Interview Rose St. Germaine

WE SPOKE WITH ROSE ST. GERMAINE FRONTWOMAN EMILY. OK HERE IT IS

https://www.facebook.com/eventhebestrose/

https://www.instagram.com/rosestgermaine/

https://rosestgermaine.bandcamp.com

REMOVE RECORDS: Your background in music is very interesting– Is it true that you grew up playing the organ?

RSG: It’s true.

What makes rock n roll appealing to you?

Drums.

What's your favorite bar in Ferndale?

Tony’s.

Can you tell us about Dummy Sound Studios?

Good people. Good andouille. I only put my songs in the hands of mad men. 

You have some incredibly poetic and descriptive lyrics. Do you have a certain message or theme you want to convey through your music?

My first album, Visions, helped me process some bad experiences that I’ve had in and out of humanity. Gunslinger will be the true fragmented Lazarus of the allegorical phoenix. 

Can you tell us about the album artwork for "Visions"? (I forgot the name of the patterned artwork)

I’ve always loved the quirky patterns you find on Pyrex, so I knew I wanted to incorporate that somehow. In talks with my graphic design guru, Chandler (@chanchandlerdler on insta), we decided to mess with one of the patterns a bit. One of the original drafts had the two farmers fucking. I loved that one. But we’re a family band. Thematically, much of Visions seems to reflect how twisted real humans can be if you examine them closely. I think the twisted Pyrex reflects that on a metaphorical level.

I've been fascinated with music videos recently. Do you ever plan on making a music video for a Rose St. Germaine song?

Looking to buy up pre-1980 metal colanders for our robot costumes. 

Are you reading any good books currently?

No.

What is something people would be surprised to know about you?

Depends on who you ask. My colleagues would be surprised to know that I’m in a band. My band would be surprised to know that I have colleagues. 

What are you working on next?

Currently riding the garage sale circuit. Playing slower. VVIISSIIOONNSS. Piano day is coming up.

New release round-up!

https://dribones.bandcamp.com/album/dri-bones

https://vvisionss.bandcamp.com/album/crystal-lover-ep-2

https://krystianquint666.bandcamp.com/album/babysitter-music-ep

https://kyledmonds.bandcamp.com/album/beginning-to

https://hospicerecords.bandcamp.com/track/the-obscenities-live-at-outer-limits

https://sweepingpromises.bandcamp.com/album/hunger-for-a-way-out

https://shinner.bandcamp.com/track/ore-score

https://shireenm.bandcamp.com/album/dragonfly-vol-1

https://deardarkness1.bandcamp.com/album/dear-darkness

https://saunasuitrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sauna-suit-compilation-1-red

https://zilchedmusic.bandcamp.com/album/doompop

https://shadowshow-detroit.bandcamp.com/album/what-again-is-real-b-w-is-this-a-dream

Interview with Diarchipretti

DIARCHIPRETTI

https://open.spotify.com/artist/68BpGXwO8RqpiSn7yXnxm1

https://soundcloud.com/diarchipretti

Diarchipretti is an experimental pop artist based out of San Louis Obisbo, CA who makes a unique blend of hyperpop, post-punk, and industrial hip hop. 

Diarchipretti's newest album Toe Bee drops on September 22nd, and we have a preview track available for streaming at the link below!!!!!!!

Diarchipretti – Loose Hair (feat. Gitau)

Now here's the interview. Enjoy!

Remove Records: Thanks for doing this interview. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got started in music?

Diarchipretti: My parents never learned any instruments but always regretted it, so they made me and my brothers take piano lessons from an early age. Around 5th grade I decided piano wasn’t cool and I wanted to learn drums. It wasn’t until high school when I really started to make music. My brother got Logic Pro for Christmas and so i acquired it for free and started messing around, mostly making pretty boring and cheesy trap beats. Later in high school I joined The Sleeps, who really pushed me to be more creative and helped me create Diarchipretti. It wasn’t until college with my release of Broth when I really created something that felt like my own style.

