This series of blogs is called IN PASSING, and in it I'll be interviewing bands/artists I love and trying to shed further light (in the small ways I can) on their music to give anyone who may come across this a reason to listen to them. I want to focus on smaller music that deserves more attention than it gets. All blogs in this series will include an unabridged (yet, slightly edited) interview with the artists and a small write-up from me. As always, send music, shows, suggestions for artist interviews, and anything ever that you want to talk about or see covered to [ fosterhildingmusic@gmail.com ] or DM me on Instagram.
In August and November of 2024, I had the awesome opportunity to meet with Tommy Oeffling, whose talents can be heard across a plethora of different projects including beauty filter, jumper seat, Company Calls, foxcatcher, and many more. I found the one off self-titled album, foxcatcher, a year or so ago, and have been totally obsessed since. After some Bandcamp research, I tracked down the man at the helm, himself, Tom. Over the course of the following months, we met twice to talk about the Milwaukee music scene, his various projects, and his process. The first part acts as more as an introduction to Tom, and the second dives deeper into his upcoming album, waste of water.
I found your foxcatcher album first, do you want to talk about the story behind that?
There's kind of a lot of story to it. One of my absolute best friends in the whole world, Caiden, we started a band together called PRIVATE SCHOOL that was just us two. He was on guitar and vocals and I was on drums and vocal and it's kind of weird having no bass. A lot of my bands have no bass, I'm a huge No Age fan. We wanted to add people, so we had just one of our best friends, Luke--we like grew up with him. We're housemates right now. We added him just as our hype man, think like Bob Nastanovich from Pavement. I met a dude at a music shop in an area back home. I'm from Johnsburg, Illinois. I met a dude at a music shop from McHenry who was playing guitar and he sent me a demo he made and it turns out he was playing drums on it. So, I'm like, "Hey, you want to switch to drums? I'll switch to bass." We did that for a bit and then ultimately just changed PRIVATE SCHOOL to Company Calls because now it's a totally different band, totally different sound.
Then, me and Caiden, it was just one day last summer, probably around a year ago now-ish, if I remember correctly. We were just like, "Let's just do something just us two." We both had some acoustic songs lying around, recorded it in one night and then put that out. Yeah, that's about it. It's a lot of backstory just for that, you know? The jumper seat EPs, those are all one day. I have this other project called Zilchio Robinson with my friend Liam.
Do you record all of the releases that you put out?
All of them except for the first beauty filter album. We did that when we were still living in the dorms. I have a full studio in my room now, which is pretty cool. But, before we didn't have a drum set up here and we wanted to just get it done in one day and record it live because we wanted to do it fast and I don't have the stuff for us to record live. I only have two inputs on my interface, so we had this dude, Hunter Lobianco--he recorded that one in his attic, which was pretty interesting. Other than that, I've recorded all of it for the most part. Obviously, if it's a band thing, the bands have helped out too. We're always adamant about like, we all engineer it and record it. This new album I'm working on, there are like 30 people on it. It's a logistical nightmare.
What does your like space look like? And what does your approach to recording bands or yourself look like?
When I started recording in the dorms I couldn't have amps up here or anything, so I made amp sims in Logic that sound exactly like mine and then I just got used to that. That's my amp set up for beauty filter right there [he showed me his setup from his laptop], it's two amps on top of each other because I can't afford stack. I have my amp sims that sound like those. That's my bass amp right there, those are my guitars. After this interview I got to go walk to a music store in the area and buy new strings cause I've been recording this album with like five-stringed guitars. I have broken so many strings. Here's my drum set right here. Sometimes I use this mini Orange amp. I've noticed if I record guitars through this in the interface, it sounds just like Duster. And, you know, that's what we're all going for. It's really just recording in, using logic. I used to use fake drums a lot when I was in the dorm, but now I'm using a lot more real drums. So there's that. It's weird mic-ing drums with two mics, but we're figuring it out. It's all budget gear.
What does your approach to songwriting look like? How do you keep yourself out of ruts and writer's block?
