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Noah Shankool

Hello, I’m Noah Shankool, and I make music, and I’m a guy who likes to have fun.

 

Would you mind sharing your age and pronouns?

 

He/Him. I’m 24 years old. 

 

And how long have you been in Kalamazoo for?

 

I’ve been in Kalamazoo for 5 years now, came here for college. I went to Western because I knew I wanted to do recording like music production and stuff and that’s not that common of a program, like not that many colleges have it but Western happens to and it’s a really good program. I’m from the other side of the state, originally from Bay City Michigan, which is a really small town, there’s like nothing there. No music scene or anything, obviously there are bands but it’s not like happening.

 

How long have you been releasing music under the name Shankool?

 

My first EP I put out December of 2017. You can’t find it anywhere anymore I took it down. That EP, a full album and a handful of singles I took down off of everywhere cause I was just first starting out. I guess some people wait to release music until they feel ready but I’m just so into the aspect of connecting with people just right off the bat, and that was going to push me to make more music so I was just releasing everything as it came out. Some of it I didn’t like anymore so I took it down.

 

What made you take them down, how are they different from what you have up there now?

 

It sounds harsh but they are like inferior in every way I feel like the production is just not even close to the same level, my song writing is not good. Now I am comfortable like I know how to use different instruments like I didn’t really know how to use these instruments on top of I was not very good at recording, so they don’t compare. There are people who remember those first recordings, I’ve had people ask me about that first EP. It’s on private on Soundcloud because occasionally someone will ask me for it and I’ll just give them the private link because I still don’t want it 

up but I’ll let people listen to it if they want it but I still feel like its not to the level that I am now. 

 

I started writing solo stuff in 2017. I was in bands and stuff in high school but being in bands never panned out, you always have to compromise your vision you know, and they always fall apart just with scheduling and stuff so I was like, I’m gonna learn how to produce because I don’t wanna be in a band because they just don’t work out. 

 

I know that you perform solo, I was gonna ask if you’ve ever performed with a backing band or anything. 

 

It took a while for me to figure out how to perform solo and I’ve gone through a lot of iterations of it. I used to just play to a backing track but now I have Ableton and have control over everything. That was like a big level up when I got Ableton. I’ve always been down to have a band if I find the right people and I’ve always thought like the people have to come to me because I just don’t feel like begging anyone and having to stay on top of them, so if someone like really wants to be in my band and they are like, I will be committed like I would be down, but my music, since I’m producing I use any instrument that I feel like in that moment, so I don’t really have a set list of instruments that are in every song, they change every song, so if I had a band, its possible but people would have to change instruments like every song, you’d have to go to guitar to synth to something so you’d have to be versatile. 

 

But I always have bass, I play bass guitar on all my recordings. So that’s a constant thing that can be there. 

 

I don’t know if I’ve seen you play bass live before. 

 

I did two shows with PIB if you know PIB, last year. When we did that it was a duo and I was switching instruments every song but I played bass on like two or three songs for that one, that’s like the only time I’ve played bass around here was just those two shows. I would love to play bass in a band, because I miss playing that instrument, it’s my favorite. 

 

Bass is the only thing I would say that I’m really good at. Guitar I’m like decent, I’m solid, I can do what needs to be done on a guitar, you know play basic things. There’s Synth lines in my songs, I have like chords and stuff, I have keyboard knowledge, like music theory knowledge but I have to really like punch myself in or draw it in because I can’t like really play keys. Even though I’m playing synth in Persian rugg, so I guess I can play it enough. I just like  learn my own way of using instrument, because I haven’t been trained in any of them like I taught myself all these, I just kind of go about it and I use it in a way where I can excel, I get out of it what I want for my music. 

 

When did you start piecing together, like oh, I can perform completely solo?

 

Like I said the first iteration of it was a backing track. I was doing a really stripped back version of it because at the time when I first started I used to have these really weird views on music of just like keeping performances pure and stuff where I was just against any backing track at all so I would just play really stripped back but it was just not a good representation of my music. One time, I felt like I needed a backing track but I used it sparingly but that was the best reaction I ever got at that point. I was like oh maybe a backing track isn’t so bad because people seemed be into my stuff more when I had a backing track, so then I went full backing track, and I used my analog synth and my guitar and I would just time the backing track and I would have these interludes of like people I really look up to musicians and stuff talking in between my songs  so I could take a break and drink water .

 

During 2020, I took an performing with Ableton class for my program and that was a huge game changer, because I was using logic, and I realized Ableton is more up my ally because it doesn’t necessarily have to be a linear way of looking at music like in Ableton its all loop based, which my music is pretty loop based, like you can create all these little blocks and pockets and line them up differently, on top of the performance aspect so once I learned Ableton I was like yeah this can take my performances to the next level, which I feel like it did. So I got a midi controller like a  launch pad that’s for Ableton. long with make the album during the pandemic, I got really comfortable with Ableton that’s when I put all my live set and performances together, because I was like when this is over I’ll be ready to perform in a new way.