What's the music scene like where you live?

Here in San Luis Obispo there are (or at least were before coronavirus) frequent house shows and occasional mountain top outdoor shows. Some notable bands are Autopipe, Dudeo Perez, and Pancho and the Wizards.

I really consider myself more as part of the Oakland/Berkeley scene though. As a member of The Sleeps I have played around at many different bay area venues and met many other artists. Mainly, I work with a smaller group of tiny artists who are all constantly creating amazing new music. Notable artists include Dao Jones, Norf Rossmore, Jon Bunting, Guilt Trip Cluster Fuck, Soggy Kagi, and Bill Skins Fifth. These are who I would consider “my scene.”

What have you been listening to lately?

Recently I would say a lot of both industrial hip hop (JPEGMAFIA, Denzel Curry, Rico Nasty, Boy Danger, Death Grips) and a lot of Post Punk (Pavement, Gang of Four, Talking Heads, Parquet Courts, Television). I also have been listening to more Ween, SOPHIE, and always Ana Frango Eléctrico.

Who are some bands that you know, that we should know about?

In terms of artist I know personally, definitely check out everyone from the list from before: Dao Jones, Norf Rossmore, Jon Bunting, Guilt Trip Cluster Fuck, Soggy Kagi, Bill Skins Fifth. Also please listen to Trash Elf, Roland Tonies, Boy Danger, Gitau, BFLANDIA (another one of my projects), Chewing Animal Spirit, and Mom Dog. I'm sure I’m forgetting some but those are all important to check out. 

Can you tell us about your new record "Toe Bee"?

I moved down to SLO about a month ago and tried to find work but had no luck. I had all day, everyday, for a month to make as much music as I wanted to. This album is a product of my boredom fused with intense created energies. I made this whole album faster than any music I've made in the past. I would say the songs in the album are my most catchy, fun, and easy to listen to. I have fused elements of garage rock and punk with pop, hyperpop, and occasional industrial hip hop. The project has a range of energetic, relaxed, slow, happy, and maybe a tiny bit sad songs. As I rarely listen to sad music myself, I have a hard time making sad songs. I have explored a little bit more into sad songs in this project as it had a longer track list, but the vast majority of these songs are upbeat, happy, and energetic. 

If you could collaborate with one musician/artist, who would it be and why?

This is hard because I know I could go in so many different directions. I'd say it would be a tie between JPEGMAFIA and Ana Frango Eléctrico. Peggy’s beats are incredibly unique and unlike any other producer I know, and his flow is incredible. On the other hand, Anas music just makes me feel so happy in a way that I really cherish. For both of these artists I could not create music that sounds like theirs on my own.

How do you feel about the future of art/music?

I feel happy. I think that regardless of what is popular, the fact that I can just make music in my room, put it on Spotify, and have it be as easy to listen to as a world famous artist, is amazing. I hate that Spotify and Apple Music don’t pay their artists shit, but I think it is amazing that such small artists can so easily get their music out to where everyone is listening. I think that this has paved the way for so many artists that no one would have ever heard before, and allows for more tiny artists to appear in the future.

What are your plans for the rest of 2020?

Make more music. I have a project in the works now that will be a three part series in collaboration with Dao Jones and Norf Rossmore. We have been working on this for long before I even started making Toe Bee, so it will be a big one (keep your eyes peeled). I also am working on a couple songs with a good friend of mine Ruby Hadley. I produced her debut EP, and we’re now working on some new stuff. I am also working with The Sleeps on a new project that is being recorded from all of our various locations, which should hopefully drop within the next month or so depending on how much we get our shit together. Other than that I’ll be in school, learning, and being as safe as I can from coronavirus! Wear your masks!

New Tape! Shireen M. – Dragonfly Vol. 1

 Check out the latest album from Shireen M. ! ! ! ! !

