Ciarann Babbington of Bakers Eddy Chats About ‘I’m Doing Better’

One of the best new pop-punk bands currently is Bakers Eddy. Their fantastic debut album, Love Boredom Bicycles, is filled with punchy guitar riffs, poignant songwriting, infectious sing-along choruses, feel-good energy, and powerful vocals. Their upcoming EP, I’m Doing Better, sees the band taking these things and expanding upon them. Lyrically, this is the most vulnerable and honest they have ever been. Sonically, the band experiments with new genres and sounds. Even though I’m Doing Better is an evolution for the band, the songs are just as catchy as before and still sound like Bakers Eddy. 

Bakers Eddy frontman Ciarann Babbington chats with OFM about the band’s upcoming EP I’m Doing Better.

Making Discoveries and Sharing Stories

“It’s us kind of allowing ourselves to make discoveries about ourselves and filter through our past together,” Babbington says about their upcoming EP. “We went on a holiday together last year to try and get into a space where it just was the four of us where we could talk, drink, and hash things out. We talked about some pretty personal stuff for a few days and just really got to know each other, like, properly got to know each other again. We’ve been friends forever, and through those honest conversations, I feel like we gave ourselves the space to be really honest through songwriting as well, like talking about Manners Street, the place we grew up in Wellington, and going through all the details.”

Choosing the Title of the EP

The title of the EP comes from a lyric in “Dust On My Brain.” The lyric is “I’m doing better and better is something.” Babbington describes the lyric as “The most important lyric I’ve ever made for myself.” The title serves as both a celebration and a reminder for Babbington. “It’s a celebration to wake up one morning after you’ve been through a period of really down stuff. We’ve all gone through that. We’ve all had those really low moments in our lives, and it feels like it’s never gonna get better, and you’re stuck in that hole.

“But then waking up one morning and having the energy and will just to get out of bed is enough for you to say, ‘Well done. You did it. You did a good job today.’ That’s kind of the basis of the song. I’m doing better, and better is something, and we can build off of that. We called the EP I’m Doing Better because it’s an important lyric in one of the songs, and I think it’s a nice reminder as well when I’m in those down times, and I can look at that and go, ‘It will get better. It will be OK.’”

The Creative Process and Making Demos

The creative process for Bakers Eddy usually always differs. Sometimes, Babbington sits down with a guitar or MIDI controller and starts to flesh out most of the song and gives the band a baseline demo to work around. “We collaborate after that process is done, and we add to the demo,” he comments. “What we’ve been doing now is hyper-fixating, which can be good or bad, but hyper-fixating on the demo itself ‘cause it’s something I really enjoy about putting a lot of effort into producing a really representative sounding demo, and I love that process.

I love making music, but I really like making music that sounds exactly like I want it to sound in my head, so when I kind of bed myself into the demo making process, I can really create the song I have in my head. We use a mix of those stems and stems we record in a studio and create this mix mash version of the song that ends up going out.”

Exploring New Sounds and Evolving as a Band

With I’m Doing Better, Bakers Eddy utilized quite a bit from the current emo music scene. “I honed in on the sound that I wanted to do, and that was heavily synthesized emo music with really big beats, so I kind of took myself on a journey of listening to a lot of that style of music,” states Babbington. “I’m a big-time melody person, and the melodies that are coming out of that genre right now are amazing. That’s been my baseline in terms of what I’m trying to strive to do but also like we’re not that. Even though sometimes I wish we could be that we’re not that, so trying to bring it back home to a more Bakers Eddy sound.”

I’m Doing Better sees Bakers Eddy evolving lyrically and taking a different approach than previous records. “I’m trying to write a bit more introspectively and trying to focus on telling honest stories as well about my past and what I’ve been going through in the moment,” reflects Babbington. “In the past, I think I was just writing sad songs to a happy tune. Now I’m trying to flesh those sad songs out a bit and tell a story. I’m really into trying to tell a story through the lyrical content and take people on a bit of a journey.”

Sonically, Bakers Eddy has seen a change, too. “One of the reasons we were able to make progress in our sound was I was using a Boss BR 1600, a multi-track recording box,” says Babbington. Getting a computer has also helped evolve the sound of Bakers Eddy. “Massive gains as soon as I got that computer. I’ve been using Logic, and it’s limitless. The amount of things you can do is limitless. So especially in the beginning stages, I was going to town—We went crazy, and then we scaled it back a bit, but the ability to do whatever you want has opened up all these opportunities like adding synths to our sound, which we’ve never done before or being really creative with the way we layer our vocals.”

