5 Records with Be Well’s Brian McTernan

Since the mid ’90s, Brian McTernan has been producing and recording music for bands such as Converge, Hot Water Music, Texas Is The Reason, Thrice, and Turnstile. A product of the hardcore punk scene in Washington, D.C., McTernan also played in several hardcore bands (Battery, Ashes) before opening Salad Days Studios (named for a Minor Threat song.)

Over two decades, Salad Days became the go-to recording studio for bands in the hardcore, punk, and indie scenes from Boston to D.C., and McTernan’s Discogs page can attest to this.

In 2019, McTernan started a new melodic hardcore band called Be Well, featuring former members of Converge and Darkest Hour. The project marked McTernan’s first significant work in the role of frontman and songwriter after almost two decades of producing other bands. And in the time since, Be Well signed with Equal Vision Records, released a full length album (The Weight And The Cost), and honed their brand of emotional hardcore throughout Europe and the U.S. Now, back with two new singles, McTernan sat down with Discogs to discuss the records that influenced his path to Be Well, as well as his production techniques.

“I had seen the movie Suburbia and I kind of fell in love with the feeling of punk and the look of punk and I was angry. But I was also a pretty sensitive kid and the lyrics for the punk stuff like GBH and Sex Pistols and Adolescents and things like that didn’t mean much. ‘God Save the Queen’ didn’t mean much to me and I still loved punk. But a friend showed me 7 Seconds’ The Crew, and that was the first time I was like, ‘My God, I relate to these things.’ It’s angry, but it’s also emotional and sensitive. And I think Kevin Seconds is not credited enough for being so influential. He really shaped a lot of my social outlook on feminism and racism and the punk community as a whole. Also I don’t think he was ever straight edge, but his take on substance abuse was much more practical than just ‘F-you if you do drugs.’

That record was a huge turning point in my discovery of music and then basically that became the hunt. I mean, I was just like I need more of this and that’s what led me to the New York hardcore stuff and things like that. And I still to this day can’t think of a hardcore punk band that has better singalongs than 7 Seconds.

I also think 7 Seconds is a great example of being the furthest thing from mainstream, but it’s also super user-friendly and accessible. And it was a really incredible starting point for me, and really set the tone for what I was looking for out of punk and hardcore.”

“This record really shaped my outward view. It really made me feel like there’s a community of people out there that are like me and think like me, that are also sensitive, angry, and emotional. When I got the Rites of Spring record, it spoke to me as meaningful. Internally I literally felt like the lyrics were like all of the things in my head that I had never had the words for myself.

I had a very troubled childhood and I remember I would sit at the bus stop close to my house until I knew that my parents were asleep, because I just didn’t want to go in. I would just sit and listen to that record on repeat maybe ten times in a row, and I just felt like I had a similar intense reaction as I had to 7 Seconds, but with much more of an internal connection. 

Even to this day, it’s hard for me to listen to and not feel choked up. And it’s interesting because it’s not like it’s hard to put your finger on exactly what the songs are about, but the words and the delivery and just all of it spoke to me. 

I think Rites of Spring was the band that made me become a lyric-focused music fan. When I would go to the record store, the first thing I would do when I got on the bus on my way home was open the record. And before I even listened to it, I had read the lyrics ten times and knew which song I wanted to put on first. For me, that intense connection to the lyrics really started with 7 Seconds and really kind of became baked in with Rites of Spring.

And I’m so glad that they’ve never messed with it. It’s never been, ‘Let’s remix it, let’s perfect the art, perfect everything about it.’ The sound is perfect already. I also grew up near D.C. and they felt like a local band to me too. There was such a local pride about the Dischord bands and coming up in D.C.”

“I know it’s the complete opposite of all of these things, but that record, the lyrics really spoke to me and the production was so beautiful. I always liked The Cure but it kind of caught me off guard how much I loved the record from an influential point of view. Even to this day, when I listen to it, I hear something that I never heard before. And that really shaped a lot of how I like to produce records. I love that there are little details that someone probably spent ages on that are really low and you’re not gonna hear it until the hundredth listen. 

Also, I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with that record. It really kind of brought me back to listening to a lot of Smiths and New Order and even stuff I started wanting to hear: more stuff with really spatial production. I got really into listening to a lot of Peter Gabriel and things that were not necessarily influences, but still in the same space.

When I was working on the new Hot Water Music record, we were working on this bridge section. And I was like, ‘We need to do this rototom like Peter Gabriel’s ‘Red Rain.’’ And that was indirectly because of The Cure’s Disintegration.

The Cure started opening doors to me wanting to really pay attention to not just the sound of the drums, but the layering and the depth of production and just details, little things that maybe nobody will ever hear but do add up to the cumulative beauty of it all. I don’t claim to have achieved it, but it is definitely something I aspire to in my records. I want them to continue to surprise you with little details.”

“I think it’s a perfect record in my opinion. It’s so unusual. It’s sneakily unusual. A lot of other things sound like it sonically. It’s not like a game changer in that way, but I was just about to move from Boston back to D.C. My band Battery that I sang in had just broken up, and Miltown that I played guitar in, had broken up. I was in a really transitional phase of my life and I was staying at a friend’s house and he was like, ‘Have you heard this?’ And I’m like, ‘No, that sounds weird.’ He was like, ‘Dude, you have to check it out.’ So he put it on and I was just transfixed.

I mean, it’s the simplest record I can think of that is as expressive and deep as it is. The guitar playing, it’s not textbook, and it’s not like there are a lot of overdubs and production. But the guitar playing is so expressive. The playing and the riffing and the composition just speaks to you. And then the lyrics and his delivery. 

His internal belief system is at odds with the world around him and I think that that is the most beautiful way to express your beliefs. The words are delivered in the most relatable honest way imaginable and it just caught me at a time when I was feeling turmoil in my life. 

I mean and I still listen to it all the time. Fun fact is, I actually ended up naming my dog Pedro after Pedro The Lion. And when Pedro The Lion played in D.C., they ended up staying at my house and we got a picture with Pedro and Pedro.”

“How It Feels To Be Something On is legitimately a masterpiece. I think it’s one of the most beautiful, perfect records that’s ever been made.

It’s funny. I love Sunny Day so much in my mind that I won’t go see them. I know they’re amazing live, but in my mind, they’re not from this world. In my mind, Jeremy Enigk is some heavenly being and I don’t really want them to be humanized for me. I kind of love the relationship I have with their music and I don’t want to change it. And I’m not taking chances because that record and Diary, they’re burned into my soul. 

They’re just such beautiful pieces of art that changed what I want out of music. I want a singer to be kind of mysterious and otherworldly and maybe the opposite of my relationship with Pedro The Lion. I don’t want them staying on my couch and taking pictures with my dog because I want them to sound like they’re coming from heaven’s gates.”