The summer of 2009 was dubbed the summer of “chillwave” by many music critics and bloggers. Artists like Neon Indian, Washed Out and Memory Tapes all released synth-heavy, lo-fi atmospheric albums.
Then Toro Y Moi released his debut album Causers of This, and try as some might to lump him in with the fledgling chillwave genre, it’s clear that Toro y Moi has his own plan.
Diversions Staff Writer Anna Norris talked with the man behind the band, Columbia, S.C. native Chaz Bundick, about his musical compositions, the creative process and his upcoming projects.
Diversions: On Causers of This, you have very airy and clear compositions, but most of the lyrics are depressing yet wistful. Was that on purpose or was that just by accident?
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Chad Bundick: That’s kind of what I was going for, that kind of juxtaposition. The happier sounding musical qualities stick with the darker tones and the lyrics.
The main reason I really didn’t want to try to go for a lo-fi album was because I had an idea of when it would be out. And my album was going to be the last to come out of these groups of artists, so my idea of sticking out was not being lo-fi. So I tried my best to not make it sound like that.
Dive: You are planning to release two albums this year. The second is supposed to sound pretty different. Are you going for a sound similar to your earlier rock-based singles or are you going in a new direction?
CB: Sort of. It’s more like guitar-based and piano-based songwriting. It’s not going to be that lo-fi. It’s turning out to be more dark than I expected.
Dive: Is one style or the other more natural to you or is everything just pure experimentation?
CB: Yeah they are both kind of natural, but there are certain aspects of writing a song with a guitar or a piano versus when you are on a computer. On a computer it’s easier to write a song and see where the song is going. You can literally see what tracks come in where, and the structure of the song — you can get a visualization of it. But writing a song with piano or guitar, you get a more natural feel toward the song and it doesn’t sound as quantized or programmed.
Dive: Do you think it’s going to have any affect on your live shows?
CB: For my live set you’d need to make the transition from the electronic stuff to the full band stuff, and right now, you know I wouldn’t want to go from “Causers of This” straight in to “109” or something. That wouldn’t work, so I’m going to try to have the live show kind of meld each song together.
Dive: About when do you see the new album coming out?
CB: Right now it’s about 60 percent done. We’re pushing for August, but that might not happen. In six weeks I leave on a 4 month tour.
Dive: Speaking of tours, you are playing SXSW. Are there any bands that you are really looking forward to seeing?
CB: I’m playing a show with Ernest Greene of Washed Out in a couple of days, and I’m looking forward to seeing his full band setup. Twin Sister is really good, we play a show together and his show is really, really awesome.
Dive: You mostly got started by circling your songs among music blogs. Do you feel that’s the way the music business is going and that’s the route musicians are going to have to take?
CB: I think that’s how the music industry is going now. I used to send out demos through the mail and try to put press photos together and that just did not seem to be working. I guess pretty much the way everything is going nowadays is towards technology. It just makes sense, you know? No one really writes a letter anymore, they try and get in touch with e-mail. To get things done you need the Internet.
Dive: What advice would you have for an aspiring musician just making music with a Mac and some software in their bedroom?
CB: My best advice would be to don’t push your work into people’s faces, just let it happen naturally. I would go to shows all the time that were big shows and give out free CDs. I don’t know if a lot of people ever took them, some gave me some pretty crazy looks.
Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu
