#haley plays deep rock galactic

[amygdalae]

just played Deep Rock Galactic for the first time! It'd been in my library awhile and then my dad suggested we play some.

perhaps the most perfect father son gaming game

[noro-noro-noro]

another long dream that I only remember a bit of? 

1. dream tries to retcon me into having a crush on a guy i knew in highschool & we have the weirdest flirting 2. deep rock galactic in the underground my mom’s house

some kind of school trip or something & a guy I supposedly liked in highschool was there & he gave me something that was like a little booklet or something. me + 3 strangers (well technically one of them was a dude named Michael thato sat next to in 12th grade english but I never liked him much) missed our train & went to go to a store that was starbucks + sears & that's where we ran into that other guy. anyway he was like wow! haven't seen you in a while! & then gave me something like a pack of folded up paint chips on which he had written some kind of heartfelt message? I think the general idea was like "I liked you in highschool but it's weird & too late now" but I half-woke up around this point & went back to sleep so I don't remember. anyway then we were in some kind of half underground italian restaurant that was right next to a football stadium & I was there with my dad & thatother guy was in a booth nearby so we were passing notes by putting bouncy balls in a small drawstring bag that was attached to a ruler??? anyway I managed to convey "listen if you're interested I would like to try things out still" & then he gave me a bouncy ball with a smiley face on it& came to sit at my table. very funny moment because the dream got to flex that I don't remember what the fuck this guy looks like at all. anyway we hung out I guess & made weird conversation. his eyes were like neon blue which was not accurate.

then cut to being trapped(?) in some kind of mansion. haley stardew valley was there & it turns out she'd sacrificed her left boob or something to save someone but she wasn't confident in her looks anymore so [forgot]. anyway this house was also half underground. mr incredible was there but he ate fertilizer & died. something happened & then it changed to be a bit more like deep rock galactic & the house got a lot creepier & completely empty. it was kinda shaped like my mom's house but connected to a huge underground cave system & also everything was covered in a layer of dust & soot. I was there with my dad playing as the scout. when we first arrived there was distant really dramatic boss music (it was an elimination mission so somehow the boss must have already hatched) & my dad was like ok hold on though I have to go take a shit. you keep watch. so I kept watch by some stairs that don't actually exist irl & eventually I saw a glowing light & a huge silhouette (crassus bulk detonator) & I was like "dad stop shitting we have to go right now or else we'll be trapped in the bathroom by the detonator & die. we gotta leave & restart the mission" & he was like FINE. then I woke up

[mfmagazine]

Com Truise

Article by Andriana Albert

Photo by Com Truise

With less than a month before one of the most anticipated albums of the year drops, I got the chance to take a candid peak inside the mind of the man behind the machines, Seth Haley aka Com Truise. Find out his thoughts on chillwave, what his mom thinks of the name Com Truise, plans to incorporate a live band, touring and everything in between.  

I’ve been a fan since before my blogging days, back when you were just a baby boo going by the name Airliner, now you are cleaning up shop and taking names, and are one of the most talked about artists of the lofi/chillwave movement. How do you feel about that label? For the most part, you really have no control over how people are going to label you. It just takes on its own form. Sometimes I see people call it Dubstep, they call it whatever they want. I’m not really affected by it, I guess, too much in the sense that it’s really electronic music, down tempo, electro music. You’ve got your first tiers of music, ya know, like rock or hip hop, then you break it down, and you can go like six tiers down, and people are just creating these sub genres and all this crap, and really when you backtrack, it’s just electronic, or just it’s just rock.

It seems like most do artists hate being labeled in general, but especially with the label “Chillwave”. Why is that?   I mean, I don’t hate it, but it is kind of annoying to get like, well I guess what they see, people are labeling anything that sounds remotely, or references the 80’s, calling it chillwave or lofi, when so much of it isn’t lofi, I feel like their thinking is misconstrued, or maybe they really don’t understand the different types of music.

Most people talking about music just seem to generalize, and try to lump it all in together. How would you describe your sound? Down tempo electronic music, ha-ha, on my website I call it mid-fi, synth wave slow motion funk, which is just something kind of silly I came up with, but a lot of people pick up on that, I like just calling it synthwave really, because it’s very synthy. I don’t mind the chillwave label really, I mean it gets a bad rap in some places but my music is kinda chill. I don’t really understand why chillwave gets such a bad rap, besides the fact that so many people are trying to do it, or so many people are making music in that sort of genre that are getting labeled as it, it just seems that it’s so flush, that it’s hard for anyone to make a name for themselves, I guess I’m just super lucky that it happened that way.

