An Interview With Black Moth Super Rainbow and Tobacco

It’s an honor to present an interview with Tobacco covering the dichotomy between Tobacco and Black Moth Super Rainbow, as well as touching upon earlier works and hinting towards the future. As satanstompingcaterpillars, an introduction to lo-fi synth-pop was made and as Black Moth Super Rainbow grew from the ashes, several good men and women stronger, the music has not only gained in appreciators but taken on a unique form of production different from any other music being made today. Without spilling our collective hearts out and continuing with words which do no justice, lets get on with this.

FMLY: I’d like to begin by clearing the fog. Thanks to Impose magazine it’s acknowledged that you, Tobacco, are Black Moth Super Rainbow (outside of live settings). During the time of satanstompingcaterpillars, when was it decided with Power Pill Fist that you would take composition and recording duties? If it wasn’t decided, and you feel comfortable doing so, I’d like to know about the transition into BMSR and what provoked it.

Tobacco: It’s just sort of how it always was. I’m bad at collaborating with people, and I thought it was always easier to work alone. I think I get most inspired alone, and less self conscious of what I’m doing. We’ve written a few songs together as a band back in all the different bands, and it always feels great when it happens, but I never push it to keep happening. I had started off really noisy and abstract with Allegheny White Fish. We were all so happy with ourselves for coming up with that name in 10th grade, but it wasn’t too funny 4 years later. Then ssc [satanstompingcaterpillars] was like my way to be more melodic all the time, and a little more serious. Then when it started to shift again into something I might be a little more comfortable performing live, I brought in the rest of the band and we changed over again. I’ve always felt like these ideas shouldn’t outstay their welcome. 3 or 4 records is enough, because I get really bored, and I like to keep these bands and ideas as pure as I can, in their places in time, until it seems like I’ve finally gotten it right.

FMLY: Your sound evolved tremendously with Falling Through A Field. Was this due to new software, new instruments, new friends to play with, an acid trip or just a new vision of swampy pink meadows and multicolored waterfalls? Do you and PPF continue to make music together on the side? I’m a big fan of his Atari work, were you two into video games when you were young or is it only appreciated as an instrument? Related, why the decision to use many tracks from satanstompingcaterpillars?

Tobacco: Falling Through A Field was like a weird best-of record at the time. Some of my favorite stuff that I thought was still relevant from ssc, mixed with where it was going with the vocoders and analog synths and beats. It was all fueled by the idea that these synths were available and we were figuring out what they did, plus the idea of the vocoder was really appealing because I didn’t have to be so self-conscious about my voice anymore. PPF and I haven’t made anything in awhile, but like I said, I’m just not much of a team player. I think he’s taking the Atari stuff somewhere really interesting for his next record. I’ve only heard one song, but it was definitely different.

FMLY: After speaking with The Octopus Project I was surprised to find out that The House of Apples and Eyeballs was an online project and that you hadn’t actually met before recording. Had you listened to tOP before this collaboration and who initiated the process? Do you still maintain a relationship with them and was the rest of BMSR involved during the recording process or only at your live performance of the album at SXSW?

Tobacco: I had the cd with the mannequins on the cover, and I had no idea how much they’d changed since then. I didn’t know they were more of a rock band, so that was a good surprise. I think Ryan from Graveface just went to a couple shows of theirs and had the idea on his own to put it together. We see them like once a year now, because we usually stay with Toto when we play in Austin.

I had all these random parts recorded with everyone from BMSR over a couple years that we were able to incorporate into that album. The whole point of it was trying to make something out of stuff both bands had lying around and didn’t know what to do with, so it ended up being kind of a good exercise for me in listening to some of the garbage I make and figuring out how to make it work on some level. I think everyone makes at least one appearance.

FMLY: There’s no denying the role that your music has played in many people’s lives, but more specifically those who dabble with acid, shrooms and other mind -altering drugs…or just straight up weed. What you may consider to be a subtle portion of a track could influence one’s entire trip. Do you take this into consideration when crafting an album?

