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theletterformallyknownasq · 5 years ago

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Xochi - August 17th, 2018

Me: So, this is the first interview for The Letter Formally Know As "Q". You are my first interviewee. Very excited to kick off the series with you. Can you tell our listeners who we are speaking with today?

Xochi: I am Xochi De La Luna. X-O-C-H-I D-E L-A L-U-N-A.

Me: This wasn't originally a part of the line of questioning, but, how did you get your name? Xochi: So, the names that I chose for myself. After playing around with pronouns, given and chosen names, I realized that my government name didn't really suit me. Especially because people didn't see me the way that I wanted to be seen when I went by that name. As much as I already had this understanding that that name also is me, and regardless of what people thought, I still wanted to align with that. I was also going through a really long period of not talking to my mother. Like a year or something. And so when I chose my [new] name, I wanted it to reflect indigeneity. Xochi from the Nahuatl language, which means "Flower" and De La Luna, "Of The Moon," because we're all children of the moon, we're all under the moon. So that really spoke to me. Me: How do you identify? Pronouns? But also feel free to include other ways that you define yourself. Xochi: I consider myself a nonbinary transgender person. I am agender. Some people might equate that with gender fluid, gender queer, and they would be kind of right. Because identity is in everybody individually, right? A nonbinary person might be different from another nonbinary person. Personally, I never really felt connected to any of these titles of what my father had taught me as being a man. Manhood. All that stuff and I never really quite felt part of womanhood either. Even though I was raised by my mom and aunts and great aunt. So, I don't think there is a binary. I feel like a lot of people feel all sorts of ways about their gender. What would bug me is if somebody called me like ‘man,' ‘dude,' things of masculine nature. If somebody called me 'girl' depending on the day, they wouldn’t be wrong. Me: I feel that. 100%. Feeling neither here or there. Speaking of, where is your family from? Xochi: My family is from El Salvador and I have a father who is half Salvadoran, half Mexican. Never met him. We came here as first generation immigrants when I was a baby and my mother was like 17. Me: And what brought you and your family to Minnesota? Xochi: Well, we had been living in Texas and my stepdad was a storm chaser - not in the cool way - he would chase storm damage from hurricanes and tornadoes and whatnot and get construction work - exterior restoration. And that's what brought us to Minnesota because there was huge amounts of work from this big tornado that tore through the suburbs like Apple Valley, Northside [Minneapolis], Bloomington, Minneapolis. All the affluent suburbs and parts of the [Twin] cities, so there was a lot of work. Well-paying work. People really do pay well here compared to a lot of other places in the [American] South where we were at. So my father came up here chasing and he ended up liking it. He ended up bringing the rest of the family up here. We bounced around a lot, but eventually came back to Minnesota because it was the best place out of all the other places when it came to school systems, to feeling safe, or at least my family's definition of safe. Me: What is your family's definition of safe? Xochi: That's a good question! I still wonder that myself. You know? Because a lot of my childhood was deciphering the culture that I was growing up in and the culture that I was being raised in. You know what I mean? Like there's two different cultures here. There's the American culture that I'm being raised around and that's what's influencing me when it comes to media and whatnot. And then there's also the other side of my immigrant culture that I'm also trying to decipher because I'm like a ghost of both worlds. My parents don't know how to explain American culture and American culture does not know how to explain to me about my immigrant culture.