Dragonfly Vol. 1 Full album here: https://shireenm.bandcamp.com/album/dragonfly-vol-1

Psychedelic Vomit #1

Words by Nips

 *zniffff*  “I always thought introductions were overrated.”  Pinch the bridge of my nose as I lift my head from the dirty mirror.  Jostle my nostrils between my chipped paint on cracked fingernails.  The ash falling from my half-burnt Camel.  “It always seemed more real gettin’ to know somebody through observation.  Just bein’ there.  Ya know?”  The mass of half working guitar pedals blocking the gunked up view of myself in the mirror.  Recycled mass of vomit culture drippin’ in bell bottoms and Hawaiian shirts.  I never really asked Ig Byrd Brother and the Sweetheart of the Rodeo about themselves.  Just knew they moved up here from Florida.  But knew by the fuzz they reverberated in my bedroom during shows, they knew what I mean when I said this.

See.  I had worked myself into this delusion my senior year of high school, I had to write the next great American semi-autobiographical existential crisis.  I’ve written anthologies of half-baked drafts of this.  Whether they be spoken into a tape recorder in my living room.  Or scrawled on a pad of Tops rolling papers.  But never got more of an inkling of characters.  Characters facing this same dead end cliff hanger I’ve had waking nightmares of.  And maybe because I never took the time to get to know them.  Ask them about themselves.

But Keourac did that shit.  I figured it would only be a matter of time before one of us figured out how to write it down.  He saw what was happening before his very own glossy, bloodshot eyes.  He was able to scribble that feeling into the margins of a fuckin’ scroll.  And that was somebody’s kid.  As much they didn’t want it to be.  It could be anyone of us that immortalized this brief splice of life, exposose of space and time and the whole damn continuum.  Somebody just needed to be there to document it.

So that’s what I set out to do.  Document this shit.  Document the trees growing through the brick of mildew drenched basements we go into for the sake of tone.  Ballsy enough to walk up to an insect and smash it with our bare hands.  Document the struggles of rolling a piano down a pothole filled alley.  Document the rides home from a friend when we trip down the Lynchian rabbit holes of our psyches.  This is what we fuck up our sleep schedules for!  Cause all the pieces were there to jigsaw it back together.  The vague glimpses of beauty in each other's humanity.

Maybe I just never had the free time to sit at length with myself.  Just exist with myself.  And come to terms with the cliffhanger at the end of my own road.  Maybe it was just my own fear keeping me from doing it.  But maybe I just never got to know the character’s enough.  Never took the time to ask them about themselves.  And get to know them beyond the vague glimpse of beauty I saw in all their humanity.  How do you write a character’s ending when you haven’t even gotten to know them yet?  Or if they’ve even gotten to know themselves.  How do you write the ending when the story is still happening before your very own glossy, black hole pupils?

At the end of the day.  We’d all prefer not knowing the ending instead of being let down by the sudden cliffhanger at the dead-end of the road.

How well can you really get to know someone when you only get the perspective from your window and not their eye view?

“I’m just merely observing.”  Baby Audobahn the Mad Organ Grinder says this setting down a glass of home brewed yerba.  Sparking a joint behind his synth dungeon.  The son of the professor that got me looking at the world through a different camera.  (And that joke only lands if you knew he was my film teacher. Because you don’t really know me yet.)  “I don’t know the answers.  I’m just observing.  Just like you are.”  The last of the scene not to be crippled by nicotine addiction.

Him and his roommate got me listenin’ to a lotta Neil Young records.  “Everybody knows this is nowhere...”  Neil’s voice warbles in my head as we smoke DMT on the beach.  Trespassing under a boardwalk with a smiley face painted on it.  During the pandemic of 2020.  The whole world currently on lockdown.  But we’ve been frozen at the border of nowhere and infinity for a while now.

