At the end of fall quarter, 2025, Wavelength teamed up with the Publicity Center and came up with what’s now known as SoundWaves, a collaborative effort between the offices intended to showcase the bands and musicians currently breaking out into the Bellingham and Western music scene. For SoundWaves’ first installment, the local indie-rock sensation Bellflower packed into Wavelength’s tiny office on the 4th floor of the Viking Union to give us an exclusive performance of almost entirely unreleased songs. We spoke with four of the members—Lauren Wallach, Electra Richards, Eric Ormseth, and Phoebe Setter—to gain a little insight into their process, both within and outside of their musical endeavors, and hopefully understand what it’s like navigating their way through the current Bellingham music scene and beyond.
Lily: Where did you get the name Bellflower from?
Lauren: One time, me and Electra were texting about what we should name our band and then autocorrect said Bellflower and we said, “oh!”
Electra: It happened to fit the criteria of a kind of name we were looking for, so we did also use our brains. It wasn't just autocorrect.
Lily: Three words to describe Bellflower?
Electra: Gay.
Phoebe: Sad.
Lauren: Nostalgic—everyone always says that about our music.
Lily: Do you have a name for your fans?
Lauren: No—We have fans?
Eric: BFs.
Phoebe: LGBTQ+ Community.
Electra: I have some ideas. The Bells… Just kidding, that sucks. I think they need to pick their own name. So, that's up to you guys.
Lily: What are your non-musical inspirations for your music?
Eric: I'm gonna say the sky.
Lauren: The ocean. The big water.
Phoebe: Dogs.
Electra: Probably my friends, mostly.
Lily: That’s beautiful, you get extra brownie points for that. What would you say is unique about Bellingham's music scene? And what do you think you bring to Bellingham's music scene that is unique?
Phoebe: Girl drummer.
Lauren: Girl drummer!
Electra: That's very special and unique and cool of you. I think it's really cool that people in the Bellingham music community help each other out and put on shows in their backyards and are really nice.
Lauren: Yeah, the house show scene continues to be, like, very epic, and held on the shoulders of the next class to come, and I feel like we prioritize that in our band, for sure.
Lily: That kind of goes into my next question; where is your favorite place to perform?
Lauren: Eric's backyard.
Electra: I like playing The Shakedown. I enjoy that a lot. I also like the Wild Buff as well. But I think yards are top tier.
Lily: Do you guys think your music is best understood in a yard?
Lauren: Yes.
Electra: It depends.
Eric: All music is best understood outside, I think.
Lily: What music are you currently listening to?
Lauren: Okay, I'm making my personal best songs that came out this year, like my favorite songs. And my number one is a song called Callous by this artist called Gailna. And it's, like, literally so good, and people are sleeping on her. So, that's my rec.
Eric: I was just rediscovering the album Revealer by Madison Cunningham. Which, like, I listened to a lot when it came out and then kind of forgot about it. And now I've not forgot about it anymore. And, it's awesome.
Electra: I've been listening to an album by Kitchen that has a really, really long name, and I can't see the whole name.
Eric: It's Blue Heeler in Ugly Snowlight, Grey on Gray on Gray on White.
Electra: Thank you. That's what the album is called, and it's really good.
Phoebe: Forever by bassvictim is, like, a no skip album, and it's so unique.
Lily: What is your favorite memory from playing a show?
Eric: When there's, like, babies there.
Electra: That was literally my first thought. And, well, there was that teenager. Remember we did that show? Um, where was that? It was not in Tacoma. It was in Everett.
Lauren: Oh yeah, when the teenagers came!
Electra: There was, well, there was this one teenager, and their dad came up to us and was like, “Hey guys, can you just like stay in this part of the room for a few more minutes? My kid is, like, really nervous and wants to come up and talk to you but needs a few more minutes. So don't go anywhere.”
Eric: That was really sweet.
Electra: And we were like, “Okay!” And then they came up and they bought something and we signed it and it was, like, adorable.
Phoebe: My favorite memory is when we played in Tacoma at that thingy and they put us on the hip-hop day, and then we played like directly after this rapper and he was like rapping about putting a perc in his butt.