Xochi: So I'm stuck deciphering all that. And to this day, I really don't know what their definition of safety is other than shelter. Being able to be fed, right? They really embody the values that the American people thought they had in the [19]50s, and they're still grasping onto that which I personally see as a society that's crumbling that wasn't made for us. Even though they’ve brainwashed us to think that we can and are able to adapt to this affluent white man society. Me: Or assimilate. So, what has kept you here? Not even necessarily just because of your family, but for yourself? Xochi: Yeah. After a while I was living on my own and I was tired of moving and having to build community because that's what I think is important. Building community. Because that's your chosen family. That everybody can feel good about how everybody is interacting with the world. Community is great for people like me who don't have a family. Not that I am not curious about other places because being the type of immigrant that I am under NACARA, I was granted a sort of asylum for Salvadorans. And so there's a lot of places I wish I could visit outside of the United States. I would probably go on a prolonged visit to another country, probably El Salvador or Guatemala or something like that. But I can't really leave right now. Me: So what do you do for a living? Xochi: I never really understood the term 'working artist' until it was pretty much forced on me. And what I mean is not that I didn't choose to be an artist and create artwork and whatnot. I couldn’t get employed part time. And I was kinda good at things on stage so I tried getting into a play. Second, third call backs. I felt pretty good about it and I kept doing it for a while. I was spending all this money, I needed to get into something. So I was doing side gigs like bike delivery and whatnot. Doing standup comedy and from standup comedy I ended up doing improv and from improv I ended up doing puppet plays with a troupe.They’re actually a band. They call themselves Bella Yaga and they also do puppet shows with their music which is how I got into doing things DIY. I went through a really big period of homelessness while I was trying to figure this out. A few months here and there, I got stable housing for like 1-3 months. Then the longest pocket was eight months and it was necessary to get to the point that I'm at where the art that I'm doing, the crafts that I've picked up on in the last couple of years, they're actually feeding me and keeping me housed, but it's taken a lot of work. And every day is a work day. Every hour unfortunately is a work hour. But out of all the other jobs that immigrants have to do, I'm lucky. That's how I see it. Me: What gives you joy? Xochi: What gives me joy nowadays? A lot of things. In my personal life, things going off without a hitch. Right? That's always a joy. But also my work affecting anyone else, that gives me great joy. Or like being affected by someone else's work. I'm not just talking about art like on a stage or my paintings. But like work in general. I wanted to meet with you at the Plaza because there’s a mural by these two different collaborators, these face murals of Pangea and they created this big beautiful mural of the community around here and around East Lake Street. I think it's awesome. That stuff gives me joy. People holding little celebrations or doing a ritual, that gives me joy. Partaking in people's rituals. Them taking a moment to teach me this passion of theirs gives me joy. Seeing people realize that the lies that society tells them that you know aren't real - that gives me joy. Society inadvertently or not tells you so many things, like “Only special people can do special things,” “only special people can create and only special people paint,” “only special people can do that kind of job.” When people realize that's bullshit and they just have to do the work to get there and they do it and they're thriving, or at least like reveling in the fact that they've realized something, gives me joy. Me: So with that said, what does Queer mean to you? Xochi: To me, this understanding that there are things that I'm interested in or identify that society doesn't believe half the time and Queer is just an easier way to combine all these different thoughts and feelings. Even though you know we all want to be seen completely and like complex individuals. But I feel like Queer is more than just sexuality. It's more than just identity. It's environment. It's a feeling as well. For instance - being transgender, being nonbinary, being pansexual, or bisexual nowadays - I don't know which one to use because people have their definitions for either and I feel like a little bit of both of those especially since I'm a nonbinary person. What does that make me if I like a man or a woman or a transgender person or a nonbinary person? It's not really a word. So we use bisexual, pansexual sometimes. I respect everybody who says that it's still a slur to them and they don't feel comfortable with it. But to me, it's a celebration. There's nothing wrong with being any of those things that people will lump under Queer and as an insult.

Me: And to follow up with that question, what do you like or don't like about the mainstream definition of Queer? Because you were addressing that in your last answer. Xochi: What I like and don't like? Me: Or you just don't fucking like it. I don't like it. It's not all encompassing of my identity and feelings. Xochi: There's a sense of dissatisfaction for me. I don't hate it. But Queer spaces that I've held here for the most part have been pretty good experiences thus far. Because I think once you get too comfortable with that idea that 'Oh this place is labeled as Queer, so it's going to be safe.' You go there expecting it to go a certain way. So that people start taking things for granted and then start breaking their own rules, right? Like, we go to a Queer dance party and no one's asking if they can touch you. Because there's this idea that you're at this Queer dance party, so you must be Queer and I'm Queer, so it's okay that I touch you because we're both Queer. Like no. Not at all. Doesn't make sense at all. I feel like that kind of goes into this whole gatekeeper mentality. Which is frustrating too because then there are some people that are using Queer as a fad.