 

Then were you performing shows right around that same time that you were releasing these?

 

My first official show that I ever played solo was shortly after that EP came out but I didn’t have much songs and then I couldn’t play them live because I was just doing acoustic guitar and me, I was playing solo but it was just kinda like covers and songs from previous bands and songs I could do from my solo stuff so it was just a big mish mash but yeah that’s when I started around end of 2017. 

 

So when you were in bands before that when did that start up?

 

I started playing bass like the end of my freshman year of high school, so that would be 2014. At that time I wasn’t even into music at all I just liked Nintendo and YouTube videos and that’s all I really did. It was weird cause my whole friend group was all super into music, it was two guitarists and a drummer and they said if you learn bass we could start a band, and I was like okay, what do I have to lose? Yeah I just kind of fell in love with it from there. 

 

We went through so many iterations throughout high school of a band but it was always just like the different combinations of kinda like the same guys rotating in and out of just like, who had beef with who and who wasn’t talking to who, you know, just like high school drama and stuff. So it was always falling apart, coming together with a new thing but also I always knew I had a really specific vision. There wasn’t just one specific genre I wanted to make I like to bring a lot of things together so I knew that if I can’t like have control or people aren’t on board with me then I’m not really gonna get anywhere with these bands so then towards the end is when I started producing, but my sophomore year is when I recorded a demo for the first time and that was when I realized like oh I want to produce. And I didn’t know what I was doing, it sounds like crap. It was just one microphone on all these things but when I put that into Garage Band and mixed it I was like oh I wanna record stuff. 

 

What drew you to doing that for the first time, recording a demo?

 

It was just cause my band at the time, we just wanted a recording, we had like two songs and we wanted to put something on Bandcamp, we were like 15 and 16 year olds we don’t have any money to get in a studio, were not that good and stuff so I was like uh I’ll just put like an SM58 on all these different instruments, including the drums I recorded the entire drum kit with just one SM58 just like me holding it above, it sounds like… it sounds how it sounds. We just wanted something out there so people could find us and hear us we were like, maybe we could get a gig but we didn’t actually play a gig I don’t think. 

 

Did you guys just play together?

 

Yeah we would just jam and try and come up with songs but you know its just always high school and fighting with each other, we did like one open mic I think but yeah. 

 

Did you have a band name?

 

We were called Unfinished because we would play in the unfinished room in my basement. Yeah, it was just like punk Green Day type shit I guess. 

 

What was like the first song you completed by yourself?


Like Solo?

 

Yeah. 

 

The first EP I put out was only four songs, it was those four songs that were my first ones I was able to put together start to finish, and they were cool cause I produced and mixed them myself then I had them mastered at this recording studio in Bay City. My senior year of high school I interned at a recording studio so I knew this guy at Reed Recording Company, and so he mastered it. 

 

Also the final band I was in my senior year, we did get it together and record an EP, so that was the first recording I ever mixed and put out which was early in 2017 then later I did my own stuff so year, those two projects of 2017 were my first introduction into releasing music.

 

So for people who don’t know, what’s the difference between mixing and mastering?

 

Mixing is putting together all the individual tracks, so you’ll have your guitar, synths, bass drums, you have all those individual files so to mix them you use like EQ, compression, reverb, delays, all these other things to make it sound good together, then mastering is then you take it out as now its one file, it’s like one song file. Mastering can be summed up into you’re just making it louder at the end of the day, like there’s certain levels you need to hit, you need to know what you’re doing like because you’re usually mastering for a specific medium. Nowadays you’re usually mastering for streaming but you can master for vinyl, they used to master for CD’s or cassettes but you need to work with the medium and hit certain limiting and loudness. 

 

Whats most memorable to you about the first project you put out? 

 

That EP was four songs but it was so all over the place. Like literally every song was a completely different thing, there was no cohesion, so I guess that’s what I remember about it. I was definitely trying to find my way with that one. It took me a while to like discover my sound because there’s just so much that I’m influenced by and so much that comes out of me and it comes out in a unique way so it just took a while for it all to make sense and when I look back its like my style and everything it was always there but it was just really chaotic at that time, I didn’t know how to focus it. 