Oh, Foster, there are a lot of ruts. I mean, I'm a student and I work two jobs during the school year and I'm working two jobs right now. Back in the day--back in the day means two years ago, but back in the day, it was a lot of just sitting down and messing around with stuff and recording. It was more that the recording was the songwriting. But now, I have a lot less time, which means I do have a lot of times time to write songs. When I'm bussing tables or--I'm a tour guide at Marquette, so if there are silent parts during the tour, I'll kind of think of something. Nearly all my songs are written in the shower for the most part, honestly. Whenever I have time. It takes me a while to actually have time to sit down and record them now, which is different. I've never really had that before, but now I'm really busy. It's a lot more planning out what goes into the song in my head, writing it in my head so I can get it done as fast as possible. Previously it's been, you know, songwriting takes a long time and the recording goes with it. I used to do six versions of songs before I got to when I liked it and now I have to think a lot more about the writing of it before I record it. Honestly the short form answer: they're just all written in the shower.
A lot are written at work while I'm tour guiding. So many songs on the new album were written on Marquette envelopes. It's a lot of just having a Notes page too, seeing something on the sidewalk and putting that down too. You know, pretty standard.
How did you get started in music?
How did you meet Caiden?
In August and November of 2024, I had the awesome opportunity to meet with Tommy Oeffling, whose talents can be heard across a plethora of different projects including beauty filter, jumper seat, Company Calls, foxcatcher, and many more. I found the one off self-titled album, foxcatcher, a year or so ago, and have been totally obsessed since. After some Bandcamp research, I tracked down the man at the helm, himself, Tom. Over the course of the following months, we met twice to talk about the Milwaukee music scene, his various projects, and his process. The first part acts as more as an introduction to Tom, and the second dives deeper into his upcoming album, waste of water.
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| photos courtesy of Tommy Oeffling. |
Part I:
What's the music scene like in Milwaukee?
Dude, it's really solid. What's funny is that the only ones to really get going out of it are like J.P. and 414bigfrank. The rap scene is actually doing really good right now and it's really creative. It doesn't sound like a lot of other cities' rap scenes. The indie scene is pretty condensed to Milwaukee, which I think is really cool. There've been a few people to kind of go out and do stuff. One of my friends, Parker, he's in a band called Social Cig. He just did a cross country tour with his girlfriend and their dog, which was pretty cool. Jacob Slade. He's been doing pretty good on the TikTok, kind of getting some traction there, but for the most part it's kind of condensed to the scene. People go gig in Chicago and stuff, too, but it's really tight knit and the house show scene and DIY scene is just awesome here. I really love that indie scene, but the rap's actually popping off right now.
What's the music scene like in Milwaukee?
Dude, it's really solid. What's funny is that the only ones to really get going out of it are like J.P. and 414bigfrank. The rap scene is actually doing really good right now and it's really creative. It doesn't sound like a lot of other cities' rap scenes. The indie scene is pretty condensed to Milwaukee, which I think is really cool. There've been a few people to kind of go out and do stuff. One of my friends, Parker, he's in a band called Social Cig. He just did a cross country tour with his girlfriend and their dog, which was pretty cool. Jacob Slade. He's been doing pretty good on the TikTok, kind of getting some traction there, but for the most part it's kind of condensed to the scene. People go gig in Chicago and stuff, too, but it's really tight knit and the house show scene and DIY scene is just awesome here. I really love that indie scene, but the rap's actually popping off right now.
I found your foxcatcher album first, do you want to talk about the story behind that?
There's kind of a lot of story to it. One of my absolute best friends in the whole world, Caiden, we started a band together called PRIVATE SCHOOL that was just us two. He was on guitar and vocals and I was on drums and vocal and it's kind of weird having no bass. A lot of my bands have no bass, I'm a huge No Age fan. We wanted to add people, so we had just one of our best friends, Luke--we like grew up with him. We're housemates right now. We added him just as our hype man, think like Bob Nastanovich from Pavement. I met a dude at a music shop in an area back home. I'm from Johnsburg, Illinois. I met a dude at a music shop from McHenry who was playing guitar and he sent me a demo he made and it turns out he was playing drums on it. So, I'm like, "Hey, you want to switch to drums? I'll switch to bass." We did that for a bit and then ultimately just changed PRIVATE SCHOOL to Company Calls because now it's a totally different band, totally different sound.
