(bright music) - [Narrator] Coming up on Ocean State Sessions... Courtney Swain.

♪ Long as I've been there ♪ ♪ Still hurts me every time ♪ (lively music) - [Narrator] And Cosmic Factory.

(mellow music) ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Every lane which has a price ♪ ♪ And you're tired of all the pain ♪ ♪ Just to be disposable inside ♪ ♪ Place you love ♪ ♪ I know 'cause I've been there ♪ ♪ Still hurts me every time ♪ ♪ Someone was afraid just to show a friend ♪ ♪ Freaky fight ♪ ♪ You had to go and make new reasons ♪ ♪ For us to try to change ♪ ♪ They said people never change ♪ ♪ If there's a way for me to pry open ♪ ♪ And lift out just your pain ♪ ♪ 'Cause I know that you would do the same for me ♪ ♪ Future used to live in ♪ ♪ I heard that there was some weird bacteria ♪ ♪ Like the lake around the wound and wash the past ♪ ♪ Buddha ♪ ♪ They know that you're wounded ♪ ♪ And they lie to keep on playing ♪ ♪ I used to think that cry and service blood letting ♪ ♪ But you did not ♪ ♪ You had to go and make new reasons ♪ ♪ For us to try to change ♪ ♪ You know people never change ♪ ♪ So me with the crowbar, I'm just writing ♪ ♪ I can't take on any pain ♪ ♪ Has my heart run out of space for you ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Ahh ♪ ♪ Ahh ♪ ♪ You had to go and make new reason ♪ ♪ If there's a way for you to pry me open ♪ ♪ And lift out just my pain ♪ ♪ 'Cause you know I've always done the same for you ♪ (audience applauds) (mellow music) - Test, test, test, test, test.

Do, do-do, do, do.

It's take me a while to accept myself as an artist.

♪ Stolen by the way ♪ - That's not always been the case for me.

♪ Cool sign of print ♪ My name's Courtney Swain.

I am a musician, a composer, sound artist, what have you, all of the musical things.

♪ It's just as it stays ♪ I started playing music very young, but maybe it was an imposter syndrome thing where I never felt I was good enough.

So Bentney is a band that I've been in for almost 15 years.

♪ I say hands up, I say hands down ♪ ♪ When I make a sound, make baby ♪ ♪ You're throwing me all around ♪ When I am doing Bentney, when I'm touring live, there's nothing like singing at the top of your lungs.

♪ Ah, woo, ah ♪ I am originally from Japan.

My mom's Japanese, my dad's from the northeast, but I was born there and I grew up there.

♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ During the very beginning of COVID, we were all sent these stimulus checks and you know, being a good musician, I was like, oh, what can I buy (laughs)?

I bought this looper pedal and for me, singing, improvising through pedals is just sort of a sublime experience where I just really feel like I'm present and I am just reacting and a part of just this flow state.

♪ Something more ♪ I think as a human and as a musician, the experiences that I really love are the ones where I'm not thinking about the experience, I am the experience.

♪ Oh, young one, ah ♪ The pedal singing is just something that's full of hope for me.

♪ Ah-ah ♪ And I want to try to communicate that to more people.

(Courtney laughs) It feels so cool.

(mellow music) ♪ Behind the wormwood leaves ♪ ♪ Hide your left foot for it ♪ ♪ Is the curse that breaks your beautiful, beautiful ♪ ♪ Precious one ♪ ♪ Precious one ♪ ♪ We protect our secrets ♪ ♪ With smokescreens and in turn ♪ ♪ They make our dreams more like Hollywood ♪ ♪ Hollywood ♪ ♪ Restless one ♪ ♪ Restless one ♪ ♪ And I won't be the first ♪ ♪ To find that blood tastes good ♪ ♪ Heads are rolling past the silverware ♪ ♪ Roasting bodies in the oven air ♪ ♪ And I won't be the first ♪ ♪ We bind our heirlooms with ♪ ♪ Mahogany for it ♪ ♪ Runs straighter than any tale we rune ♪ ♪ Tale we rune ♪ ♪ Hallowed one ♪ ♪ Hallowed one ♪ ♪ One day we cease to be ♪ ♪ Leave the forest belie ♪ ♪ The soil we learn to love, moth to fire ♪ ♪ Moth to fire ♪ ♪ Hallowed one ♪ ♪ Hallowed one ♪ ♪ And I won't be the first ♪ (guitar strums) ♪ To find that blood tastes good ♪ ♪ Amber-Trapped in things we thought were there ♪ ♪ All this time we stood still in thin air ♪ ♪ And I won't be the first ♪ (audience applauds) (drumsticks clack) (lively music) ♪ If I could take your mind off all of this ♪ ♪ I digress, I just reminisce ♪ ♪ Children playing in the park ♪ ♪ Oh, then a knock on my front door ♪ ♪ It's the face of a friend I've been dying to see ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ ♪ If I could pick up these pieces ♪ ♪ Place them like mosaic windows now come down ♪ ♪ Find your light in the dark ♪ ♪ Oh, that spot ♪ ♪ Underground, near the sound ♪ ♪ It's the tempest in me, me ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ (lively music) (lively music) (lively music) ♪ Well since all this passings ♪ ♪ Are dead in our tracks ♪ ♪ My hearts in the bottom of this old wine glass ♪ ♪ Trusty mahogany cobwebs attached ♪ ♪ To a speaker that once made your ears feel hijacked ♪ ♪ (indistinct) ♪ ♪ Ah, ah ♪ ♪ Never again ♪ ♪ One, yeah, just an empty room ♪ ♪ Nothing's afraid in box ♪ ♪ So, why we sulk ♪ ♪ One, yeah, would assume these rules ♪ ♪ Take me back ♪ (lively music) ♪ If I could take your mind off all of this ♪ (lively music) (lively music) - I think I got my first drum set when I was maybe 11 years old.

