Boston-based chiptune band Battlemode has come a long way since the group’s early days when some of their first crowds were less than friendly.
Founding member David Jubinsky, or Biff as he’s known in the band, recalled a definitive moment in his music career where one audience member really did not like what they heard from his band.
“We were playing Bit Bar in Salem, and we were opening up for this band, and somebody in the back, some jerk was like, ‘oh, this band is a dumpster fire,’” Jubinsky told MassLive.
Unfortunately the hatred didn’t stop there. The bitter bystander took his dislike of the band one step further by posting a picture of an actual dumpster fire in the event page on Facebook after the show.
“I thought it was kind of funny because I like those things,” Jubinsky said, adding, “ I say it lovingly, we were a bit of a dumpster fire.”
“It was like a chiptune, rap, violin trio,” the musician said about Battlemode’s early sound. “I would never do anything like that again, but I learned a lot from it.”
Battlemode’s rocky start is even more inspiring when considering the fact that the band will play Boston Calling for the first time this year. The band will take the Orange Stage at 2:50 p.m. on Friday, May 23. While Jubinsky is excited for the festival, he also views it as a potential roadblock.
“I always wanted to get Boston Calling, but now I’m nervous,” Jubinsky said. “I don’t want it to be like the climax of Battlemode. I want to make sure that we keep climbing and stuff like that. So it’s a riddle because I’m nervous that it’s going be the biggest thing we ever do and then we fade out.”
Battlemode’s first festival appearance also coincides with the release of their latest single, “Game Over,” which dropped Friday, May 16. With incredibly high-pitched vocals to sound “more feminine,” Jubinsky considers the track “ more poppy” than Battlemode’s past releases, adding that the song is “something that we think people will be able to easily listen to and dance to while still including chiptune.”
Battlemode is a self-described “ electronic human band” composed of friends Jubinsky, Kris Uzzell (Astro), and Sam Mulligan. All three were musicians on their own about a decade ago and met through Boston’s close-knit chiptune scene. Chiptune is a style of electronic music that uses the sound chips found in vintage arcade machines, computers, and video game consoles.
“Chiptune basically boiled down is music made with a Game Boy, but it can be so many different things,” Jubinsky explained. “You can produce chip sounds on computers and…stuff like that.”
Jubinsky first met Uzzell at a Boston bar in 2012. Jubinsky, who was incredibly nervous to perform his music live, recalled Uzzell complimenting his set.
“ I went to school for music, so it was like really classical-oriented and I was like, ‘nobody understands me,’” Jubinsky recalled. “And Astro was like, ‘wow, I really liked your set, man.’ And I was like, ‘you did?’ And so we became friends that way.”
Jubinsky then met Mulligan while working on an event called “The Rocky Horror Chiptune Show” in 2015. The event was a chiptune retelling of the 1975 cult classic, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
Jubinsky and Uzzell joined forces in 2021 to form the band known as Try Heart. But after losing their third member, the duo rebranded to Battlemode. They recruited Mulligan a short time after and released the band’s first song, “Midnight Blue,” also in 2021. Battlemode has released several singles since.
Battlemode is known for its dynamic electro-pop that relies on nostalgic sounds such as glitchy 8-bit chiptune and contemporary synth. The band creates these sounds by using instruments such as aerophones, guitars and keyboards. Battlemode has dubbed its sound as “color-punk” which Biff said perfectly describes the video game-inspired sound that Battlemode projects.
“I think we do associate color with joyful, positive music,” Jubinsky said. “We really like neon colors, neon pink, neon green. And I view those colors as really vibrant, joyful and positive. And that’s what we try to create with our music.”
The band’s sound is mostly rooted in 2000’s Euro-pop with direct influences being Vengaboys, DJ Sammy and Anamanaguchi who recorded the soundtrack for the 2010 video game “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game.” Battlemode’s fixation with video games will be front-and-center of their first-ever Boston Calling set, as they are turning the Orange Stage into their own 8-bit video game wonderland.
After Boston Calling, Battlemode plans on creating a series of art-related shows to support Somerville mayoral candidate Willie Burnley Jr. Jubinsky said a list of shows will be posted on Battlemode’s website this summer.
