Startup sound

OKC electronic rock band Computer Girl’s new full-length debut Screech is the follow-up to 2021’s self-titled EP. So what’s changed in three years?

“Everything,” said drummer Jenna Bennett.

Computer Girl the EP, which began as a home-recorded COVID-era collaboration between bassist Chris Raun and lead vocalist and electronic wind instrument player Hannah Edmondson, predates Computer Girl the band. The EP was Raun’s master’s project when he studied remotely at Boston’s Berklee College of Music.

“It was just a recording project, and then we made the band shortly after it released and started playing shows around town,” Raun said. “Most of the recording was done over email pretty much.”

Bennett and guitarist Tristan Gfeller, who also played on the EP, joined Raun and Edmonson onstage post-pandemic for a one-off live performance that led to more gigs and more songs.

“Somebody saw the show and was like, ‘Can you do that again?’” Bennett said. “It just kind of kept happening, and now we have another album coming out.”

Screech debuts Friday, Oct. 10. Computer Girl will play an album release show the following day at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 11 at 51st Street Speakeasy, 1114 NW 51st St. Admission is $5 at the door. Baileyboy and Monte share the bill.

Working title

The members of Computer Girl knew each other before the band. They all attended Oklahoma State University. Gfeller and Bennett have known each other since elementary school, and Bennett and Edmonson have been friends since high school.

“We played together a bunch, but nothing as serious as this,” Bennett said.

But Edmondson was quick to disagree.

“No. We had a very serious project in college called Thunderslutz with a Z,” Edmondson said.

Thunderslutz notwithstanding, transitioning from socially distanced recording to live performance was not completely smooth.

“We all recorded separately because it was COVID,” Bennett said. “When they asked us to play live, that’s kind of when we just started practicing together for the first time.”

“At first,” Raun said, “it was pretty bad.” 

Faithfully recreating the heavily electronic EP live wasn’t really an option, and getting Bennett’s electronic drum kit to sound good onstage was a challenge. The band said Screech is more representative of the band’s live sound, and the songwriting process incorporated everyone’s input.

“It was a lot more collaborative,” Raun said. “We worked on all the songs, aside from a handful, together during rehearsals. I wrote several songs, but most of them we would say were a collective effort.”

Raun provided sketches that the rest of the band filled in.

 “[He] gestated all the songs, and then we kind of crafted them by playing them,” Gfeller said.

“Chris would come with the bass, and he’d be like, ‘I really like this one. I can’t wait to do it,’” Bennett added. “And we would jam it, and it was terrible, and then we would come up with a different one or something would come out of that.”

Gfeller compared his writing process to throwing stuff at the wall till something sticks, while Edmondson takes a different approach.

“Usually I’m just trying to get someone else to do my job,” Edmondson said. “So you’ll notice that everyone sings on this record, which is awesome. It’s also a little less work.”

However, this is not reciprocated.

“She actually never does our job, which is crazy,” Bennett said.

“I never do any of the other instruments,” Edmondson agreed. “But I will ask that they do what I’m supposed to do, and it’s worked out handsomely. They sound really good, and I think it makes the record more diverse and fun to listen to.”

Sharing the vocal duties resulted in more collaborative lyric writing.

“When you’re putting your voice on it, you’ll know if it feels wrong,” Edmondson said. “That’s what’s cool about different singers on different songs, is like they automatically apply their own style because you don’t want to sing something out loud that’s so not you or that just sounds totally unnatural coming out of your mouth. So then they sort of take on the shape of their singer no matter what.”

This back-and-forth could lead to conflict. A song Bennett wrote with the working title “Captain Underpants” proved particularly problematic.

“Obviously, that wasn’t going to stick,” Bennett said of the title. “I was like, ‘I don’t write lyrics. I’ll sing if I must, but I’m not going to write lyrics.’ So Chris actually wrote some lyrics, and I read those and I said, ‘I’m not singing that. That’s crazy.’

“Chris was, like, really upset about it. That’s probably the closest we got to a big band split. He got on the group text message and was like, ‘Guys, she’s being crazy about this. And everyone was like, ‘No, Chris. She’s not singing that.’ … So anyway, they changed dramatically. I don’t think a single word was kept.”

Electronic noises

Though the band’s approach has also changed dramatically between albums, at least one pandemic-era element remains: Edmondson’s electronic wind instrument, a Roland Aerophone synthesizer.

“I picked that up during COVID out of boredom,” Edmondson said. “They can send one to your door if you wire the funds. Then all of a sudden, you have a new hobby. … It lent itself to the original Computer Girl EP project, and then it turned into something fun that we could play live that would sort of supplement some of the sounds that were on that EP, because Chris is really good at making noise with the computer. … There was a juicer and all kinds of weird found sounds that ended up on the EP. So it was kind of a means of, ‘OK. I don’t really play piano. How do I maybe make some noises?’”

The Aerophone also adds to the band’s playful vibe.

“We have wacky uncle energy,” Edmondson said. “Our whole thing is a little bit whimsical. With a lot of bands, you get a lot of more confessional songwriting, and it tends to be about relationships and things like that.  We’re definitely more on the offbeat side of things, rather than the cool, hip, suave side of things.”

Bennett laughed.

“So we’re still really bad? That’s what you’re saying?” Bennett asked.

“We’re funky,” Edmondson clarified. “I think we’re really interesting.”

Visit computergirl.bandcamp.com to stream or purchase Screech.

This article appears in Celebrate the season across OKC.