On Saturday, Sept. 19, Bermuda Search Party performed their last show as a Boston-based group before their big move to Los Angeles at the end of the month. Formed as students at the Berklee College of Music, the band has performed across greater Boston, including at Wellesley College’s fall festival concert, and across the country. The Swellesley Report got the opportunity to interview the band about their roots and next steps in their music career.

The members of Bermuda Search Party include Hoyt Parquet (trombone, percussion, vocals), Claire Davis (bass, vocals, songwriting), Leo Son (guitar, vocals, songwriting), and Maclin Tucker (trumpet, keys, percussion).

Bermuda Watch Party — Band members Parquet, Davis, Son, and Tucker. (All photos by Iris Zhan)

Their music is inspired by rock, pop, funk, and dance music. They’re drawn to upbeat sounding music, and describe their songs as a bit introspective but “you can get down to” them. Sonically positive and lyrically reflective is the balance they try to find.

Davis shared “When the band first started out we joked that we make happy music for sad people and our music has gotten a bit happier since we first started. But there’s still some truth to that.”

They acknowledge that life has hardship, but believe that when they are together in the music they can get through hard things and there’s a lot in life to be grateful for.

“I listen to sad music that’s heavier than what we make, but when I sit down to write it’s just upbeat and poppy and sunshine and I just can’t avoid it. I try to write sad things and it still sounds kind of happy,” Son shared.

He’s resigned to the fact that “that’s what’s inside me.” Lyrically, the music is for “people who want to get better,” he says.

The band has been talking about moving to LA for a few years, believing they would know when the right time was. But Son believes that big decisions with a big level of risk will never have a time when it feels right, and that right time is when they decide to make it happen.

“We had a really long winter,” he joked when talking about the move to LA.

Son shared that risk is the thing the band needs to do and get comfortable with, to recommit to the risk to make art their living, and redoubling their commitment to create for life.

“We love Boston; it’s truly where the band was raised. We’re not leaving because we don’t like it. Boston will always have a place in our heart,” Davis chuckled.

Davis is excited for the “new and unknown adventure calling to us on the west coast.”

She’s excited to be in a city driven by creatives, music, and the entertainment industry.

Bermuda Search Party was known as the Q-Tip Bandits for the first five years of the band, but once they had a label and a legal team, they were advised to change their name to avoid legal issues with using “Q-Tip.” The band saw it as an opportunity to rebrand and choose a name that reflected their music.

Their music has always been very energetic and lively so they wanted something that felt like a party but conveyed the element of heaviness and mystery found in their lyrics. Bermuda Search Party felt fitting in that way.

“We were figuring out what kind of search party we wanted to be. Where better to go looking for people in the place where people are getting lost?”

Their final show as a Boston-based band, at the Paradise Rock Club, began with their first five songs that Son describes as an “anchor for the band to get in the zone every night.” This featured a new unreleased song about Spider-Man. In the middle of their set, they played one of their newer songs, one of Tucker’s favorite parts. They called on a real fan named Jason to come on stage to play the tambourine with the band. For the grand finale, they ended the show with a brass battle between Parquet and Tucker. Even after their epic energetic encore, their last performance in Boston as a local band isn’t the end, but the start of something new.