Me: Like dress up. Costumes. Xochi: Yeah. I don't think I've ever personally ran into someone like that but, you know, when you start questioning everybody’s identity, it gets exhausting. Queer is a hard thing to define. Me: You said it was complex and layered. What you like about it is that it's not constructive or limiting, so, I hear you. How does your family's culture define Queer? Xochi: *laughs* I don't really think there is much of a distinction between Queer and homosexual [in my family’s culture]. My family's Latinx culture, which I have seen as a pattern in other people’s Latinx experience when I try to connect to people and try to make community for Latinx people. Because we're a massive umbrella. Latinx. I have my own issues with that umbrella too. From what I've talked to other the people in my own family, they don't really get Queer. They don't get anything past homosexual and lesbian. [My mother] is barely getting transgender. Which is cool that she's like really trying to understand that. And we've been doing it through the lens of talking about our ancestors, not just the indigenous ancestors but the Spanish. And then also going into this toxic celebration of the white patriarchy that I've seen in the Latinx media that I've seen in tele novellas that I've seen my mom uphold. So my mom's understanding of Queer is it's just another thing like homosexuals and lesbians. Even my Chicana aunts who were raised here in Texas and California, their understanding isn't 100% either. Everyone's proximity to a definition of understanding is very Queer I feel like. What was their first encounter with it? What was their next encounter? How did they internalize it? Was there a filter? Was it distorted? And those things are ingrained and no one's refuting you. No one's coming in and stopping and saying, “Hey this isn't it.” So, when someone does, they go, “no no -- consensus says something different.” Me: Two more questions. Xochi: Sure. Me: Ok. Technically three. Describe the moment you recognized your true form of identity. Like, what was kind of the tipping point that affirmed you, you're holding this, this is your truth, etc? Xochi: Ok. Yeah. It was after that whole moment of deciding that name, that chosen one, the name that felt complete. For a long time, I was like 'why would I change my name?' Like, this is the name that I was given and fucks with people’s ideas of what this name is and living that name for longer and being like 'no it really doesn't work.' And then going into that process of choosing the name that I have now because De La Luna was already chosen like a year before I made a decision to go by Xochi. I don't remember exactly who it was that I saw do their thing, but it was when I matched my first nonbinary person on Tinder. I was like ‘Oh great. Finally.” It's not just cis women who wants to try to validate their Queerness through me but they're seeing me as a human. This person is someone like me. So I went on a date with them. We've been homies since the start. It was really strange. It didn't lead to romance or any sort of sexual emotion but it was a nice day. We biked around, we helped out a couple of homeless people, and then I found out that they were an agender person. And I was like ‘oh what's that like? I consider myself gender fluid right now like but I'm also still pretty confused.’ And they explained it to me. And I can't even remember that explanation. I just remember being like 'that makes so much sense.' And that just ruminated in my mind. There are a series of people in this town that have influenced me in different ways when it comes to my gender. There is Cullen - who goes by Jenna Cis - who first did this gender fuckery bit in a basement that I saw. It was like this drag-like piece about some sort of wild child. Like, Russian wild child, disobeying their mother or something. It was just like ‘wow who is this person.’

