The Haute Garbage Podcast
A weekly music podcast from Portland Oregon. Poorly researched, awkwardly discussed.
The Haute Garbage Podcast
Life Saving Trash Patch with SWISS ARMY WIFE
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Portland emo math-punk superstars Swiss Army Wife grace us with their presence fresh off the release of their brand-new full length, “I Love You, But I Hate it Here”. For all its volume, emotion, and dynamic, the record never tries to grip too tightly, breathing comfortably and finding a deep flow through the shards and sharp edges. The gang talks discovering satisfaction through vulnerability, the virtues of permissible imperfection, multi-wave-poastmodern-emo meaninglessness, and the causation/correlation among their creative output, Mt. Dew, and geopolitical instability.
Music this week:
- “Idaho” by Swiss Army Wife (15:41)
- “Big Bumming’” by Hummus Vacuum (31:33)
- “Cowboy” by Swiss Army Wife (50:23)
- “Sisyphus” by Citrus Jr. (1:08:15)
- “No Such Thing As Ethical Consumption Under Late-Stage Capitalism” by DMH (1:21:43)
You're listening to Hot Garbage.
SPEAKER_02Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Hot Garbage Podcast, Portland, Oregon's premiere music discovery and interview show. My name is Drew. I'm one of your co-hosts. I'm joined as always by my dear friend, your co-host, the people's co-host, Andy.
SPEAKER_01Chicaka! There it is. Yeah, I'm here. I'm gonna get you. Crack that whip. You know what?
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I do. I know. I do know. I do have a whip and it's in my shed for a reason. Uh when I do break it out, I I always get myself in the face. I've given myself some nasty welts. Yeah. I've been trying to do the cool like bull whip thing. Because I know bull whips are cool and like people just are drawn to people that can crack them or like double crack them. Woo! I remember when you first got it, you were trying to whip the hat off my head. Yeah, that was my move. And I was trying to whip that cigarette out of your mouth. My lips were so bad. But I kept just opening your bra. Just like so rude. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um Silent Pardonate is with us. He's making the sound happen. Andy, um, if you could be like a really good version of any kind of street performer, what kind of street performance would you choose?
SPEAKER_01Oh, bucket drummer for sure. You'd be a badass bucket drummer. Yeah. I feel like um that translates itself over to maybe like actually learning how to play drums.
SPEAKER_02I think so. There's probably some crossover there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but man, sometimes when you see a good bucket drummer, it is captivating.
SPEAKER_02Or are you would you have some banter that goes along with it, or would you kind of definitely deep into the banter? Maybe have one of those like headphone mics. Like uh like you're doing a TED talk but for bucket drums.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I could like reggae toast over the top of my bucket drummer.
SPEAKER_02Incredible. I would love that.
SPEAKER_01It would be really good.
SPEAKER_02I would be one of those uh like con really good con artists with a heart of gold. Like I'd have a like a herd of stray dogs that that stole wallets for me or something like that.
SPEAKER_01Yes, or like they would take like a string of those sausages that you see in old timey butcher shop windows back to your lair.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. And that's how I'd I'd have fingerless gloves. Yes. Oh yeah. But I never really hurt anybody.
SPEAKER_01No. You're only stealing from these fat hats. That's right. Or just like really sticking it to the common folk.
SPEAKER_02I just want to have a few con skills. I don't really have any.
SPEAKER_01I'm not very sleight of hand. It would be sweet if you were like if you also were like uh if it was just a grifter. Yeah, if you were like like gambit kinda.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's exactly what I'm I'm thinking of in my mind. Absolutely. Um, you know, what isn't a con, Andy? Is this week's episode. We had the awesome Portland band Swiss Army Wife. The whole crew was in the house. We had Cade, Ellie, Tim, and JJ here from Swiss Army Wife. They've got a new record coming out on June 12th. They are doing a release show that night. It's Friday, June 12th, Musicians Union on Northeast 20th and Sandy. Great show with Kimesh, non-binary girlfriend, Willan knows my name, and brand new music from Swiss Army Wife. So we talked a lot about how that album came together. They shared some killer tunes from it. We talked about rude restaurants, pulpy beer, and Sugar Glider. You said it. So a little something for everyone out there. Um, but be sure to follow Swiss Army Wife on Instagram. Go check them out live to hear their brand new album on June 12th, but only after you hang out with us and them on this week's episode of Hot Garbage.
SPEAKER_01There's there's a whole theory that every time Mountain Dew comes out with a new flavor variation, an actual disaster happens that coincides with the logo.