Then, me and Caiden, it was just one day last summer, probably around a year ago now-ish, if I remember correctly. We were just like, "Let's just do something just us two." We both had some acoustic songs lying around, recorded it in one night and then put that out. Yeah, that's about it. It's a lot of backstory just for that, you know? The jumper seat EPs, those are all one day. I have this other project called Zilchio Robinson with my friend Liam.
Do you record all of the releases that you put out?
All of them except for the first beauty filter album. We did that when we were still living in the dorms. I have a full studio in my room now, which is pretty cool. But, before we didn't have a drum set up here and we wanted to just get it done in one day and record it live because we wanted to do it fast and I don't have the stuff for us to record live. I only have two inputs on my interface, so we had this dude, Hunter Lobianco--he recorded that one in his attic, which was pretty interesting. Other than that, I've recorded all of it for the most part. Obviously, if it's a band thing, the bands have helped out too. We're always adamant about like, we all engineer it and record it. This new album I'm working on, there are like 30 people on it. It's a logistical nightmare.
What does your like space look like? And what does your approach to recording bands or yourself look like?
When I started recording in the dorms I couldn't have amps up here or anything, so I made amp sims in Logic that sound exactly like mine and then I just got used to that. That's my amp set up for beauty filter right there [he showed me his setup from his laptop], it's two amps on top of each other because I can't afford stack. I have my amp sims that sound like those. That's my bass amp right there, those are my guitars. After this interview I got to go walk to a music store in the area and buy new strings cause I've been recording this album with like five-stringed guitars. I have broken so many strings. Here's my drum set right here. Sometimes I use this mini Orange amp. I've noticed if I record guitars through this in the interface, it sounds just like Duster. And, you know, that's what we're all going for. It's really just recording in, using logic. I used to use fake drums a lot when I was in the dorm, but now I'm using a lot more real drums. So there's that. It's weird mic-ing drums with two mics, but we're figuring it out. It's all budget gear.
What does your approach to songwriting look like? How do you keep yourself out of ruts and writer's block?
Oh, Foster, there are a lot of ruts. I mean, I'm a student and I work two jobs during the school year and I'm working two jobs right now. Back in the day--back in the day means two years ago, but back in the day, it was a lot of just sitting down and messing around with stuff and recording. It was more that the recording was the songwriting. But now, I have a lot less time, which means I do have a lot of times time to write songs. When I'm bussing tables or--I'm a tour guide at Marquette, so if there are silent parts during the tour, I'll kind of think of something. Nearly all my songs are written in the shower for the most part, honestly. Whenever I have time. It takes me a while to actually have time to sit down and record them now, which is different. I've never really had that before, but now I'm really busy. It's a lot more planning out what goes into the song in my head, writing it in my head so I can get it done as fast as possible. Previously it's been, you know, songwriting takes a long time and the recording goes with it. I used to do six versions of songs before I got to when I liked it and now I have to think a lot more about the writing of it before I record it. Honestly the short form answer: they're just all written in the shower.
A lot are written at work while I'm tour guiding. So many songs on the new album were written on Marquette envelopes. It's a lot of just having a Notes page too, seeing something on the sidewalk and putting that down too. You know, pretty standard.
How did you get started in music?
My dad was in a cover band in the area for a bit called Bony Knees. They played the McHenry County Illinois bar circuit. They ripped back in the day, but he started learning guitar when he was like 18, I want to say. They got me a drum set when I was four because I was really into that. I was really into Rush, so I wanted to be like Neil Peart, rest in peace. And then I had an iPod nano, I had voice memos on it. So, my first ever album was me... in retrospect it sounds like a Daniel Johnston album. I can't get myself that much credit because he's one of my favorite musicians and I'm much worse, but it's either me drumming and singing or playing a completely untuned ukulele and singing. I got an iPad mini when I was like eight that had Garage Band on it, so I started to make stuff on there, which was obviously awful.
I always made music and just kept it to myself. Then when I was 16, I want to say, I started putting it out which was kind of scary. I always wanted to be in bands. I was always really into music. My parents are really into music. I owe my full pretentious-ass music taste to them. They brought CDs to the hospital when I was being born. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was played in that room while I was being birthed. I owe a lot to them. Music was always on around the house and I was really looked up to them. I don't even want to be a musician with my career, I'm just really into it.
What are some of your biggest musical inspirations?
What are some of your biggest musical inspirations?
