Reuben Bettsak

Premiere: Emerald Comets – Memory Factory

February 9, 2022 — Leave a comment

While Boston’s pysch-shoegaze concern, Emerald Comets continue work on their next full length they have shared a day dream inducing new song, which will also seve as the title track for the Comets forthcoming longplayer, Memory Factory. The new track finds the quartet that features current and past members of such Boston rock luminaries as Guillermo Sexo, Ex-Hyena, Drab, and Sunken Armada delivering a liberal dose of dream pop over waves of buzzing guitar and lush instrumentation. We recently caught up with bands guitarist and vocalist, Reuben Bettsak to chat a bit about Memory Factory as well as what’s next for Emerald Comets.

” Memory Factory was one of the first songs I wrote for the 2nd album. This song is about memories. Like remembering a certain memory from the past, and trying to remember details. A lot of the songs from the 2nd album, also called Memory Factory explore different memory stories. We recorded this song similarly to how we did the last album. I recorded my vocals, guitar, and some synths, Tim O’Keefe added drums, then Jason Layne added bass, keyboards, mellotron, and added backup vocals along with David Altman. Justin Pizzoferrato mixed the thing in his magical way. As far as more new music, we are getting closer to finishing tracking the whole album and I’m hoping we can release the album early fall of 2022. There will also be another single probably coming out this spring.” – Reuben Bettsak

Premiere: Emerald Comets – Isolation Daydreams

May 27, 2020 — Leave a comment

Emerald Comets

Since disbanding Boston’s dream psych concern Guillermo Sexo, Reuben Bettsak has been busy recording music with Infinite Room and recently the reconstituted Emerald Comets and with the Covid-19 Pandemic Reuben has taken to writing and recording a forthcoming LP, Strangelands. He recently gave us a sneak peak into to recording process as well as a taste of what we can expect from the new album.

“When this whole quarantine thing took place, it really disrupted everything in the way we ran our lives. After about a week of being isolated in my house in this weird new world, I wrote, and recorded Isolation Daydreams. The experience was very therapeutic for me. I realized that writing,and recording would really help my state of mind through this thing. I asked the band if they would like to work on music remotely. The rest of the band, Jason Layne, Tim O’Keefe, and David Altman, added their parts, then I had Jeremy Lassetter (Ghost Box Orchestra)add some guitar. We then sent it over to Justin Pizzoferrato to mix and to Carl Saff to master. What started with one song has progressed into an album called Strangelands that we are finishing up. It’s been a weekly process. I have the rest of the band add their parts to one song each week, and then Justin mixes the song at the end of the week.I think the best part about this experience for me besides the musical therapy is that I’m really excited about this album. I’m really proud of this collection of songs, and the great contribution made by the band, and everyone involved.”

For Strangelands Bettsak enlisted the assistance of some notable guests Bo Barringer (The Wrong Shapes), Ryan Connelly (Hallelujah The Hills), Chad Shivers(Infinite Room), Jeff Barsky (Insect Factory),Jeremy Lasssetter (Ghost Box Orchestra), Anar Badalov (New Dog), Sophia Cacciola, Michael Epstein (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling), and Katharine Rahilly Altman.

The band had been working on a batch of new songs before Covid-19 turned the world upside-down, but Bettsak wanted to create another batch for Strangelands, unique to what he’s been experiencing through this ongoing global pandemic. It’s a pleasure to share Isolation Daydreams, the first track from the upcoming Emerald Comets full length release. It’s a lush and layered composition witch captures those daydream prone moments of life in quarantine, perfectly.

Premiere: Infinite Room – Serpent

May 3, 2018 — Leave a comment

InfiniteBack in September of 2016 we were bummed to have to say goodbye to one of Boston’s most enduring and consistently great acts, Guillermo Sexo. After an impressive 12 years and 6 LP’s of accomplished psych-garage pop, the band decided to call it a day. With chief songwriter and founding member, Reuben Bettsak relocating his family to Atlanta shortly after Guillermo Sexo’s final performance it was unclear when we would hear new material from Reuben. Save for few songs shared via his Soundcloud account and released under his solo project, Emerald Comets he’s been relatively quiet since moving south, until now. On May 11th Reuben will release his debut EP with his new project Infinite Room and today we are thrilled to premiere Serpent. The track displays a lot of what drew us Guillermo Sexo over a decade ago, angular guitar lines, exquisite melodies and hooks submerged in dense fuzz. Infinite Room’s debut track, finds Bettsak pushing his song craft and sonics into exciting new terrain. We recently caught up with Reuben to chat about his new recording vehicle, Infinite Room and the forthcoming debut EP.

The Ash Gray Proclamation: Can you tell me how your new project, Infinite Room came about?

Reuben Bettsak: I met Tom Bruno (Drums) through a mutual friend and we started playing music together. He brought in Mike Walden, and we started working on song ideas. Tom was getting into recording, around that time, and was recording all of our song ideas. It was a good way for us to listen to what we were doing, and develop a sound we were happy with. It took months of messing around, but it finally came together. We have not operated like many bands where you write songs, and play shows before recording. We focused our energy on creating, and developing songs with the mission of recording an EP before playing shows.

The Ash Gray Proclamation: What was the recording process for these songs?

Reuben Bettsak: For the EP I wrote, and recorded vocals, and guitars for the songs and put them on a dropbox folder. Tom took those songs, added drums, bass, and keyboards, and then Mike tracked additional keyboard parts. Tom then mixed everything together, and really shaped the way things sound. There are so many layers, and it’s dense..but there is a method to the madness, and for me the songs sound refreshing, and unique. It’s definitely a headphones music experience. I have to give Tom a lot of credit for putting many many hours shaping everything together.

The Ash Gray Proclamation: Will the band be touring in support of the new EP?

Reuben Bettsak: The last few months were focused on getting the EP written, and recorded.. We are finally figuring out how the hell we are going to play these songs live, and maybe adding another member to the band. Mike is playing bass for the live band, so we are looking for a keyboard player. I think we will be ready to play live in a couple of months, and will start playing shows around Atlanta. We will hopefully expand to shows in other states. I am playing these songs solo on May 12th at Kavarna in Decatur, GA.

The Ash Gray Proclamation: Can we expect more recordings or a full length in the future?

Reuben Bettsak: I’ve recorded a bunch of songs ideas, and Tom is already starting to go through them. We will likely release another EP this year, and work our way to doing a full length. I’m definitely excited about this band. I think the sound we are creating is really interesting, and I really like creating music with these guys.