Budge
Budge knows how to throw a good party, even if they have to set it up on the fly. For one such occasion in late March, the rising Music City rock band had plenty to celebrate: the release of their debut EP’s titular single “Hrtstrngs,” drummer Adam Miller’s 20th birthday and the start of their first tour. Just five days before the big night, they secured a backyard for this concert-slash-cookout-slash-birthday bash, undeterred when booking options at local venues fell through.
Frontwoman Jessie Hopson and her three bandmates, whom she affectionately calls “the boys,” launched into a lively set on the patio. The band’s sweet and spirited melodies crescendoed into explosive drum fills and riffs traded between Miller, guitarist Jackson Berra and bassist Chandler Bostick. By the time Hopson screamed, “Don’t treat me like your doll!” at the climax of “Blame,” a boisterous jumble of audience members was crowd-surfing across the yard.
Since Hopson brought Budge together in 2021, while she was still a teen, the quartet has been playing across Nashville at a frenetic pace. They’ve performed at mainstays like The Blue Room at Third Man Records, all-ages spot Drkmttr and Soft Junk as well as at drag charity events and DIY skate-park shows.
Budge played its inaugural out-of-state gig at an unofficial SXSW showcase in early March. Right after the backyard party, the group took on its first tour, a weeklong spin around the Midwest. “We were ready to spread our wings,” says Hopson during a recent sit-down with the Scene and the rest of the band.
The tour came with its own host of challenges. The band didn’t have much experience playing outside the local scene they’d grown up in. They didn’t own a van. Hopson and Miller weren’t yet 21. But the band took it all in stride: making new friends, chugging along in Berra’s mom’s ancient Honda Odyssey and connecting with all-ages venues across several states, including a memorable stop at an abandoned chapel turned community event space in Louisville, Ky.
Budge practices in the basement of Hopson’s childhood home, where her father and oldest brother Johnny (who leads the band Future Crib) pursued their own musical aspirations before her. Hopson grew up listening to ’90s alt-rock legends like Pavement, The Smashing Pumpkins and Built to Spill, while spending her weekends watching Johnny onstage and thinking, “I want to do that so bad.”
Budge
Hopson and the boys share a taste for alternative music’s up-and-comers, especially other groups fronted by women. They bounce ideas for how to translate these influences into their own unique sound, somewhere between Momma’s brash guitar lines, Feeble Little Horse’s turbulent forays into noise and Slow Pulp’s dreamy, jangly hooks.
“It’s really inspiring seeing someone playing at Drkmttr who’s, like, the best band you’ve seen in months,” says Berra. Budge fires off a list of local bands like Baby Wave, Impediment, Finger Foods and Bats who they love listening to and sharing bills with.
Hopson gravitates toward what she calls “sad little heartbreak songs,” but her verses are succinct and matter-of-fact. The band’s energetic arrangements refuse to wallow or drag, and they don’t take themselves too seriously with their aesthetics. In the music video for the Hrtstrngs song “Say Less,” Hopson sings, “You walked away too soon / Now I’m running to keep up,” as the group cavorts around an outdoor track, decked out in striped headbands, ankle socks and short shorts with “Budge” printed across their butts.
Over the course of “figuring out how to do this whole band thing,” as Berra explains, the group has developed an earnest camaraderie. They joke about starting a bowling league and “get way too competitive about air hockey,” according to Bostick. Collaboration flows easily; Berra shared his first songwriting credit on the EP’s upbeat power-pop number “Lights Off,” and a song co-written by Miller is on the way.
Nashville indie stalwart To-Go Records released Hrtstrings May 24, and Budge will celebrate the occasion with a release party Thursday night at American Legion Post 82 in Inglewood. Melania Kol and Joiner support, and there’ll be plenty of cassettes and hand-painted merch for sale. For the hell of it, Miller even put up a Craigslist ad looking for a magician; at press time, none has reached out to him yet.