You are born and raised in New York, an area that is a breeding ground for hot new artists. In your opinion, what’s the best thing about being an artist in NY...or the worst thing, whichever you prefer? Well actually, I was born in upstate New York, it’s outside the city, I guess where I came from, music was very strange. All my friends in high school were into jam bands like Dave Matthews, and I was the kid listening to the Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy, or whatever, I could never get more than maybe a couple people to listen to it, so I feel like I missed out on a lot of stuff. There were no shows going on, there was no scene, so I found it difficult to find a place to be comfortable, and express myself. I was a jock in high school.

No way. What sport did you play?

Football, wrestling, track and field.

Wow. You weren’t kidding. It’s OK; I was a cheerleader in high school.

Yeah. Coming from that background, and listening to what I do, sometimes when I step back and think about it, it really doesn’t make sense almost. One day it just clicked, and went through some phases. I was into Nine Inch Nails, and all this rock, then I was into hip hop for a while, then I just feel into electronic music. Then after a while I started to go to the things I used to listen to, I still love NIN, and I still love some hip hop. My experience in New York is hard to explain because I was by myself a lot, and that’s what drove me to make music. I stayed home a lot, all my friends would want me to come out and party and I would just want to stay at home and listen to music.

Any hobbies that don't involve music?

I like to read conspiracy theory books. Lots of Illuminati stuff. Lately, music takes up most of my time, I mean, I like sit around and drink tea but have just been so busy with music.

The name Com Truise is hilarious. I told my mom about you, and she thought it was very clever. What made you go with that name in particular?

I had two other names for the project before I settled on Com Truise. It was an accident. I was at lunch with friends from work, and we were just joking around about some kind of spoonerism, ya “Com Truise”, and “Cop Tun”, all the movies backwards, and it kind of started out as a joke, and I kind of went with it, thinking that I want to make some crazy electronic music and not care what anyone thinks, and ya you get haters, and I see people saying “awww, it’s such a dumb name, but the music is awesome”. At the same time, it’s like well...that’s my goal. I realized after the fact that it’s the best decision I’ve ever made, because people are talking about me regardless.

I think it’s hilarious, and most people appreciate it.

When I told my mom, she laughed, so now whenever I call her and tell her what’s going on, she’ll say Com Truise, or she’ll say it backwards and actually say “Tom Cruise” instead, and I’ll have to correct her. It’s funny.

You are getting ready to go on your first tour, and you're playing some festivals this summer. What can people expect from a live Com Truise show?

It’s funny because I come from being a DJ, where you just kind of stand there and play music, so figuring out how to do my music live, like reverse engineering my music I thought would be easy, but it really isn’t, when you’re just one person, and I’m standing there trying to control all these things, some of my tunes are pretty deep, I’m not the craziest keyboard player or anything like that, so to play that stuff live, while doing everything else was kind of tricky to think about. So, for the most part, I’ve been trying to work in visuals for the live show, which I won’t be able to do on the tour. I mean my show is pretty basic; it’s just loud and base-y. It’s difficult not to be just a guy standing up there with a laptop. I’d like to be so much more. In the future I’d like to incorporate a live drummer, and I would like to play the base, and do everything live, but still keep my sound the same.

Your sound has really evolved from your Airliner days, even from Cyanide Sisters to Galactic Melt. Would you say your creative process has changed between previous releases and you album that drops in July?

Yeah, it definitely has, and I feel that way too. It’s still kind of warm, but it’s cold, and it’s a little harder. I guess it’s just life, and my reflection of it, and things that were going on. I guess, just dealing with the negativity towards the name, it made me kind of angry, so I wrote some angry tunes. So many people say, “oh whatever, I don’t care”, but people do care. But now, I’m at the point where I actually don’t care, and it’s nice because I finally realized people are going to say what they want, no matter what, and that you can’t stop it, you just have to get used to it, it’s really changed my music. Every tune that I’ve written since, like everything thing that is coming out after Galactic Melt, people are going to go crazy. I’m super excited about them.

