Friday, 30 June 2017

***SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY exclusive interview***

Band: SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY + Exclusive Interview
Genres: Punk / Metalcore / Screamo / Hardcore / Emo-violence / Sass
Related artists: The Shotgun Message, Letters To Catalonia, Meryl Streaker, René Descartes, Leechbath, Recluse and Flowers Taped To Pens.
Country: San Diego, California USA
Years Active: 2016-present
Song: "Pep Talk From a Nihilist"
Album: "Fashion Statements of the Socially Aware"
Year: 2017
For fans of: Fear Before The March Of Flames, .gif from god, Letters To Catalonia, Wristmeetrazor, The Blood Brothers, Usurp Synapse, (early) Examination Of The..., The Exploder, Black Nail, Heavy Heavy Low Low, Me And Him Call It Us, Hayworth, The Shotgun Message, Caust, The Cambodian Heat, The Red Light Sting and Daughters aka PROPER SCREAMO.
Label(s): React With Protest Records / Zegema Beach Records / Structures//Agony Records / Contrition Records / Middle Man Records
This post's artist is from the May 2017 Mix. This is track #4.
You can download: the May 2017 Mix#5 right here or get the new June 2017 Mix#6 here.

I became aware of SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY relatively early as I was following (and preparing to help release) the vocalist's previous endeavor called René Descartes and was initially interested. It wasn't until a few spins of their 'Demo' EP followed by just a single listen to the (at the time) previously unreleased 7"EP 'Fashion Statements of the Socially Aware' that I became fucking obsessed. I was telling all of my friends that the new 7" was going to blow them the fuck away. In retrospect I hit the nail on the head because this new, sassy, screamy metalcore band has a substantial following after releasing a total of 10 songs in a mere six months. Connie was kind enough to ask if OMSB would premiere a song from the 7" back in March of 2017 (linked here) that gained pretty heavy traction by this blog's standards - and for good reason. Before I gush about the new 7", I'll take a quick look at their debut.

 The 2016 'Demo' was released right at the end of the year and contains four songs of convulsive, venomous and unstable metalcore with enough screechy vocals to be considered in the emo-violence spectrum, also. After a quickly sold-out tape run Lars from React With Protest released this less-than-10-minute affair on cd, and it has spent a good deal of time on repeat in my vehicle since, sometimes going on repeat for over an hour. Opener "Left Turn Right Way" sits on feedback for the first 10 seconds or so, then gangs out "See you space cowboy" and panic laden riffs until 38 seconds when shit hits the fan and the dual vocals clash in whirlwind of chaotic instrumentals. "Rejection Hotline Greatest Hits" is ballistic from the get-go and includes some of my favourite riffing by the band, most of which is included in the first 25 seconds and is followed by some spoken word stuff that hits somewhere between sass and singing. The song then pulverizes the listener with heaviest vocals on the 'Demo' and the entire thing fades out from the 1:30 mark. "Diss Tracks In Iambic Pentameter" barely reaches a minute but is perhaps most representative of what the band brought to the table with their 2017 7"EP. It's spastic, sassy, screamy and fucking unrelenting with an unreal transition at 41 seconds. "Albert Camus Is My Life Coach" is an awesome song that eventually comes apart at the seams and spills out deceased on the floor by its conclusion, but the massive breakdowns accompanied by insane vocals make it my favourite on this debut SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY release.

The 2017 cassette/7"EP ''Fashion Statements of the Socially Aware' will likely be on a heap of Best Of lists by year-end (or early December if you haven't learned patience, yet), including ours. This absolute beast of a release opens with the witty "An Introduction for People Who Hate Introductions" which brings the Fear Before The March Of Flames reference up nice and early. Following a stable and repetitive opening riff, the song explodes like a firecracker at 32 seconds with pummeling drums, murderous guitars and bass along with acidic screams, which is an excellent precursor for the remaining five tracks. "Jimmy Buffet Doesn't Even Surf" gets batshit crazy right out of the gates with unreal dual vocals that take over by 18 seconds and dominate the track until Connie's venomous solo screams drive the song into an early grave with their sheer potency. Easily one of the best SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY songs, in my opinion. "Soap Opera Stardom is a Single Tear Drop Away" follows the same formula, more or less, for the first 20 seconds and then calms down for a mere 12 seconds and then the tempo change hits and the song takes on a Heavy Heavy Low Low meets The Blood Brothers feel. The aforementioned OMSB premiere was for "Pep Talk From a Nihilist" and, in all honesty, is my least favourite track on here. That being said, it's still killer and delves into a few areas not focused on in other songs, such as gutteral growls and the entire Dillinger Escape Plan-esque final half. Song five is the title track "Fashion Statements of the Socially Aware" which is another harsh number, but opts for some clean guitars and sing-along midsection that fits surprisingly well and gives the song the biggest breather found on the entire record. That being said, shit goes ballistic again at 1:10 with panic chords and breakdowns not unlike .gif from god, Black Nail and the band's older sibling Letters To Catalonia. "Absolutely Absolute Absolution" closes out this phenomenal release with a blood curdling scream followed by the sassiest and most feedback driven section of the record. By 40 seconds the song begins to move into heavier territory and the final 30 seconds is downright mesmerizing, as the guitars swirl around a breakdown foundation sprinkled with Connie's screeching and Jesse's low-end vocals.

