Off the Record

0:00
What's good everyone, you're listening to WKNC 88.1 FM Raleigh. We are a student run nonprofit radio station based out of North Carolina State University. I'm Plover and this is off the record. Here with me today is the extremely talented, Small Town Sci-Fi. How're you doing today?

0:15
I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me.

0:16
Awesome. So could you tell us a little, a little bit about yourself, kind of where you're from, what do you do?

0:24
Well, I'm from Salinas, California. It's sort of an agricultural town on the central coast of California. Right now, I've, the past two years I've been a, a TA/graduate student in mathematical physics at UC Berkeley.

0:43
That's crazy. And on the side, you make music.

0:46
Yeah, yeah, I've been shifting the focus more and more towards music. I, I sort of discovered that I liked making music while I was already in the graduate program. And, and I've actually decided to take some time off this year to complete my album.

1:02
Oh, that's awesome. Is there a kind of a general release date on the album? Or is it just like a, I'm gonna get it done when I, when I get it done, type of thing?

1:12
I'm hoping to have it done by October, hopefully released soon after.

1:17
Let's go. That's really cool. And Small Town Sci-Fi, really cool name. Is there kind of a story behind that? Any history of that?

1:24
Yeah, so I've always been, well, I lived in small towns, since I was a little kid. And I've always had this appreciation for the aesthetic of science fiction, I think it's the unknown that sort of draws me in. And so having this combination of, of living in places where you sort of know all of the, all the, the landscape, and the, and the streets and everything by heart, and you have this desire to sort of get out and see things someday. And so the sort of adventure, an exploratory theme in science fiction really always pulled me, and then I just combined those two notions, small town, and sci-fi, and that was my name.

2:20
It's really cool. Very, Steven Spielberg. I like that a lot. Um also, your EP recently, um, psycho EP. Is there any kind of a history behind, I guess, why you called it that?

2:33
Yeah, I think the song Psycho became sort of the centerpiece for the EP. And I saw those themes coming up again, and again, in each of the songs. And it basically stems from this desire that I had to be understood, and to be able to communicate, and to feel that if I'm unable to communicate, then I'm, am vulnerable, to be, to be judged. Called things, such as the title of the song and EP. And, and so I think that's where it comes from.

3:20
Okay, that's really cool. And also so, you said this music is kind of a recent thing. But have you been sort of like, a person who grew up with making music? Or is this just like a really recent, I really like music, type of scenario?

3:34
I've always taken a lot of comfort, listening to music. And I have always had, as long as I can remember, the desire to make it, I haven't really, I never really had the means. I wasn't, I wasn't trained in instruments or anything. So while I've been coming up with melodies, since I was a teen, I never had any chords to put these melodies on top of. And so a few years ago, I think it's about four years ago now, after hearing an artist that I found really inspiring. I just decided to go out and buy a guitar and, and then I, pretty soon I could put my melody over chords. And that's how it happened.

4:18
Nice, nice. And is it kind of, it more like a solo project? Are there a lot of friends or kind of anyone who could help you with that?

4:28
It had been a solo project for, for a long time. And then I did, I spent a couple of months collaborating with one of my best friends. Her name's Kim. She's also from the, she's from the Bay Area. And we would go out to her house on the, on the weekends and we would just jam together and collaborate and it was, that sort of gave me a second wind and then pushed me to, to complete the EP for instance. It was just, it can be really great to have someone who, who understands what you're trying to do with your music and to see the value in it. And also it is great to be able to play with someone, it's been a solo project, but getting the, to collaborate with someone as talented as my friends, was, it really is going to be one of my fondest memories, I think for a long time.

5:27
For sure, especially since the, the music's so intimate that that'd be really cool to like, really connect with someone around that type of idea. Um, speaking of your music, how would you kind of describe that to someone who's maybe never heard your music before? Like, what, what would be like the elevator pitch of like, what you produce?

5:47
I think I call it post traumatic indie rock. And I call it that because I think there is a kind of, there is sort of an element that feels like there's been some exposure to some kind of trauma, at least that's, that's what I feel like I'm letting out when I am making music. And I hope that in the end, it's dealing with, with something and coming out with some kind of hope, even if it's not necessarily what you expected to come out with.

6:30
So it's kinda like, more like the healing process.

