Weathers Keep Rocking, Writing During Quarantine

Teenagers Cameron Olsen and Cameron Boyer crossed paths, first as competitors at a Manhattan Beach Battle of the Bands, little did they know that years later they would be headlining national tours side by side.  

Olsen would be the last piece to the puzzle that would form one of LA’s largest upcoming alt-rock bands, Weathers.  Weathers is a coming-of-age story, told by the young hearts of drummer Cole Carson, bassist Brennen Bates and guitarist Cameron Olsen, fronted by Cameron Boyer. Since their first release in 2016, the group has reached over 50 million plays on their single “Happy Pills”.  What followed was a mass of young fans that found solace and connection in Weathers’ music.  

Weathers has since released a full-length titled Kids In The Night– a deliberate and thoughtful record released across three phases including Kids In The Night Pt. 1, Kids In The Night Pt. 2 and then the complete cumulation of both EP’s for their first full-length. Since their debut album in 2018, Weathers has been riding the singles track and has released “Dirty Money”, “Lonely Vampire” and “Always Tired” in 2019.  They rung in 2020 with the pop-rock single “Feel Good” but hit a roadblock in their fast track of success when Coronavirus hit, altering their first national headlining tour. 

“This whole thing really affects bands in general, because even when we do get the ok to tour, I think there’s still going to be a lot of people out there that maybe hesitant to go out into crowds,” the frontman said. “Which is a bummer because we were just about to do our first national headline run, but it got postponed until July unfortunately.  But we are just trying to stay productive and creative.”

“Olsen and I have been quarantined together and we’ve been doing a lot of songwriting and a lot of live streaming, trying to be engaging with our fans,” he said.   “It’s been good actually; it has forced us to be more creative with our content. We have a few singles that we are working on, and one that were hoping to come out pretty soon, then a few other tracks that we think our fans will eat up.”

Guiding Weathers through the rollercoaster of rapid, early success, is producer Tim Pagnotta, who has put his stamp on the bulk of the groups work including the latest “Feel Good”.  Boyer says Pagnotta is the force behind some of their sound, explaining he was the one who pushed them to find their style, but the songwriting efforts were all them.  

“We all write music, it’s a lot of back and forth, but Olsen and I do the bulk of writing usually,” Boyer explained.   “He and I wrote the whole Kids In The Night record together, but the other guys bring a lot to the table too, especially during the recording process.”

“Olsen and I will usually start with a track first to get the feel down and from there we will do melody and lyrics, but sometimes and a lot recently, we will start with a concept first,” Boyer added.  “One of us will come into the room and someone will say ‘I feel like writing something about this or that’ and we will sit down, nail that down and move on from there.”

While most of Weathers’ early singles they stuck to the same songwriting concept of dark, sad songs, they quickly made a shift that is evident on their latest release as “Feel Good” says it all in the very title and lyrics: ‘Going for a joy ride/Looking for some new skies/I don’t mind/I just wanna feel good/I don’t sleep the same dream/I’ll go do my own thing/All the time/I just wanna feel good’ which genuinely wraps up their sound in one song- fun, fresh, carefree alt-rock that fits the sunlit streets of Los Angeles perfectly. 

Pushing such a fun and innocent song like “Feel Good”, you would never know that Boyer had struggled with his own darkness, something the band has since formed alliances over.  

“Early 2019 was a rough time, I kind of felt stuck, I didn’t feel like I was moving forward in any aspect of my life.  And I had no idea what to do about it,” said Boyer. “I did realize you do need to get help when you’re feeling that way.  Coming out on the other side had to do with talking to people, getting help and realizing that you’re not alone.”

With such a closeness to mental health, the group started a partnership with The Jed Foundation and Wear Your Music to advocate for mental health awareness and suicide prevention.  Boyer has participated in workshops facilitated by The Jed Foundation, sharing his experiences and the group always incorporates their resources at their merch tables for their fans.  

 “When the band started, we wanted things to be a certain way; darker, sad, weird, but we also wanted to have fun, we didn’t want to get stuck in that world,” said Boyer.  We wanted to try something different on our new songs and I think part of that is just growing up. But I think we will always have the same cohesive line of talking about real issues and mental health.”