Hot damn, if you haven't already checked out SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY now is your chance. And I promise, it won't let you down. Best EP of 2017? 'Fashion Statements of the Socially Aware' makes a damn strong case for it. Be sure to read our exclusive interview with Connie below, as well as their You Don't Need Maps interview, podcast interview and feel free to grab some stuff from the ZBR store as I know the band and some other labels sold out a lot faster than the Canadian label.

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DISCOGRAPHY

2016 - Demo cd/cassetteEP (stream/donate/download here) [buy cd from ZBR here]

2017 - Fashion Statements of the Socially Aware cassette/7"EP (stream/buy here) [buy 7" from ZBR here]

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(2017) SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY - "Jimmy Buffet Doesn't Even Surf" (from 'Fashion Statements of the Socially Aware')

(2017) SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY - "Absolutely Absolute Absolution" (from 'Fashion Statements of the Socially Aware')

(2017) SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY - "Soap Opera Stardom is a Single Tear Drop Away" (from 'Fashion Statements of the Socially Aware')

(2016) SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY - "Rejection Hotline Greatest Hits" (from 'Demo')

(2016) SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY - "Albert Camus Is My Life Coach" (from 'Demo')

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SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY additional links

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SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY
Exclusive Interview
+
Summer Tour 2017
July 7th: Tacoma, WA
July 11th: San Francisco, CA


1) Who are you and what do you do?
I'm Connie, I am the vocalist for SeeYouSpaceCowboy, I do design work for bands in the DIY scene and also run the soon-to-be dead Structures//Agony Records.

2) What led to the Cowboy Bebop reference for your band name?
Well I have always loved the anime and that sequence with the name always struck me as compelling, so when it was time to choose a name I just kinda threw the idea into the mix, honestly didn't really expect everyone to be down haha. The name stands more as just a statement I found interesting versus a direct love note to the series, if that makes sense? We aren't like an anime meme band haha.

3) What has your musical progression been like since you started listening to music?
Well when I was really young I basically listened to what my parents did so stuff like The Chemical Brothers and Massive Attack. Then I eventually kinda branched out into listening to radio music like Interpol, Bloc Party, Bravery etc. Had a short phase with System of a Down, Korn, and Slipknot before middle school lol. Then started listening to a lot of 80's hardcore/goth/new wave in middle school. Then became a hipster in high school and the mainly started listening to screamo/emo like sophomore year of high school with a closeted love for metalcore/scene shit. and now here I am mostly listening to alt hip hop, trip hop, and metalcore with occasional bursts of screamo/emo haha.

4) What are the biggest influences for yourself and SeeYouSpaceCowboy? Have they changed since your 'Demo' release?
Currently, definitely Daughters, Heavy Heavy Low Low, Jon Mess' contribution to Dance Gavin Dance and The Blood Brothers. Originally with the demo I was def drawing more influence from Drop Dead, Gorgeous, The Cambodian Heat and The Red Light Sting, but I am playing around with my vox more on this newer EP.

5) How did you get your demo released on React With Protest? That's insane!
Well the person who runs it (Lars) just hit up and told us they were a fan of the demo and wanted to distro some stuff, but unfortunately we were basically sold out of tapes so they offered to do a version on React With Protest. It was kinda funny cause I swear I was just talking to someone about RWP releasing their stuff and then I got the message haha.

6) How did you come into contact with the other labels for the new 'Fashion Statements of the Socially Aware' 7"?
Well I basically knew everyone who is helping releasing it to some capacity over the years of doing stuff in the DIY scene so it was more just a process of asking people if they were down.

