The A-side Sessions Presents: Room 308

As Room 308 joined us for our last A-side Session of the year, 2020 suddenly didn’t seem so bleak. The local Bay Area band seamlessly melded jazz and “R&Beach” to transcend us into a far more enchanting environment than that of a parking lot. Their waves of smooth rhythm plucked us out of where we were, and took us right where we wanted to be: sitting in the back of a smokey jazz bar. 

Join us for Room 308’s performance, followed by an interview hosted by our Managing Editor, Natalie Gott, in which they sit down to discuss musical roots, skate parks, and life beyond music. 

Natalie Gott: Hey guys, thanks for joining us for our last A-side Session of the year. I’m a little bummed to be ending this for now, but I think this a really good note for the end of 2020. I could not have imagined a better group to feature for this. So, as always, I’m Nat, the Managing Editor here at The B-side, and today we’ve got the lovely, Room 308. They’re a local band here in the Bay Area and they just played a few really great songs for us. That last song, what was that one called?

Isabel Cohn: Till the Ending. 

NG: I really loved that one. How was creating that song? What’s the message like in it?

IC: Well, I remember, Tom, I don’t know if you remember, but the night that we first made it, it was Tom, Spencer, and I at my house. We only had an acoustic guitar, a regular piano, and the drum kit. Tom was like, just play this chord on the piano, and he just showed me how to play it, and we just went from there. It was just natural. So that’s how the writing process was. We just jammed on that, and at the end of the night we came out with a song. The lyrics are just about getting from one place to another in your life. You learn, then you’re coming out at the end. So, till the ending. Just the journey that you go through to get there. 

NG: I love that song. I think it was my favorite. The naturalness in how it was made transcends into the sound. It’s just so flowey and lovely. So, you guys have had some projects stretched out over time and your style has changed throughout that time. How would you guys describe yourself now?

Josh May: I would probably say our style has kind of remained the same, but also developed in the sense that as a band, we have gotten really tight together. I haven’t practiced with everyone in like a month, which is kind of a long time for us. But this performance was still really together and natural. So we’ve developed in that way. I would say that our sound could be most accurately described as “R&Beach.” Just like beachy vibes, and like R&B, we have an occasional clunky area of the song. I think how we make that flow together is really nice. 

NG: I love the term “R&Beach.” I think that needs to be copyrighted as soon as possible. That’s so cool. So, being that there are five of you guys, how do your individual musical styles play into one? How do your inspirations on an individual level come together?

Spencer Burk: Well, I guess I don’t have that many inspirations for drums really. I feel like, in the drum world, I don’t know much about it. I just play. I don’t read music, I don’t write music. Whenever we make a song, it’s just in the moment. We just make it up and it sounds good. I think, for me, it’s just important to do it right, more so than to fool around. It’s so hard to listen to a song where there’s a ridiculous drum solo that lasts for five minutes; just play your part and everything will come together. It just sounds so much better. 

IC: I think, on my end, when I play music by myself, it’s a lot of singer-songwriter kind of style. When we write, someone will come up with an idea and then we just add on to it. So, if someone brings in a couple chords, I try to bring in my songwriter style and more acoustic feel into it, then see how we can blend it together. 

Gilbert Aribon: For myself, I like everything. I have appreciation for a lot of genres. Going back to what Isabel said, our whole song writing process starts out with somebody and it just builds on top of that with everyone else, just like layers. So, with our music, there’s a little bit of Tom in there, a little bit of Josh in there, and it just comes naturally. That’s just how we all build together. 

Tom Baire: Personally, with my musical inspirations, it goes to like Hendrix and a bunch of Isley Brothers, stuff like that. That’s just what I grew up listening to and I feel like it shows in my playing style. I try to bring that aspect into our band, just to lock it in. I feel like it naturally flows well with everyone else’s playing styles. Ultimately, that’s what I try to bring into it. I feel like it works out. I’m proud of our stuff. 

NG: You should be. It’s really great.

JM: I actually started on guitar, instead of bass. The transition was a little weird for me. Like Spencer was saying, I had to learn to be adding to the song. You can show off a little bit when you’re playing bass, but really it’s just like the bass and drums are the foundation of the whole thing. I think I’m getting better at that. Since I’ve started playing bass, I’ve loved just playing along to some really funky songs. I’ve learned a bunch of funk songs at home by myself, playing along to them. So there’s that. And my biggest musical inspiration is Ty Segall. I’m not on the opposite end of the spectrum from him, but I’m very far off from his style.

NG: He’s so broad though, there’s so much different stuff going on there. 

JM: Yeah, I like him a lot. Also, as Gilbert said, I have a respect for so many musical genres as well. There’s a lot that goes into it. 

NG: How did you all meet, come together, become the Room 308 that you are today?

TB: So, me, Josh, Isabel, and Gilbert started playing together at our practice space maybe like three years ago. We started with that and we had another friend that was a part of it. He was our drummer, as well as our guitar player every now and then. And then he left, and we wound up taking up Spencer cause we met him at the skate park and found out that he played drums and he’s the sickest sixteen year old ever. 

NG: The skatepark seems to be a theme for just collecting.

SB: This is a shout out to the Alameda Skatepark, where dreams come true. I truly wouldn’t have imagined myself as a sixteen year old playing with a bunch of people like ten years older than me. But-

NG: Wait, how old are you?

SB: I’m sixteen. 

NG: What?! I did not know this, oh my gosh. 

SB: That’s the biggest surprise to everybody. It’s cool that we all just convened at this random spot in the galaxy and somehow made a band out of it. The dynamic between us is not at all  like, “oh you’re younger so we should treat you differently.” I feel like best friends with everybody here. 

NG: Which is exactly why I didn’t know there was an age difference. You guys blend so well together. 

IC: I think also, something that makes our band what we are is the fact that we were all friends before we were a band. So, when we started playing together, we just kind of learned from each other. So I think that aspect of us being friends and that we hangout when we’re not playing music as well makes it so much more comfortable when we are playing music together. 

NG: If you were all friends before, what is life like outside of music for all of you together?

TB: I think for the most part, we just spend all of our time at the skate park pretty much. If we’re not working or playing music, we’re skating. 

NG: Isabel, do you skate?

IC: I’m learning. But, we all work together. I worked with Tom. Gilbert works with Tom currently. Josh worked with everyone. We’re all intertwined in multiple ways. 

SB: And we also eat a lot of Guadalarja. 

TB: Ay, shoutout to Guadalarja. You fed me many nights. 

NG: Well, thank you guys so much for joining us today. On behalf of everyone at A-side, thank you. We’d love to have you guys back anytime. 

Article by Natalie Gott

Photos by Lyle Kahney and Tovah Popilsky