing] together. I think the band really formed when Riley came along.
[Before that] another friend of me and Liam's at the time would just come over and we would mess around and it wasn't like- we weren't really writing songs we were just coming up with stuff and screwing around for an hour or two. But then Riley came along and we had progress towards actual songs, actually learning how to play our instruments. We were really young- 8th graders and freshmen- and COVID had just happened, and we were all starting to write music and learn our instruments and stuff like that, and so we just got in the garage-
Liam: Oh, the garage.
Riley: That sucked.
Pat: Yeah we were in the garage in the winter ‘cause it was COVID and we didn't want to all go in the basement and get sick. And so we would be in the garage, all separated. And it was so cold like, we couldn’t even play.
Riley: Like 20 degrees snowing outside. We had an old recording that we don't use anymore, but you can hear like the shaking of our hands…
Pat: Yeah, no. It's messed up.
Playing an instrument when your hands are cold is so tough.
Pat: It’s the worst.
It is cool to see a younger band playing at these venues, because it seems like you have to know somebody to get in. Did you feel like you had to know someone to get in or did you just get in?
Pat: I mean, yeah… I was going to a lot of shows and I'm very good with meeting new people and so as soon as we met our friend Henry Morris- who was in Rat Attack and now he's in his own thing Henry Morris Band- we just hit it off. We both were a fan of each other's bands before we had even played a show. He liked our stuff and we would send him demos of songs and he would just help us reach out to other bands and stuff like that. So he was definitely our ‘in’ to playing shows and starting all that.
How did you guys come up with your name?
Pat : We hate it, to clear it out- I hate it.
Riley: It's not great. I don't like it [either].
Ok so you (Pat) hate it. '“It's not great” and you (Liam) don't hate it?
Riley: I hate it. I never liked it as soon as we came up with it...
Pat: My dad lived in Columbus in the 90s, and he was in like grunge bands at the time. And so one of his bands he was in for maybe a month or two was called “Space Kid”. When we were starting the band we went by “Wasted Wizard” for like a week.
Riley: I think “Wasted Wizard” is better than “Space Kid”.
Pat: We talk about wanting to change it all the time, but we put out releases with our names on it and we play shows and get show offers under Space Kid. So it’s kind of like- if we were to call ourselves “Los Apes” would it really make sense?
I don't know- it might not be too late.
Pat: We'll see- I don't know, anything could happen. We could decide to add like five more people to the band and then change the name and restart everything. You never know.
Liam: We could make a second band
Nothing would stop you.
Pat: You never know- as of now we make Space Kid work as much as we can. I don't wanna do like a space theme- I think space themed bands are stupid. But yeah, we try. We try and get along with it.
The “Sound”
You guys describe your music, at least on Spotify, as ‘Sunshine Garage Rock’- how did you come to that?
Pat: There are all these, like, shitty bands in the 60s that were- all of them were like real life plumbers or had random jobs you wouldn’t expect and they would learn how to play instruments and just kind of throw together stuff. So garage rock was a really big influence for us, but we [also] try to do garage punk and stuff like that where there's a heavier size to it. We try and keep it very melodic while still being able to play rock'n'roll and dance around.
Yeah, Roger Waters was an architect. It's like, people can do anything and then also be incredibly talented musicians.
Pat: Oh yeah, like The Sonics I think were plumbers and carpenters or something and they’re awesome.
Are those one of your guys's bigger influences?
Pat: I would say their sound is pretty cool, but we love the Black Lips and Twin Peaks and The Nerves. We all like very different music, but it also overlaps.
Liam: We listen to the exact same music.
Pat: We listen to the exact same music. Riley likes different things, but I think overall there's definitely a big, big overlap which is really nice because we kind of [all] know what we're going for. So when we're writing songs we can still get the same energy across.
Musical Experience
How long have you been playing the drums?
Liam: Four or five years? Something like that.
Dude, you've got it down. Like you're hitting multiple rhythms it feels like at once. So, we caught that you guys were mostly playing in four bar loops. Would you guys say that's somewhat accurate or do you more freeform it?
Liam: I mean, I feel like it's four bars most of the time. We don't really count or pay attention to it.
Riley: It’s not on purpose.
Pat: Yeah, we're not like the most talented of musicians. We kind of know like five chords and we just play everything really fast and try and sing along.
You mentioned theory earlier, do you guys know music theory?
Pat: Not at all. I don't know shit.
Riley: Me and Patrick are in high school choir.
Pat: Yeah, we sing in choir but that's like it… no music theory. My dad tried to take music theory and he dropped out immediately. He said it was a waste of his time. But I don't know, maybe someday… Yeah, I just think it might take the fun out of it.
But you feel like you know where you need to be on the fretboard- that kind of thing?
Pat: I mean- yeah, I think so. (laughs) Most of the time.
I just kind of have this idea that like, people who don't know music theory, they still know it, they just didn't learn it- if that makes sense.
Pat: Yeah, I feel like if I learned all the words to describe it, that’d be a little too much. If I stumble across a way to do something and it happens to be something that everybody is doing, then that's cool.
How long have you been playing the bass?
Riley: When we started the band I was originally supposed to play- we had a different bass player- I was originally supposed to play a second guitar type thing. That guy [didn’t end up] being in it, so Patrick was like, “Ok you gotta learn the bass”. So like literally after we started the band.
Recording
How do you guys record? Do you just do it with computer software or do you go to a place to actually do it?
Pat: So far it's-
Liam: My basement
Pat: Yeah, his basement.
Liam: My dad does a bunch of stuff, he plays drums too.
It's always the drummer's basement...
Pat: Yeah, exactly. But yeah, I think we're going to try and maybe have a friend record us or go to a studio. But we do like the DIY-ness of doing it. Just us three and his dad.
Riley: [It] feels like we have a lot of control.
Pat: Right- you can manipulate how it turns out.
The Future
What's your guys’ end goal/dream scenario with this?
Pat: We don't really want to think that far ahead. I don't know- she's (Riley) gonna go to college, he's (Liam) gonna go to college, I'm not gonna go to college, so I have no idea. We'll play as long as we can.
Riley: It's kind of just [to] keep playing, that's our goal right now.
Pat: Just keep playing as long as we can- and we've recently become friends with Evan Westfall from Camp and El Camino Acid and Super Sport. And he does Super Sport’s records. And so he put out a cassette with us and that was like one of those moments for me- like, holding your own music. It was a pretty magical time.
Riley: We were so excited!
Pat: Yeah, we're really excited for that. Like we'll do little vinyls and stuff like that. So I think one of our goals is to just consecutively put out music because it was pretty spread out before- like our first single was put out before we had ever played a show. And so we just want to constantly be able to create things. And balancing school and all that, it can be difficult, so I think that's one of the things we're going to work on.
And that’s all for Space Kid! We want to give them a huge thanks for taking the time to do an interview with us, and we really encourage you to support them however you can!
Bobcat Press out.
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