SPEAKER_02I believe it now.
SPEAKER_01They came out with it started back around Katrina. They came out with like a flavor that was like tropical storm or something. And it was like one with a big bomb on it for like uh 4th of July. Sure. And I'm pretty sure. Or no, it's called Major Melon. Came out on September 10th, 2001. It's a watermelon one. Yeah. And then we went to war.
SPEAKER_08So it's fucked up. We've been having this problem where we go into the studio, then some major geopolitical conflict starts starts spinning up that same day. I ex When we were at Alex's, that was when like the first stuff with like Ariana started like happening. Then we went to go like trap like do some like overdubs in August, and something else happened, and then like literally when all that like the bullshit that we did started in like January, we were in the studio again recording something.
SPEAKER_02So you and Mountain Dew are sort of like the uh the divining rod for global instability. I'd say so.
SPEAKER_01Man, that's such a bummer too, because I love it. But what attack lines?
SPEAKER_02Like, what a way to promote your music.
SPEAKER_03I mean, that's just our first record came out on January 6th. We like to joke, it's the second worst thing to happen to America that day. I forgot about that.
SPEAKER_02Well, okay, so I think it would flip in my mind mentally if Mountain Dew put out flavors to commemorate an American tragedy. Like if they were just on the other side of the window and it was like, here is a like a never forget Mountain Dew flavor.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like a Twin Towers memory one where it's like it's like two flavors, it's like an Arnold Palmer Mountain Dew Twin Towers. That's kind of the Twin Towers of Beverage. Sure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, why not have two?
SPEAKER_03They couldn't have said, you know? Like the last time I was plugged into the Mountain Dew sphere was around the dub the dew contest, and that went so well. That's never it since.
SPEAKER_02What is that? That m that mistake.
SPEAKER_03They were like, you can name our you can vote online to name our new flavor. Oh uh, and they had a write-in. Oh, dub sure. Okay. Um and then you were able to vote on the written-in options, and the top three I think were just all so heinous they were unable to be used. Um I think Pepsi was top five, which was incredible. Oh, I love Mountain Dew Pepsi.
SPEAKER_02I was afraid it was some sort of George W. Bush themed compassion.
SPEAKER_03Like number one was like Hitler related, number two was like an overt sexual innuendo involving someone's grandmother, and then like number three, I think was Pepsi, and then poison, and then just a lot of winners all the way to if it was accepted to y'all that it tasted like your favorite Mountain Dew, like you you knew like they were known for their quality, but piss was in the name.
SPEAKER_02Would you still drink it?
SPEAKER_04Probably.
SPEAKER_02I mean you would. You know me.
SPEAKER_01I would be if there was a beverage that said piss in the name, I would be drinking it already. That is partially why I drink Mountain Dew, because my dad called it Panther Piss when I was talking about I love piss bands. Yeah, especially this new band Piss. They're really good. They're playing Pick-a-thon.
SPEAKER_02I was uh on the way over here, I was sitting at a a light, and it was, you know, it's dusk, it's not like it's late or the middle of the night or anything, and there was no one around, a four-way red for like three and a half minutes. And I was thinking about how sensor technology is not caught up with the needs of the society, and I think it's way behind what it should be. And I was wondering if y'all had a kind of like everyday technology or problem that you think technology should have solved by now. A la, this red light problem that I experienced. Is there something that you would fix? Bluetooth. What's wrong with Bluetooth?
SPEAKER_07Mine goes in and out all the time. Oh my different headphones and all this stuff. You know, I'll walk downstairs, it'll connect, and then it'll randomly connect to my speaker upstairs, and I'm like, I'm listening in my headphones. Oh, yeah, it's on.
SPEAKER_01I'll have my phone in my pocket and I'll turn around and my body blocking my phone will cut out the music completely.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I mean that that's a great example. Uh we should never, we should have pure inside my brain high fidelity sound at all times. I totally agree.
SPEAKER_01Or at least like reliable connectivity. Where you're not gonna be like, I want to watch porn in my room. Uh-oh. The sound is in the living room now. That happens.
SPEAKER_02You're right, that's a legitimate concern for fathers everywhere.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it is. And teens, please, teens. You're right. Talk to your children about their porn habits.
SPEAKER_02What about the the rest of the crew?
SPEAKER_03Any other I interact with printers so often in my daily life, and it does feel like there's a lot of technology out there that's just subpar, but I feel like printers for some reason are so beyond like so behind the curve. Like connectivity problems, shredding paper. Oh, yeah, paper jams. Trying to print the same thing for three years.