Eric: That was incredible.
Lauren: And then we waited five hours for our Applebee’s.
Eric: Oh my god and they gave us a hundred free dessert coupons.
Phoebe: And we went to Red Robin and the service was so bad after it. Oh my god.
Eric: It was terrible.
Phoebe: Never going to Tacoma again.
Electra: But that was the best memory.
Phoebe: Well, that was like, really funny.
Eric: It was so funny. It was just a hilarious day.
Lauren: That was such a funny day, and all of our parents were there.
Phoebe: Yes, and everybody’s parents came, and I was so scared in the green room, like, talking to all these like rappers and stuff. It was just all these guys.
Lily: Besides music, how do you wind down?
Lauren: I love to knit. That's my answer.
Phoebe: You might have to cut this out, but, smoke weed.
Lily: You can say that, I don't care as long as you’re 21
Phoebe: I am.
Eric: I don't relax.
Lauren: You just play music and be stressed.
Eric: No… What do you do Electra?
Electra: I pet some cats and lay down in my bed and wrap up like a burrito in my heated blanket. And, I just recently rediscovered an awesome game on my phone called Tents and Trees. It is really fun, and I used to play it years ago and I forgot about it.
Lily (to Eric): You're going to stick with that? “I stay stressed”?
Eric: No, no, no. That was a joke. I don't know, I like cooking and cleaning and, uh, sleeping.
Lily: Okay, this is kind of a tricky one, but, me and Molly were having this conversation and I'm going to start asking bands we interview. There's a “problem” in Bellingham where bands have a two-word name and it's like an inanimate object and a natural object. And so, if you could switch names with any other band in Bellingham that is also a two-name band, which one would it be?
Lauren: I'm going to switch with Dogwood or Dollarbird.
Phoebe: I love Dogwood.
Lauren: Dogwood is a good name.
Eric: Moth garden. Definitely. We could be Moth Garden for sure. They could be Bellflower. No one would even notice.
Lauren: We could do a trade with Dogwood, Moth Garden, Dollarbird, and Frog Rocket.
Lily: Yeah, you guys could do a rotating-band-name situation. Alright, and then last question; what's next for Bellflower?
Eric: Recording, hopefully.
Phoebe: Yeah, we're gonna record a song.
Lauren: Play in other places and, yeah, record that last song.
Phoebe: Record that song, send it out to all the labels.
Lauren: Get signed. Go on tour.
Electra: Travel the world!
Lauren: Go play Bonnaroo. I wanna play Bonnaroo so bad, you guys.
Phoebe: Move to Ireland.
Lauren: Start a commune. Farm sheep.
Lily: Do you guys have shows you're gonna perform in the near future?
Lauren: Oh, you mean immediately what's next?
Electra: I don't know the dates off the top of my head.
Lauren: And we have a new band member, which is awesome. Like Eric said, Oli's in the band. They cannot be here tonight. But we're, like, stoked for 2026, baby! That's Bellflower's year. The year of the Bellflower.
Electra: That's what they say.
Lily: Okay, this is your one and only opportunity, last words.
Electra: Are we dying?
Lauren: You're gonna kill us?
Lily: No, no, no. This is death. This is dying.
Eric: Thanks for listening. Thanks for reading. Check us out on the music streaming service.
Lauren: Yeah, on the internet, the World Wide Web.
Electra: Take your vitamins and take a nap.
Eric: And kill your boss, and the president.
Lily: Oh, don't do that, please. If Molly was to kill her boss, she would kill me.
Electra: Just the president.
Lauren: Like the “Man.”
Lily: Okay, anything else? This is it.
Phoebe: Follow me on Instagram.
Lauren: Follow Phoebe on Instagram @setterpho and follow Bellflower second, if you want, @itsbellflower. But you should definitely follow Phoebe.
Thank you to Bellflower for being our first guests on the SoundWaves series, and please check out the Bellflower + SoundWaves video performance on the Publicity Center’s YouTube or on our website—you can find the link in Wavelength’s or the Publicity Center’s bio.