6:34
Yeah, I think that's definitely a theme.

6:36
Awesome. Yeah. So the reason actually, we set this interview up, of course, is that we've been playing Methadone for a while now and, amazing track of course, love that one. Um, what about it kind of speaks to you, and what, and why do you think anyone would, would listen to that, or a college radio station would pick that up?

6:56
Well, thanks for saying that. I think, I think that, I hope it's because the message would be, resonates with people. And we're, or that people who, who have some similar experiences or need to, need to maybe find something that speaks to something that they've gone through, that maybe they can hear it, because I do think that is a big part of it is communication, right? So if you hope that it's communicating well, because that's sort of the reason that I made it. But maybe it's, maybe it's also a little catchy, yeah, I don't know.

7:46
Yeah, for sure, it communicates but also communicates over at least like, drumline and, and some nice reps there. Yeah, that's the best way to communicate.

7:55
Yeah.

7:56
So yeah, you mentioned this is very, like kind of post traumatic indie rock, it's like the, I guess characters, or the stories have kind of gone through stuff. How do you like, incorporate these sort of weighty themes into your music without it like, being like melodramatic, or like too, like, overbearing, like, to be able to find like a good blend?

8:16
Well, I think that's just kind of, is naturally how I like to deal with things like, I do think a lot about, about some pretty hard things that I've been through and, and that I've seen, and that I see other people go through, but I also have, I think I'm pretty optimistic. Naturally, I think I do veer towards optimism. And so I think that almost automatically keeps it from, from being too bad to handle.

8:56
Yeah, for sure. It's more focused on the recovery than maybe the actual act.

9:02
Right.

9:02
Yeah. Yeah, that's really cool. And a lot of that is kind of how you present it in the genre. Like this is a, it's, it's, it's indie rock, it's like kind of stripped back and it's also a lot of folk rock, I heard that in there. I do like folk rock. Is that something that you listened to a lot and then kind of maybe drew some influence into your tracks?

9:21
I do like folk rock. And I do listen to it a lot. And so yeah, yeah, I think that, that does show up with what your, your diet definitely shows up writing, and to record

9:36
Of course, of course. And how do you think those like, kind of like, what similarities do you kind of see between like indie rock and folk rock, they're often considered different genres, but I'm sure there's some kind of underlying themes which, which you've definitely fused together on this.

9:52
Yeah. I, I don't really know where the, you know, where that boundary is. It's kind of, you kind of know it when you hear it, right. So, so I think, I think you just, you pull from, from each different genre, the elements that, that you love about them, right? And that sort of, that can be kind of a natural process. And so, with methadone, you can hear a lot of the Folk influences right away. And that sort of breaks into the, the indie rock realm where I'm a little more comfortable. So, I hope I answered your question.

10:36
Yeah, for sure. For you, is it more like an instrumental thing, or do you bring some vibes in there as well?

10:43
Between our result on folk rock and?

10:45
Yeah, folk rock indie rock, like.

10:48
It's definitely, it's definitely a combination, right? It's not just the instruments, it's, it's also the vibes and the beat you put it to, and, and I think certain, certain melodies probably work better if you're, if you're going to say this is going to be a folk rock track, right? You might have to make additional adjustments to get it to, push it over into the what would be called the indie rock genre, I think. I wish, I think to speak on this I need to have a degree in music theory.

11:19
Of course, of course. Um, so yeah, just kind of touching on like genres and, and how expensive they are and stuff. What exactly again, there's a lot of music genres out there. What drew you specifically to these two? Like, why am I not talking to Small Town Sci-Fi the cloud rapper, for example? And what was the, what was it about those?

11:39
I think it was probably the backs that the, the artists that that I heard that made me want to get into making music was sort of on this singer songwriter, it's now folk rock, indie rock. And I don't think before I heard, you know, this artist, he was, by the way, that Julien Baker, I don't know if you're uh, I hope so.

12:21
Oh, yeah, for sure.

12:24
Before I had heard her, I hadn't. Getting into music was always something that was just a fun idea, right? It wasn't, it wasn't a necessity. And then after listening to her stuff, it became a necessity. And so I think, drew a lot of inspiration and that maybe motivated the, the initial direction that I took.