SPEAKER_01Paper jams in the year 2026 is fucked up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. Don't we got paper jams, don't get cancer. I'm telling you that. We can't solve paper jams.
SPEAKER_01No. You know.
SPEAKER_03An issue of priority. We just gotta like abandon cancer research to get back to printer updates.
SPEAKER_01We do. Or at least maybe solve the problems we can solve. Let's pump the brakes on AI and fix the printers. The oceans are like evaporating. It's not good.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I'm hoping eventually the trash patch will get big enough that it covers enough surface area that it slows down like the the reboot. Oh, that's a good idea. Preserve the water in that way.
SPEAKER_01Man, what if it works in our favor and it's the trash patch that saves us all? Man, that'd be like Wally. Just like it. Yeah. If you guys haven't seen it.
SPEAKER_02Pretty much, yeah. So we were talking just before we got on. Y'all have a record coming out on June 13th, I believe it drops. So we're just, as we're recording, we're about two weeks away. What is the element of that album that y'all are most excited about? It can be anything, but just like what like pops to your mind. You're like, I'm really pumped for this part of it.
SPEAKER_08I think for me it's just like the growth since our last one. Um like playing and listening to these songs now, it feels like very much the same band, but like we know what we want to do with all the choices that we're making. Um, there's a lot more confidence to it, uh, which also allows it to get more vulnerable. So I I I yeah, I guess it's just like the confidence in what we're making and how we approach making it.
SPEAKER_03I think at least when uh on the first one, it felt like there's a lot of this is the genre of music we're making. There are certain elements that need to be referenced or like placed within it, and it felt very much this time just like, oh, we're gonna be four people in a room making the music we want to make right now, and we're gonna mesh it together in a way that feels good, and it'll probably end up end up somewhere within that genre, but we didn't felt like beholden to it at all, which was nice. Just got to talk about what I wanted to talk about. It like Ellie said, it felt very vulnerable at times, but it felt like vindicating at the same time.
SPEAKER_01So you guys get I mean, you're at least influenced by emo, you know. I would know if I would call you an emo band per se, because it feels like such a broad term now.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_01What do you guys think about that? Like with Midwest emo and emo nights? There's like there's like places that have like emo nights, and I'll go and it'll be like a dance club. Yeah, like different species. Or it'll be like emo night at the trap for karaoke will be a dude singing Britney Spears and death metal vocal. I'm like, is that emo? What is what even is emo?
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I think some of us are now kind of on the opposite side of like emo is everything and nothing, and like we're on the fifth wave of emo, which feels wild and they're harder and harder to differentiate. I feel like the what you just described, Britney Spears death metal, that that's emo to me. I feel like at this point that's I'm gonna be stoked about it.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. I don't know. I I feel like there's there is such a separation in what like the popular understanding of the term is versus like the underground music scene understanding of the term. And uh the underground side of it just gets so up our own asses about it. We love to be mean to people about that's what I call you.
SPEAKER_02I was thinking like the emotional um, you know, the true believers, they have a very clear sense in their minds about what all these different variations mean. And I think that it's sort of been co-opted by, you know, emo karaoke night or whatever. Where where do you all fall? Do you have a you know a spirit of it that you identify with most or an element of that kind of music that it matters that it shows up in your music?
SPEAKER_03I think the license to be really vulnerable and just take it very seriously and be very earnest in expressing what you're feeling, even if it's super uncomfortable. I feel like emo has always been kind of a license to do that. And other music, there are genres that are either trying to put forth more bravado or like more intensity or aggression on emo is like able to hold those things, but also just allow you to talk about a really difficult time. I feel like it's always been a good vehicle for that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Um, I love the tolerance for imperfection. Um, like the it's the rare genre that kind of rewards not being perfect in your performances and letting the emotion overtake uh technicality while still having some kind of focus on technicality. Like I have a background in classical music, and that's so much just like everything needs to be perfect, everything needs to be approached with a specific technique and be in informed by all these previous artistic decisions, and not having to come into making this music with that in mind and just being able to be like, this is what I feel, and this is how I am going to express it in this moment, and I am going to leave this stage feeling like I've been bashing my head against a wall for half an hour, and that's gonna be awesome.
SPEAKER_02Well, since you had this rigorous sort of like musical upbringing, how did you learn to let go of that through this music? Like, what was the mechanism that you're like, oh I can I can I can release this? Because I feel like most people can't.