Xochi: But then I see people like Marcela. Seeing Pedro Pepa - another dancer/burlesque and drag artist. The way that they embodied themselves in performance, this whole Agender thing really clicked and I was like 'that's it', you know? And then I was like I need a name. And so it took a while but then I chose Xochi. It doesn't strike me as one way or another. You could meet whoever and they could tell you their name is Xochi and you would be inclined to believe them. Some people still question me about what's my real name and I would of course respond ‘yeah it's my real name.’ I mean it's ancient. Me: And it's you! You affirm it. No one but you can affirm your truths. Xochi: Oh, for sure. People see it and they don't have any connotations of what this name means. So they’re like ‘is this name real?’ And I love that actually! I mean I don't care if they think it's real or not. Me: It's Queer as fuck. So, two more questions. What's it like to be a trans, agender, nonbinary, Latinx person that's living and working in Minnesota? How has this environment impacted you and your identity? Xochi: Well. It makes me question all the time if I have imperialist nostalgia. I'm not gonna lie, after a while getting the performances that I do sometimes, I feel tokenized. Not by one person or place necessarily, but just after a while, all these places wanted me because of this specific niche that I fill. So I felt incredibly tokenized. I really want that whole sense of people understanding and realizing and learning of the culture and also my identity. But how do you deal without tokenizing yourself? And that's something that Renato Rosaldo wrote about in an essay. Me: You don't feel completely seen? Is that what you're saying? Xochi: Yeah. Me: If you could address the most influential public figures and decision makers in the state right now, what would you say about your experience building home in Minnesota? Xochi: OK. If I had the people who I see as leaders in the community like Roxanne Anderson, people like Sharon Day, who has the New Native Theater, people like Lisa Brimmer, who now holds a huge position at the Cedar Cultural Center, and other people like that, right? With all the other public heads like Jacob Frey, I would hope that we could come together to explain to the people who are making the policies that aren't led by community and aren't led by people that are immigrants, people that are Black, Brown Indigenous, is so incredibly important. And that the way that everything has been going needs to change because it’s just trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. With so many other things in the system and this government, it's just not really working. And for instance, 55% of the money that the arts board gets is sent to 12 organizations and those include the Walker Art Center and Guthrie and probably the Ordway because opera and ballet are super funded and they're very expensive works. Where places like Intermedia, Patrick's that closed that were holding these people who are underrepresented, underfunded public spaces, these places are closing or gone completely. It's a strange way to divert that money to those organizations, a way to divert that money into community-led arts. Seeing more things in public would be great. Because at least, in my opinion, most art is inherently political. That's one really great way to initiate change, for it to be seen publicly and through art. Things that are made, to change representation so that people get more comfortable with each other, sharing of each other's culture. It's not just Minnesota, but the entire United States. Immigration reform needs to happen and not in the way that the country has been doing for the last 100+ years. Right? It was built on immigration and it was built on imperialism and there's no space for that anymore. So why continue on with the way that things have been? Stop penalizing people for wanting to work. Stop making it difficult for people to live. Me: Yes. Thank you. So much.

#interviews

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kkv-main · 3 months ago

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news - 2024.8.15

Jeff Rosenstock Japan Tour 決定！

アメリカのパンク・インディーシーンで絶大な支持を集めるアーティスト、ジェフ・ローゼンストックが待望の初来日ツアーを行います！このツアーはCAFFEINE BOMB RECORDS、KiliKiliVilla、I HATE SMOKEの3レーベルによる合同企画となります。

Jeff Rosenstock Japan Tour 10月29日：心斎橋PANGEA 10月31日：横浜B.B.STREET 11月1日：下北沢SHELTER 11月2日：荻窪TOP BEAT CLUB

早割チケットと記念Tシャツ付きチケットは8月19日17:00よりキリキリヴィラWEBストアにて販売開始！ https://store.kilikilivilla.com/

通常チケットは8月30日よりe+にて販売開始。

10月29日 Shinsaibashi PANGEA Live : Jeff Rosenstock Band and more 早割＆学生割引 4,000円+1D 前売 5,000円＋1D　当日 5,500円+1D 記念Tシャツ付きチケット 6,500円学生割引は当日受付で学生証を提示してください

10月31日 Yokohama B.B.STREET Live : Jeff Rosenstock Band and more 早割＆学生割引 4,000円+1D 前売 5,000円＋1D　当日 5,500円+1D 記念Tシャツ付きチケット 6,500円学生割引は当日受付で学生証を提示してください

KiliKiliVilla presents Jeff Rosenstock Japan Tour 11月1日 Shimokitazawa SHELTER Live : FOUR TOMORROW、MEGA X、Jeff Rosenstock Band open 18:30 start 19:00 早割＆学生割引 4,000円+1D 前売 5,000円＋1D　当日 5,500円+1D 記念Tシャツ付きチケット 6,500円学生割引は当日受付で学生証を提示してください

I HATE SMOKE RECORDS & KiliKiliVilla presents Jeff Rosenstock Japan Tour 11月2日荻窪 TOP BEAT CLUB Live : SEVENTEEN AGAiN、THE SENSATIONS、for sibyl、Jeff Rosenstock Band and more... open 17:30 start 18:00 早割＆学生割引 4,000円+1D 前売 5,000円＋1D　当日 5,500円+1D 記念Tシャツ付きチケット 6,500円学生割引は当日受付で学生証を提示してください

Jeff Rosenstock Japan Tour アメリカのパンク・インディーシーンで絶大な支持を集めるアーティスト、ジェフ・ローゼンストックが待望の初来日ツアーを行います!

