Bella Ortiz-Wren (just “bella” onstage) is a non-binary artist/musician formerly based out of Brattleboro, VT. Bella’s lo-fi bedroom tunes have been described by Take Magazine as a “deeply poetic and succinct addition to the bedroom pop genre.” In a review of their last release, Wild Rose, The Le Sigh writes: “Bella’s lyrics are astounding in their simplicity and, in turn, the complexity they’re able to convey – the way in which you want to say “mine.”
Bella grew up in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, and will be moving to Austin, TX at the end of the summer. They finished school in VT and got sick of boppin’ around. Catch them on tour with Lady Queen Paradise between August 4-26th! You can stream their music on bandcamp and find the rest at bellaortizwren.com.
Album Art for Bella’s ‘Wild Rose’ Album, designed by Bella
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Boston Hassle: I’m obsessed with the songs dancing bruise and magnet — which came first, the words or the music?
bella: That’s a hard question to answer! Honestly, I can’t remember. Writing-wise, it depends on where I am, what I’m doing…Sometimes I get one verse or melody stuck in my head and it grows into an obsessive repetition until I go home and play the rest of it out. The writing might happen first in that case, but only a slice of it. The rest of the song spills out quickly as I play it over and over. I’d say the words and music usually happen at the same time, across a day or two, unless I’m really struggling with it. I imagined the bouncy/instrumental part at the beginning of “magnet” before I was able to go home and add to the recording, but I guess that’s because I was already familiar with the song as a whole.
BH: How’s the VT scene? Could you describe the best and worst aspects of being a musician in Vermont to us total newbz?
bella: The VT scene is real small, haha. I mean, I will always love tiny-town Brattleboro and I learned a lot about DIY booking & organizing through living there. I’m not actually from VT, so I can’t speak to bigger scenes like Burlington. The worst aspect of being a musician there, or just being a person in VT, really, was the lack of diversity. As a queer mixed person, I think my experience of VT was pretty lonely. I missed speaking in Spanish and being around latinx people in general. The folks I know who book there have the intention of being inclusive (& are very queer friendly), but I think it takes a huge amount of effort to center poc in that work, especially when you don’t want to tokenize the few poc or qtpoc in your scene. I believe it’s possible to do more, though!
Brattleboro seems to have 3-4 local punk bands that rotate/play all the same bills alongside maybe 1 or 2 newcomers, which can feel monotonous after a while. I’ve definitely contributed to that scene and know that people are trying to switch it up (check out FROG POND). Small towns are hard! On the upside, I’d say the best part of playing music in southern VT (where I was) is its proximity to western Mass. I think there’s a lot of potential between places like Noho, Amherst, Hadley, Greenfield, and Brattleboro. It’s easy to forget that a whole other scene exists just 30-45 min away. Being able to leave VT so easily is what made it possible for me to appreciate it while I was there. I miss how familiar & kind a small town can be, the love-hate experience of running into like 4-6 people when you’re just trying to grocery shop…
I’ll be moving to Austin, TX after touring for most of August, and I’m bracing myself for the best & worst aspects of that transition 😉
BH: You’re a musician, writer & artist, specifically a ceramicist & an illustrator. Would you say you’re ‘focused’ on music?
bella: Short answer: I’m focused on all of it! I go through as many phases with my drawing & ceramic work as I do with music, but at the end of the day it’s all part of the same practice, or necessity. I don’t want to measure the importance of one medium over another, especially since they always feel in conversation with each other.
BH: Your songs are daringly simple, which I view as a huge positive in your work. How’d you see to it make such a full album with so few instruments and heads? Would you describe it more of a technically or emotionally tedious process?
bella: By the time I get to recording stuff, it happens in a kind of private bedroom-based frenzy. Definitely a tedious process requiring a lot of patience and willingness to try things again and again. I crowd my own space with cables and mics and whatever tiny instruments I’m using, keyboard on the floor, etc. I’m one person–I like the challenge of doing it all myself, and I can only play so many instruments by ear. If I had a drum kit, I would probably use it! That aside, I’ve always been drawn to simplicity: identifying the core of something and finding ways to support it, holding the weight there. It’s not a goal I consciously plan or work towards. I’d love to find that balance with a band someday, and I’m hoping to meet the right people in Austin.
The emotional side of releasing an album doesn’t kick in until I’m almost done mixing it, deciding how to order the tracks and finalizing the cover art. Polishing the whole thing makes me giddy with ~impatience~ but it also allows me to step back and reflect on the content of the songs, which can feel really heavy & confrontational.
BH: How do new ways of thinking about sexuality and gender integrate themselves into your work?
bella: Sexuality has always been a messy thing for me to define. I believe that part of being queer is about allowing things to be complicated, making room for sexuality to exist in the form of tenderness, caretaking, and longing. I like to think that touch and sensuality can be their own things apart from what we’re taught sex and romance are. The song “kissing you” (from Wild Rose) is about having different experiences behind the same intimacy and not wanting someone to assume they know my history or my body, which is something I would imagine most people grapple with, regardless of gender. It doesn’t feel new to me in the same way that queerness isn’t necessarily a “new” or recent thing. Trans and gender non-conforming people have been around for such a long time!
I wish our thoughts and experiences could be seen as reclaimed, uncensored, systemically erased but persevering–not new. To answer your question more clearly: gender & sexuality become integral to my work as a direct result of me making it and me being a person whose heartbreak is a recurring theme, openly acknowledging that heartbreak is multidimensional and not always connected to sexuality in the ways that we expect it to be.
Words & ceramics by bella
Questions by The Author
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Chris Hughes //// is a poet & writer from Boston, Ma & music editor of bostonhassle.com. //// They can be reached at [email protected] or @crsjh_ via instagram & twitter.