SPEAKER_08I think part of it is that like I came to emo and punk music before I came to classical music. Um got like super into like my chemical romance. Uh going back to like the the the the emo night style stuff as like a middle schooler, and that led me to things like the Blood Brothers and uh just some like weirder, weirder shit. Um, but I loved doing music, so I wanted to go to school for music. Uh didn't really have interest in doing like music production though, and so that left me with either like jazz or classical, and classical was more interesting to me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_08So I I kind of had the the built-in affinity for it, and uh when I graduated and then was no longer doing classical stuff, it was really easy to just kind of like click back into going punk mode.
SPEAKER_02You just like supercharged your emoness actually by getting like a foundation that you can wield. Yeah. Exactly. That's nice. Um well, sometimes I don't do a very good job of getting the music. I think we should play a tune. I think you guys brought some music. Let's get to one early tonight so people can get a little taste. What would uh the first number that you'd like to share tonight? Um it used to snow first.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, yeah, cool.
SPEAKER_02Tell us just a little bit about this one.
SPEAKER_08Sure.
SPEAKER_03Um I've been talking a lot, but everybody else wants to talk about it. Uh this one's about I I used to look grew up on a farm in Idaho. Uh there are a couple moments on this record that talk about life in Idaho. Um in perhaps not the kindest way, but it was at least true in my experience. Uh this song is about two of my horses there, and I think just holding them as a bright spot in a very inhospitable environment, I think. Um, which is a theme that is certainly on the record all over, but um over at least just about missing my horses, and below that it's about missing a place that you maybe can't return to that effectively.
SPEAKER_02Awesome. Well, let's give it a spin. I like that the breakdown is alive and well in like contemporary punk rock music. I feel like I listen to a lot of other heavier styles and that just like halftime fucking huge breakdown, it's it's missing. Like, why doesn't like stoner metal do a big giant breakdown like that?
SPEAKER_01Like, yeah, when does it ever not work? You know what I mean? Have you ever seen that band Surfboard?
SPEAKER_03No.
SPEAKER_01They don't have a bass player, and it feels like every song is just a breakdown. If you're into that, you might really enjoy it. So maybe it's about the it was a little um I I was just like, when's it gonna drop? It never would. No, sorry, it's not a breakdown, it's more builds. Oh, it's all builds, yeah. It gets faster than it's like. No release, huh?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Is it quarter conscience? It uses it's just one guitarist, but it just plays through an octapedal into a bass amp. Well, it's it like splits.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, it's just like the submarine pickup, like does like the whole like origami angel style setup where it's just go into the bass amp, but instead of it being just like octave pedal, there's like a there's like a producing.
SPEAKER_03I don't know what Trevor's got going on there. It sounded phenomenal, just like watching one guitarist put out that much sound across those that many frequencies. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and having control of how it all kind of fits together.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you don't have to like worry about being locked in with your bass player because you are the bass player, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. There's a band called Sgt. Papers that does that too.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, I've seen them.
SPEAKER_01They're pretty great. Two-piece, but it sounds like four people.
SPEAKER_02I once played a uh baritone guitar and split the signal between a guitar, and that actually sounds really, really nice and thick. I just played it like a bass guitar because I'm not a very good guitar player, but that that really works.
SPEAKER_01Are you slapping the strings?
SPEAKER_02No, I don't have to play with a pick. I'm just like, uh, but I I'm playing the top four strings tops.
SPEAKER_01Man, those slap bass people really fucked it up for everybody else who plays bass. Because we all think you guys are slapping to bass.
SPEAKER_02Even though if you're not, I don't like I don't like slap bass.
SPEAKER_01I I mean I don't like the sound of it. It's one of those things. It's kind of like uh like a turntable list, like a record scratching. If you're really good at it, it sounds awesome. But if you're just okay at it, it sounds very bad. I imagine slap bass, if you were just starting out, would be a mess.
SPEAKER_03It's I think slap bass is a solid format because the Seinfeld theme song exists and anything post that is kind of what are we doing?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's Seinfeld and there's Primus. And that's all I need in the world of Slap Bass, but those two people do it real well.
SPEAKER_02But when those are your touchstones, like, is does that mean slap bass is corny or is it not corny? Like, I don't know. If those are all we know of slap bass, I don't know what the answer is.
SPEAKER_01I'm not seeing a lot of people outside of the funk world even trying to slap that bass. Honestly, I think they all are at home when they're practicing, but they're not doing it in public.
unknownFlea, Red Hot Chili Peppers.