Polyvinyl Recordsから2023年にリリースされた最新作『 HELLMODE』。その国内盤をリリースしたキリキリヴィラと、ジェフと古くからの友人であるカフェイン・ボム・レコーズがオーガナイズ。ジェフ・ローゼンストックは、バンドBomb the Music Industry !のリーダーとしてキャリアをスタートし、ソロアーティストとしても多くのアルバムをリリース。スカ・パンク、ハードコア、パワーポップからインディー・ロックまでをカバーする彼の音楽は社会的・政治的なメッセージを含む歌詞と、エネルギッシュなライブパフォーマンスで高く評価されてる。

彼のスタンスはいつもDIY精神に基づいており、独自のユーモアと鋭い社会批判で世界中のファンを魅了し続けている。最新アルバム『HELLMODE』では、パンデミックを背景にした不安や現代社会への憤りを率直に表現しており、そのリアルな視点と音楽的進化が大きな話題となった。これまでにもバンドとしてJoyce ManorやPUP等と共演を重ね、先日はアメリカを代表する大規模なフェスの一つである「Pitchfork Music Festival」にて100 gecsやBlack Pumasとも同日出演を果たしている。

2024年現在も全米・ヨーロッパツアーにてWalter Etc.、Small Crush、 Georgia Maq、Chris Farrenら盟友達と連日熱狂を生んでいる真っ最中であり、各地でファンから絶賛の声が上がっている。彼のライブはその場の空気を一変させる力を持ち、そのパフォーマンスは観客と一体となる特別なエネルギーがある。今回の日本ツアーは、ジェフにとって初めての来日公演、日本のファンと直接触れ合うことを心待ちにしているジェフの初来日をこの機会にぜひ体験してほしい。

メンバーはJeff Rosenstock、Kevin Higuchi (Dr)、Mike Huguenor (Gt)、Dan Potthast (Keys, AGt)、John DeDomenici (B)

#live #jeff rosenstock #mega x #four tomorrow

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spettrorecords · 4 years ago

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Playlist

ALESSANDRO DINETTI, Be b1, Spettro Records 10th Year Anniversary – Volume I (Spettro Records) MINAMO & MOSKITOO, Palm Fable, Superstition (12k) JULIANNA BARWICK, Inspirit, Healing Is A Miracle (Ninja Tune) ARCA, Time, KiCk (XL Recordings) PARK HYE JIN, Like This, How Can I (Ninja Tune) KELEKETLA!, Future Toyi Toyi (Gqom Version), Keleketla! (Ahead Of Our Time) TENESHA THE WORDSMITH, I Dream So Loud (feat. Daniel B Summerhill), JOSEY REBELLE – Josey In Space (Beats In Space) MAKOTO KAWABATA, RICHARD PINHAS, MANONGO MUJICA, JUAN LUIS PEREIRA & HIROSHI HIGASHI, Campanas, Alturas (Buh Records) ROWLAND S HOWARD, She Cried, Teenage Snuff Film (Mute) DERADOORIAN, It Was Me, Find The Sun (Anti-) SQUID, Broadcaster, Sludge / Broadcaster (Warp) GREG FOX, Ill Being, Contact (RVNG Intl.) SUSAN ALCORN, Broken Obelisk, The Heart Sutra (Arranged by Janel Leppin) (Ideologic Organ) KASSEL JAEGER JIM O’ROURKE, in cobalt aura sleeps, in cobalt aura sleeps 2 (Editions Mego)

#pangea #podcast #alessandro dinetti

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souvlakispac3station · 6 years ago

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what happens when I can’t sleep

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wknc881 · 5 years ago

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ALBUM REVIEW: Best Sleep – Hummingbird

BEST TRACKS: Three More Months, Furnace, keys, Indiana Dropout

FCC Violations: Weird, Three More Months

Recommended if you like: Rozwell Kid, PUP, Jeff Rosenstock, together PANGEA, Fuzz

2019 has been an eventful year for DIY punk rock, producing skull-shattering albums like PUP’s Morbid Stuff and BRUTUS’s Nest. Hummingbird is an exciting, captivating DIY punk rock album that belongs right up there at the same level as Best Sleep’s more well-known contemporaries. Song after song, this album just kept drawing me in with the rawness of the lyrics and power of the instrumentation. Best Sleep is a relatively new 4-piece band from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Though they haven’t been on the scene for long, they released an amazing EP last spring that pulled on my heartstrings so hard that they snapped. To my delight, they carried that momentum and released a gut-wrenchingly melancholic full-length album, Hummingbird, right in time for seeping in the winter blues.

