Quick and Painless

To get to the current line up Quick and Painless spent three years with a rotating cast. The band was formed by Max Beardsley, Everett Karlen and their friend Emma; all of whom had been playing in various other bands. The three were joined by Ryan Badger and Jake who were starting a band together and these five became the original line up of Quick and Painless. The band released their first EP in April 2018. Not long after the EP was released Jake left the band to focus on his other projects, but is replaced on rhythm guitar by a friend of the band, Benson. Who eventually leaves the band to focus on his other projects which leads Badger to learning the guitar. He taught himself guitar in three months and has been Quick and Painless' rhythm guitarist since then. At this point the band's line up was Karlen on vocals and lead guitar, Emma on bass, and Beardsley on drums. This line up lasted until January 2020 when Emma left on the grounds of creative differences. Gray Frandy has joined the group to play bass. 

Karlen's love of music grew from many things: his childhood obsession with The Wiggles, years of piano lessons, his father playing 90's rock or possibly his need to please people; performing fulfills his need to please people. Karlen's mother has been extremely supportive of his music, even helping him join a couple bands when she realized he needed a creative outlet. "It's definitely evolved from a creative outlet to my entire life and dream for the future," says Karlen. He believes the concept of people being so judgey and trying to separate themselves from each other. Humans are a social species and thrive in unity. "As a society we suck at making people feel like they belong," explains Karlen. "We write our lyrics for everyone that feels like they don't belong." 

Badger grew up listening to the new wave and synth-pop of the 80's. His parents would play bands like Duran Duran, The Cure and New Order on long car trips helping form Badger's taste in music. His music taste has evolved to include the modern counterparts of these 80's bands: Saint Motel, Beck and The Wombats, all of which have greatly inspired his writing. When he writes music he hyper focuses on a specific moment; writing several songs about the same experience. "I think focusing on such a small moment and really analyzing it helps me find depth in my lyrics," says Badger. "Where in the past I have been so general and vague, the songs end up meaningless." 

Frandy took violin lessons in elementary and middle school, these lessons were the center of his interest in music. Totally unprepared when he was a freshman in high school he formed his first band with a couple of his friends; buying his bass only two hours before their first practice. The more he played his bass the more interested in music he became. Frandy finds inspiration everywhere. His first experience of this was in 7th grade when he was assigned a project on Mesopotamia. The assignment came around the time he discovered Iron Maiden so his new found love of hard rock bled into his project. For the assignment he wrote a "hard rock ballad about the fall of a bunch of middle eastern civilizations. The song was as good as can be expected from a 7th grader with a school project. Now Frandy's songs are of a much higher quality; written to sound like a generic love song, but with inspiration drawn from unusual places. 

Beardsley's family had a drum set in their basement that he began pounding on as a toddler; eventually he started taking drum lessons. In 6th grade he began playing oboe- now he plays with highly advanced ensembles. He is trying his best to learn as many instruments as possible to become the most well rounded musician possible. When Beardsley is not working on perfecting his own skills he is producing music for his friends. Finding inspiration in many places, he explains there are certain "orchestral pieces that paint a picture that really hit my soul and inspire me to create or play music that inspires the same feeling in other people." 

Quick and Painless have been acquiring quite the backlog of music that will slowly be released. The band's most recent single "Gentlemen" is Quick and Painless' take on masculinity. "Gentlemen" was written and recorded in quarantine from each of their basements. This pushed them to experiment and grow as musicians; which has resulted in a song they are extremely proud of.