SPEAKER_01Flea does. Oh yeah, Red Hot Chili Peppers. Flea'll slap the shit. He'll give it away. He'll also do a really introspective jazz album that I was not expecting at all. Oh, recently? Yeah, Flea is putting out jazz music now, and it's like it's it's not a joke. It's real, it's crazy. I mean, you make whatever kind of music you want. I think that's awesome. I'm not a jazz person, but I was like, oh man, maybe this will be some crazy flea shit. And I was like, no, this is like good jazz music.
SPEAKER_02Is he going with jazz because he wants to like get back into heroin? He's like backing his way back into heroine. Oh, could be. Could be who writes the lyrics? Who is the lyricist for the band?
SPEAKER_03I do most of it. Um was really happy to have some some more support on this record. I feel like Ellie contributed some as well. Uh, but I'm usually writing most of the lyrics.
SPEAKER_02So for the other members, since the music you're playing is so emotionally raw, what does it take to get on sort of the same page as Kate? Like how do you kind of lock in to what he or or if Ellie's contributing, like what they're trying to convey so that you can play it in a register that matches it? Like like Tim JJ, like how do you guys lock into what they're going for emotionally?
SPEAKER_07Uh usually just after like they'll talk about it and like tell us what the song maybe's about or what they're kind of feeling with it, and we'll just try a couple different things.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, we me and Kate have been playing together for a long time, so it's really easy, and then every time Ellie brings something, it's really easy to kinda oh, this is what you're feeling. I kind of got you.
SPEAKER_02Is there a conversation about it? Do is there like a summary of what the song is mean, or are you just is it just Feel.
SPEAKER_07I'd say most of its feel. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Just like played around each other so long that I feel like the second language kind of develops. But I I appreciate that y'all usually do ask like what is the meaning behind the song. We talk about that at practice a little bit, which is fun.
SPEAKER_02Does it start with lyrics? Do songs begin with a melody or something, or does that come later in the game?
SPEAKER_03I think we all write pretty differently. Uh like Ellie and I have almost completely polar opposites uh processes when we come to writing. Uh I usually have like a line or like 30 seconds of a guitar, and I'm like, okay, I need to build out one of these two.
SPEAKER_01Does Mountain Dew come into play at all?
SPEAKER_03I feel like caffeine used to be a really important part to my existence in general, and I have now completely moved away from it. Was it difficult? It was. I think I just had like a nasty panic attack in college, just like I'm never doing anything that makes me like freak out again. Uh I know everything was really slow, and I exist in syrup. It's fine.
SPEAKER_08That sounds really nice. Yeah. Mountain Z might be what we're missing, though. That might be like the secret ingredient for LP3s. We need to make me feel panic attack constantly, the entire writing process. Oh, that's a great idea.
SPEAKER_01I know that people are gonna tell you not to do that, but I'm gonna be the one that says, please do that. It makes good music, unfortunately. Panic attack rap. Oh my god, can you imagine? That would be awesome.
SPEAKER_03The descendants made it work. They were like drinking coffee in the practice, and like I think they would do this thing where they would play the set or like play whatever set they were gonna play, do an espresso shot each, and then play it faster, and then just repeat that until they I mean someone injured something or they had that song coffee mug that's like 40 seconds, but it's an amazing song.
SPEAKER_02Um what's like what would you say is like the emotional spectrum? Again, I'm I'm drawing on sort of a maybe a cliched version of what emo is supposed to be, but you've referenced various ways the I guess the vulnerability, the the rawness of it. Does it stay in that register or like is there a joy? Like how do you pull different emotional threads out of that sort of emo foundation?
SPEAKER_08I mean, as somebody who's like mostly like observing Cade's lyrics, I feel like you write things that are very full of despair, but they're they're always like despairing within the context of like this is something that I love and I fear losing it. Um so there's always like that element of joy because you're great at just like depicting what it is that makes you feel so attached to what you're writing about that the idea of losing it conjures up all of these other horrible things.
SPEAKER_02Um I like um I'm a big reader and I'll read a lot of like just sort of contemporary fiction from the last 50 years or whatever. And I feel like most of literature, but probably most of art in general, is about just about death in one form or another. Even the positive things, even the happiest things are about forestalling death or reckoning with it, or like that becomes the the centerpiece for every like everything is refracted through that prism. So like sad music makes a lot of sense to me. Like Andy's a huge fan of like a sad song. Sad music, I eat it up like little crumbs, yum, yum, yum, yum, yep. Well there's this uh and there was like I think it was one of your EPs that ends with like sort of an acoustic sort of slower thing, and you would talk about how you had like you met someone that allowed you to write a sad song or you couldn't write like I love that there's a a song that you all have that has that lyric to it.
