Three years on from releasing their debut album, Indiana band Reed Four have been busy fine-tuning a darker, heavier sound. Recognition that they’ve achieved this goal successfully comes in the form of their first song since that album being confirmed on the soundtrack of an upcoming horror movie.
The band released Cocoon last month as a follow-up to 2016 debut album Bedford to Bellemeade, and the track will be included on the soundtrack of new horror movie Morbid Colors, which is out in October and you can check out the trailer here.
Cocoon has been well worth the three-year wait. It begins with swelling synth sounds then the sound of guitar string scratching, before light guitar and drums come in. A slow plodding riff comes in and continues under frontwoman Andria’s high-pitched vocals “I can hear the sound of the siren, But do I pass the temptation, ‘Cause I’m not sure if I will ever be awakened, ‘Cause it takes courage to face this pain to be present through all this change” then a couple of cries of “I’m not like Ulysses.”
Big booming guitars suddenly kick in as the pace ramps up with Andria’s powerful vocals “You’ve got the wolf in your mind, You’ve got the power in your life.” That drops into lighter cries of “Move, Ahh” over a repeating riff, heavier guitars, then another verse dominated by Andria’s vocals.
A second chorus is followed by more heavy guitars then drops into the opening light riff under Andria’s repeated cries of “Cocoon,” which build towards a final blast of the chorus. Give it a listen below:
We had a chat with the band a bit more and see what they have in store following the release of Cocoon. Read on below…
GR: Who are Reed Four? And where are you from?
RF: “Our band consists of members Andria Reed, Joe Vowels, Josh Case, and Matthew Hyneman, hailing from the southwesternmost part of Indiana, USA.”
GR: What’s the backstory, how did you get together?
RF: “Singer/songwriter/guitarist, Andria Reed, wrote and recorded her first acoustic album titled Bedford to Bellemeade within a year before the formation of Reed Four. Her goal was to turn her album into a much bigger sound. She had a mutual musical admiration for colleague/guitarist, Joe Vowels, and they began collaboration on the concept. The two instantly bonded and began forming the roots of what would become Reed Four’s first album.
“Matthew Hyneman (drummer) and Josh Case (multi-instrumentalist), personal friends already familiar with Andria’s work, were soon asked to join the two in December 2013. Within a year, the group began rehearsing and self-recording Reed Four’s version of Bedford to Bellemeade.
“After Bedford to Bellemeade released worldwide in September 2016, we immediately started working on our current project, Lobomente. Fast forward almost 3 years later and here we are with 6 brand new singles that we will be released individually throughout 2020.”
GR: You just released Cocoon. What should people be expecting from the song?
RF: “This song represents a transformation, both personally and stylistically for our band. It has a more mature presence than performances found on Bedford to Bellemeade. As a band, we learned to allow more space and development in our writing to generate a greater dynamic. You should expect luring synth, lyrical metaphors for personal struggle, and an instrumental bloom from us in Cocoon.”
GR: What inspired you to write it? Any key themes or topics that you write about?
Matthew: “That catchy and nasty little guitar riff that Joe wrote for this song was all I needed to write my parts haha. Also, Andria’s insistent ‘move’ lines definitely helped me shape that section as well.”
Josh: “The lines ‘move’ represent the self retorting answer to the call of wild adventure.”
Andria: “I was inspired by finding ways to control my state of mind. I often have a nagging inner struggle with taking the leap to throw out self-destructive habits.
“This song encourages a person to consider their actions before responding and then once the decision is made, move on it. It addresses the classic ‘good vs. evil’ theme of our consciousness and the choices we have to make daily. We metaphorically have two wolves in our mind and our behavior reveals which wolf we are feeding. Good, or bad, we have to live with the decisions we make.”
GR: How would you describe your sound to people that haven’t listened to you yet?
FR: “Rhythm-driven female-fronted hard rock. Lots of attitude and energy beckoning people to emotionally and physically move.”
GR: Which bands/musicians are/have been your strongest musical influences?
Joe: “As a group, we are heavily by the sounds from the 90s, but also classic rock, punk, metal and lots of things in between.”
GR: What have you got coming up through the rest of 2019?
RF: “Cocoon is being included on a soundtrack for a horror film called Morbid Colors. We expect to be releasing a music video for this song that will contain unseen footage from the movie sometime in the fall a little before the film premieres. In the meantime, we are also in the process of finalizing even more new music that we expect to release throughout the following year.”
GR: Anything else you’d like people to know about you/your music?
RF: “We do more than just music. We made music videos for three songs from our previous album, Bedford to Bellemeade. These videos were shot and edited by Andria and if you watch them in a particular order, they are actually a 15-minute short film. These videos can be found on our YouTube channel.”
You can follow Reed Four on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and check out their music on Spotify, Soundcloud and YouTube.
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