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.
Izzy is going to take this one!
Howdy, all! Izzy again with another edition of my SPOTLIGHT ON SOUTHERN OREGON series! This time I had the pleasure of interviewing Spit, one of my dear friends who started a small indie project with me and a couple other nerdy musician folk from SOU some years back. James has had an incredible journey in life and with his music. I am honored to share his story with you all!
Tell us about yourself. How'd you end up in Southern Oregon?
I'm originally from Santa Clara, California--grew up there, did not really go to school right after high school, started working full time and then decided to not work at a trampoline park for the rest of my life. So, went back to school to do that and got my first degree in commercial music production--audio engineering and things like that. It was pretty sick. I took a bunch of recording classes, and then was going to move down to LA, but that didn't work out. I decided to go back to school to get my English degree. That’s what brought me up to Oregon, to SOU.
Wow. I feel like English is such a pivot from music. How did you end up there?
Yeah. I don't know, just kind of thinking about what I liked to do and I really like to read. I like to write and English felt like the safe thing, but also a the fun thing that'll give me freedom to play around with music and do stuff that I like on the weekends and have break for summer and things like that. I was working at a pool at the time and going down to LA just wasn't really working with my lifestyle. I think that I wanted the fast--not really knowing what I'm doing and thinking about it. The insecurity, or I guess inconsistency, of the music business is so hit or miss. I feel like if I put too much pressure on that to make a living with music, then it would lose its fun and that spark would kind of be gone, you know?
I agree. That's a completely valid point. A lot of people, even if you are successful, will have periods of a couple of years where they're not getting much work and that can be super stressful. So, how long have you been making music? Did it start with guitar?
I think I was nine or ten and my cousin taught me how to play When I Come Around by Green Day and then I got obsessed with that. That was kind of when I discovered music that wasn't my mom or dad's, you know--things that weren't on the radio or whatever. I started listening to Rancid and ska and punk and things like that. I started really taking it seriously when I was 15, just writing songs. They were all just terrible, bedroom, like total shit. But I started really seeing it as an outlet around that time.
Were you just solo then or did you ever join a band?
Yeah, just hanging out in my room with an acoustic guitar. When I was 16, I was a drummer of a math rock band, actually. It was kind of crazy. This dude that I went to middle school with, he hit me up and they had a show in San Francisco and he was like, "Hey, our drummer just quit. We need somebody to learn these songs in two weeks." And I'm like, "Yeah, I played the snare drum in band. Sure, I can, whatever." And so I got on a kit and learned a bunch of weird time signature stuff. Did a really shitty show in San Francisco. That was cool. That was the first band I was in.
How long did you stay with them?
Honestly, it was just the two weeks leading up to the show and like a week after. I appreciate the music, but I feel like being a drummer is so important and I just couldn't at the time. It's a lot to handle. I can do that now if I put the work in, for sure. I mean, everything that I've recorded, it's been either me drumming or programming the drums on Logic. But at 15, I just wasn't ready for it. It's kind of wild thinking back about all the projects that I've been a part of too. I was in this reggae band for a while after high school and we were playing festivals and things like that. Nothing crazy. Just playing in front of a couple hundred people and then hating it, but loving it and putting yourself in those really uncomfortable situations just to prove to yourself you could do it.
With your personal project, are you doing all the instrumentation, including bass and everything?
Yeah, everything. That's all me. I can do falsetto stuff, all the weird vocal harmonies, and things like that.
I can pretend to or try. It's a lot of editing software and Logic. I had a professor when I'd first started college in the music program and he would say this every single day: "You can't polish a turd, right" Like, it's going to be shit if you record it shitty with a bad microphone in a bad room. You need to get all that figured out first. I feel like that really kind of made its way into my head. I don't know, I'm super nervous as a person--like stage fright. So, playing on a stage in front of people would terrify the shit out of me. But just recording something in my bedroom and trying to make it sound as good as possible, after the fact, I definitely lean towards that more. And that's where it starts anyways, just focusing on making good music, putting it out there, and then if it picks up, maybe doing a show.
I was going to ask you about your style, and whether your music taste has changed?
The first band that I got really stoked on was blink-182. I think my first no skip record was Green Day’s Dookie. So, it's always been that really snotty pop-punk, kind of early 2000s stuff. When I was 19, I got into all of the Pacific Northwest stuff. Things like Built to Spill and Elliott Smith. Then I started listening to like deeper cuts like Jawbreaker and things like that. I think I've always gravitated towards that heavy kind of punk sound. I like a lot of music though, Alex G is probably one of my favorite artists right now. I've been listening to a lot of The Wonder Years lately. Also, there's a group called Oso Oso from New York, Long Island, and I think they're pretty good indie. Kind of funk, indie, space--the weird bubble that is alternative music.