12:45
Okay, yeah. So were you like listening to like different kinds of artists before seeing Julien Baker's music and then that kind of like shifted how you listened to stuff?

12:52
Yeah. Yeah, I had actually been, I think, I've been, I think before that the front bottoms were my favorite band for a long time. And then through them, you discover bands like modern baseball, right, brand new, sorority noise. And that I think that's how Julien Baker came up on my my YouTube suggestion, going down this sort of rabbit hole of bands that she was associated with.

13:24
The algorithmic class, that is kind of crazy. How it is like, how, this is a bit of with us that it really is crazy how powerful algorithms are in music today, if you notice, like, any, like algorithmic oddities with their own music.

13:37
The suggested artists sometimes, like after, after my songs come up, are always interesting. They could come from wildly different genres. But I don't know if that's because I don't have enough listeners for them to, to make the like, their final suggestion over, over who else they should listen to if they like, one of my songs. But, so it's been fun. I think anyone who's, who's just starting to get their stuff onto, onto SoundCloud or Spotify or anything like that probably also had similar experiences.

14:09
Yeah, that's interesting. I guess I didn't really think about like, that's how kind of those um, suggested artists come up. In terms of how you make music, what's like your general process, like do you, do you go for like a sound first and then like, kind of tailor the song to fit that sound? Or is it more of like a, Okay, I have the song written out, I just need to find the way to express like, what I'm trying to write.

14:36
A lot of times, for the most part, the melodies always come first. And then sometimes, the melodies, they will come with a beat or something or maybe a few syllables which will turn into lyrics and, and usually the melody will come with a general vibe as well, which will sort of inform everything else. That's how it's been about 90% of the time. And, and as I've sort of started to grow as a guitarist, I start to, I think the writing process is changing a little bit. And now I can, I can start to write something on the guitar instead of in my head. And so I'm excited to see if things will change a little bit in terms of the writing process.

15:35
Yeah, for sure. So is it like, like, you get the melody, you get the vibe that informs maybe like some adjectives, you kind of throw in the song in there, and then that kind of fleshes it out from there?

15:45
Yeah, exactly.

15:46
Nice. Nice. Um, do you care about like, like, do, do you think of like, a hook first? Or the verses first? Or is it kind of just like, all in one thing?

15:58
It's gone both ways. I, I definitely. I prefer when it comes all at once. It's just so much easier than trying to have them match up together.

16:10
Yeah, for sure.

16:12
So if I, if I can put a request out to whoever sends the melodies, you know, all at once is great. But yeah, a lot of times it will just be, it will either be the verse or the, or the chorus. And then I'll, it might take some time to think of something or to have something come that, that will serve as the chorus or verse for the other piece that I would have come up with.

16:37
For sure. Yeah. So, and in terms of songwriting, do you have like a, like an eight mile style like, notebook? Or? How do you go about that?

16:47
I really need to be more organized. It's actually just a complete nightmare.

16:52
Gotcha, just like post it notes, like.

16:55
Yeah, you know, writing on the wall, on anything I can get my hands on.

17:01
That's yeah, that's an, that's a creative process. That's really cool. So again, the reason we started talking is because a college radio station was interested in your music. So what do you think is kind of the role of college radio stations for either indie rock or just kind of smaller artists in general, in terms of like getting exposure and promoting them?

17:24
Think that, I think the role is pretty huge. For one, it really, it really makes one happy to hear that someone at a college station enjoyed their song enough to to play it on the air, and to share it with, you know, your, your fellow students. And that, I mean, that just, I think that gives us a lot of a lot of energy, you know, it makes us want to keep creating. It's incredibly validating. And, and, yeah, I do think that, that the way that college radio stations look and discover new music, I think we could all use a little more of that, you know, I think I should do more of that. Looking into, so you sort of do a lot of the work for us. And so, so thank you.

18:27
Of course, it's our pleasure. What exactly are you kind of getting out there? And like, how college stations are different than, than maybe like other stations or other platforms?

18:38
Well, I think college radio stations, and please correct me if I'm wrong, because this is, this is your domain, not mine. But like, you're willing to take chances. And a lot of other maybe, I don't know if I would call them commercial radio stations, or satellite radio, whatever they are, they don't seem to take these chances. Right, they go with, with established artists who have, have a proven track record. Which is, it's understandable. But if you're looking to discover something new, that's not really the way to go about it, right?