SPEAKER_03Uh didn't uh recognize, probably.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um did you all always were you always like, I love some sad shit. I'm like, I'm gonna go to the side.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, what's your what's the saddest song you guys can think of? Fast car, Tracy Chapman. Oh man, I can't even listen to Tracy Chapman.
SPEAKER_03It's that's what one like I'll stumble on. It doesn't matter when I encounter the song, like I'll stumble onto YouTube at 4 a.m. and a full wet sobs.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_08All of the John K. Samson Virtutay songs will just reduce me to uh a fucking puddle two lines in. Like I don't know if if you all know those ones, but he's he's uh writing about a fictional cat who is helping him through the process of like recovering from um addiction and depression and all these different things, and the different angles with which she approaches are really beautiful because John K. Sampson is a fucking incredible writer. But there's one like there's three songs, and the final one especially just ruins me because it's about this cat just like leaving. Um and it's implied that that she is dead, but it's so full of like my life is now forever changed by your presence in it, and like I have a cat who is my baby boy, and it it. Yeah, it just did.
SPEAKER_07Oh, anything cat that gets me. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01My I think the saddest song ever written was written by Anna Tivill, Portland Zone. It's called Blue World, and she wrote it when her grandma was dying, who she was very close with. And it is slow and deep, and it's a song I like to listen to when someone close to me dies. But I have a hard time listening to it otherwise now because now for me it's attached to so many loved ones' deaths.
SPEAKER_02I did maybe I did that to myself, maybe it's just like the song, but do y'all think like art is supposed to be this abstraction of things that are too hard to talk about? Right? There are aren't sufficient words, so we create art to express that thing that words can't cover. But do you think it's still important, especially with sad songs and the things they elicit, do you still think it's important to be able to have a conversation with each other about what makes us saddest? Or do you think that sad music suffices? If you share sad music with people, that's enough.
SPEAKER_03I feel like we like I'm gonna use the collective we as like the Western countries, maybe especially the US, struggles to form genuine connection and or express negative emotion. I feel like we're all very just like on to the next thing, keep moving, stay positive. Um, and I feel like sad songs are important for people who maybe don't have that language. If that's all the only way you can convey a message to someone or want to express an emotion, having that language in a song that already exists is really powerful. Yeah. Um, I don't necessarily think it's like a replacement for having really tough or meaningful conversations, but I think it's a great catalyst for them happening, which is cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they can get those conversations going. Or you can be like me and I listen to really happy songs when it's shitty out, and really sad songs when it's nice out to keep it right in the balance and keep it balance. Otherwise, I mean, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_02I cry more at songs when it's bright outside. That maybe it's that dissonance or something, but something like the bittersweetness really gets me.
SPEAKER_01Maybe it's because you're part vampire and that's when it comes out.
SPEAKER_02No, I think it's because I'm especially incapable of articulating my feelings and words. I think I'm just like uh one breeze, one gentle breeze in a sad lyric away from just collapsing.
SPEAKER_01For me, it's um like uh those like big life makeover shows.
SPEAKER_02Oh fuck, yeah, like uh Those will make me cry so.
SPEAKER_01What's the famous one? Queer eye, I will be bald. Queer eye? Or back in the day, uh the one with like they'd be like, Let's move that bus, and then they would have like a whole new house for a family. Yeah, extreme home makeover. Oh as fake as it turns out that show was in so many. Bar rescue, yeah, just puddles. Oh man, yeah. Fucking Hell's Kitchen gets me.
SPEAKER_02Uh Bake Off, British Bake Off. The decency of people makes me cry.
SPEAKER_01That is like a show where you're just like, oh, fucking good try. You know, everyone's so nice to each other. You get a little bit of that on Top Chef now, but um they're doing Carolina right now, and I just don't really care about Carolina, so I haven't really been watching. The state, the the two states, the paracolinas? Yeah, you know, they're known for their barbecue, they have a lot of uh coastal like stuff, so they've got seafood. But you're just like fuck them. I'm just over it. It's been a lot of like whole hog slaughtering, and I'm just like, bro, I don't want it. 20 minutes of pig bleed out per episode. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, speaking of bleeding, Andy, what have you been uh what have you been balling to this week?
