Tucked away deep in New Brunswick basements, loud sounds resonate through wooden houses with old pipes shaking. Mattresses line the walls to block sound from reaching street level, while sweaty listeners stand shoulder to shoulder.
Under red and yellow Christmas lights in a basement corner, noise stuns the crowd with high energy and melodic tunes. Dave Bedford slides his fingers down the neck of his guitar, shouts into a microphone, and the crowd erupts into pushing and shoving. Mason Rodgers, nearly smashing his head on the dusty basement ceiling from jumping, plays sixteenth notes on his blue Fender bass while Shannon Moore beats down on the drum set. The three form one of New Brunswick’s local punk bands.
Sojourner formed in 2014. Bedford, 21, and Rodgers, 20, played together and wrote music since they were in high school. Moore, 21, joined the band in 2015. The three tour the New Brunswick area playing shows at the various houses and venues.
The Rutgers Review sat down with Mason Rodgers for some information about Sojourner and why they are so cool.
RR: Hey man, so let’s start with what everyone’s name is and what they do?
Mason: My name’s mason and I do bass. Dave plays guitar and our friend Shannon recently took over drums. He’s sick.
What style of music is Sojourner?
We all take our influence from a lot of different places but I could best describe it as ambitious punk music. It’s pretty straight forward but the goal is to counter any predictable moments in our songs with semi mind bending ones. I hope people can hear a lot of contrasting colors in sojourner.
How did you guys get together and start playing punk?
Dave and I have always been writing and playing together, at least since the idea of playing music seriously crept into our heads. It probably started freshman year of high school or something, probably pretty awkward and bad sounding at first… I can’t remember ha-ha.
So I hear you have a new Demo coming out. What’s the story behind that? Is this new music or old?
We don’t write too much new music only because we have such a library of material that is ready to play and we just haven’t gotten to yet. A lot of it sounds really cool and fresh. Most of what we play live now will be on the demo we’re releasing called “Hudge City Demo.”
How are you releasing it?
We’re most likely going to sell cd-r’s at shows and put it on the web, real simple. We’re saving our money and resources for when we release the ep. We recorded the demo ourselves so it will probably be pretty low key as far as a release.
How is playing shows for you?
Playing shows is always rad. We haven’t ventured too far from New Brunswick so we’re in a bit of a comfort zone. A good amount of people know some of us in the band and have attended our shows around these parts. I would really like to get to touring soon and play some dives, meet some meanies, get trash thrown at us? Not sure what happens on tour, we’re sheltered is all.
How was your experience at COREFEST?
It was really neat. I’m iffy when it comes to stages and being the center of attention in general, but people were super positive and the auditorium sounded sweet. First show I played with sojourner where my ears didn’t bleed from sound bouncing off hard basement walls.
How do you think sojourner fits in with the New Brunswick scene?
I would say our sound and mentality keep the spirit alive. We aren’t trying to be something we’re not and we never wanted to do this for money or connections, only fun and survival.
Where are you playing next?
It’s on May 26th at a place called the Pigeon Pad in none other than New Brunswick. Its 5$ to see Banned Books from Philly who rip along with local Fond Han and Palm from New York. I’m actually most excited for this show, I’m bringing my pets.
Anything else you want to tell the review about Sojourner or anything?
I think Tyler Springsteen and the Rutgers Review are two great things in this world. Uh, sometimes I dream of having seconds on dessert. Also, come see our show(s) because we have great legs.
Tyler Springsteen