People are already going crazy. Everyone is really excited for Galactic Melt to be released. Most of the artists you've been compared to remind me of weird ass 80's commercials, like the Reese's Pieces commercial where the guy flys around in space in his Laz-e-Boy. You manage to avoid that, without completely losing the throwback feel to your sound that you’ve come to be known for. How do you do it?

When I first started with this style of music, the thought in my head was more to mirror types of production, and more the sound of the sound, for instance using the same synth, in a particular 80’s song. I wanted to use the same sounds and processes that were in the 80’s, but make them new, and make them mine. I hear so much stuff that is a direct rip from the 80’s, which is fine, I like it, but that’s not what I’m trying to do, I want to mirror the quality, the production style, just the little nuances from 80’s music that I love.

I saw that video from 80’s band The System that you posted. Really helped me understand your music a bit more, and understand where some of your inspiration comes from.

Those guys are awesome. My buddy Datassette, a producer from London, he did a mix, and one of their songs was in it. So he kind of introduced me. Then I kind stumbled down the rabbit hole into a whole plethora of weird funk music I’d never heard before. Then I learned more about the producer, David Frank, and he instantly became my favorite producer. He’s done stuff with Christina Aguilera and artists like that, so he’s still around, but ya know, I like his older stuff. I find it hard to listen to new music all the time. I’m always looking for like the oldest stuff I can find.

Let's talk about the blogosphere and social media. How has the rise of social media changed the way you promote yourself? Are you a fan of social media?

Well, that’s really how I got my start, but putting Cyanide Sisters out on Amdiscs, and their blog, All Everyone United. So at first I was like “wow, this is amazing!”, everyone just started picking it up, within a month, it was all over the place, it was crazy, it was on so many little blogs, and eventually the bigger blogs started picking it up, and would post something small. Now I see, the smaller blogs don’t post as much of my stuff, just because all the big blogs do, so I guess it’s like why would they post it? But it kind of makes me feel like I’m some sort of sell out. Social media in general is interesting. I see so many artists that don’t have a filter. They’ll just say whatever, post so much stupid stuff, and for the most part, I’m a pretty busy dude, so I’ll post up tunes that I think are cool, once in a while, but so many artists just rant, and are going for maximum exposure, which is cool, and I guess people love it, but for me, I can see the trends when I post something. So for me to constantly post, it’s not really beneficial, I try to limit myself. For the most part, people don’t really care, they’ll find what their looking for on their own terms. Social Media is a double edged sword. You can either have it work to your benefit, and control it, or have it get way out of hand, and get lost in it.

There is just so much content out there. That’s why so many social media sites are starting to create filters, and ways to narrow down your search.

I think people are starting to narrow down what they’re focusing on. Which is good. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t know which blog to go to first. It’s like ‘I’ve got 700 links, which one do I go to first.’

So when I talk about artists/bands I really dig, I’m like a giddy grade school kid all over again... to put it frankly, you are my Justin Bieber, your music just does it for me. What bands/artists are your Justin Bieber? And Justin Bieber doesn’t count...

Geez...Obviously, Boards of Canada is my Justin, Justin Bieber. They are like Gods to me. I listen to a lot of ambient stuff. I like Onohtrix; I like the Games, not too keen on their new stuff. The new album and the vocals are going to have to grow on me. I like The System, and Madonna...she’s like my Justin Bieber. You can blame my mom for that.

Yeah, you’re compared to Boards of Canada quite a bit.

Yeah, which is cool, I mean I don’t mind it, but I don’t want to listen to an artist because they sound like Boards of Canada, I’m just going to listen to Boards of Canada. I want people to listen to Com Truise because I sound like Com Truise, and they like my music.

Like most things in my life, I like to keep it light, and make sure everyone is having some fun. I thought it would be fun to play the word association game. Just say the first thing that comes to mind when you hear this word: Melt- Cheese The 80's- Synthesizers Groupies- Neon Bracelets Lady Gaga- Meat Chillwave- Neon Indian Hipster- Brooklyn Bit Torrent- Movies Buzz band- Hipster Runoff     Finish this sentence: If the moon were made out of cheese, I would…Melt My drink of choice is…Coffee At night when I'm trying to fall asleep, I'm thinking about...The past When I was little, I wanted to be...A construction truck driver