I have a lot of inspirations and a lot of my songs are direct ripoffs of other songs. I really like a song and I want to make something like that and try to change it to where you can't really notice, but I can notice. I know. It's blatant. The ones that come to mind really quickly are just Pavement. Obviously. That's my lifetime favorite band. My dad took me to see them on the first reunion when I was like six. Stephen Malkmus is my guitar hero. I wish I was him.
Right now I'm listening to a ton of Mk.gee. I get made fun of by my friends because I listen to that every single day, but his guitar tone is just so... it sounds like what I wanted to do for forever. When I first started playing guitar, I put like a Kleenex under the bridge and I was able to get that distorted effect. Then, I heard the Mk.gee album and it all just clicked and he's doing it 10 times better. I will never be him and I wish I was. So, I'm listening to that one a ton. That one, songwriting-wise, is so dense.
I'm listening to that a lot right now. King Krule. my bloody valentine, of course. We we ripped them off in the bands. Haley Heynderickx's guitar parts. Absolutely beautiful musician--her songwriting is amazing. I think those are the big influences and then it's really just bands I listen to, you know. I think Guided By Voices shows up a lot. The Radio Dept.--used to rip them off a lot. Top band for me. It's kind of all over the place, but it's really dad rock, dude, to be honest. I'm not good at interviewing. I could make all these answers so much more concise.
Are you a Carissa's Wierd fan?
No. Caiden is though. Caiden just loves that album. For me, it's too sad. That'd be a crisis for me if I listen to that whole album and we just always joke about that album because he loves it so much and I'm not the biggest fan. That whole song [crewneck] was improvised, vocally. He's recording it and he goes quiet for a little bit. I look at him like, "You should be hated here!" as a joke. We still listen back to that and think it's the funniest thing ever. Caiden's a huge Carissa's Wierd fan, I was raised more on Band of Horses. I think they came after. I think they share a member. I'm pretty sure, but I don't know who.
Right now I'm listening to a ton of Mk.gee. I get made fun of by my friends because I listen to that every single day, but his guitar tone is just so... it sounds like what I wanted to do for forever. When I first started playing guitar, I put like a Kleenex under the bridge and I was able to get that distorted effect. Then, I heard the Mk.gee album and it all just clicked and he's doing it 10 times better. I will never be him and I wish I was. So, I'm listening to that one a ton. That one, songwriting-wise, is so dense.
I'm listening to that a lot right now. King Krule. my bloody valentine, of course. We we ripped them off in the bands. Haley Heynderickx's guitar parts. Absolutely beautiful musician--her songwriting is amazing. I think those are the big influences and then it's really just bands I listen to, you know. I think Guided By Voices shows up a lot. The Radio Dept.--used to rip them off a lot. Top band for me. It's kind of all over the place, but it's really dad rock, dude, to be honest. I'm not good at interviewing. I could make all these answers so much more concise.
Are you a Carissa's Wierd fan?
No. Caiden is though. Caiden just loves that album. For me, it's too sad. That'd be a crisis for me if I listen to that whole album and we just always joke about that album because he loves it so much and I'm not the biggest fan. That whole song [crewneck] was improvised, vocally. He's recording it and he goes quiet for a little bit. I look at him like, "You should be hated here!" as a joke. We still listen back to that and think it's the funniest thing ever. Caiden's a huge Carissa's Wierd fan, I was raised more on Band of Horses. I think they came after. I think they share a member. I'm pretty sure, but I don't know who.
How did you meet Caiden?
His family owns a bowling alley in my hometown. Also, you got to know, my hometown is tiny. Our graduating class, public school, was 140. It's 7,000 people. His family owns a bowling alley there and I always went growing up. My mom and dad were there, and the bartender is Caiden's mom. She said, "Hey, my son's moving to Johnsburg school district in the fall," it was going to be the start of our sophomore year of high school, "And he's like really into music. I know your son is too. They can jam or something." My parents told me that and they were like, "You should go introduce yourself."
I was like, "I will if I meet the guy." It was study hall at the start of the day and there was a dude in the business room wearing a JPEGMAFIA shirt, which is unheard of there, and I had never seen the dude before. I thought he was a new freshman or something because I'd never seen him before. I'm like, "Hey, nice shirt." Then I just thought about it throughout the day and I'm like, "This has got to be the dude." I asked him there, "Does your family own Raymond's?" and he's like, "Yeah." So, I told him the whole story and then we started jamming and that's it, he's been one of my absolute best friends ever since. It turns out, because we have a mutual friend, Brooklyn--it turns out she introduced us at a Tyler, The Creator concert, the Igor tour months previous and none of us really remembered it.