Hummingbird has strikingly beautiful, dark melodies and enthralling intensity. Every time the energy shifts, introducing the booming percussion and fuzzy bass, it will release your soul from its earthly bond. My favorite song on the album is track 7, Three More Months. The song opens with a hauntingly dark riff and transitions into anguished vocals. If you’ve been reading my reviews for a while, you know that I’m a huge sucker for intense fuzz and feedback, which this song (and whole album) has a ton of.

Just so you’re warned, there is no subtlety or sugarcoating here. Obergfell and Richardson are not afraid of writing blunt lyrics straight from the heart. This album tackles a lot of heavy themes, especially about the struggles that come along with getting older and getting tossed out into the cold, cruel world. Track 2, Furnace is about not having enough money to keep the heat on through the winter. Track 3, Son of the Year, confronts the pressing guilt that comes with feeling like you don’t talk to your family enough.

If Winter is a hard time for you, give this album a spin and you might feel a little less alone.

-Safia

#WKNC #WKNC 88.1 #Album Review #Best Sleep Hummingbird #Best Sleep Hummingbird Album Review #submission

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thatbrony98 · 7 years ago

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An overview of my system:

I build mostly my own equipment but buy components like DACs because their surface mount components or it is cheaper having it pre-made. The speakers i have built impressed everyone in the audio class/club I’m in. They said the 550$ Speakers i have made compare with a 1800$ monitor system. I also did a direct comparison to the ELAC UNI-FI UB5 and my speakers blew the ELACS out of the water. I look at going into audio engineering as a future career.

Here are the tech specs of my system:

Speakers:

Diy Dayton Audio

RS270 10” reference woofer

PT2C-8 ribbon tweeter

X02W-2K crossover

L-pad on tweeter

Ported cabinet with polyfill

ELAC UNIFI UB5

Amplifers:

Yamaha RXV659 receiver

DIY ta2022 with opa2134 buffer chip amp with speaker protection and 40,000uf filter capacitance

DIY gain clone lm3875 chip amp with speaker protection with 9400uf on board and 40,000uf external capacitance

both diy amps use 25-0-25 VAC 330va toroidal transformers for power with emi/rfi filter on input side

Preamps:

Yamaha MG10 mixing console

Yamaha rxv659 (built in)

focusrite 6i6 (built in)

DIY 6n3 tube preamp with upgraded de-coupling capacitors and NOS tubes

DACs:

HRT music streamer 2+

Focusrite 6i6 (built in)

yamaha rxv659 (built in)

HIFIMEDIY es9018 32bit 384khz

Fiio d03k

Fiio d07

Power conditioning:

furman PST-D8 internals in series with Tripp lite Isobar ht10dbs

Cables:

Interconnects:

BJC LC1

Acoustic research interconnects and component cable

Monster interconnects and component cable

C2G sonic wave interconnects and component cable

audioquest interconnects

Speaker Cable:

Sky High Car Audio 8-2 OFC

Knukoncepts 10-2 OFC

NVX 12-2 silver plated OFC

Data:

wireworld USB

Pangea USB

belkin gold USB

Redmere HDMI

C2G sonicwave HDMI

Belkin HDMI

Pangea HDMI

Power:

Belden 83803

pangea ac14

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folkpunksdead · 5 years ago

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Added to Folk Punk DIY TAKEOVER on Spotify: "Goldfish" by Goodnight Pangea https://spoti.fi/2wa6bZ2

#Spotify #folk punk #folk punk is dead

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electricdazemag · 8 years ago

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Hello, I’m Sorry: Interview

by Tasha Bielaga

The sadboy party rock genre you’ve been missing is finally found, thank god. Seattle based indie pop/trash band Hello, I’m Sorry has been stirring up the Washington DIY scene for a little over 2 years. Songs like Good’s Not Great feature that panning of guitar lines between speakers, you know, the one’s that make your brain feel like it’s spinning when you listen to it with headphones. Vocalist Seth Little, drummer Paul Rhoads, and bassist Cam Richardson all live in Bellingham, WA, where their daily antics are filled with schoolwork and pestering their guitarist Alexander Henness, who lives south of Seattle, to come work on music. The band’s fuzz pop feels reminiscent of warm summer nights full of friends and basement gigs. It’s the embodiment of what goes on in most youth’s heads, set to a tune you can dance, or mosh, to. We talk about saying goodbye to Seth’s beloved 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee, the best cassettes printed to date, and their janky mic set ups, the epitome of DIY.

