BED Interview: Queer Shoegaze from Berlin’s Underground

Last Updated on 2025-05-25 by a-indie

A Sophisticated Sound World That Creates Immersion

-Yuuki Takita: I found the overall sound impression to be very sophisticated. I was impressed by your skill in creating such clear sounds that induce a sense of intoxication. What was the sound direction or concept that emerged as you shaped the album? I feel you aimed for a sound that provides immersion when listened to with earphones or headphones rather than focusing on live performance.
Sol: Our music is full of layers, colors and ambiguous gender roles.
Nico: In some ways it is more of a studio project, because of the synthetic way that the voices are post produced. But we do translate that to our live shows, we rearrange some of the songs to sound more ¨live¨ and we use the same voice effects. We do intimate introspective music but the live performances are also fuelled with emotional euphoria and explicit sexual content.

Exploration of Beats

-Yuuki Takita: I felt that the fusion of band sound and electronic music contributes to the intoxicating and immersive sound, and beat production plays an important role there. If there were any points you were particularly conscious of regarding beats and rhythms, please let us know.
Sol: Portishead was a big influence and our love for electronic music. Nita (CYBERMISSION), our first collaborator and producer of the drums and synths for our first single, created amazing rhythms for ‘everything hurts’ that pushed the song.
Nico: In that sense she had a very important role for the creation of the sonic identity of BED. I was doing techno before forming the band and electronic music has always been the undertone of everything I do musically. I don’t like live drums much and my idea was always to try to blend together punchy electronic beats, ambient synths and soundscape layers with the classic shoegaze sound.

Songs That Became Turning Points in Production

-Yuuki Takita: Which song became a breakthrough in the production process, or which song do you feel shows the most change for BED? Please tell us the reason as well.
Nico: During the creation of the album of course ‘everything hurts’ was very important and was a seminal moment for us. Also songs like ‘throat’, one of our favorites, became a reassurance of the sound we were looking for. ‘Slut’ was also an important one, exploring more synth pop sounds and explicit lyrics. ‘Heart shaped bed’ we wrote after having fights with our exes, crying on a rainy summer day and it is also a very important one.
Sol: Our new songs will break through, we are working with producer Nino Theys on some synth heavy tracks.

Message to Listeners and Future Prospects

Who Should Listen to This Album

-Yuuki Takita: Who would you like to listen to “everything hurts”? Or in what situations would you like people to listen to it?
Sol: Crying over a break up, reflecting alone in bed, driving on a beautiful landscape.
Nico: the heartbroken, the looking for love, the coming of age, the coming outs, the forever teenagers, the emos, the slut shamed, the transitioning. Whoever feels identified with us, our experiences and our intimate and expressive gender fluid way of doing music.

Message to Japanese Fans

-Yuuki Takita: Finally, Japanese music fans will surely like your music! Please share a message for Japanese listeners. (I think a live performance in Japan is still undecided, but I hope you decide to come to Japan for a concert!)
Sol: We know shoegaze is big in Japan and is our dream to go play there soon <3
Nico: and hopefully also edit our album there :*********
BED: どうもありがとう(Thank you very much) !!! ✬✬✬✬✬

BED Album Release

Album “everything hurts”

Release Date: May 23, 2025
Track List:
1. everything hurts
2. throat
3. slut
4. you’re not my real sun
5. loser
6. burn slow
7. ema is in love
8. heart shaped bed
9. ride (here to stay)
10. my hole
11. Nico and Sol at home
12. highway pearl
View on bandcamp

BED Profile

BED is a music project formed in Berlin in 2021. The members are Argentinian bassist Sol Astolfi, Chilean vocalist Nicolás Astorga, and German guitarist Ema Schiller. Their sound is based on shoegaze, dream pop, and post-punk, with lyrics that weave together melancholy and sensuality, challenging normative expression by exploring vulnerability and desire. The vocals intentionally carry gender ambiguity, expressing fluid identity. While influenced by iconic 90s artists like Liz Harris (Grouper) and My Bloody Valentine, they also incorporate elements from ambient and Berlin’s rave scene. Their May 2025 album “everything hurts” depicts emotional ups and downs, loss, and escape into regeneration. Produced and mixed by Pablo Thiermann and mastered by Jari Antti, it’s finished as a delicate yet rough, noisy yet dramatic work.

– [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/bbbbbbeeeeeedddddd/)
– [bandcamp: shortcode must include 'track', 'album', or 'video' param](https://bedofficial.bandcamp.com/)

Writer: Yuuki Takita

A freelance writer born in 1991 and from Tomakomai, Hokkaido. After graduating from the same university as TEAM NACS, he enrolled in a music school and majored in the writer course.

There, he produced three music free papers and conducted interviews with artists and editing.

He used his experience to join a cross-music media company that has free papers and web media, where he wrote and edited review articles and experienced sales.

After resigning, he changed jobs to a clerk at a large record shop and also wrote disk review articles for his own media.

That was the trigger for him to start working as a freelance music writer. He is currently a salaryman and music writer who dreams of holding an outdoor music festival in his hometown Tomakomai.

He likes cats, watching movies, and reading books. Nana Komatsu and curry & biryani exploration are his lifestyle.

You can find the articles he has written so far [here].
You can find the articles he has written for other media [here].
Twitter: [@takita_funky]