19:15
Yeah. That's, that's great. That's a great read of the situation.

19:21
Is that correct? Or am I wrong?

19:22
Yeah, I know from our point of view, we just like to kind of deep dive and like, because we don't, I guess we're not commercial, we don't really have like a need to like, make money, we can just kind of play whatever cool experimental stuff we find like, like, like your music, like a lot of different artists we will often dig up from, you know, Bandcamp or somewhere.

19:44
Right? It's so awesome.

19:47
I do like bandcamp as a platform personally, I know you have one.

19:53
I do, I, when I'm, when my life's sort of little more organized. I'd like to go and have a weekly discovery session where I look for new bands. And that hasn't been easy. Lately, because I've been busy and moving around a lot, but hope to get back to that. In the meantime, I'll just be probably tuning into, you know, to your station, and letting you do the work.

20:17
I really appreciate that. Yeah, those, those sessions can be it, be a lot to set up, but really rewarding if they go well. Is college radio like, not, not, not just the college part, but also like, I guess, radio versus streaming services? Like why would one listen to for example, just our station over like a, an algorithmically generated playlist?

20:43
Because there's a real person selecting this and, and curating these lists, right, that you play on, on the air. And it's, I think there's a lot of, a lot of care that goes into that. You know, even if it doesn't seem like it, and I'm sure that sometimes it just, I mean, maybe for people doing it's just so, I just like this, I'm putting it on, but you're sharing things that you like, and I think there's something personal about that. And I think that we need personal.

21:20
Yeah, for sure. So yeah. So for anyone listening, it is confirmed we actually do a job and we do put in effort. It's been discussed here, and we can clear up the allegations now. Thank you.

21:34
Okay. I'm willing to testify if necessary.

21:40
Awesome. Yeah, I'll definitely let you know. So you're on the West Coast. That's correct. And I'm getting, California. Uh, what's kind of like the indie scene like out there? I've never really been to the west coast before.

21:52
There's, there's a little indie scene out in the East Bay. And I've, I've met some, some really cool people. Some of them helped me make the EP. And that's all, about all I can say because I'm not. I move, I'm moving around so much. And I am still now in Salinas. I'm not even in Berkeley anymore. Like, can't really comment. So I'm not really qualified to comment on the, on the indie scene out there. But I do know, there are some great people so you know, that you can, on Bandcamp, I think you can, you can search by city. So please do.

22:32
And even just like, other kinds of concerts, you would maybe go to, have you noticed any, like, vague patterns across maybe places you've lived, about like what places draw different, I guess genres and influences?

22:47
Think there's a lot of cool like, bedroom dream pop stuff in, around the Bay Area. And so a lot of the local shows that I go to, they have, they have that sort of theme. And I lived in Sacramento for a while. They, they, they have, they have, they have a lot of stuff out there. If you head north, they have like a big bluegrass. Like way north of Sacramento.

23:21
Yeah.

23:23
The Bluegrass crowd. And there's some, there's some metal pockets here and there, right, in Sacramento, they have a little bit of a, they have a lot of metal fans. And so they tend to have some, have some good shows. But yeah, yeah.

23:40
Yeah, that, that's really cool. Um, I kind of focus on local music here. So it's always really cool to like see, like different scenes from different cities and how that like influences them and I hope you're able to like, really tap into one of those in, in the near future with that album.

23:57
Me too.

23:58
Does the album have a title yet? By the way? Is it just in the works?

24:03
Oh, on the, on the album, it's still, it's still a working title.

24:06
Course.

24:07
We're waiting on that.

24:08
Or maybe we'll just be working title. Yeah, maybe the final one.

24:13
I might get sued by one of these production companies, I think.

24:16
Of course. Do you have any upcoming shows you plan to do, maybe either to promote the album or the EP, or just I guess between those release points?

24:27
Yeah, I am. I am looking to set up some shows. Though they might be in the, in the Pacific Northwest because that's where I'll be doing the recording for, for this, the rest of the album. And so I should get those. I'd probably post those on my social media or my website. Hopefully I'll have a date for those soon.

24:52
Nice. Um, do you have, I don't know how long you've been playing shows. But do you have like a favorite show you've ever played, or is this like a new development for you?