Electric Daze: How do you balance making music, working, and going to school?

Paul: School is the only reason I live in Bellingham actually, I’m from California. As much as I would love to just do music 100%, I’m paying a lot of money in tuition and I know what I’m studying, so a lot of my life is based around school. I always make time for music on the weekends though.

Seth: Music is the funnest thing for me, it’s what I enjoy doing the most. But, I am paying a lot of money to be here and should probably be putting more work into school. Whenever I have down time I always try to write something or be productive with my music.

Alex: I think it’s definitely worth it to find a good balance between everything. Since I drive up here all the time to play shows and hang with these guys, music is the most important thing that I want to spend my time doing when I’m not working.

ED: What was the first DIY house show you played that really pushed you to get into this scene?

Seth: We played the Karate Church in Bellingham with Roar Shack back in February of last year! It’s this church that, I don’t want to say renovated because it just looks like half of it got torn down on one side, but you know. There’s this basement part that has a dirt floor. That was definitely the first show where I was like “this is tight, this is such a cool DIY scene”

ED: You guys have obviously played a lot of different shows, from bars to house to dirt floor basements. What makes you want to keep pursuing the house show scene vs. a different approach?

It’s sweatier, they’re more fun! I’m a huge fan of the DIY scene. All the music we’ve recorded has been on laptops, and the DIY part just seems like people are always there more for the music. It’s a lot more intimate.

Are there any songs you particularly like to play live?

Bodies, Sleep by the Phone, Little Plan. People go wild to those. We played a house show with the band Cruise, and it got really crazy really fast. Somebody spilled FOUR LOKO on Alexander’s pedal board, SO sticky man. And then I was worried for the foundation of the house, I felt like I had to be a dad about it you know like “Yo! Let’s be safe out there!” and then give a thumbs up and play the next song.

You do so much releasing on cassettes, which is super tight! I saw there was a mini zine that came with one of them, what was the inspiration for that?

Our good friend Mimi Jaffe actually did those! She also did the cover art for Consolation Party, she’s one of my favorite artists in Bellingham. She did a page for each song and I printed them for the cassettes.

How was working on the Z-Tapes cassette compilation? How’d you get in on that and why’d you pick that song to cover?

Filip from Z-Tapes hit me up and originally wanted to put out some of our tapes, but he had a lot back ordered. I ended up putting ours out ourselves. Anyway, he asked if we wanted to cover a theme song to be included on this cover compilation, and I thought that was tight so we did. I originally wanted to do (Theme from) The Monkees, but it was taken. So I really dug deep and found this mini 70’s tv series that used a Sex Pistol’s cover of Eddie Cochran’s Somethin’ Else, and I thought ehh that technically works, so we covered it!

What’s your favorite cassette that you own?

Alex: There’s this rapper on Stone Throw Records named Koreatown Oddity, and he made a mixtape that’s him rapping from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air's perspective with these really late 90’s beats on it. It’s a 1/100 copy.

Seth: I’m really into The Replacements, but I’m not huge on the album “Don’t Tell A Soul”, but that album has a song titled “Asking Me Lies” that is Paul Westerberg’s attempt at a pop song and it’s SO awful and amazing at the same time, especially on cassette, so that’s my favorite right now.

Paul: When I was a little kid I had a cassette of The Lovin’ Spoonful that I used to listen to in the car, that’s probably my favorite.

ED: You guys did a west coast tour back in August. How do you feel the cities music scenes vary?

Well LA was hands down the best city we played it. They were very receptive to new music that they probably hadn’t heard before. We ended up meeting with mutual friends in most cities, which made the whole tour very cohesive, and not vary a lot surprisingly.

ED: Do you have a wild story from your tour?

