Brooklyn based trio Pain Don’t Hurt have been making waves in the NYC music scene over the last couple of years and recently released their debut album “Sometimes I hate my body but sometimes where friends”.
I caught up with Bassist/Lead Vocalist Jude Coffey to talk about being exposed to family mixtapes early on, how the band got together and meshed with the Brooklyn scene and the making of the album.
CMM-What was the first music that really made an impact on you all as a kid and what artist or band did you enjoy the most?
Jude-I definitely developed my love of music from my dad. Some of my first memories are of sitting in the backseat of my family’s Nissan listening to one of his ’70s mixtapes — songs like “A Boy Named Sue” and The DeFranco Family’s “Heartbeat It’s a Love Beat” and Andrew Gold’s “Lonely Boy.” I loved being wrapped up in the warm sound of tape and saccharine vocal harmonies. The ’70s are still my favorite era of pop. My parents also have the family standup piano in their living room and I was drawn to it from a very young age, trying to pick out melodies I’d heard in church or a riff from the Billy Joel songbook my dad would read out of after dinner. I was set up with a really solid pop foundation. When I got a little bit older and my dad switched to CDs, we ripped all the Beatles albums off of discs from the library and my dad would make mixes out of those. On the way to school he’d quiz me on Beatles trivia (“What do they say backwards at the end of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’?” “Who plays the guitar solo in ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’?” “How did they get the piano chord to sound like that at the end of ‘A Day in the Life’?”). The Beatles weren’t just a band. They were a lifestyle. By the time I got to high school, I was tired of the Beatles and got into moodier stuff. I loved how raw and edgy Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground were, how the fuzzy tape sound created this gritty soundscape, and how it wasn’t so much about technical skill but Lou’s ability to tell a story. On the classical side, I worshipped Shostakovich.
CMM-How did Pain Don’t Hurt get together and start writing songs and developing your own sound?
Jude-I wrote my first song, “Glad yr sick,” in the spring of 2022 for a girl I was seeing at the time. She had written a song for me and I figured I’d try to return the favor. I had tried to teach myself guitar and bass as a COVID project so I put together some simple chords and sang some kind of stream of consciousness phrases over it and it sounded pretty good. When I moved to Brooklyn later that year, I played in a couple bands and became interested in writing some more of my own material. After COVID, the Brooklyn music scene was really flourishing as everyone wanted to get out of their houses and do something. I was inspired by local bands such as Wince, Screwbawl, Wiring, and Trash TV because they had great energy and were so locked into their unique sounds. Every show felt like a huge friend hangout. I was listening to healthy doses of power pop, ’90s grunge, tweemo, and current-day indie and started to write by studying the structure and sounds of my favorite songs (“I <3 robocop” is my Everyone Asked About You Song, “ROBERT’S WESTERN WORLD” is my Alvvays song, “Uncle sivius” is my Foo Fighters/Badfinger song, etc.). As for the band, I could clumsily get around a bass, and I had recently reconnected with Jake (drums) as we had done college radio at Binghamton together and were now both part of the same Brooklyn music scene. I’m pretty sure he was playing in five different bands at that time. For guitar, Jake recommended his friend Beau, who I had recently seen playing lead for Powerviolets, another epic local band. When we started to rehearse, I’d send a voice memo and guitar chords in our group chat with some reference tracks (R. Stevie Moore, Ex Pilots, The Cleaners from Venus) and then I’d show up and Jake and Beau would just immediately crush it. My performance background is in French horn, so it was a big transition for me, but Jake and Beau are both seasoned gigging musicians. They made the whole process so easy for me.
CMM-The band recently released an album called “Sometimes I Hate My Body But Sometimes We Are Friends”. What was the writing and recording process like and were there any particular pieces of gear you used to get the sound you were looking for?
Jude-I had kind of a tumultuous time in my early-mid 20s where I didn’t really know who I was and was trying to basically live my life through my relationships with other people. A lot of the songs on the album reflect that. Throughout the existence of the band, I’ve gained a lot of confidence so I don’t identify as strongly with some of the material anymore, but it’s a really good snapshot of what that period of time was like for me. Sonically, I wanted it to have a Numero Group/low budget/tape-y vibe and play into the fact that we were doing it all ourselves. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been a tape fan since birth, and I’ve loved cult classic movies with corny special effects almost as long. I think there’s something artistically powerful in recognizing that the finished project is completely fabricated. Things don’t have to be realistic to be good. I guess that’s why I’ve been marketing the project as “outsider power pop.” Beau was our technical wizard throughout the recording process. We did the tracking in the basement of an old warehouse with this guy DJ O’Loane in East Williamsburg and Beau mixed and mastered everything in his room with one speaker. He did a lot of cool things like using my scream that the drum track picked up on “Stepford wife.” He also has this crazy tape delay pedal that really added to the nostalgic feel of the album. I sometimes wish we could have recorded the whole thing on real tape, but I think doing it as DIY as possible is more my style.
CMM-If the band could do a score for any film director, who would it be and what would the film be about?
Jude-I love weird documentaries like American Movie and Grey Gardens so something like that would be cool. Or even a really long Conner O’Malley Instagram reel. He’s explored a lot of uncharted territory when it comes to comedy and I think he’s going to be remembered as one of the great artists of our time.
CMM-Anything coming up?
Jude-As for now, no. This whole process has been amazing but has also shown me that I do not like being a bandleader. I’m way too self conscious and neurotic and also don’t like being the center of attention. I’d rather pluck out all my eyelashes than market myself. This whole thing was just kind of an experiment for me. I’m glad the album is out and that people enjoy it and there’s a therapeutic element to making a personal piece of Art like that, but I don’t think it’s the best medium for me. My greatest hope is that the album becomes popular in 40 years and I do a little reunion tour like Robert Lester Folsom.