I was like, "I will if I meet the guy." It was study hall at the start of the day and there was a dude in the business room wearing a JPEGMAFIA shirt, which is unheard of there, and I had never seen the dude before. I thought he was a new freshman or something because I'd never seen him before. I'm like, "Hey, nice shirt." Then I just thought about it throughout the day and I'm like, "This has got to be the dude." I asked him there, "Does your family own Raymond's?" and he's like, "Yeah." So, I told him the whole story and then we started jamming and that's it, he's been one of my absolute best friends ever since. It turns out, because we have a mutual friend, Brooklyn--it turns out she introduced us at a Tyler, The Creator concert, the Igor tour months previous and none of us really remembered it.
When you're writing these songs, do you sit down knowing which project it'll be for? Or, do you write them and figure out which one's going to go where?
It used to be a lot more like the latter where I would have a song and right off the bat it'd be going to Company Calls, beauty filter... jumper seat is weird. That's actually all written in one day, except for died out on the new EP. I wrote that when I was like 15. Now it's a lot more circumstantial. With Company Calls, three of us go here but Caiden is back home still, so it's really hard to write for that and actually have time to record and stuff like that. I'm working full time and I'm a student and Caiden's working full time, so that's a lot harder. We haven't been been good about writing for that, to be honest. He's been really busy. But for my album I'm like, "Okay, this is what I need to do for each song." So I write a song that fits that.
beauty filter is usually just when we're all together. The first album, out of necessity, I wrote the whole thing in one day and recorded it because Company Calls was going to play a gig in Chicago but Caiden last minute got surprised from his family with a vacation, so he couldn't do it. For beauty filter, we would just jam at Marquette every once in a while and I was like, "Okay, we can do this show, but we need songs." We already had like three, but I wrote us a whole 10 track album in one day so we had material. It wasn't that collaborative for the first album, but here on out it's fully collaborative. I'll have some lyrics and a guitar riff and then Matthew kills it on the bass part. Ethan is the most cracked drummer ever. He is just so good. The funny thing with beauty filter, by the way: so, Matthew plays bass in the band. He was originally a guitarist. He's also a better guitarist than me. Ethan is a drummer of the band. He was originally a guitarist, too. And I'm the guitarist and I was originally a drummer. It's a weird lineup.
What's your favorite project or release that you've been a part of so far?
Grounded, Company Calls album. That was so fun to record. Recording alone sucks. It's just not fun. I mean, actually it's great. It's a really nice chill thing to do at the end of the day. It's a great decompressor, but it's a lot of just sitting alone and hating the way your music sounds and stuff like that. But, recording that album, we threw all sense of making it sound good out the window. You can tell if you listen, that thing sounds like shit. I fucked the mixing on that. I've got to remaster it, but it was just fun.
It was our spring break of my freshman year of college and, writing it, I think those are my best bass parts ever. I think bass is my best instrument, honestly, like those bass parts are just cracked. I'm using capo on the bass, I don't know what I was thinking. My vocals, those lyrics were written over like five to seven months and just rewritten and rewritten. The most I've tried on lyrics ever and I'm bad at lyrics. Caiden's songwriting was just so good. It just came together so fast and it was so much fun while doing it. To this day I can't listen to any of my solo music. I don't listen to any of it. I can listen to beauty filter because that was a lot of fun, there's other people involved. I can listen to band projects, but Company Calls' Grounded, I'll actually listen to that album. It sounds so egotistical to say this, but it's a top ten indie rock album for me--especially Caiden's songs. His songs are so amazing on that album.
If we're talking my projects, I think cardigan hate train sucks. The EPs are a little difficult to listen to. jaywalking, that album is brutal. Also, I record those vocals with COVID and you can tell. hand-in-hand's okay. reliance is pretty good. This new album, I think is genuinely great and I can listen to it because there are like 30 people involved with it. It's not just me. This new one, I think is definitely my best solo album. That's also not me being like, "Listen to the new album when it's out."
What else are you working on now?
