“I FEEL like LA can be like a vampire, if you let it,” says Jen Clavin, lead singer of Los Angeles’ Bleached. “I needed to leave to be able to focus. When I was in the desert I would have these moments of clarity, where I’d realize that my problems weren’t as big as I felt like they were.”
Before heading to Joshua Tree, California, to write the newest Bleached record, Welcome the Worms, with her sister Jessie and their bassist Micayla Grace, Jen had been struggling with depression and an emotionally abusive relationship. Despite the high desert’s often inhospitable climate, Joshua Tree served as a safe haven from the sensory overload of the big city. “It’s definitely really peaceful and quiet out there, and I really feel like you can just hear everything,” Jessie says.
Welcome the Worms navigates Los Angeles like Tom Petty in his song “Free Fallin’,” where he sings, “All the vampires walkin’ through the valley/Move west down Ventura Boulevard.” Throughout the album Jen sings about driving around the city, turning onto Sunset Boulevard, going up Mulholland Drive to “stare at the dirty letters in the sky” of Hollywood’s famous sign. During our conversation she likens her home to a “best friend,” but rails against “this ugly town” on “Trying to Lose Myself Again.”