 

Some of his biggest influences are…

 

When I Heard Talking Heads for the first time and ever since, Talking Heads have been my favorite band and has had the biggest influence on me, David Bowe as well those are big ones that have always stuck with me. I really like The Flaming Lips as well and LCD soundsystem when it comes to bands, but I also really into hip hop as well. My favorite rapper is probably JPEG Mafia, he might be my favorite producer as well. His production is mind-blowing to me, his versatility and I guess I relate to him a lot in the way that he pulls from so many different things and his songs change, like he can do so many different types of music and make it work unconventional and stuff. Also MF Doom, Tyler, the Creator those are all great rappers and producers who have influenced what I do. The through line that ties all of them together is just the outsiders, the people who have a genre or are in a certain community or lane but they’re taking it,  innovating within it and are kind of unconventional and that’s how I feel and relate to and what comes out of me so that’s why I gravitate towards these artists. 

 

Sometimes it’s like I hear something new and it opens me up to something it’s like I get this weird feeling where I was like, I was looking for this, or like I hear something and it felt like this was in me all along, or I always knew I wanted to make this but it took hearing someone do it to like get it out of me. I guess that’s how I felt when I heard Low by David Bowe for the first time. That was a moment where I was like, this is like there was a sound within me that I could never like get to my conscious. It was always just in the back of my head but then I heard Low and it was just like this is something that I wanna go for, the grooves and everything about it is just unconventional and rigid and just throws you off and keeps you guessing. That was an album that felt super relatable to me from the beginning.

 

You mentioned that you do have some music theory background. 

 

I have a little bit, I know the notes that I’m playing, like I know the notes on a guitar, I know the notes on a bass. I have like general chord knowledge on a keyboard like I can play the major and minor and seventh of any chord and stuff like that. I can always figure out the key of a song if I need to at this point. I also have this app that helps me like if I know the key I’m in and I need help thinking about what chords are in this key, I’ll use that app it’s called Tonally, like if I’m having trouble thinking about where to go. 

 

And then, on top of that I also believe in just like playing, because sometimes you play out of key but it sounds good. At the end of the day, music theory is a theory. I think everyone should have a basic knowledge of it but also don’t be afraid to break rules if it sounds good. At the end of the day if it sounds good do it. 

 

I want to hear a little bit more about what elements of your music do your influences shine through on, do you thing, or do you have any song that is heavily influenced by a person or band or something like that. 

 

When I made What Happens Next Will Shock You I always thought oh this is like some Remain in Light type shit or I also really like MIA I thought it sounded kind of like MIA but whenever anyone hears it they just tell me it sounds like the Donkey Kong Country Soundtrack so I don’t know if it came out the way I thought it did. 

 

How does that make you feel?

 

Everyone says it in a good way, I’m like what, and there like no but like it’s awesome and I’m like okay but like I didn’t ever even play Donkey Kong Country so it’s weird, like countless people have said that to me that did not talk to each other they’re like, this sounds like Donkey Kong Country  like I never would have guessed this. 

 

Okay so, how’d you stumble on the Kalamazoo music scene?

 

The music scene’s just so prominent that if you make music you’re gonna find it. Like when I got here, like being in the MAT program people were like, did you know house shows happen here and I was like whoa no way. So I think I went to my first one that winter or something because there was a band that I liked that I had scene and played with before called Greet Death. I saw them at a house show in Kalamazoo and that was my first one that I went to. 

 

That’s fricken sweet, I love Greet Death. 

 

In one of the bands I played in high school, before Greet Death put out their debut and their name used to be Pines, but they had all the same songs as their debut I played a show with them in Bay City. Yeah, which is crazy. 

 

Yeah I thought you said they had nothing going on in Bay City.

 

That was a really weird show that was able to come together because one of my friends at the time, he was really plugged into the underground indie scene, so he made that happen at a record store, but usually bands like that don’t play in Bay City that was really unique. 

 

Do you have any other comments on what it’s like to be a part of this community?

 

I think it’s really great because most cities don’t really have something like this. Even if a city has like music it’s not necessarily a cool  underground one like this one is. What I love about this one is how DIY it is. A lot of cities, if they have a DIY venue or a house show venue there’ll will be like one or two but this one was crazy because it’s like every week, there’s at least one every week which is like insane, and it was how resilient this scene is cause like Covid killed other scenes, like Grand Rapids says like their scene is, not that there’s not bands but there’s not many house show venues going on anymore, there’s a couple but they’re like, it’s nothing like Kalamazoo and I though Covid might kill the scene here but it did not at all like it just bounced right back. It’s interesting, the city is happening, but it’s not like this major city but yet there’s just so much music and people who want to throw these underground things so I think the culture is just super interesting here. 

 

Do you think that it has fully bounced here back after Covid?

 

I think it has, honestly, there’s like at least one show a week, how much more could it be?

 

When I talk to someone like Matt Jett, he was telling me that he was throwing like 5,4, 3 shows a week at his old venue.