SPEAKER_01Oh man, I've been uh deep, deep in band camp and finding out about shit that I should have already been known about. Like Pearl Jam? Yeah, there's this band Pearl Jam, you guys. I think Eddie Vetter's gonna do something. Yeah. There's this this new sound coming out of Seattle called Grunge. Now, this is a band uh that really I thought it was really funny at first, but it's really grown on me that it's actually very good. Uh they're called Hummus Vacuum. Okay, they're from uh Columbus, Ohio. They are an emo band, but they're like kind of a comedy band. And at first I was like, are you just like making fun of this? Is this just like a parody band? But then the lyrics were really fucking good. Okay. And you know, it might be kind of on the nose a lot of times where you're just like, okay, this is what maybe other people think emo sounds like.
SPEAKER_02So maybe they are, you know, creating a little bit of ironic distance to protect themselves.
SPEAKER_01It just feels really genuine. And I'm gonna play you a song off of their album called The Act, The Art of Fake Laugh. And the song I'm gonna play for you is called Big Bummin.
SPEAKER_06Well, let another friend down what the fuck's new. Got a pocket full of full none of your tax seem to be going through. I used to come running too.
SPEAKER_01You guys. The other day we were looking for something to do, so we went to the Multanoma County Fair. I didn't even know this existed. This is just like they do it every year at Oaks Park, and it's usually just a couple of booths. A lot of them are like people trying to get you to sign up for shit you don't need. Or do need. Maybe. Maybe you need your aura red. Maybe you need to sign up for like a a farm share.
SPEAKER_02I think aura beginning your aura red is like getting a colonoscopy. It's like a five-year thing. Like just kinda just get them done.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Uh this lady was very nice and she did a great job. I didn't get mine red, but a lot of people were very, very into it. And she was right next to my favorite booth at the whole place. The people with the sugar gliders. There's a lady giving a very great talk about sugar gliders.
SPEAKER_02What's a sugar glider?
SPEAKER_01Sugar glider's like a tiny flying squirrel. Oh. Kind of more of like a flying chipmunk than a flying squirrel. I like that. They're really cute. They like to be in pockets. Um and she was like talking about how they don't smell, how it's really easy to take care of them, and they bond with you for life, and they're the sweetest things. They won't run away because they just want to be in your pockets and on you. And she told this whole spiel, and then she would like let you like let some lucky person in the audience put their hand out, and it would fly from your hand back to her and climb into her pocket. They were so cute. How much do you think it costs to buy a sugar glider? Now, I'm gonna tell you her thing did come with a cage and some food. And it's a pretty elaborate cage. You need like a four-foot-tall cage for just like a couple of sugar gliders because they need space.
SPEAKER_07Aren't those one of the animals they need a partner too? They shouldn't be alone. Yes. That's part of it too.
SPEAKER_01Do you guys have any guesses on how much a sugar glider costs at the Multnomah County Fair?
SPEAKER_08I'm gonna go twelve hundred.
SPEAKER_07Oh, that seems like a solid guess. I was thinking way keeper like $200. I didn't I didn't think they were like rare or anything. I wasn't surprised by how much I would spend. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was hoping for $87 inclusive.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I wanted to get 20 of these fuckers. They were so cute.
SPEAKER_02Well, what's the answer?
SPEAKER_01They were eight hundred and sixty dollars. Well, yeah, not crazy. Yeah, I think that's a good one. 860 bucks gets you one NHC. They also said if you want to get another one, which we recommend because they don't like to be solo, they will hurt themselves. It's sad. They self-harm, they do not want to be solo. Uh that next one is $350. Oh, you actually know how much you're looking at out the door. But man, my cousin has sugar gliders, and you really need to spend a lot of time with your sugar gliders, otherwise, they don't like you, and they bite. And they can fly.
SPEAKER_02You're the first way you described it is a lot different than the way you've sort of backed out of the story, which is that first they're like, they're your best friend, they just want to be around you. The ones she had were awesome. And then the moment you walk away, they hate you forever.
SPEAKER_01She was doing the same spiel over and over and over and all day. And it turns out I looked it up. She had a 10-week old baby in one pocket, she had a male in this pocket, and then she had a big, like older one that was like her thing. And uh those things are nocturnal. So they were probably not stoked to be taken out of that pocket because they were sleeping. And they uh said that if you have one, be prepared to be up all the time. Because they make a lot of noise, and mostly after you want to be asleep.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01You need to spend you need to spend at least two hours holding this thing every single day, or it will not like you.