Growing up in California, what was it like with your family? There's a lot of alternative music that relies on those emotions, kind of raw and unaddressed… do you think that your upbringing stirred up something in you?
I mean, probably. I don't know. I'm the oldest out of three and I feel like I was really put into these parental roles over my siblings, so I was kind of the caretaker. My parents split when I was 18. My dad would go between never being present or being hyper-present. He would ride the wave of never being home and always at work. If he was home he'd be locked in his room closet drinking. I remember one time when I was like 17 years old, he read something online that said teenagers needed to sleep more so he’s all, "8PM! You need to be in bed!" and I'm like, "Dad, I'm 17 I'm not going to bed at 8 o'clock." he's like, "No. You need 12 hours of sleep," but I'm like, "Dude, fuck you, no, it's Saturday." He would be distant and then super present, just kind of disconnected. I don't know how that shows up in things that I do but I'm sure it comes into play somewhere.
How about your relationship with your sister and your mom?
My sister and I were really close, I mean we kind of have always been close, but I think also because I was like the caretaker there. My mom worked, too, and my dad was never really responsible enough to watch her. If I didn't cook Zoe dinner, she wouldn't eat. As she got older, we just kind of continued [to be close]. I remember she was telling me the other day, apparently like a decade ago I had showed her a song by the band The Used, and she was saying, "Because you showed me that song, I found Pierce The Veil," and I'm like are you kidding? She's obsessed. Her Instagram handle when she was 15 was "PTV Zoe." I was like, "Hell yeah dude, that's so sick"! To hear that a song that I showed her when she was 12 just completely changed the trajectory of her life musically… that is so cool.
With you being the oldest, there's all this talk of, "you have to be responsible and grow up fast." How did you cope with that? Did you use music as your outlet to let out those maybe more "childish" aspects that you weren't allowed to express, or did you do other thing?
Probably subconsciously. I don't know. I think you hit the nail on the head with it--I was definitely the kid that was forced to be more responsible than my age, so that came into play. I think when I was 19 was when I really started drinking and smoking and doing things like that, so I feel like I never really let myself have a high school experience until after I was done with high school. Then I was too old to be doing stupid shit, but I was doing stupid shit anyway and then I was like writing about it. Your early 20s are just weird because you're in a weird place. You don't know what the fuck's going on because you're not really a kid anymore but you're not a fully formed adult yet… you're just in limbo trying to figure out where you land and you don't know, and nobody's gonna tell you, so you just kind of throw a dart at a dartboard and hope it hits.
Do you think that ever reached a turning point for you?
I think it all kind of started with just a bunch of shitty life decisions that I was making. I had an ex and we were so toxic for each other and didn't really work at all, and then my drinking had gotten pretty bad and I started using. I was doing coke for a little bit and then I ended up getting arrested which was interesting. I just remember thinking, "Okay, whatever I'm doing now is not working and I need to switch it up." I mean, thinking back to it, that first EP that I released of my original music under my name was probably six years ago now. I had written all of those songs right after I had gotten arrested, and I remember doing a workers release program where every Saturday for a month I would do like an eight hour day folding laundry at the county jail. I wrote all of those songs in my head and composed them while I was folding inmate laundry.
I think when I was probably 25 was when I felt like I really grew into myself and knew what I wanted out of life. Up until that point it was just, "Oh, maybe I'll try this. Maybe I'll try that. We'll see if this sticks." 25 was the age where I was like, "Okay, I've got the means that I know make me a happy person, so as long as I keep doing those I'll be fine." Waking up early, just a cup of coffee… the little things like watching the sunrise and reading a book. I'll meditate pretty frequently at the end of the day and I’ve been journaling for the past couple years. I don't really know how to put it other than just figuring out a system that works for you. To not make you want to kill yourself, you know, and it seems really grounding to be able to list everything out and focus on those little things.
That just sounds like the opposite of the kind of music you write. It's very chaotic and intense and then you're over here writing a little book.
No, for sure. I think the juxtaposition of that is really beautiful, because I think both of those people are in me somewhere and they come out when they need to. The chaos of the weird, eclectic chords and drums and loud weird vocals and then the super proper, "Alright, I've got my water at the side of the desk and the fan is on. I'm sitting here writing about my day." I think I had to grow into the consistency of it. I feel like I've always been a super, super anxious person, and realizing that: having a plan or structure helps to ease the anxiety. I don't know. I feel it's kind of like taking meds every day, similar in vein to a prescription, you know, because you're taking care of yourself.
Anything that you would want to put out there for other musicians?
Just do it. As scary as it is, you're always going to feel anxious about doing it until you do. It’s going to bottle up and die unless you do it. The quickest way to get rid of that anxiety is to just do the thing and whatever happens, happens, and that's the universe telling you whatever it's got to tell you.