 

At Mute City?


Yeah. 

 

Yeah I guess there were a lot there, I played there twice. 

 

He was telling me 150-200 shows at that place.

 

Damn I didn’t know it was that many, that’s crazy. 

 

To think about that like one single venue hosting that many 

 

Jesus Christ yeah.

 

I’m trying to gauge if that’s something people want to bring back, should there be more shows? Should that be something that becomes more of a staple of Kalamazoo in general, or should it remain this kind of underground, niche demographic type thing?

 

I think the amount of shows is solid right now, I just feel like if you throw too many people aren’t going to show up, you’re not going to get a good crowd. Not that I want there to be less but like for a venue if you want to get a solid turnout you should strategically plan them and space them out a little bit.If I was running a venue I’d space em out and I’d put together solid line-ups every time, you know, I’d kind of make them an event each time. 


You don’t have any DIY running background, do you?

 

Actually, I lived in the vine for two years, and I lived at two different houses and I threw three shows in total so I didn’t have a consistent venue but I would try and do one show a semester which the last semester, I was planning the fourth show but then Covid hit. I did throw three shows where I would put myself on the bill and then I would book who my favorite bands were at the time. The first one I booked was because I didn’t know anybody in the scene and I didn’t know who to talk to and I didn’t know how to get a house show, like on the bill so I was like I’ll throw my own. I messaged random bands in the scene and I didn’t even know them, if I found a band that I thought was pretty good I would just hit them up just be like hey you wanna play at my house. I just want to play a show I never really played a show. Funny enough, Supertan played that first show that I did. Now I know Collier really well, but that the first time I met Collier he just came and played just because I hit them up randomly. 

 

Your first live performance in Kalamazoo, what was that like, what do you remember about it?

 

That was the show that I threw myself, it was interesting because I booked these two bands, it was me, Supertan and other band I think their name was Dissonance, that was the only time I heard or saw them. The day of the show it started to fall apart because Supertan, I don’t know I think like one or two members couldn’t make it, and then same with dissonance, like the day of both band members were like we can’t do this. I was like can you guys just throw something together like please I don’t care what combination of people it is, I don’t want to cancel this. I’ve been promoting it and my roommates were ready and stuff so Supertan just played like a duo set I think was Bailey on guitar and Collier on drums. They still killed it. The dissonance people their front man couldn’t make it, so they were like well just throw something together, and they were gonna do a duo set too so like the bassist who didn’t even sing in the band went on to guitar and sang and they practiced all day they showed up they did the set which was like really punk and crazy and shit they told me after we just kind of made up and wrote all those songs before the set. They literally came up with songs super fast before and then just kind of like went with it, it was really chaotic is what I remember but it all went well, like everyone had a great time. I had just put out an album, this was in 2018. The people I was around at the time were into it, so people were down with my music. That was the first time I played a show where people were actually into my music, so it went well. 

 

Were you nervous to be playing live, solo? 

 

I used to get really nervous to play especially just cause I didn’t know how to work the crowd as a musician yet, and I would get in my head and be afraid of messing up and stuff. I’ve just done so many shows and I’ve found my way and found more confidence in general as I’ve gotten older. I don’t really get super nervous anymore, I get nerves like I’m just ready to go. I guess if the crowds weird I get a little nervous, like if I show up to a gig and there’s not many people or it’s just a weird vibe then I’ll feel a little off but if I’m like at a house show and I’m with a lot of people that are gonna be into the music I’m just like ready to go now.

 

Do you have a favorite performance that you’ve ever done?

 

Last fall, I feel like there was just a couple shows that were really incredible. Those shows and also the first show I played when we first kind of came out of the pandemic, with an outdoor show that Morgan put together. We did an outdoor show with me, woitek played at the end, and via ferata played. That was the first set I did post-covid, also with my new way of performing with Ableton and no one had seen me or heard my music in a long time and I just came out and like I looked and acted and was totally different and was just ready to go. The backyard was just packed and people were just like moshing to my music and I’ve never had that happen before I remember looking up and I was just like holy shit, people are going nuts so like  last summer and into the fall people just hadn’t seen me in a while and I had new music and people were so happy to be at shows again so I feel like I played some of my best shows to date because of the new energy and people how receptive they were. Also I played the first GlowHouse show they threw and that backyard was like packed as well. I remember they handed me like 70 dollars from the donation bin like they split it four ways and I got like 70 bucks and I was like wow, there’s a lot of people here. There was a shit ton of people so those were some great shows. 

 

I feel like we all hit this time in the pandemic when we were like is it ever going to end. Like people were saying, one example, people were like handshakes are done, they are never coming back, people are never going to shake hands again, like we were like is life ever going to be the same, will we be able to perform? It sounds ridiculous when you think about it now but I was just so isolated and depressed during the pandemic that I started thinking will we ever come back and when we did it just felt amazing. 