25:03
Yeah, up until now, it's been mostly, you know, jarred shows or, or, or acoustic performances for bars and smaller businesses. And so I did have one of those in Sacramento that was really fun, it was just a really supportive crowd and a lot of, a lot of just musicians that like to get together and play. And it was, it's funny, it's a lot of retired older musicians, too. So people like, people 50 and over, there's a big crowd up there up in Sacramento. So like, just go around to shows and meet people. And I think they have like an open mic circuit they go on. And so it was just, it was fun to meet, to meet them and see how much joy that, that playing together brought them.

25:56
That's really sick, yeah, I really hope you're able to kind of get some of that joy as well. And that, that's afford, yeah, that's, that's amazing. Um, do you hope that you can kind of continue that, like, intimate kind of shows going forward?

26:13
Yeah, yeah, I'll be, you know, I'll have a great time at every single one of them.

26:18
Oh, yeah. Um, I was checking out your Youtube channel, I saw you had songs up there, do you plan to drop any music videos kind of closer to the album?

26:29
I do have a lot of ideas for music videos. I, and I do work with, with a friend of mine who's an artist. And, and we talk about, about certain ways forward with a lot of these ideas. But I think they'll probably have to wait until after the album's out. Because the, if you're trying to pair something like that with a song that you take a lot of time with, it's going to take a lot of creative energy. Just to make sure that you're, you're sort of not making something that takes away from the spirit of the song. And that, that's something that I worry a lot about, when, whenever I'm like, when I was designing the album cover, for instance, it, it was pretty exhausting. Because I was just, I was so worried that I was going to make something that, that would sort of, detract from the, the album, instead of you know, instead of, instead of maybe completing it, right, that's always, that's always a tough thing to aim for.

27:52
Yeah. What would you say is kind of your process for like, taking those very, like sonic ideas and like turning them into visual?

28:00
I feel lucky there because I'm, I'm drawn to, to certain, you know, if it's, if it's scenery, or if it's, I am, I'm moved to take certain photos. And, and they tend to, I think it's just related to where I'm drawn musically. And so they do tend to match up almost with, without too much effort. And at least, people tell me that they matched up, I don't know, I'm accepting their judgments.

28:39
Yeah no, the, the cover like the, what was it, the like, gas station and car for that, for the EP was really cool. Like that, like open road vibe, that was really fun to like, connect that to the album.

28:53
That's great to hear.

28:56
Is there anything else you want to talk about? I have, I've been hitting a lot of questions here.

29:01
I'm, again, I'm really happy to be here. So thanks for having me.

29:04
Of course. Thank you so much for being here. I love talking to artists. I mostly talk to local artists, so it's really great to like, step out of that and talk to someone where I have to coordinate time zones with. That's, that's something I've never done before.

29:18
I've, I've only been to North Carolina a few times, but I want to visit now, and play.

29:25
Please pull up, where'd you go in North Carolina, by the way?

29:30
So I have a friend of mine. She, she was actually one of my advisors in college and she retired in, out in, in Asheville. So.

29:48
That's definitely a fun place.

29:50
Yeah, so I went out there. I don't, I don't know how much Asheville is, I don't know if that's very. I've also been to, I think Myrtle Beach is in North Carolina, right?

30:01
It's like kind of like North, South Carolina. It's kind of on that boundary.

30:08
I lived in South Carolina for a while and I drove up the coast with a friend. Road trip one time. Need more experience in North Carolina.

30:23
We'd love to have you here, for sure. Do you want to let everyone know where they can find your music? Or any social media you got?

30:32
Yeah, so Small Town Sci-Fi is the band slash project name. So please look me up, I'm on Spotify. SoundCloud, Apple Music, YouTube. I think most, most places that the distributors send things to. Instagram, if anyone wants to, wants to follow and, and check out some pictures with openroad vibes.

31:01
Always got some of those for sure. Well, again, thank you so much for doing this. I'm going to do a quick outro then we'll be good to go.

31:08
Right. Yeah. Thank you.

31:10
I appreciate y'all for tuning in. And you can check out all the interviews I did, and everyone here does at wknc.org/podcasts and click off the record. I'm plover, I've been here with Small Town Sci-Fi on WKNC 88.1 FM, Raleigh.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai