In 2020 at Pembroke Hall on the campus of Belmont University, Jake Robuck was playing his guitar inside his dorm room when he got a knock on the door from Kobe Miyake’s roommate. The guys would see each other in the hallways during their first semester but once the ice was broken the two began jamming together.
Miyake and Robuck took a trip to Greeter Falls waterfall in Grundy County, sharing in their similar musical influences from The Beatles to Red Hot Chili Peppers. Going into their second semester, their original roommates had left and the two decided to move in together and started writing music.
“I think the whole allure of Belmont University is like you go there and everybody’s a musician and you’re all jamming together, but then you get there and it’s this COVID lockdown,” Miyake said. “I think I was itching to get into it and start playing music with people. If my roommate didn’t do that, I don’t know if we would have met.”
Sophomore year, Robuck began playing gigs with keyboardist Harrison Finks thanks to the connection from artist Benjamin Joseph. But they needed a name and came up with BEAN.
“The all caps and the period is just a stylistic choice that we landed on,” said Robuck. “But the name comes from a summer music camp that I went to in high school. It was my first time ever playing music with other people, and we had to form bands at the end of the week and perform a song. The dude who was drumming in the band suggested the name BEAN. and that just stuck with me for some reason. It was catchy, short and sweet, and it brought back the memory of the first time I ever got on a stage and played music with people.”
This name would also be the title of their debut EP as a band. Recorded at East Iris Studios in Berry Hill, the members of BEAN. wrote these songs back in their dorm room at Belmont University. The EP sonically captures their shared musical inspirations with their unique blend of alternative soul.
“That was really the point of the EP at its essence was capturing all these influences that we had over the years,” Miyake said. “It’s funny because I think it started out a lot more as classic rock, maybe some R&B stuff, but I think we picked up a lot more influences on the way and we hope that all shines through.”
“I think that we just complement each other well,” keyboardist Finks said. “Each of us have different strengths. For instance, I can’t write lyrics to save my life and I’m so lucky to be able to work with these guys where they can. I think that was something that we really got to see this last week when we were out in L.A. Just working as a unit works for us. We’re able to pump out stuff that’s really interesting and that we love, and nobody gets overwhelmed. As soon as someone is feeling like they need to take a step back, somebody else moves forward and steps into the leadership role.”
“A lot of these songs on the EP we had been playing live for around two years before we actually recorded them,” Robuck said. “That’s what led to the decision to track all the songs on the EP live.”
The first time this iteration of the band performed together was at their friend’s backyard, and they felt like they’d found their people in Nashville after that set. Since then, BEAN. has performed at The East Room, The End, The Basement East and Exit/In and has continued to hone their craft in the studio and on the stage.
“I know that all of us have wanted to do this for a long time now,” Finks said. “I think as an artist it’s the most special thing in the world to be able to share that and be able to be on this journey with each other — it’s something that I wouldn’t trade for anything. It’s pretty magical and it feels very cosmic. We’re just so freaking thankful and excited for everything that’s going to come.”
Miyake agreed. “I think we’re performers and musicians first, so we all share the same sentiment that performing is one of the best things.”
“We really care about our live show and trying to make it better every time,” Robuck added.
“Every little detail is just so important to us,” said Finks. “That’s really where the ethos of the band in its form came from was just us playing at least once a week while these guys were in school. Just fleshing it out and that’s where the spirit of BEAN. was formed was from the live show. I think that it’s important to us that aspect of it is heard, as well. Not just from this record, but just in the moment where we can lay it out and just let it be heard.”
This Saturday, BEAN. will be one of the local performers for WNXP 91 Day at The Blue Room featuring local vendors and live music from Sugadaisy, BATS and Mike Floss, as well.
“It’s just a special thing to be in Nashville because one of the biggest center points about living here is just the community that’s based around it,” Harrison said. “We’re always looking to grow that. I think it’s just a wonderful thing to get to be a part of something with people that are having similar experiences and on similar journeys. We’re just looking to make buddies and come hang and say, ‘What’s up?’ We’ll give you a big hug.”
“If I”
Robuck: “I wrote that song on an acoustic guitar in our dorm room sophomore year. I think I was alone all day and I’d been listening to a lot of Dijon. That was when Kobe and I were super into him. I think we might have just saw the show at the Blue Room. It’s a thankful song, even though it’s very melancholy. It’s just appreciating the person that you’re with or your partner for sticking by you even when your head isn’t in the right place, or you don’t make it easy to be loved sometimes. It has a lot of gratitude in it.”
“Beautiful Mind“
Robuck: “The original version, I just wrote with two chords going back and forth, and then I had all the changes in the chorus an melodies. Kobe helped me out, round out some of the lyrics, finish it up like that. And then it was before we were going into track, it was Harry buffed out all the chords in the song and it made it more interesting, that was sick.”
Fink: “That one was a fun one, man. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I just remember all of us being a little bit worried about tracking it. I just remember Jake and I just sitting down the night before we went into the studio and we were like, ‘Dude, we have to save this song. Like, it’s got to be on there. We got to make it interesting.’ We just sat with it and just gave her the old one-two. I don’t know, man. It just it wound up being this crazy, disco, funky song with a bunch of fun synth elements and cool little gizmos. It’s a great one.”
“Good Things“
Miyake: “A lot of these songs started in the Belmont dorm room. I just had these chords that I was liking and I think I was vaguely listening to some jazz stuff at the time. I was playing with these chords and then originally it was just this melody that went along with it and the vibe of the song sounded like reminiscing on stuff. I just started thinking about people in my life and people who were really formative when I was growing up in high school. I just thought about those experiences and how they shaped me and how it’s like sort of a bit of a sad song for being called ‘Good Things.’ But I think at its very core, it’s about appreciating that there was that time and now you’re moving on to better things.”
“Malibu“
Miyake: “I think ‘Good Things’ and ‘Malibu’ were two that I feel the inflection of where I came from in. For ‘Malibu,’ I wrote it when I had COVID during winter break. I was just having a weird time back at home. When you go home during college, it gets a little weird sometimes. I started spewing about this childhood experience that I had. And it happened to take place in Malibu at the time and to reminisce on those times.”
“What Will I Do“
Miyake: “We wrote that one in the dorm room with our good friend Archie Summers. Funny enough, I actually wrote in the same time period that I had COVID. I wrote the hook for that and we were all co-writing. I brought up the hook and we sort of wrote the song around that. I think it was like the first fully co-written song that we had done together.”