 

So I want to talk a little bit about your song writing process. If there is someplace that it tends to start or is it something that can vary a lot for you?

 

It can vary but I feel like there’s a usual thing. What I like about music, what I’m going for, what moves me is if it actually like does it physically move me. My music I like to think is physical and visceral, I want you to dance, I want you to kin of move to it. So if I make something and it makes me want to move I’m like okay, I’ve got something good here. A lot of my songs either start with the drums cause at the end of the day I’m making dance music, I want to make a good groove at its core just something you’re gonna wanna dance, then I’ll layer the base, I’ll go form  bottom up a lot of the time because I’m more interested in the groove. Stuff I’ve been writing recently, none of its released yet but I’ve been doing a lot more with sampling, so in those cases the sample will start first. Either someone will send me something they think is cool or I’ll find a sample and I’ll be like lets see if I can make something out of this, and sometimes I fail but sometimes I get a good loop on the sample going on the sample going and I’ll add a drum beat and I’m like yeah this is cool so yeah it usually just starts with a groove. 

 

The sampling I’m doing now is sampling other songs and trying to slow them down, pitch shift them and loop them and stuff so actually building songs off samples. 

 

Have you ever experimented with putting real drums into your music or does the electric drum just suit your style more?

 

I guess in a perfect world I would combine the two but I don’t play drums and I don’t have easy access to a drum kit because its also difficult to mic one, like drums are super difficult to record. I have considered it like what if I wrote something with a drum machine to start with and then do live drums after the fact and redid it, but the way I write is I kind of write and record at the same time, so like the sounds inform the song so when I go for the drum machine then I build everything around the way the drum machine operates and sounds so then its like the drum kit isn’t gonna make sense here because I fit the song with this drum machine. I’m not opposed a drum set being in my song but for that to happen I would have to start with the drum set, I’d have to record it from the get go, which if I had access or have like a nicer studio space someday that would probably happen more. 

 

Okay so Backwards was the first release on Spotify that stayed. 


I don’t really like it but I keep it up because it is my most streamed song and I guess a lot of people like it. It doesn’t really song like what I do now. 

 

It feels like the mood of the song is you find yourself back to where you started. 

 

Oh yeah, definitely. That was definitely where I was at at that point where I was talking about something that I went through that was a major setback in my life which I feel like I have progressed a lot since then, so that was about a specific time and instance. 

 

How big of a part do lyrics play in your music? 

 

They play a big part because I like music with lyrics, so I always want to put lyrics on there, but lyrics always come very last, like I will write and structure out an entire song and its just all an instrumental and I’ll be like, now for the lyrics. Like they are the last things, like if you hear my demos right now, I’ll have like scratch tracks of vocals where I’m just kind of mumbling nonsense into the mic just because I have like a vocal melody idea so I just have to pick up a mic and start singing and I’ll literally sing gibberish, not any words just so I remember the melody. Once I have it all structured out I’ll have this full structured song with most of its layers there with just like a track of gibberish across it. Usually everything I’ve made up to this point, I would sit down with notebook and then write out my lyrics or for some songs I did this method where you write down a bunch of phrases and then you cut them out and rearrange them and see what happens, and I’ve written that way. 

 

But I’ve gotten some critiques recently that my delivery could benefit from being more free flowing or just changing it up so the stuff ive been writing now I haven’t written down a single thing, I’ve just been…  I’ll play it and I’ll think of lyrics, the first thing that comes in my head and then I’ll record them. The lyrics for the demos I’m making right now are really in the moment so, which I feel like is nice because its forcing me to act on instinct and I don’t think about it too hard. 

 

Essentially free-styling?

 

Yeah, pretty much, ill go like line by line, like if I have an idea for the whole line I’ll go for it, but if I have a couple bars then I’ll do it and just loop the next part and then I hit it then go for it. 

 

When I have an idea or topic in mind but I don’t know how to go about it, I’ll start writing phrases that that topic or idea makes me think of. I have a notes folder in my notes app on my phone. Throughout the day sometimes a phrase will come in my head and I’ll just write it down. I like that phrase that’s gonna be in a song eventually I just haven’t heard the song yet, and so months can go by and then I make a song and then the instrumental will make me think of that phrase and I’m like, that phrase belongs there. Or I’ll have an instrumental and I’m  like, I don’t know what lyrics to put on this and I’ll go through the notes app and be like, yeah that phrase matches, so I’ll just start with a phrase just so I have a starting point and that can inspire me to write a whole song around that one phrase. 

 

Healthy was the next thing that you released? 

