BGMD
Finding inspiration in the middle of the pandemic, two local musicians teamed up to form BGMD; a pop-rock band pronounced “Big Mood.”
Born and raised in Las Vegas, Brian Swearingen on guitar and Gary Cavaretta on piano formed the band around six months ago.
With a life-long love of music and learning piano at nine, “creating music just seemed like the next step for Cavaretta. For Swearingen, playing guitar since 18, he reportedly went through an enlightening experience that inspired him to start making music.
The two of them played music together before the pandemic, so starting a band came naturally. “… [The] shutdown gave us time to really formulate everything,” Swearingen said, “so even though it was pretty rough, the music has been one good thing that came out of it for us.”
They produced three singles since forming the band – released on most streaming platforms, with “many more to come.”
Production just started on their upcoming single, “Simplicity,”; BGMD plans to release near the end of February.
“We publish through a third-party called Tunecore, and they’re able to put us on pretty much all platforms,” Swearingen said.
Making Music
Regarding the topics or themes explored in their music, they shared that they focus on “positivity in general. ” They also aim to explore contemporary topics in the future. Bands like “The Beatles, Billy Joel, Jason Mraz, Queen, and Elton John – to name a few,” also inspire them.
They explained that making music takes “anywhere from a day to a few months” to write, followed by a production time of about six weeks. Using live guitar, piano, and vocals for bass, they create the rest of their sounds with Ableton’s digital audio workstation.
Presently, they’ve yet to collaborate with other artists, though, Cavaretta mentioned that Jay-Z is always welcome to hop on any of their tracks.
Starting Out
In the beginning, they shared that setting everything up to record challenged them.
“Recording music into a computer and mastering the tracks was extremely difficult in the beginning, as both of us had very little production experience,” Swearingen said. “[After] hours of trial and error and YouTube videos, we were able to get the basics down to the point we liked, but we’re still learning all the time.”
To overcome the challenges of starting their band, they said online tools helped the most; they found videos, article, and other resources for all their questions. Using that to their benefit, they taught themselves how to record music.
Another challenge has been the experience of putting themselves out there and trying to get exposure. Due to the pandemic, BGMD can’t perform their music live and instead perform on live streams through Reddit and Instagram. Nonetheless, BGMD persevered and created a small community around their music.
“It’s tough to get anybody to notice you, but [lots] of friends and family have been supportive, and we’ve reached a few stranger’s ears,” Swearingen said. “The biggest thing right now is creating a bigger collection of singles to have more to show people.”
Big Mood
In their own “big mood”, the two BGMD bandmates expressed similar sentiments about creating music.
“Both our favorite parts are the beginning – being inspired and making the idea for a song. And then at the end, when we hear it all come together,” Swearingen said. “The middle part is very frustrating but very rewarding.”
Sharing their favorite songs, Swearingen said ‘Insurrection’ was his, adding, “it showcases our talents the best out of our songs so far.” Gary said he favors ‘See You Need’ because the beat goes hard.
Support BGDM
Listen to all of BGMD’s tracks on nearly every music service, including Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, and YouTube.
“We publish through a third-party called Tunecore, and they’re able to put us on pretty much all platforms,” Swearingen said.