We’re rippin’ molded wood from the roots of concrete trees to build our own isolation booth.  Lightnin’ bugs in the house, our only light to the outside world.  A room to be alone with the sounds and screams we make into the void.  Hoping someone replies.  Or there’s at least a slight echo.  That we aren’t the only ones observing we’re trapped.  No matter how many brilliant ideas we attempt to make this absurdity mean something.  Anything!  We don’t need an answer.  Just the observation there’s another isolation booth screaming in the void too.

“I don’t wanna know the answer to that…” the Guilty Undertaker ashes into the piano from 1943 while taping the entire experience on a Fostex.  A contraption I still wish was more than just a robot to me.  Anything made before 1990 was meant to double as an ashtray.  “Ignorance is bliss, yeah I like where I’m at.”  They sing this song behind a new pair of sunglasses after shattering the old lens with a drunken foot.  Shoelaces tied back together.  And hearing this vocal track is comforting.  It’s reassuring.

It doesn’t matter if anyone else ever hears that reel.  It doesn’t matter if it was documented or not.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a scroll of amphetamine folklore we taught ourselves.  A 4chan urban legend.  Or anything else.  It doesn’t matter if the cliffhanger is the end of the story.  Or if “On the Way There” is it’s own destination.  It doesn’t matter if we can even get the answers.  At least we know we’re not alone.  And there’s a couch to crash on nearby in case a closed bedroom starts to feel like an isolation chamber.  Freezing us in a moment of just merely existing.

We might all just be characters in our own semi-autobiographical existential crisis.  Inconsistent.  Incomplete.  Our own gunked up reflection in somebody else's dirty mirror.  But through the coke and fuzz pedals.  Seeing fractal trace visuals of our own beautifully fragmented glimpse of humanity.  The validation isn’t that somebody else reads our novel.  Hears our screams.  Or sees our mirror.  Just that they too, like us, are trapped in their own lens of unassuredness.  After all, it’s not our fault some fish decided to step outta water and now we’re all just vague inklings of characters to some nervous breakdown.  Struggling to pay rent and make sense of it all.  At the same damn time!  We’re all just waiting for Ashton Kutcher to wholesomely flashback us to the 2000s and yell “punk’d!” on the cruel prank of existence.

“I don’t know.”  *znifff*  “I think that’s all I’m tryin’ to say.  Or at least all I’ve ever wanted to try to say.”  Pinch the bridge of the nose.  Jostle the nostrils in the cracked paint on cracked fingernails.  “Maybe I’m just trippin’ too hard.”

Interview with Connie Voltaire

 Hello friends, I am Dee Putman. In the modern era of punk rock YouTube channels such as Anti (formerly known as Jimmy), Turn on The Tube, Harakiri Diat, No Deal, etc, one artist that has especially stood out among the rest is Minneapolis’s Connie Voltaire (Neo Neos, QQQL, Vedicardi, etc etc). Connie is the clown prince of punk. He has a large and infectious discography and if history is kind I think he will be regarded as one of punk’s most talented songwriters/musicians. It was a pleasure speaking with him. 

Read on. 

How’d you get started in music? Who were your initial inspirations?

I got started after playing Guitar Hero 2 which introduced me to rock music.  Up until that point the only music I listened to was math rock/post-rock, video game music, and Weird Al. That stuff still sticks with me.  In terms of inspirations to play it depends on what you're referring to. Each project I do has roots in different places.

You have a rather large discography. What’s your writing & recording process? How do you manage to be so prolific? 

When it comes to bands like QQQL I'm bringing riffs and then working those into songs with my bandmates.  All of my solo projects with a few exceptions are done by recording myself playing drums (I'll think of a drum pattern or two on the spot and just play them) and then write a song over the top of that drum recording. Typically my drum tracks are one take so if you hear a mistake or something weird or a sudden tempo change it's because that's what I felt like doing or I just messed up.  I don't start recording with any plans, I just make the drum ideas up on the spot.  The Cells release "First Second," for example, took me about 30 minutes to "write" and record the drum parts in one session.  Lyrics come last.  Usually I'll write guitar parts before bass parts besides for some Neo Neos tracks.  I'm only "prolific" because I have nothing better to do with my time and I love the attention releasing music gets me!