What's your favorite project or release that you've been a part of so far?
Grounded, Company Calls album. That was so fun to record. Recording alone sucks. It's just not fun. I mean, actually it's great. It's a really nice chill thing to do at the end of the day. It's a great decompressor, but it's a lot of just sitting alone and hating the way your music sounds and stuff like that. But, recording that album, we threw all sense of making it sound good out the window. You can tell if you listen, that thing sounds like shit. I fucked the mixing on that. I've got to remaster it, but it was just fun.
It was our spring break of my freshman year of college and, writing it, I think those are my best bass parts ever. I think bass is my best instrument, honestly, like those bass parts are just cracked. I'm using capo on the bass, I don't know what I was thinking. My vocals, those lyrics were written over like five to seven months and just rewritten and rewritten. The most I've tried on lyrics ever and I'm bad at lyrics. Caiden's songwriting was just so good. It just came together so fast and it was so much fun while doing it. To this day I can't listen to any of my solo music. I don't listen to any of it. I can listen to beauty filter because that was a lot of fun, there's other people involved. I can listen to band projects, but Company Calls' Grounded, I'll actually listen to that album. It sounds so egotistical to say this, but it's a top ten indie rock album for me--especially Caiden's songs. His songs are so amazing on that album.
If we're talking my projects, I think cardigan hate train sucks. The EPs are a little difficult to listen to. jaywalking, that album is brutal. Also, I record those vocals with COVID and you can tell. hand-in-hand's okay. reliance is pretty good. This new album, I think is genuinely great and I can listen to it because there are like 30 people involved with it. It's not just me. This new one, I think is definitely my best solo album. That's also not me being like, "Listen to the new album when it's out."
What else are you working on now?
I'm a tour guide at Marquette. Bus tables. I'm working on cooking for my friends. I had a bunch of friends work for lentil soup and I made a rustic chicken stew. I have taco nights for musicians in the area when they come to record on my album. I'm working on cooking a lot. Made chicken tikka masala for my friends a few nights ago. I'm working on being comfortable with not rhyming as much. You don't always got to rhyme. I'm a really big MF DOOM fan and you can tell on some of my lyrics. I'm just trying to rhyme every syllable in it and it's not working because it's white dude indie rock. It's not working. Working on paying off college, I guess with the jobs, streaming helps a lot with that, like a lot surprisingly. Working on myself, I guess.
Part II:
How would you say your environment shapes the music you create?
I mean, I've always felt different environments are a really great way to get different recordings. I remember just growing up, how songs would come out differently if I recorded them in my bedroom or the basement or Caiden's house. I always thought it was interesting how writing in different environments, recording in different environments, you just get obviously different sounds from it because of the room in a lot of situations, but also it feels different. That sounds really pretentious, but it kind of does. I would say the vast majority of my parts for this album were done in Milwaukee in my room right here. There was additional recording done before I moved in here back home on need you around, on and on, and always up to something. It's been different recording in this room, especially because at home it's in the basement and here I have this massive window that's right in front of me. I can just people watch while I record and that definitely changed some writing elements of it.
A lot of the parts from all my friends who featured on it were done remotely. I don't really know what their environments are like, but I bet they're good. I think one of the biggest environment changes was just the people that were involved in it. Just having friends over for dinner and then recording with them in my room. I ran this album, it's been done since like August, I think. It's not coming out until now. It took two months to master it. Eli hustled, Eli did a great job with it. In a lot of that time, though, I was just playing people the songs and getting their opinions on it and what they thought of the mixes as those were getting done. It's amazing how much other people can shape your music because I already write both my songs about other people, or take a lot of influence from my friends and their situations, but also just them being in the room and giving pointers or helping record or recording with me... it's amazing how much other people can shape it.
How did you get this enormously wide range of collaborators together?
It was a lot of people I already knew and was friends with or people that were referred to me that I now know. we're on the b-team has trumpet and saxophone. I don't really know anybody who plays trumpet or saxophone, but my friend Jack, who makes music under the name Crawling Vines, who I have jumper seat with, he went to college with both those guys and put me in contact with them. This dude, Kai Slater, he's in bands like Sharp Pins and Lifeguard. Makes amazing music. A lot of my favorite projects out of Chicago. But I talked to him and I was like, "Hey, do you know anybody who can play mandolin?" He was like, "Yeah, this dude Pasty Face. Jack is his name. I've seen him play mandolin on an Instagram story before." So I reached out to him for a mandolin. The mandolin part didn't end up working--this is on fourth of july--but then he did an additional wurlitzer part, just because he thought it would be cool. I kept that. Those are the only ones that I was referred to, I believe.