 

That single was from a whole album that was called healthy, I took the album down but I did like the one song I felt like that was still really solid. I don’t have a problem with that song I think its pretty good.

 

I feel like synths play a big part in that one.

 

Yeah. 

 

Was there anything that inspired that do you think or was it just kind of like, this is what I’m gravitating towards for this project?

 

The sounds?

 

The synth, in particular.

 

 I feel like that song has talking heads and Bowe energy, I feel like I did my own style but that was when I really let myself do something super funky and inspired by them and I feel like it panned out well because I wrote that baseline like a year to it coming out, I had it in my memos and I though the baseline was really cool and that’s what the song is structured around. 

 

You Never Looked the same. Same thing, a lot of synths on that one, any other notes on that one?

 

That one, I was just trying to write a simple pop song, the whole song is just like three chords most of it. I was like just try and write within these three chords and make it big and epic. I just played it on this arpeggiating synth in logic, these three chords alone sound really anthemic and I was trying make something just trying to confine myself to that but make it big and stuff so I just layered that a shit ton. 

 

Oxytocin? I wrote guitar intro and Pavement? The way that you say the words in that song reminded me of Pavement.  

 

Pavement? That’s interesting, I know pavement but I don’t listen to them that much but I’ve never gotten a pavement comparison. I’m always interested in what people compare my stuff to.

 

Donkey Kong Country? 

 

Yeah, exactly people always say really unique things, have I told you how the biggest comparison I get, countless shows Ive played, someone will go up to me and be like do you listen to The Garden, or you sound like The Garden, it happens like constantly and I don’t even listen to the Garden. 

 

Oxytocin, just a side story about that,  today I had job training for Best Buy, and this guy that was training me I said I make music, and I’m on Spotify then he started playing my music on Spotify during my job training which was weird. It’s weird because he played oxytocin like an old one, it was weird to hear it because I hadn’t heard it in a long time. 

 

That one, I think the chorus is really cool. The verse and the chorus are kinda two different songs, it feels like I kinda just smashed them together. I don’t know, that song I’m not crazy about it. When it comes to my old stuff I think I only really like healthy honestly, but yeah. 

 

Okay, and my note for Shindig…

 

Oh wait I like that one, that ones cool. 

 

The album art’s crazy on that one, I was curious where that came from. 

 

The person who was gonna do my album art kind of flaked out on me and I didn’t really have someone cause that was 2019 and in 2019 my goal was to put out a new song every month which I did it for ten months, I didn’t do it the whole year but I got close. But yeah, the person that said they would flaked out halfway through I think then my friend Tommy was like, well I know how to do visual art, and he did the rest of them. And his were pretty crazy honestly. There’s some on band camp that aren’t on Spotify, yeah, his art is just really over the top and satyrical on purpose. 

 

Get Lost EP? 

 

It was my peak post punk dark sad boy phase I guess. 

 

I wrote, mysterious 80s goth? 

 

Definitely. At that time I was really into Interpol. That EP doesn’t sound like The Smiths but I was listening to a ton of the Smiths so I was listening to a lot of that post-punk sad dark stuff, that was all I was listening to and so I was like I wanna make a post punk record. That one, it’s alright. 

 

Be Found EP after that, I don’t that has somewhat of a connection to the Get Lost EP. 

 

When I started off, I thought I was going to do a trilogy, like when I was making get lost they are going to be called Get Lost, Be Found, Come Home like I had that in mind and I had an idea for each one. Get Lost was the vibe I was actually trying to do the next two kind of became there own thing like in Be Found I was like I wanna make it remain in that post punk but make it more disco, more dance territory…

 

We're still sad.. 

 

Yeah like I wanna make it dancy dark sad, like I think its still more post punk than it is disco but it does sound a little more colorful than Get Lost so yeah I was trying to go more disco vibes on that one. 

 

I really do appreciate the pulling of complete different areas. 

 

I think it’s fun to throw stuff together because its kind of authentic to me to do that. 

 

And it’s kind of challenging yourself in a way toI feel like to just be like alright, these are the vastly different emotions or things that im feeling or gravitating right now, let’s Frankenstein them together in a way. 

 

I love juxtaposition, like LCD sound system being one favorite bands like they do post-punk disco type stuff like really dancey music, they make dance music but their lyrics are always really sad so I was always really influenced by that because its like you’re dancing, you’re moving, but then its almost like therapeutic because you’re getting these bad thoughts out but you can do it physically, so I liked that idea.

 

Kind of like a release in a way…

 

Exactly, that’s a good way to put it. Like I definitely feel like my music is like this release for me. 

 

Then after that we have Inheritance and Palm Springs. 