Tobacco: I’m sort of learning this more and more over time, but everything I make is pop to me, and it’s the only way I know how to make it. So drugs have absolutely nothing to do with it for me – it’s just what I think sounds good at the time. I’m not much of a psychedelic music fan, and I’ve never aspired to be psychedelic. I think it’s just my ear being wrong. I really think I’m making hooky pop music, but then it comes out, and everyone’s like, “no, it’s this…”

satanstompingcaterpillars – Goodbye Method (from Flower Slides)
satanstompingcaterpillars – The Autumn Kaleidoscope Now Has Hips (from The Autumn Kaleidoscope Got Changed)
satanstompingcaterpillars – Black Snow (from The Most Wonderfulest Thing)
Black Moth Super Rainbow – Boxphones (from Falling Through A Field)
Black Moth Super Rainbow – Smile Heavy (from Start A People)
Black Moth Super Rainbow + The Octopus Project – Spiracle (from The House Of Apples & Eyeballs)
Black Moth Super Rainbow – Sun Lips (from Dandelion Gum
Black Moth Super Rainbow – Just For The Night (Laura Burhenn, BMSR remix) (from Drippers)
Black Moth Super Rainbow – Eating Us medley

FMLY: Your music as BMSR and Tobacco is without-a-doubt textural. I know that Iffernaut finds influence in nature, is this something that you all share and does this contribute to the unexplainable feelings of your music?

Tobacco: I think at one time that was true, but I don’t really know exactly what it is anymore. It might just be a direct reflection of my personality at the time, and at one point, I was really into thinking about the woods that I grew up around, and trying to revisit all the spots, and maybe even documenting it all for some closure as an adult. I’m in a completely different space now, so I started a new band for next year, and I hope it all just sorts itself out.

FMLY: Where did you record satanstompingcaterpillars? Where do you record BMSR? Where do you record Tobacco? If technology had infinite capabilities, where is your dream spot to lay down some tunes?

Tobacco: Anywhere I can or could. I don’t have a studio, so wherever I’m living at the time. I just keep it all portable and use what I have. I don’t think I really have a dream spot to record anymore, but it might be fun to find a silo in an open part of West Virginia or somewhere near Conneaut Lake Park.

FMLY: The time between Fucked Up Friends‘ DVD release to album release took about a year. What was that time spent doing and did you create FUF with the intention of double dipping?

Tobacco: That time was all filled up supporting Dandelion Gum, and in the off months, I wanted to change the music so the cd was worth having. I did always intend on putting out the music, but I thought it would be fun to have a super limited dvd on the BMSR tours since I had never done anything like that.

FMLY: As BMSR your live performances alter from album recordings, but with Tobacco performances many have criticized that you’re “just pressing play.” Is your relationship to Fucked Up Friends one of a beats album where you would like it presented in its original form, or are you progressing towards live abstractions?

Tobacco: The tobacco sets we’ve done have been more like dj sets, but I have seven fields with me adding keyboards on top, and I layer vocoder and play some synth stuff and manipulate pieces the whole way through. We do have prerecorded music, unlike BMSR, but we’ve never claimed to be doing anything more than electronic dj/vj sets, so I don’t know why some people would expect more. I swear we’re doing as much as we can with 2 people, haha.

FMLY: Your Tobacco MySpace has been up for quite some time with a great rotation of tunes. Was creating FUF your intention when making these, or were you just compiling music that you didn’t think was suitable for a BMSR record due to its hip-hop nature?

Tobacco: I just started having all this stuff that I didn’t think fit with what people’s perception of BMSR was becoming. It’s not like FUF and Dandelion Gum were made very differently, but the live band is so much different from me on my own, that it would have felt wrong at that point to make FUF a BMSR record. I think it’s a distinction that wasn’t absolutely clear when FUF came out, but will be with Eating Us. Even though Eating Us isn’t a full live band, it sounds like it.