I saved up maybe $100 worth of birthday money from a few years.

Once you start being the drummer, you kind of never are not the drummer.

(mellow music) My name's Dewey Raposo.

I'm the drummer and vocalist for the Cosmic Factory and I am a producer at Rhode Island PBS.

In 2020, I realized I had the potential to start this show at Rhode Island PBS, and I was lucky enough to get the green light to spearhead Ocean State Sessions in Fall of 2020.

At first we had started the show, pretty low budget.

We were just doing sort of singer songwriters, small ensembles, and from there we were able to really expand on it and we've been able to push it forward for now five seasons.

(mellow music) The band practices at a tattoo parlor.

- Band, battle.

- [DEWEY] And attached to the tattoo parlor - The battle ground.

- [Dewey] Is actually an arcade game room.

- [Dewey] There's a giant Connect Four, oh my God.

(slow metal music) - [DEWEY] So Mike, Lee, and myself all went to East Providence High School.

- This one's going in 10K baby.

(people laugh) - [DEWEY] We all graduated probably within a four year span of each other.

Connected after high school and started the Cosmic Factory sometime around 2009, 2010.

- Let's see what we got.

- Yo.

- Like that one there with the hair.

- [Dewey] Yeah, this guy with the Mohawk, right, over here.

Oh, what?

(group laughs) - [Lee] Told ya.

- Messed up.

(group laughs) - [Dewey] You gotta be kidding.

No way.

- [DEWEY] It's definitely been a wild ride for the three of us.

I mean, 14, 15 years in a band together.

- My boy.

Oh.

Oh, yeah.

- [DEWEY] If I had to put a genre on the Cosmic Factory, I would say it's rock.

(drumsticks clack) Another way to describe it might be like some kind of psychedelic rock, jam band, hybrid.

We just do so many different things all the time.

(Dewey sings faintly) I think the best part of being in this band is the camaraderie.

The three of us have always just been able to really just stick it out and, you know, be friends and sort of always be ourselves all the way back through high school and I don't really think that's ever gonna change.

And that's, it's been a really awesome experience, I think, for all three of us.

(mellow music) (slow metal music) (slow metal music) (upbeat music) ♪ A defective news ray ♪ ♪ The chronic death that is on display ♪ ♪ Comets falling from the sky ♪ ♪ And I've seems it is our time ♪ ♪ A defective news ray ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ I'm just flipping on the tube ♪ ♪ They say the Arctic is melting soon ♪ ♪ Better get to higher ground ♪ ♪ The sounds of flood gates breaking through ♪ ♪ Have you flipped on the two ♪ ♪ They say the danger's gone away ♪ ♪ For now they say our enemy's will pay ♪ ♪ For God's sake ♪ (upbeat music) (slow metal music) (upbeat music) ♪ I've been walking in your shoes ♪ ♪ All these miles of them common blues ♪ ♪ Live your life, no fear, my dear ♪ ♪ But who is at the wheel?

♪ ♪ I've been walking in your shoes ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ They say, the danger's gone away ♪ ♪ For now, they say ♪ ♪ Our enemy's will pay ♪ ♪ They say, the danger's gone away ♪ ♪ For now, they say ♪ ♪ Our enemy's will pay ♪ (upbeat music) (bright music) - [Narrator] For more Ocean State sessions plus all your Rhode Island PBS favorites, Visit ripbs.org.

(bright music) ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ What it's gotta do ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