 

Yeah those were the two singles from Come Home and Come Home was the birth of what I always wanted to do. Come home was my realization when I was like oh I can make good music I guess. Come Home was like the first thing where I could tell people were impressed by it. And um it was also the first one where I could tell that my mom actually liked it, and I was like my mom can like this man maybe I’m making something good. Cause my parents don’t listen to crazy music like that so for her to be into it I was like okay so this is like resonating with people, people were impressed so and I though it was good it too. Like usually I would put something out and then a month or two later I would be like agh, I don’t like it anymore but Come Home came out and months went by and I was like what? I still think its good.

​

Next was What Happens Next Will Shock You. I wanna know the motivation behind this.

 

Like the sounds or what’s up?

 

That and  I’m also curious just like what are you talking about?

 

The title is derived from like clickbate-y articles you know, articles that’ll be like thirteen ways you can do this and you’ll never guess number 8, and I always liked that because I like to point at how absurd things are in our daily lives are especially in this current age so what happens next will shock you, I’ve seen that in video titles and stuff like that and that kind of goes into the ethos of the song because I was really thinking about immigration and my family because my dad and his side of the family immigrated here and had a lot of struggles, growing up in poverty and dealing with racism and things like that, so I was thinking on a personal level but also like the general level of immigration especially in the digital age in like news and propaganda and how like these are all like immigration when you hear about people coming into a place or county its always just headlines and statistics to people but people don’t think of it like faces and people and the individual and so  the verses are more talking about personal struggles with me or with family members and the chorus is about how the news and digital media affects public perception of all that. 

 

Dude, that’s really cool that it actually has a lot of depth and layers to the emotion behind that piece, that’s really interesting to know. 

 

And I guess that’s just a way I approach things. That song sounds really out there and absurd and again that goes back to juxtaposition where it’s like I want to talk about these emotional or dark topics, struggles, things like that but I don’t want my music to be a bummer. So I use it as a way to like I want to make music where it’s fun but I can also say something in the process which kind of goes back to that release. 

 

All Down From Here, that was released with What Happens Next Will Shock You?

 

Yeah, those two were like a double single I guess before the album came out.

 

Okay and then Bubble World was where it got released on?

 

Yeah that was the album. 

 

I did want to talk a little bit, if your down, about like stand up. 

 

Okay sure.

 

How do you think your persona for sharing your music differs from your stand up persona?

 

It’s still me, but I still feel like the personas are completely different, like my music will be more out there and I’m trying to innovate. In standup most my set just ends up being stories from my life. I feel like they have a pretty different feel to them, but yeah, I just  had an interest in standup and I thought I’d do well at it so I’ve been trying it out

 

Is there any comedians that you hold close to your heart?

 

It’s kind of a basic answer but I really like John Mullaney, I think he’s really funny. He’s probably my favorite because I relate to his style and feel and I appreciate like a lot of comedians just try to be edgy and swear a lot just cause but he’s able to be really funny but while keeping it classy, and I don’t get offended by swearing and stuff but you have to be very skillful to be super funny wihthout just saying something raunchy

 

Do you feel like that’s helped with your stage presence?

 

I’ve done a lot of acting, I don’t want to call myself a theater kind because that’s extremely cringe, and I didn’t like listen to musicals and stuff in high school but I was in a lot of plays and musicals like I did like three shows a year throughout high school, so I have a lot of experience acting then I was on the Improv team at western so acting came first and I felt like acting and stuff came really natural  where its like I’m good at music and I definitely have the mind for it but it was definitely something I had to work at especially the stage presence thing I didn’t understand that at first, I had to really cultivate that but acting and performing in that way has been a big part of my life usually. 

 

Do you still have any outlet for that, acting wise, or do you think stand-up and music performance has kind of taken the place of that. 

 

Yeah that’s taken the place of it. I would love to act honestly but its not like easy to like if you’re doing it for funsies you’re just going to have to be in a community theater production and at this point of my life I don’t really like theater and it’s not like I can be in a movie and I love improv as well but outside of college, I don’t know what you know about improv, they won’t let you in a group unless you take all these classes that are hundreds of dollars. And I don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars to do that and stand up I can do for free. It’s because Improv never makes any money so the only way they can make money is to gate-keep it by making you pay hundreds dollars to get in. It’s almost like cultish. Theater I just don’t like the vibe, improv is expensive, so stand up I can just do it and its just me so when I get the itch to perform in that I way I guess that’s why I gravitated towards stand up. 

 

Do you think that there is some overlap? Like when I hear What Happens Next Will shock you, it has some layers to it and it shows a perception that you have. I feel like you do that in your comedy from what I’ve seen. 