You have openly expressed your disdain for drum machines. What is it about them that rubs you the wrong way? 

The lack of human element really bores me. There are people that do it well (Dummy for example has very creative drum machine patterns that keep things interesting) but I find it hard to get into when it sounds like someone just hit the first pattern on a Casio and figured that was good enough. Part of it just feels lazy to me, where's the passion in that? But it works for some people so whatever. I just like to complain because often I feel like the actual melodic elements of these songs are pretty good but there's no rhythm there. It's like eating chips with no DIP!  Where's the DIP?

Who are some of the most important punk bands right now?

I'd probably have said Toyota but that's dead in the water as far as I'm aware. I really was into Bogus Genius but their live band was last the last I saw of it. It might have to be Gee Tee and Satanic Togas. That being said, I'm not sure how you define important. Is it a band that is well known and is pushing the boundaries a bit or a band very few people know that is something completely new?  Also check out Blacker Face from Chicago.  To be honest, I'm not all that exposed to new music, I'm not sure where you people find new stuff.  Now that there aren't really shows I don't know where to see it, and even then Minneapolis hasn't had an interesting new band since what, 2014? I mean Citric Dummies are awesome but I don't think they're reaching for originality. There was that band Wild Combo, don't know what happened to them.

 What was with that Mark Winter diss track? Did you have actual beef with Mark or was it just a goof?

 Yeah he killed my dog to impress that guy from Cro-Mags. Also RIP to Terry Katzman.

Interview with Ian Vanek (Japanther)

Hello friends. I am Dee Putman and today I am speaking with Ian Vanek. Ian Vanek was one-half of New York punk duo Japanther. The music of Japanther feels like a living breathing thing. It takes elements of hip hop, noise, punk rock, electronic & experimental music and creates a sonic organism that rattles and riots in your head everytime you put one of their records on. Japanther married their street knowledge style punk attitude with the New York art world, they played at many art galleries and their sets have been accompanied by synchronized swimmers, giant dinosaurs, BMX stunts, & puppet performances. I have been a huge Japanther fan for years and it was a great pleasure speaking with Ian.

What have you been working on while qurantined?

I’ve made a new 16 song demo for a Howardian album called “Too Big To Be Quiet” due out in 2021. 

What are your earliest art & musical memories? What initially attracted you to making music & art? 

My Dad gave me a drum set when I was five. I remember him coming back from the thrift shop with a sparkly blue Japanese drum kit from the 60’s.  

In these fucked up times with police inflicting violence on civilians and a deadly worldwide pandemic, what is the most important thing young artists can do right now? 

Make art free of censorship or cooperate influence. Banks and debt are bad, self sufficiency is good. 

Japanther opened up for the Misfits a while back. What was that experience like? What was your favorite moment on the road with Japanther in general? 

Opening for your heroes is strange and funny. Hurricane Sandy stopped the first show we were supposed to play with them. The second one was at a corporate venue and Japanther was the best band on stage that night. Being on the road with Japanther was pretty ridiculous 80% of the time. A lot of adventures surrounding art, aliens and comedic settings with some shows mixed in to fund the trip.

FRESH TAPES – MIZZ EERIE, RASTAKRAUT, JOSH EDWARDS FIELD RESEARCH, AND MORE!!!!!!

JOSH EDWARDS – FIELD RESEARCH #1

(DRONE/DADAISM)

MIZZ EERIE – QUARANTINE BOOGIE

(ROCKNROLL/PUNK)

RASTAKRAUT – OW

(KRAUTROCK/PSYCHEDELIC)

HOOKUPS – HOOKUPS

(PSYCH TECHNO/HOUSE)

THE PONTIAC STAGS – NEWPORT SINGLES

(POST-PUNK/GARAGE)