Addressing Mental Health Struggles in “Dust On My Brain”

Writing “Dust On My Brain” was a very cathartic and therapeutic experience for Babbington. “Telling honest stories and being honest about your situations is always an outlet and always feels like therapy,” he comments. “Usually, I don’t like writing songs when I’m in that hole. I think that’s a pretty normal thing for artists. It’s a struggle. You don’t want to touch a guitar, or you don’t want to write down how your feeling because it’s very confronting. But that was one of the first times I ever kind of sat down in the moment and just picked up the guitar and didn’t force myself to but just decided to write some stuff down, and it all came out.

You can tell in the verses it’s very ‘This is happening. This is happening. I feel like shit. I’m going through this.’ That was all kind of just a list of things I was feeling and going through. Then it gets to the pre-chorus, and that was a moment of realization like the fact that I’m sitting down and doing this right now is a really good sign. I need to celebrate that and be proud of myself for doing that, and in that sense, that was a massive moment for me to go like, ‘I can shake this. I just made an awesome song. I think it’s my favourite song I’ve ever made. I’m doing good. It’s only gonna get better.’”

The True Story Behind “UFO”

“UFO” is inspired by something that Babbington, Jamie Gordon (drums) and a couple of their friends witnessed when they were younger. “It’s a true story, so that’s gonna sound crazy,” laughs Babbington. “We were sitting on top of this hill at 6:00 in the morning, and if you listen to the song, it just goes through the lists of things that happened that night and what we saw. We saw a glowing orb hovering over the top of a hill. I swear to God. It shot up to the sky, and I will never forget that, and to this day, me, Jamie, and our other friends go like, ‘Remember when that happened?’ and no one believes us. The thing is, we did take trips before, but I’m talking 7:00 the night before. One could perceive it as a result of the hallucinogens, but I know what I saw, Jamie knows what he saw, and our friends know what they saw. I believe. I’m a believer.”

With “UFO,” the band explored a different territory sonically than they had ever done before. They had lots of fun experimenting and utilizing new things for the song. “At the time, I was just like really getting into samples and loved making sample chops,” exclaims Babbington.  “It was a lot of fun to make but then we kept adding horns, strings, and stuff that I’d never do in a million years. There are a lot of percussion elements and sound effects. I was like, ‘This is probably the most fun I’ve had writing a song, and I want to put it out.’ It’s like a total outlier to anything else we’ve done.”

Making “Manners Street” Anthemic and Catchy

One of the most memorable parts of “Manners Street” is the endearingly sweet chime melody that layers with the vocals. “I don’t want to squash our song, but that melody is so ridiculously dumb that it just needed that little chime to put an emphasis on how simple it was, and it’s amazing,” smiles Babbington. “I love that sound. It just zhushes up the vocal melody and makes it feel quite anthemic, which is funny ‘cause it’s a silly little melody, but it really makes it feel anthemic, and I love that sound.”

Australian Music Scene and Gaining a Fanbase in Canada and the United States

Bakers Eddy formed while the band members were living in Wellington, New Zealand, but eventually relocated to Melbourne, Australia. “There was an amazing scene in Wellington where we grew up just prior to us leaving high school, and then bars started shutting down, and the scene disappeared,” comments Babbington. “There wasn’t really any underground which really sucks, but we did get a taste of what was happening over here, and a few bands that really stuck out to us were Waax, Ecca Vandal, and DZ Deathrays. We were listening to those bands on Spotify in Wellington, going like, OK. There are people that are a similar age to us that love this kind of music and go to shows which didn’t exist at the time in Wellington.

Once we got over here, we discovered how big the community is over here of people who want to see live rock music and just guitar music in general. We land, and we’re like, ‘This is our home.’ And I love Wellington. New Zealand is 100% home. It will always be home. But we’ve got everything we need here musically, and this really cool and tight-knit group of people, and circles of artists and bands that all kind of walk together and go through the same kind of things together, and we support each other.”

Bakers Eddy gained wider exposure and a bigger fanbase in Canada and the United States when their song “Concertina” appeared on NHL 22. “We want to play in America a lot—That song being on the game was actually so helpful for us in terms of getting some people interested in our band in America and Canada,” comments Babbington. “We get a lot of people who message us and say, ‘You got to come over.’ The one thing, though, is we never got sent a game. I was so gutted about that.”

Concluding Comments

I’m Doing Better drops on June 6. “It’s an honest representation of our past and potentially our future as well, like, how important the four of us are to each other and the stories we have created,” reflects Babbington. “Half of our lives, we’ve been friends. So, we have a lot of stories to share.”

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