 

Yeah I mean, people are always going to notice things that you don’t. If you’re the performer or the one making things it’s kind of impossible to have that third perspective so sometimes people say things to me and they’re not wrong, sometimes they’re 100% right it’s just something I didn’t even notice or thought of. So if you notice that then, yeah maybe it’s there. 

 

Showing people your own music in particular is kinda like, you have no idea how they are going to experience it, you’ve seen that song since it’s inception, and they are getting this whole thing at face value. You can’t control how people are going to respond or react or feel about your music, all you can do is put it out there and just allow people to make judgements on it. 

 

Yeah then it’s weird when like, obviously you can interpret it any way you want, where I’m like oh they’re not seeing it right or seeing it the way I thought they would,  like I talked about the juxtaposition where I’ll add something absurdity or something satirical or I’ll make it fun when the message is not fun. But then I feel like there’s been people where they think my music is just kind of goofy, and I’m like yeah there’s colorful aspects to it but at the end of the day I’m not just trying to be a goofy act I’m still trying to say something so I guess im thinking about that going forward where Im still going to be me and do the things I’m do but I want to get things across, without changing anything but I don’t have to juxtapose so hard I guess. I dont know, working on getting the vision across and specific as possible. 

 

I guess I just needed to play more with some edginess, I’ve been playing more with distortion and stuff like that just to be like, it’s not all fun and games folks. 

 

The music that you’re making now, the demos that you’re making now, how is it different from what you released already?

 

There’s still synth but it’s not synth based like bubble world was, and it’s kind of going to be a complete departure from bubble world, honestly, it’s not going to sound like it at all. This next one is going to be a whole new thing but it is where my head is at, at this point, I feel like I kind of exhausted the sound I was doing, it was where I was at the time but I just did so much that was inspired by post-punk or 80s and stuff like that but now I’m just not moved by that stuff anymore, I don’t feel like it represents me, so I’m kind of going in a new direction, its definitely my style and everything but I wouldn’t say its retro or anything anymore. 

 

What led you to choose the name Bubble World.

 

You want the meaning of Bubble World?

 

It’s kind of like a triple entendre, its got three meanings to it, because bubble world is kind of like a concept album I wrote the whole thing during the pandemic so it was just thinking about where the world is at and also the history of this country and how we got here so bubble world is supposed to give you what its like to be in the suburbs and just how lifeless the suburbs feel and just the dark history surrounding it, and so bubble world being like the suburbs are this bubble and they were created so people could get away and live this plastic perfect life. Bubble world also being about the pandemic, were all living in a bubble what we were experiencing like you were just confined to this area and then I guess I got the name from, my parents have this pet french bulldog, the bulldog’s name is Nani and they gave Nani a middle name and her middle name is Bubbles, and they gave her this fenced in area in their backyard and they called the area bubble world. And that’s what it first comes from because I just thought that was a funny thing I was like what if I call the album bubble world because nani lives is in this bubble world but then the suburbs are also a bubble but then were all in a bubble because of the pandemic. 

 

What’s next for you, what do you see in your future?

 

My goals going forward is to continue churning out music, I set a goal for myself that I want to put a project out every year until I’m thirty. Who knows how long each one is going to be, you know I’m in my twenties and I’m trying to get better all the time and the way to get better is to put it out there and that’s exposure, so its just like, everyone wants to have the secret or think about what to do or how to get better how to like get your music out there but it’s just like get in front of people and constantly make music. When it comes down to it its really simple like just make music and release it. So I’m trying to get as good as I can and make as much as I can in my twenties so that’s the goal. And I just,  love doing it, it’s not like I have to force myself, like obviously I push myself a little to get better because it takes discipline to get better at anything but also at the end of the day its always this release for me it feels like something I have to do I have so many ideas they’re shooting out of me so to give me that goal is to constantly flex that muscle and keep myself going. 

 

Yeah that ties in really nice with my last question which is just what drives you to create music?

 

I feel like born an artists in general, throughout my life I’ve always tried different mediums, like I said I did theater when I was a kid I would draw and stuff so I feel like I’ve always had a deep fascination in art and self expression and I just have like nonstop ideas. Once I discovered music, music has resonated with me more than anything ever has like it feels like the perfect fit for me. At the end of the day, when it comes to art I do have some kind of spiritual views on it like I do think there’s something about art that I don’t think anyone can really define like where it comes form or what happens, a lot of my songs it doesn’t feel like I wrote them, it feels like it came from something else like a lot of the times if feel like an antennae just picking up radio waves, or like picking up other things its just a matter of tuning into the ideas that are already there and im tuning into something greater than myself.  Its music, everybody likes music but its also this big connection I have with things bigger than myself, connection with other people and at the end of the day, its’ just a fun thing to do. It’s a good time. 

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