Doomed Confessionary: Trey Wedgeworth (Faces Of The Bog)
Photo by John Mourlas
Faces Of The Bog is a four-piece psychedelic sludge machine hailing from the west side of Chicago, Illinois. Their 2016 release »Ego Death« (DHU Records) received much acclaim on webzines like Metal Injection, The Illinois Reader, Outlaws Of The Sun, and various others.
After some short midwest tours and a 3 year hiatus during covid times, Faces Of The Bog released their newly recorded album »Animals« to the world on September 6th, 2024. It is a redux of Pink Floyd’s 1977 classic »Animals«. It was recorded at the famed Electrical Audio (owned by Steve Albini) and Hypercube in Sept/Oct 2023 and was engineered, co-produced and mixed by Sanford Parker.
Faces Of The Bog are Trey Wedgeworth (guitar, vocals, keys, synth), Paul Bradfield (bass, vocals), Danny Garcia (drums) and Mark Cichra (guitar).
Can you say a few words about your band?
We are a 4pc semi-progressive psychedelic sludge band from Chicago. We’ve been together since 2012, but have taken time off here and there. Took an extended hiatus during the pandemic, but decided to mess around with covering some Pink Floyd when we came back and it turned into this monster project (»Animals«) that we ended up releasing recently.
What was the biggest challenge for the band?
For this album, I think we can all agree that the hardest part was trying to figure out what to change and what to keep “as-is”. We wanted to re-imagine the album in a more modern way, but didn’t want to lose the special moments that we really loved about the album. Some of those moments are sort of…un-fuckwithable. If we didn’t feel like we were making an improvement or a change in a way that made sense, we decided to stick a little closer to the original on those parts.
What can you be most proud of so far?
Surviving as a band for this long is an achievement in and of itself and I feel like that’s something to be proud of. We have gone through one lineup change in that time, but the other 3 members are the remaining founders.
What was your biggest regret?
Probably taking so long between albums. We’re a very detail oriented band, but might possibly get stuck in the mud because of it at times. It has kind of cost us the momentum we built up with our first release, but the end product, we feel is worth the extra work.
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
It’s really hard to choose here… We haven’t really toured at all since before the pandemic, but as far as local shows go…the reactions we’ve gotten from the few shows where we’ve played the »Animals« material have been really rewarding. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, so to speak, with the album having been released On Sept. 6, people will be expecting to hear these songs. But the first couple of shows where we kind of surprised people with what we were doing were priceless. This album is kind of on the “deep cut” list for Pink Floyd. It’s nowhere near as popular as »Dark Side Of The Moon« or »The Wall«, but it has a very strong cult following. And most of those “cult” followers feel that »Animals« is their best album. We definitely fall into that category, hence the reason we decided to do this…. But seeing peoples’ faces when we played »Dogs« and »Pigs« live and unannounced, was a great experience that unfortunately can’t be repeated.
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
I think, with nearly a decade and a half of playing live in this scene, the thing that is the most surprising to me…was how many of the bands we’ve played with have ended up becoming some of our closest friends. There are always people you’re not going to get along with, but they’re pretty few and far between. We’re lucky to have this sort of community here in Chicago. A lot of shows end up feeling like mini family reunions because of the close knit nature of the underground scene here.
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Me personally, my taste is all over the place. But recently St. Vincent’s new album has been in heavy rotation, IDLES, Colter Wall, Nick Shoulders and an unknown guy named Andrew “Donut” Larsen who was just discovered has a lot of my attention at the moment. I don’t even think his album is out yet, but his story so far is pretty amazing. He blew up on TikTok after he offered to sing a song for a random person if they’d buy him some beer. I don’t know if he was homeless or just had a case of wanderlust, but he was out on the street at the time of the video going viral. I really look forward to hearing more from him and I love a good rags to riches story. As far as heavy stuff, our friends in Huntsmen have just put out an amazing new album called »The Dry Land« that’s nothing short of amazing. Thats been getting alot of airtime w me lately as well as Gojira, Mars Red Sky, Generation Of Vipers, Power Trip and Drain.
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
Not to acknowledge your little mistakes onstage. Just keep playing like it never happened. Almost no show is 100% perfect and the tiny mistakes almost always go unheard. If you draw attention to them, you’re distracting the audience from having a good time and that’s not why they’re there.
What are your guilty pleasures?
I love me some nu-metal every now and again. It’s also important to realize that like any other genre, not all bands within it are created equal. System Of A Down is really good nu-metal. Disturbed, is not. But I don’t necessarily feel guilty about it…even though some hardcore “gatekeepy” types might not think its cool….whatever. Life’s too short. As long as youre not hurting anyone else, do what makes you happy and fuck anyone who tries to talk you out of it.
Can you say something more about current music scene in Chicago?
As I mentioned before, it’s a tight knit community here. A lot of us are in multiple bands (Our drummer Danny and I are both in another band called Black Road as well). It kind of has to be because Chicago isn’t necessarily a big metal city. There are alot of amazing bands here that nobody really knows about because the shows are very small and don’t draw the same sort of crowds as hip-hop or other genres.
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
We don’t have anything confirmed at the moment. But will likely try and plan at least one show before the end of the year.
What are your plans for the future as a band?
Hard to say, exactly. We’re not going anywhere and definitely looking forward to writing again. Touring is probably out of the question for at least a little while due to some family life constraints of some of our members. We are planning on pressing physical copies of the new album sometime next year, so keep an eye out for that, if vinyl is your thing.
How can people best support your band?
BUY MERCH. This goes for any sub-major label band. Bands have had to basically take on the role of travelling T-shirt/Vinyl salesman because of the failure of the record industry to construct a business model that pays its artists fairly. Merchandise is the best way to get support directly to the artist.
Do you have any message for your listeners?
Eh, I think you’ve all heard enough of my nonsense by now. 😀 In all seriousness though, I would like to send a heartfelt thank you to anyone who has supported us over the years. It really does give us the fuel to keep going.
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well