Izzy is going to take this one!
Howdy, all! Izzy again with another edition of my SPOTLIGHT ON SOUTHERN OREGON series! This time I had the pleasure of interviewing Spit, one of my dear friends who started a small indie project with me and a couple other nerdy musician folk from SOU some years back. James has had an incredible journey in life and with his music. I am honored to share his story with you all!
 |
| photos stolen from the internet. |
I'm originally from Santa Clara, California--grew up there, did not really go to school right after high school, started working full time and then decided to not work at a trampoline park for the rest of my life. So, went back to school to do that and got my first degree in commercial music production--audio engineering and things like that. It was pretty sick. I took a bunch of recording classes, and then was going to move down to LA, but that didn't work out. I decided to go back to school to get my English degree. That’s what brought me up to Oregon, to SOU.
Wow. I feel like English is such a pivot from music. How did you end up there?
Yeah. I don't know, just kind of thinking about what I liked to do and I really like to read. I like to write and English felt like the safe thing, but also a the fun thing that'll give me freedom to play around with music and do stuff that I like on the weekends and have break for summer and things like that. I was working at a pool at the time and going down to LA just wasn't really working with my lifestyle. I think that I wanted the fast--not really knowing what I'm doing and thinking about it. The insecurity, or I guess inconsistency, of the music business is so hit or miss. I feel like if I put too much pressure on that to make a living with music, then it would lose its fun and that spark would kind of be gone, you know?
I agree. That's a completely valid point. A lot of people, even if you are successful, will have periods of a couple of years where they're not getting much work and that can be super stressful. So, how long have you been making music? Did it start with guitar?
I think I was nine or ten and my cousin taught me how to play When I Come Around by Green Day and then I got obsessed with that. That was kind of when I discovered music that wasn't my mom or dad's, you know--things that weren't on the radio or whatever. I started listening to Rancid and ska and punk and things like that. I started really taking it seriously when I was 15, just writing songs. They were all just terrible, bedroom, like total shit. But I started really seeing it as an outlet around that time.
Were you just solo then or did you ever join a band?
Yeah, just hanging out in my room with an acoustic guitar. When I was 16, I was a drummer of a math rock band, actually. It was kind of crazy. This dude that I went to middle school with, he hit me up and they had a show in San Francisco and he was like, "Hey, our drummer just quit. We need somebody to learn these songs in two weeks." And I'm like, "Yeah, I played the snare drum in band. Sure, I can, whatever." And so I got on a kit and learned a bunch of weird time signature stuff. Did a really shitty show in San Francisco. That was cool. That was the first band I was in.
How long did you stay with them?
Honestly, it was just the two weeks leading up to the show and like a week after. I appreciate the music, but I feel like being a drummer is so important and I just couldn't at the time. It's a lot to handle. I can do that now if I put the work in, for sure. I mean, everything that I've recorded, it's been either me drumming or programming the drums on Logic. But at 15, I just wasn't ready for it. It's kind of wild thinking back about all the projects that I've been a part of too. I was in this reggae band for a while after high school and we were playing festivals and things like that. Nothing crazy. Just playing in front of a couple hundred people and then hating it, but loving it and putting yourself in those really uncomfortable situations just to prove to yourself you could do it.
With your personal project, are you doing all the instrumentation, including bass and everything?
Yeah, everything. That's all me. I can do falsetto stuff, all the weird vocal harmonies, and things like that.
You can do falsetto stuff?
I can pretend to or try. It's a lot of editing software and Logic. I had a professor when I'd first started college in the music program and he would say this every single day: "You can't polish a turd, right" Like, it's going to be shit if you record it shitty with a bad microphone in a bad room. You need to get all that figured out first. I feel like that really kind of made its way into my head. I don't know, I'm super nervous as a person--like stage fright. So, playing on a stage in front of people would terrify the shit out of me. But just recording something in my bedroom and trying to make it sound as good as possible, after the fact, I definitely lean towards that more. And that's where it starts anyways, just focusing on making good music, putting it out there, and then if it picks up, maybe doing a show.
I was going to ask you about your style, and whether your music taste has changed?
The first band that I got really stoked on was blink-182. I think my first no skip record was Green Day’s Dookie. So, it's always been that really snotty pop-punk, kind of early 2000s stuff. When I was 19, I got into all of the Pacific Northwest stuff. Things like Built to Spill and Elliott Smith. Then I started listening to like deeper cuts like Jawbreaker and things like that. I think I've always gravitated towards that heavy kind of punk sound. I like a lot of music though, Alex G is probably one of my favorite artists right now. I've been listening to a lot of The Wonder Years lately. Also, there's a group called Oso Oso from New York, Long Island, and I think they're pretty good indie. Kind of funk, indie, space--the weird bubble that is alternative music.
