On 2020’s Stray, Bambara proved their proficiency in post-punk, blues-punk, cow-punk, goth-punk, and really any other variety of punk that shapes the raw passion of the genre into aesthetic cosplay all while vocalist Reid Bateh flexed his narrative writing skills over top of all that carefully constructed noise. Five years later, Birthmarks is both an expansion of that immersive storytelling technique and a more futuristic look at punk, with opener “Hiss” introducing the band’s updated neo-noir sonic palette with a warble nearly recreated from the alien sounds of Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow’s instantly iconic Annihilation score.
The resulting balance they strike feels more like Blade Runner’s sci-fi future echoing visual motifs from the past. In fact, the band’s own history inserted itself into the record in subtle ways, with brothers Reid and Blaze Bateh and bandmate William Brookshire citing video games and Blockbuster rentals from their shared childhoods and the nostalgia those things elicit as influences, along with revisiting more recent media such as the “heavy vibes and lovable degenerates” of True Detective’s first season. Meanwhile, lyricist Reid was exploring more spiritual (or at least medical) avenues while isolating himself from his bandmates during Birthmarks’s conception as he strung the album’s narrative together.
For more info on each of these influences, check out each band member’s breakdown below, along with a stream of the record. You can also purchase Birthmarks here via Wharf Cat.
BLAZE BATEH
Late-’90s/early-2000s video games
I definitely revisited a lot of things from my youth while we were writing and recording. I spent a lot of downtime watching walkthroughs of late-’90s/early-2000s video games that I used to watch Reid and William play as a kid, like Parasite Eve, Silent Hill 2, and Final Fantasy VII. It’s funny because I never played them myself, but watching the walkthroughs was a nice nostalgia trip that was really comforting to me. The music in those games surely rubbed off on me back then, and I feel like I had a renewed appreciation for it this time around.
Blade
The studio we recorded at in England also had the movie Blade on DVD, and we watched that several times during our three-week stay at the studio. [It’s also] something the three of us surely did together one late-’90s Blockbuster night at my parents’ house. It all felt pretty connected, and creatively activated parts of my brain in the writing process for Birthmarks that I’d say felt new to me.
WILLIAM BROOKSHIRE
True Detective Season 1
I really get excited for stories with well-meaning, morally conflicted characters. I hadn’t watched the first season of True Detective since it aired, but I went back and totally devoured that thing during the early stages of Birthmarks. There aren’t too many shows or movies these days with heavy vibes and lovable degenerates. That’s something we’re always more or less going for when we’re writing music. We want an enveloping atmosphere with a persistent hint of danger. We use metrics like “Nighttime,” “Highway,” and “Bad People Having a Good Time” to decide if a new song is on the right track.
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
A couple of books were able to hit that sweet spot for me during the making of Birthmarks, too. One that Reid recommended to me was Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor. It’s an oppressive dirge, full of mostly terrible people in a horrific town, and it never lets up. Another book full of charming but flawed characters that blew me away during the recording process was Larry McMurtry’s western epic Lonesome Dove.
REID BATEH
UVA School of Medicine’s studies on reincarnation
It’s really hard for me to put my finger on any specific inspiration that might have come from music or other art forms, especially on this record. Mainly because I spent so much of the time writing the record in near complete isolation, and didn’t allow myself to ingest any media that wasn't directly related to what I was working on. So most of my inspiration (that I’m conscious of, at least) came from my life or the things I was researching at the time for the sake of the story I wanted to tell on the record. On that note, one major influence was the UVA School of Medicine’s studies on reincarnation—specifically, cases that were researched and compiled by Dr. Ian Stevenson and Dr. Jim B. Tucker.
My grandfather’s old notebook
Another inspiration for me was the physical notebook I was writing in at the time, because it was found in my grandfather's belongings after his death. When I got it, all of the pages were blank except for one word he’d written on the top right corner of the first page: “loss.” I know the word must’ve had something to do with balancing his finances or something like that, but the heavy irony of it wasn’t lost on me. Having that notebook to write in always made me feel more connected to him, like he was still around encouraging me along the way whenever I opened it up to start writing.
