Toro y Moi is the lo-fi project of Chaz Bundick. Back in 2009 Toro y Moi released a 7” comprised of an A side: Blessa and B side: 109. Each song represents a full-length album Carpark intends to release in 2010, his first full-length album Causers of This featuring Blessa was just released yesterday. Toro y Moi toured this fall with Islands, played the Brooklyn Bowl and recently shared a bill with Washed Out, Neon Indian and Tickley Feather. On Feb 4 he starts a massive tour that spans all the way to April 24th and includes dates at SXSW as well as a show here at Monkey House in Winooski on March 28th. For a visual and musical example check out the video below, followed by a few clips from an interview with Toro y Moi I did back in the fall.
Ginevra Shay – So, do you live in…Columbia South Carolina? Is that what you said? Is that where you’re living now?
Toro y Moi – Yeah I live there now, too. Uhm, pretty small town. Not much going on, except the university.
GS – Nice. So, tell me a little bit about the name of your music project and how it came about.
TYM – Uhm, Well toro and moi is, uhm when it first started didn’t have much of a deep connection, and I made it up when I was a kid, when I was like 15. I don’t know what I was thinking then so. It’s just kind of random, but there’s the coincidence in there that it’s a double ethnicity name and I’m half Pilipino and half Black so they kind of, I don’t know, it kind of represents me as two things. I like that. Never thought of it though. Yeah it just means the bull in me. Toro is Spanish for bull and moi is French for me.
GS – What instruments did you start off playing?
TYM – Uhhhh, when I was like 8, I started playing piano. I was forced and I really didn’t want to! I mean, my mom offered it. She’s like, “Hey, you want to take piano?” and I was like, “Ok, I’ll give it a try.” And then I haaaated it. Then I was stilled forced to take piano lessons and forced to practice. I guess, I don’t know… (pause) That’s pretty uhm, standard in Asian households. I mean, like, you have to do an extra curricular activity. Uhm, so I did that and I hated it. So I quit that. Then my mom was like, “Well you have to do something.” So, I picked up guitar when I was in 4th grade and I loved it. I quit practice though, my mom made me take lessons for a year and I hated it – but I still kept playing afterwards. Uhm, so, piano and guitar first then I sort of taught myself drums and bass. Pretty similar to guitar. That’s all you need.
GS – What instruments do you use now to make music?
TYM – I use all of those. Uhm, The piano, drums, guitar, bass, and uh samples. Sampling other songs and stuff.
GS – What inspires you to make music?
TYM – Uhhhhhm, I don’t know. I usually want to make a song whenever, I don’t feel right or I feel like something isn’t right. The majority of the songs I make are pretty negative content wise and lyric wise. I don’t know. I think that’s for me…(pause) I mean, because nothing’s ever perfect. So, I feel like if I ever made a happy song its not 100% accurate of how I’m feeling (laughs). I mean, things are going well and stuff, but you know there’s problems – girls, or family, or life decisions.
GS – I used the song 109 for the mix. Could you tell me about that?
TYM – Yeah. That song, well I call it 109 because its from History 109. I took this class in school called History 109 which is the study of Latin American History and I failed it the first time! I really needed that class to graduate, like literally to graduate I just needed my cultural history. And so, I tried literally my hardest. I went to the tutor sessions, did all the extra credit, did everything. I was trying to be the TA and teachers pet and the professor still failed me. In my mind I felt like, failing a student who tried that hard is just not fair. Especially when she knows that it’s just a requirement. I majored in graphic design, not fucking history. Just because I didn’t you know, understand who invaded who first…(laughs)
GS – Yeah.
TYM – Yeah. I pretty much like all of my songs to be true. I mean, I even name-drop the people, like Mr. Jackson. That’s my TA.
GS – (laughs)
TYM – So the first thing I say, I’m addressing the song to him. The funny thing is, when I retook the class, the next teacher who was way cooler, and a younger kind of teacher or professor was already a fan of my music. (laughs) So one night he was drunk at this bar, Colombia is really small, he was drunk at this bar and we were all hanging out, and he was like,
“That song, 109, is that about History 109?”
“Yeah”
“It’s not about me is it?”
“No, no, no, no! Its about Ramon, it’s about Ramon Jackson!”
“Ohhh, fuck him!”
(laughter)
And it was just so funny to hear a professor say, “Fuck him” about a TA but he was just joking though.
GS – (laughs) That’s awesome. So, uhm, let’s see…I also heard “Supposed to Do.” Is that one of your earlier songs? It seems like it was and that there’s been this huge shift.
TYM – Uhh, yeah that was like, (sigh) I was like really getting into, trying to get into, some garagey rock type stuff. I never really finished that sort of phase. The second album for 2010 is going to be more like guitar based like that. That’s uhm, that was just, I don’t know, just about how you’re supposed to just go with things. It’s about having a shitty job and not having a girlfriend and you’re supposed to just go with that.
(laughter)
TYM – You know, things aren’t going to be perfect. So just keep going on. That’s about as vague as I usually get is when I have songs that are so universal like that. A lot of the songs are pretty personal who ever is listening knows what I’m talking about, I feel bad playing those songs in front of my friends. (laughs)
GS – Do you listen to music frequently? If so, what do you listen to?
TYM – Ahhh, that’s funny. Yesterday I drove from New York to North Carolina in complete silence. Just ‘cause uhm, I wanted to sort of meditate. But this morning I was downloading some really good like, funky stuff from the 70’s. These sound tracks. They had some really good bongo rolls and drum break sound stuff. Whenever I listen to music I listen for stuff that I could possibly sample. But that’s not the main intention of finding it. I really like Arthur Russell a lot. He’s such a huge influence of my song writing right now. I’ve been into this jazz artist recently called JJ Johnson, he’s this trombonist from the 40’s. Really good stuff. I really like it because it reminds me of New York, kind of like really dirty. Pretty much reminds me of the movie Taxi Driver. Which is why I love it. It just sounds so depressing that I can hear Robert DeNiro talking over it.
Thanks for reading, pick up the album, it’s amazing and come check out Toro y Moi at The Monkey on March 28th.
“Nothing stayed as long with me as the waltz we shared in Petersburg, 1893. And I could feel my weak heart tare, I’d of followed you anywhere. But now I’ve lost the way, in search of that one day.”
It’s hard not to get lost in the imaginary world Mt. Desert Island creates in song. It is however, easy to believe that the lyricist Jesse writes fiction in his free time. The other half of the whimsical duo Bennett, just released an EP under the cognomen Kuhn with Astro Nautico and was reviewed by Impose Magazine this past week. Mt. Desert Island is kind of Boston’s best kept secret. Not to mention they’re really, really nice guys.
Ginevra Shay – Where are you guys from?
Jesse Kohn – I’m from San Fe New Mexico.
Bennett Kuhn - That was Jesse, and I’m Bennett from Huntington, Long Island, NY.
GS – And, you guys are living in Boston now for school?
JK – Yeah, in Sommerville.
GS – So, do you go to school with Trevor is that how you know him?
JK – Yeah, Uhm, I was going to the Museum School I really go to Tufts I guess. I was taking some classes there and that’s how I met Trevor.
GS – Ok. What are you guys studying?
JK – We’re both studying philosophy.
GS – Oh! Awesome! Side Note – I don’t know if you’re familiar with Classical music at all but that’s the exam I’m studying for today and one of the composers from the Romantic period; that I’m being tested on is Wager who was really influenced by Schopenhauer. Wager is a very influential German composer but he is also really hated because he was very nationalistic and anti-Semitic – which got Hitler into him; just all this crazy stuff. I guess it’s weird when you find out that this bleak dark composer is influenced by Schopenhauer, you’re like ahhhh it all makes sense now. (laughs)
BK – It’s definitely a different age when musicians are influenced by philosophers.
(The Interview)
Filmed in HD by NOTSOX, WARMTONES presents their debut video edition, featuring Burlington’s own MAUI. The duo is composed of Nick Campolo of Crinkles and Brian “Grass Mansion” Raymond. The guys sit down with host Ginevra Shay in their practice space at SEABA in the south end for a chat and then get down with a performance. In an exerpt from the interview Brian talks about the process of making music,”It’s all just free-form. We start off with some sounds and then just build from there, and if we like something we’ll visit it again.” Nick continues, “We often will sculpt it to become something similar every show. The flow of the set will be similar most times, but thats mostly just because of the sounds that we’re using. A lot of the times, it will be completely different.” See and hear for yourself, right at the comfort of your warm glowing computer monitor. But please, use headphones.
Here is the musical portion of the interview with Burlington’s own, Maui. Filmed in their practice space at SEABA in the south end.
Thanks for watching. See you next week for the latest edition of WARMTONES.
“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. – John 14:2″
Bursting out of the artsy enclaves of Jamaica Plain, MA, the magnanimous Shane “Many Mansions” Donnelly talks with me about the quiet movement turned poetic uproar WHITEHAUS Family Records, DIY spaces, music makin’, spirituality, and his recent album “Return To Source.”
Many Mansions – The WHITEHAUS was started originally by a group of friends. We started having Hootenannies in our small apartment like 3 years ago. Which were just kind of informal gatherings of musicians, and you know they were open to the public, and they started with just friends performing for each other. We each had some friends come and eventually strangers would come up and just show up every Friday. The momentum of that kind of built and built and you know, it kind of became a thing known around town that you can go to on Friday nights, and they would get pretty big, and they annoyed our neighbors so much that we had to move and we moved into a big house. We got a bunch more friends to move in with us so we have about 10 people all living together in this big house in JP. So we kept having hootenannies for about two years and eventually a decision was made to stop having the hootenannies every Friday. So we could kind of focus on other things that we wanted to do as a collective. Mainly we wanted to start booking shows with touring musicians. We started having more planned events, and started planning events outside of the house. We did a festival this summer called Weirdstock, which had like 50 bands and took place over 3 days.
Ginevra Shay – Oh that’s awesome!
MM – Yeah, it was really awesome. That was a lot of bands, but was one of our first. We had another festival called Blastfest, which was a big show that we had with all the people on the label, but Weirdstock was one of our first big events where most of the people were from out of town – we had people from all over come and play. Yeah, so that’s the kind of idea that’s always been backing us. We can accomplish more together as a group than any of us could by our selves. We’ve been living together and doing stuff together for so long. We’re just like a moving crew or something – we’re a team. We’ve worked together before, we know how we all work – it makes things a lot easier. If it was just me trying to put on the 3 day festival with 50 bands, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. There was just too much to be done. Having everyone work together on a goal is a common theme around here. We still have shows (at the WHITEHAUS) at least 2 or 3 a month. We’re putting out a vinyl sampler after the New Year, which is a big step for us because up until now we’ve only been releasing things on CD-R and for free over the internet. So this will be our first venture into being an actual record label.
GS – Yeah. Could you talk a little bit more about the record label, the collective and maybe mention a few bands that are on there?
winter mix // mix for nimai
1 come on, life – ben chugg (burlington, vt)
2 fake blues – real estate (ridgewood, nj)
3 despicable dogs – small black (brooklyn, nyc)
4 leda atomica – mostly bears (tucson, az)
5 she’s so smart – nose bleed island (burlington, vt)
6 oneness – many mansions – (boston, ma)
7 biggy shorty – birthdays (saratoga springs, ny)
8 oh naoko – sun airway (philadelphia, pa)
9 cyclical cyclical (atlantis) – pictureplane (denver, co)
10 osaka loop line – discovery (brooklyn, nyc)
11 skin – tooth ache (burlington, vt)
12 mbee – maui (burlington, vt)
13 109 – toro y moi (columbia, sc)
14 failure – a sunny day in glasgow (philadelphia, pa)
15 feel it all around – washed out (perry, ga)
16 the waltz – mt desert island (boston, ma)
Here are some newer musical pettifours to cut down those rapidly oncoming winter blues. I guess, I got really into making this mix. I fell in love with all of the songs and wanted to know more about them. So I asked. Everyone on the mix has been so kind and supportive of this project, and from this kindness a variety of interviews have spawned. Good music is contagious, you know? You want to share it with everyone you care about and hope that they’ll love it just as much as you do.
“Good music is contagious, you know?”
The interviews from the mix will be posted weekly here on Pure Pop’s blog and will span the course of a few months. Currently there are 50 (out of an edition of 100) copies of the mix available. The cd sleeves are handmade by me from recycled Burlington show flyers. The photograph on the front I took with my ½ frame camera last winter, here in Burlington. A digital download as well as the physical copy will be available very soon, for free of course – keep checking back. Until then:
TUNE IN THIS WEDNESDAY to MIXTAPE
105.9 FM 9pm-11pm to hear the mix and some audio from the interviews.
Thanks to all the bands, Trevor Powers, Nimai Larson, Joe Pelia and Jason Cooley for your contributions and support.
Readers – catch you next week for the latest edition of WARMTONES.
You might have heard me play with the le duo. You probably saw me working at Scribbles. (weep) And if you were out shaking what your momma gave yah to Beach Fossils/Prince Rama of Ayodhya in October or Birthdays/Maui this month, (both shows included the amazing tooth ache and parmaga) you definitely saw me because I put those bad boys together.
My name is Ginevra and this is the preliminary post to WARMTONES, my weekly contribution to purepoponline. Next weeks inaugural entry will start you off with my winter mix, which you can check out from 9pm-11pm on Wednesday, December 2nd at 105.9FM or stream live on http://www.theradiator.org/
Each subsequent week will bring an interview, album review, profile on a musician or show write-up. I’m really excited about this. It’s my hope that along with write-ups on recent releases and touring shows, WARMTONES will be a great resource on local and rising bands.
Unfortunately I only exist in Pure Pop’s cyberspace, ie – you won’t catch me nursing a hang over while slinging the latest hit record from the caverns of Pure Pop’s shop. I can usually be found working for Frog Hollow, a non-profit space that houses art and fine crafts by Vermont artists, or at UVM where I’m double majoring in Studio Art and Art History.
Keep up with my various artistic endeavors here
Check out what I’m listening to here
Drop me a line or join me in raging it on the dance floor next time you see me.
Catch you next week for the latest edition of WARMTONES.