FMLY: Have you taken classes in music or were these skills just developed?

Tobacco: No, I always felt like trying to learn something that I already like, in a traditional way, could have messed it up for me. I went to school for video and film, and graduated in 2001, and am just now getting around to making something because I hated it for so long.

FMLY: What was the first instrument you learned, why, and how old were you?

Tobacco: Guitar, because it was all I knew in the bands i was listening to and I was in 9th grade. Only smashing pumpkins tabs until I started making AWF [Allegheny White Fish] stuff in 96.

FMLY: Can you tell me what your last day job was?

Tobacco: Using Photoshop to design the way user interface screens should look within an application, and then giving them to developers to code to make the actual software. It was hilarious because I don’t know the first thing about coding or anything technical with computers, but I know Photoshop, so why not? I’m always grateful that there were 2 companies willing to pay me for that, but I probably wasn’t the most qualified.

FMLY: Your song titles, where do they come from?

Tobacco: Just stuff that I’m thinking about during the day that makes sense at the time. and sometimes you hear people using words, and they don’t understand that what they’re saying is so perfect for something else.

FMLY: How did you and anticon. contact each other and can we expect collaborations with Dosh, Odd Nosdom, Why? and the rest of the crew?

Tobacco: I don’t completely remember the initial contact, but at some point in like 2005, Shaun asked me if I would work on a beat for passage. That never ended up working out, but they were the first guys I turned to when i had the idea to do FUF.

No collaborations planned, but you never ever know.

FMLY: Do you listen to your music and if you do, do you even bother to listen in mp3 format or is it just straight vinyl? I wouldn’t even be surprised if you’ve invented some new format of listening to tunes that you’re just holding out on us.

Tobacco: I have to listen to it constantly. I like to hear it in every situation possible, so I know every way it could sound. I do a lot of studying to see what I can do to make it better. I think every “band” I’ve had is me trying to perfect a sound, until it finally is realized to my ears, and then I can move on to a new band. I really do try to make music that I can remove myself from and enjoy above anything else, because these aren’t like school pictures that you have to do.

FMLY: You affect sound and the tangible presentation of it (scratch ‘n’ sniff), have you put thought into affecting the presentation of that sound through light or space?

Tobacco: Not yet, but touch is next.

FMLY: Are there particular books, albums, attitudes, philosophies, films or activities that influence your composition? Whether it is on Youtube or live, give me an example of a live show that has captivated you and tell me something recent which has inspired you.

Tobacco: My first concert was the Butthole Surfers in 96, and I’m just patiently waiting for when I can get a budget to try to match what I think I saw that day.

FMLY: your music goes beyond a form of art, it definitely ventures into a realm of unknown abstract expressionism as it’s very difficult to describe what is being heard without using mystical imagery. Is this intentional in the sense that you could have just as easily picked up a guitar and started an indie-rock band to go on tour with the Arcade Fire and Wilco or are these just the sounds which rest in your brain making it challenging to create more conventional music?

Tobacco: To me, I am working at making what could be conventional music. Or at least music that I think everyone has the capability of getting into. Sometimes I wish I understood how to make Arcade Fire music, but it just doesn’t make sense to me how anyone can get that shit to work. I really only know what I know, and sometimes it seems like a curse, but if some people are really starting to like it now, then that makes it feel extra good for me.

FMLY: Last question. At this point in the interview we have an idea of who Black Moth Super Rainbow is, now tell me in any form you want to…who is Tobacco?

Tobacco: As soon as I think I know, everything changes. Hopefully someone who doesn’t sound completely confused in interviews.

Black Moth Super Rainbow – Side 8 (from Lost, Picking Flowers In The Woods EP, 2005)
Tobacco – Side 8 (Big Gums Version) (from Fucked Up Friends, 2008)
Height with Friends – Baltimore Highlands (Tobacco remix)