OH! We bought a new car! This tour was very very DIY, we didn’t even rent a van. We had Paul’s 2009 Scion xB Box Car, that he just loves, and Seth’s 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee. On the way back up it was so cramped in the jeep, the engine light was flashing, and the gauges would go all the way up and then all the way back down, and we’re just thinking something’s wrong, something is terribly wrong. So we pulled over on the side off the road in Weed, California, and Seth found a dealership that would trade straight across. We get a 1999 Volvo cross country, and that car, was the worst car, in the entire world. It had a coolant leak, so we pulled over every 45 min from northern CA to Seattle, WA, to pour coolant in. At one point one of the covers for the headlights just flew straight off while we driving, and there was a huge semi truck that had exploded, so the drive just took forever. We got into bed at 7am the next day.

ED: You guys have accomplished so many cool things in 2016, like playing with Together Pangea, playing EMP Sound Off, and more recently you played with TV Girl. What goals do you hope to accomplish this year?

Playing with bands that we really like is always a goal of ours. We also really want to play a festival this year. We’d love to do, you know, like, Coachella, hahaha. Touring again and more shows! We have to figure out how our summer’s going to look individually and then work around that.

ED: Good’s Not Great has 20,000 views on YouTube, and 107.7 has been spinning it lately, which is so cool. Were you expecting that song to kinda be your single and the one people listed to the most?

Seth: Honestly, no. When I recorded it, I recorded all the instrumentals and I was super hyped on it. Then I recorded the vocals and it just sounded fucking awful, I was like this song is the worst thing I’ve ever made in my entire life. I remember going “holy fuck, these vocals suck, I forgot that I can’t sing” and I was super depressed for like two days. And then I went in and redid the vocals and went “alright these are better, this song is passable now”.

ED: Do you have a specific writing process? I know you do a lot of half done demos, what’s the process for that like?

Seth: Yeah! I don’t know how to say this without sounding like a total tool, but recording for me is part of my writing process. I normally have a half baked idea and I go in, record it and work with it. I send a lot of small ideas to the rest of the guys and they’ll give me feedback on whether I should continue it or not, and that’s what drives my song writing.

ED: Do you do most of the song writing yourself then?

Seth: Yeah, I do almost all of the writing and recording. We always rework the song live though, and sometimes they end up having a completely different energy which I’m a huge fan of. What I’m trying to new with the new album is make demos and then play them and work through them as a band, and then re-record them to match what we do as a band.

ED: What’s your mic set up like? I know small bands always have the coolest (shittiest) mics.

Seth: The jankiest for sure! I have two mics that I use for recording, one’s a Sennheiser condenser mic, and I think the other is an Audio Technica that I use for vocals and drums, sometimes everything. Sometimes when we practice, I take a 1950’s ribbon mic and run it through a solid state 80’s fender amp with chorus on it for a while, because I didn’t have an amp that could take the xlr input. That was probably the jankiest situation.

Paul: Sometimes when I’d use a vocal mic, we’d string it over the rafters in the basement because we didn’t have another mic stand. So it would just kinda dangle in front of my face.

ED: How do you guys feel about music videos? Any plans to do some soon?

We’re doing a live recording of our set today with Bellingham Sound Check actually! That’ll be nice to have a video of how our songs sound live vs. what Seth records. As far as our own music videos, we’d like to do one for Good’s Not Great. We like to sit around and talk about what would be a cool video for each song.

ED: Is anyone a different kind of artist? Obviously you’re all musicians but is anyone acquainted with other forms of art?

Seth: I am definitely NOT.

Alex: I play soccer, and I think Soccer’s an art.

Paul: Well I’m in a jazz band! Which is still music, but a different kind.

Cam: I have a friend who lives in Texas who asks me for beats that he can rap over. So I send him some terrible beats to rap over.

ED: Would you ever make beats for Hello, I’m Sorry, maybe less lofi more terrible rap? If you had to cover a rap song, what would it be?

I feel like we could rap. We could cover Gangsta Gangsta, or definitely Rap Snitch Knishes. Maybe Mathematics by Mos Def but it would be hard. We could take a stab at it though! We’ll make a bad demo and follow up.

photo by Emma Hatwell

Connect with Hello, I’m Sorry on Instagram at @hello.imsorry and on Facebook here.

You can listen to their music on bandcamp at helloimsorry.bancamp.com and on Spotify here.

The cassette with the mini zine can be found here, and the ZTapes compilation here!

This is the first installment of features on Seattle based bands. Check back here soon to read the rest!

Check out Tasha’s work for the magazine here.

#tashabielaga #interviews #washingtondiy #hello im sorry #helloimsorry

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