7) How have the songs from the new 7" been received thus far? I'm guessing pretty good considering you seem to be getting interviewed a lot!
Haha ya, it's wild I had never done any interviews until this year starting with the We Don't Need Maps one and then after that I just got asked to do hella interviews lol. So far they have been received very positively, more positively than I thought they would lol.

8) I know this 7” was written initially as Shotgun Message. Would the EP sound any differently had it been written under the moniker SeeYouSpaceCowboy from the get-go?


I don't think so, since mostly everyone in SYSC was in The Shotgun Message as well I think it would be generally the same.

9) You've done a tour and have another coming up, how was the first and what are you excited for with the second?
The first one was super fun, it was really mellow since it was just a couple days in Kali. We had all of our Bay area shows fall though haha but it was fine because we had a really cool house to stay in and appreciated the gnarliest rain storm I had ever seen for a couple days in San Francisco.

10) Will you work on future recordings in the near future? What do you think it might sound like?
I imagine in the future we will probably work on making our grindy parts more chaotic and unpredictable, throw in a bit more wild shit and get weird. Probably incorporate more sass and adding some more varied sections, like combining the faster sass vocals from the 'Demo' with the slower meticulous vocals from the EP to find a nice middle ground. We have discussed moving forward with sound a little bit but haven't quite nailed down what we exactly want to do.

11) It seems like I hear a lot about scene politics and other negative things from other people but don’t really see much of it myself. What scene politics do you experience?
I've experienced a lot of dismissal or resistance when I ask people in the community to be critical of themselves. I think there is an interesting dichotomy between people who are in the DIY music scene for the history, leftist roots and it influences a lot of how they go about things/their ethics and those who are just in the scene because they like the music. That creates some conflict when political issues are discussed in public settings, you get folks whining about politics in music and then retorts from people who bring up the history of the leftist influence in punk and the ethics many people carry with that. It gets really convoluted and frustrating a lot of the times haha.

12) There are an insane amount of horrible things happening in the world, what issues do you focus on and want people to be aware of?
Ooof that would be a very long list, I mean to sum it up with the current U.S. figurehead in office and the slimy confidence it has given to the bigoted and dangerous. It's important to continue to stand with the people that are oppressed in marginalized in our society and are now under greater threat (poc, trans/queer,women, etc). It's also important to continue to speak out against US imperialism and remember the class struggle as this country continues to get run by hyper capitalists who don't care about the proletariat and would sooner exploit them than lend a hand.

13) What’s it been like transitioning (both personally and socially) to using the “they” pronoun? Do you have any advice for those who are perhaps nervous about making their preferences known?
At first it was scary to be openly trans and interact with everyone, especially when it came to asking/correcting people when it came to my identity. It was so scary I wouldn't do it very often and would just roll with it, until it got to a point where I felt more comfortable/empowered with myself and had little issue being upfront and correcting people/asking people to use my correct pronouns. I guess a big part of it was as I went along it started to feel terrible to become misgendered so that was a big part of it as well.

Honestly that's a really hard one because I would tell people to do what they are comfortable with, but that also means they might have to subject themselves to being misgendered. So I guess what I will say is you are valid regardless of what people address you as, and if you are uncomfortable letting people know your pronouns or confronting them when they don't use them you don't have to be ashamed, it can be a very difficult thing to do, especially in a society that actively tries to invalidate and disregard. Just know that you have a community with you and that you are you, no matter what.

14) What's coming up next for you, personally? You seem to be completely immersed in music currently. What's your outside-of-music life like?
Well I have been doing a lot of commission design/art pieces for bands so I am planning on dedicating more time to that to see if I can grow that aspect of my life. I am also starting school again in the fall and that's fucking terrifying haha. That's about it.

15) What are your top 10 releases of all time?
Alright imma try to do this without repeating bands or else it would mostly be Modest Mouse and Aesop Rock haha.

1. Modest Mouse - this Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About
2. Aesop Rock - Labor Days
3. Of Montreal - Paralytic Stalks
4. Ten Thousand Leagues - Demo
5. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
6. Kodan Armada - Collection (kinda a cop out but ya lol)
7. Norma Jean - Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child
8. Massive Attack - Mezzanine
9. iwrotehaikusaboutcannibalisminyouryearbook - Discography
10. Fear Before the March of Flames - Odd How People Shake

Thank you so much for talking with us! <3
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous8 May 2018 at 15:01

    Seriously the best band I have heard in years. Every single track is a banger and you never know what to expect. Connie is a beast on vocals .

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous17 December 2020 at 15:26

    Agreed ;)

    ReplyDelete

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