At the time I was recording, I really thought I was going to go with a label. I had quite a few reaching out to me at that specific time, more than usual, and I thought I'd go with one of them. So, I was kind of just thinking if I'm going with a label, I might as well get a bunch of people I know royalty checks. I ended up not going with the label, but I'm really glad it was a very collaborative album. That's the first time I've really done a ton ton ton of collaboration for a solo project. I like it a lot more than my other projects for that reason.
How do all of those collaborators fit into each song? What was it like working with them?
My closest collaborator on this specific album was Jacob Olson. He makes music under the name Hyer and plays in Jacob Slade's band. Jacob Slade is this great musician from Milwaukee, as well. Jacob Olson was on four out of nine songs on it. He was just brilliant. I could just say like, "Hey, I need something like this." And then he'd be like, "Alright, let me jam along the song." And then it takes two goes and he's got his part and it's perfect. With him, he has this very distinct vibe. He's a more folky dude. He has the banjo and the slide guitar on the album. Oh my god, it's so sick. He killed it, but he has more of a folky vibe, so I had him on what were typically the more folky songs on the album. always up to something, I just really wanted to do the 2016 XXL Freshman Freestyle, but with other indie rock musicians under the age of 25 that I like. So, that was funny. I just went with a bunch of dudes who make shoegazey indie rock. That was it. Those fit perfectly.
Other parts just came out of nowhere, though. My friend, Jack, he's just my buddy going to Madison Law school right now. He was hanging out, I just randomly had him over for dinner one night and then I'm like, "You want to hear some stuff from the album?" Then, turns out he has the most beautiful whistle ever. I had no idea, but he's the one who whistles on substance / casper. A lot of stuff like that just came out of nowhere. Like, how did that even happen? But, for the most part, it was pretty intentional. I was like, "Okay, this person will do a good job on this one."
Was there anything you set out to accomplish with this new album?
I want to make something better than my other albums. I mean, that's what everybody always says. Distinctively, I wanted to make an album about growing up. I mean, most of my music is about growing up, but I wanted this one to be distinctively about different stages of my life. It pulls a lot from middle school and high school as much as it does from college and where I'm at right now. I think, thematically, that was the only real thing with it. I'm not really good at concept albums. I've never tried to make one.
It was pretty intentional. I wanted to make songs about growing up and a good amount about now, as well. And just the people around me. I guess there are references to my life, but barely any of the songs are actually about me. It's mainly about people who've been around me throughout my life, uh, which I do that anyway, that was a lot on this album. Not just because it's really collaborative, but in a way it's probably my least personal album when it comes to talking about myself. I think a lot of myself still comes through. It's definitely my favorite album I've made. I can actually kind of listen to it. I'm not sick of it. Also a lot of different instrumentation, I'd say different styles. I think reliance was good because it was a very varied album in terms of production and song styles. That was really what I was trying to go for, but reliance loses a lot of cohesiveness and I feel like this one still works as a cohesive album, even though all the songs are pretty different.
How did you bring such a wide variety of styles and influences together into one cohesive project?
I don't know. I mean, transitions always help between songs, but these were just the nine songs that stuck when I was recording stuff. Then it was kind of like, "How do I put these together?" I really don't know.
Tell me the story behind waste of water. Where did this all begin?
Oh, man. There was no overlap between this and reliance. reliance was done, it was out already. Then I was like, "Okay, I might have song ideas here and there." need you around was the first song I wrote for the album, I know that was in April, but after reliance. I think I wrote that in a sociology class, I wanna say. But, I demoed that out. The big thing I knew for this album was that I needed to have real drums. I'm done using fake drums, I can't deal with that shit anymore. Drums were my first instrument. I was like, "I gotta wait until I get home to record this thing. I'm not doing it until I get everything in front of me." I got home and within two days I had recorded all of need you around in a morning in my basement. That was the catalyst for the whole album.
need you around is my favorite song I've ever written, I wanna say. That whole outro is just absurd. Two minutes of the same chord is stupid. It's so absurd, but that was the catalyst for the whole album. When it came to lyrical themes, stuff that's going on around me, growing up, blah blah blah... A lot going on, but you can still hear all the individual instruments. need you around is not a good example of that, but other songs are. But, that was when I realized I wanna make a really real sounding album. One that you kind of feel like you're in the room with. I was also listening to a ton of Mk.gee and Dijon at the time. Adrianne Lenker, too, and I love how you can hear when the chair creaks and you can hear footsteps in the back and stuff like that. I wanted that too. I specifically told Eli, "Leave every audio trail on every track." That's the goals that I had from the jump. At that point, it was not a collaborative album at all. But, once I moved up here and I was writing a lot more and just working and writing while I worked and recording at night--and then that label thing, I realized, okay, collaborative album, we gotta do it.
The whole thing was pretty much recorded entirely from June to mid August. It was just song ideas I had based off of songs I heard and stuff that was going on. It wasn't even like there was a break. It really took just straight June to mid August. No lulls in between. It was just figuring out, planning, getting people's financial information, conceptualizing art, writing in the shower. You know, it was pretty standard. Checking people's schedules and seeing when they can come and record, seeing if people couldn't come and record. After that, when I was done with it, I sent it into Eli, who's in Chicago. It was just two months of him just like coming up with mix ideas, sending them to me, I give him pointers on it, play the mixes for other people, get their pointers on it. It was a trudge, but Eli got it perfect. It's not muddy, but it's rough around the edges, which is exactly what I wanted.
What's most important to you when writing or putting out music? Do you think it's the lyrics, the instruments, the feeling, the aesthetic...? Is there anything that's more important?
I would say lyrics always take me the longest. I come up with lyrical ideas all the time, little sentences or phrases or whatever and just put them in my Notes app, but I usually don't sit down and actually write the lyrics or record the lyrics until a significant period of time after the instrumentals are done. Singing is not fun for me, but recording instruments is kind of fun, so I like doing that first. I always come up with riffs first, for the most part. Definitely the music aspect of it. That's what I need more. I will always, pretty much always, appreciate a song more for its chords than its lyrics. I really don't listen to lyrics the first time I listened to a song ever. I tried to get actual substance in the lyrics, every once in a while I'll get like pretty lazy. The only thing is on hangnail, me and Caiden wrote that. We were like, "This is the funniest song we've ever written." It is just total straight mom rock parody, the whole song, lyrically. We thought it was hilarious when we wrote it.
I actually tried a good bit with the lyrics, which is something that, historically, I haven't done too much. I'd say the lyrics probably mattered more to me on this album when it came to getting those right, but the instrumentation was, by far, the actual most important part to me, just kind of getting the sound--I'd say even more so than the musicianship too. I really wanted a really raw kind of feel to it and not sounding terrible. I want mid-fi not lo-fi, you know. A lot of weird production stuff on the album at points, just with weird mics or weird mic-ing and weird layering. That was pretty fun.
What are you working on next? What does the future look like for you now?
I have no idea. beauty filter, we're doing a lot of writing there. I got quite a few songs for a possible new album. Ethan's got a song, Matthew's got a song, they'll probably write more. I don't know when we'll record that. We're intentionally waiting until we have the whole album actually done being written until we record anything. Just with how young we've been as a band--it's been under a year for us, we got into this habit with everything we had where we recorded it, but then the songs changed so much live that we wish the new live versions are the original ones. So, with this one we're pretty intentionally just waiting to record until the songs are actually done done. I don't really know when that's going to come out, but that's back burner. I'll definitely take a little break from solo music. I'll always be recording stuff, but I don't know the next time I have something out.
I do a project for a medieval history class where I'm doing microbiographies on troubadours and trobairitz from the middle ages. On top of that, I'm trying to cover a song by each of them, which is sounding terrible right now. It is absolutely ridiculous. In another class I'm working on a documentary on the field in my backyard and the ecological history of that, so that should be interesting. Teaching US history at a school in the area every once in a while. Cooking a lot. We're having a dinner party soon, which I'm excited for. That should be good. That might be it.
Thanks for reading, everyone. Keep listening and searching.
Stream need you around.
-Foster
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