Growing up in California, what was it like with your family? There's a lot of alternative music that relies on those emotions, kind of raw and unaddressed… do you think that your upbringing stirred up something in you?
I mean, probably. I don't know. I'm the oldest out of three and I feel like I was really put into these parental roles over my siblings, so I was kind of the caretaker. My parents split when I was 18. My dad would go between never being present or being hyper-present. He would ride the wave of never being home and always at work. If he was home he'd be locked in his room closet drinking. I remember one time when I was like 17 years old, he read something online that said teenagers needed to sleep more so he’s all, "8PM! You need to be in bed!" and I'm like, "Dad, I'm 17 I'm not going to bed at 8 o'clock." he's like, "No. You need 12 hours of sleep," but I'm like, "Dude, fuck you, no, it's Saturday." He would be distant and then super present, just kind of disconnected. I don't know how that shows up in things that I do but I'm sure it comes into play somewhere.
How about your relationship with your sister and your mom?
My sister and I were really close, I mean we kind of have always been close, but I think also because I was like the caretaker there. My mom worked, too, and my dad was never really responsible enough to watch her. If I didn't cook Zoe dinner, she wouldn't eat. As she got older, we just kind of continued [to be close]. I remember she was telling me the other day, apparently like a decade ago I had showed her a song by the band The Used, and she was saying, "Because you showed me that song, I found Pierce The Veil," and I'm like are you kidding? She's obsessed. Her Instagram handle when she was 15 was "PTV Zoe." I was like, "Hell yeah dude, that's so sick"! To hear that a song that I showed her when she was 12 just completely changed the trajectory of her life musically… that is so cool.
With you being the oldest, there's all this talk of, "you have to be responsible and grow up fast." How did you cope with that? Did you use music as your outlet to let out those maybe more "childish" aspects that you weren't allowed to express, or did you do other thing?
Probably subconsciously. I don't know. I think you hit the nail on the head with it--I was definitely the kid that was forced to be more responsible than my age, so that came into play. I think when I was 19 was when I really started drinking and smoking and doing things like that, so I feel like I never really let myself have a high school experience until after I was done with high school. Then I was too old to be doing stupid shit, but I was doing stupid shit anyway and then I was like writing about it. Your early 20s are just weird because you're in a weird place. You don't know what the fuck's going on because you're not really a kid anymore but you're not a fully formed adult yet… you're just in limbo trying to figure out where you land and you don't know, and nobody's gonna tell you, so you just kind of throw a dart at a dartboard and hope it hits.
Do you think that ever reached a turning point for you?
I think it all kind of started with just a bunch of shitty life decisions that I was making. I had an ex and we were so toxic for each other and didn't really work at all, and then my drinking had gotten pretty bad and I started using. I was doing coke for a little bit and then I ended up getting arrested which was interesting. I just remember thinking, "Okay, whatever I'm doing now is not working and I need to switch it up." I mean, thinking back to it, that first EP that I released of my original music under my name was probably six years ago now. I had written all of those songs right after I had gotten arrested, and I remember doing a workers release program where every Saturday for a month I would do like an eight hour day folding laundry at the county jail. I wrote all of those songs in my head and composed them while I was folding inmate laundry.
I think when I was probably 25 was when I felt like I really grew into myself and knew what I wanted out of life. Up until that point it was just, "Oh, maybe I'll try this. Maybe I'll try that. We'll see if this sticks." 25 was the age where I was like, "Okay, I've got the means that I know make me a happy person, so as long as I keep doing those I'll be fine." Waking up early, just a cup of coffee… the little things like watching the sunrise and reading a book. I'll meditate pretty frequently at the end of the day and I’ve been journaling for the past couple years. I don't really know how to put it other than just figuring out a system that works for you. To not make you want to kill yourself, you know, and it seems really grounding to be able to list everything out and focus on those little things.
That just sounds like the opposite of the kind of music you write. It's very chaotic and intense and then you're over here writing a little book.
No, for sure. I think the juxtaposition of that is really beautiful, because I think both of those people are in me somewhere and they come out when they need to. The chaos of the weird, eclectic chords and drums and loud weird vocals and then the super proper, "Alright, I've got my water at the side of the desk and the fan is on. I'm sitting here writing about my day." I think I had to grow into the consistency of it. I feel like I've always been a super, super anxious person, and realizing that: having a plan or structure helps to ease the anxiety. I don't know. I feel it's kind of like taking meds every day, similar in vein to a prescription, you know, because you're taking care of yourself.
Anything that you would want to put out there for other musicians?
Just do it. As scary as it is, you're always going to feel anxious about doing it until you do. It’s going to bottle up and die unless you do it. The quickest way to get rid of that anxiety is to just do the thing and whatever happens, happens, and that's the universe telling you whatever it's got to tell you.
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