SPEAKER_02I have upturned to break in the I'm now anti-sugar glider.
SPEAKER_01They look so sweet, but they um also uh have a pretty complex diet. They eat a lot of different kinds of fruits and next. How were you standing by this booth? No, this lady told us all they needed were these pellets and a single bite of fruit before bed. She also told me they didn't poop or pee unless you let them by taking them out of their secret pocket. Because they will not poop or pee where they're at because it's built into their pr survival. Uh because their biggest thing is that they don't smell like anything, so predators can't find them. Which was crazy. She let us all smell this thing and it smelled like awesome. Like nothing. So I could see that. She said you needed to just find a trash can and hold it above the trash can, and it'll hold on to your hand and lean its little butt over and poop into the trash can.
SPEAKER_07Wow.
SPEAKER_02Alright, well. I I think I I think I net out indifferent to the sugar bladder after that story.
SPEAKER_01I hear that they're wonderful. I just hear that it's uh it's advanced pet owning that I'm not prepared for. Because she made it seem like it was just real chill. You just put this thing in your pocket and it's gonna soul bond to you like those avatar dragons.
SPEAKER_03It's gotta be like some kind of art of the deal where they like set it up to the best thing ever, you've already purchased and fell in love with one, have all its kit. Oh, but you you should buy another one, otherwise it's gonna be depressed and you've already invested, and you're like, Alright, I had to buy another one. And just like kind of hook you that way.
SPEAKER_01Okay, the wildest fucking thing about this whole thing was their guarantee. How much more information was conveyed? They had a 12-year-old. Did you do anything else back then? I watched this presentation three or four times as well. It was really well done. She was awesome at it. Uh they have a 12-year guarantee. So if your sugar glider.
SPEAKER_02They will live for 12 years?
SPEAKER_01Yes. And if it dies anytime between there, they will replace it with a new sugar glider. So basically, you just you're paying for one sugar glider and you get infinite sugar gliders if they die, because when they die, they give you a new one. If it's in within that 12 years.
SPEAKER_02I think if I got like uh some sort of rodent and it lived for 12 years, I I would not be prepared for that, the commitment. I don't want 12 years of a rodent. I want four, and I want to be like, holy shit, this is the oldest dribble I've ever seen. But then I do not want years seven through twelve by any means. Any pet you have to put in your will feels intense. Yeah, exactly. You can't have a parrot, you know? It would be really rough, like a box turtle's gonna bury me.
SPEAKER_01Like a senior citizen sugar glider that's just kind of like not doing great. That would be kind of rough.
SPEAKER_08I feel like I'm hearing that I I relate really heavily to these creatures, like desperate for attention, insomniac, bizarre diet, like only lives 12 years. We're already like halfway through.
SPEAKER_02So it's like you can just give a 12-year guarantee. You don't you won't might not expire, but you can only guarantee 12 years max. Yeah. Uh Ellie, you said something when you were describing kind of what you were most excited about about the new album, is just sort of this transition toward the comfort level and the confidence to cut loose and to be yourselves. And you mentioned a little something that's kind of music to my ears as an interviewer. What like you you realize as a group that you are now doing it kind of how you want to do it. Is there is there a specific way that you all understand that you want to do it? Is there like a definition of what Swiss Army Wife is and and you're realizing it now? Or like what is the biggest difference that you've noticed between that first era that maybe lacked a little bit of this certainty and and now?
SPEAKER_08I think part of it is just the time with all of us writing together. Um this whole record was written as as a group. Um yeah, Cade bringing in snippets of songs and all of us in the room kind of uh spinning them together. Whereas the first one was primarily Cade and Tim um writing it, and then um our our former bassist John and I kind of came in later in the process, uh just like a few months before recording those songs, kind of added our our parts on top, and uh I think some of that self-consciousness comes through because of that. Because like we didn't really have that much time to like fully understand like what we were doing as a band. Um, but now after like it'll be five years since I joined this like November, I want to say. Um after doing it for five years, it's like we don't I I personally couldn't define like, oh, this is what makes a song a Swiss Army Wife song, but I can feel it in the room, like it's there there's a very specific energy, I think, when we're playing something new and it clicks and it's like, oh yeah, wait, this is this is what we're trying to do.
SPEAKER_01Fuck yeah. Hey, if you guys could play a show in any plaid pantry in town, which one would it be? In the city of Portland.
SPEAKER_08I just found a large amount of the Red Bull Spring Edition Cherry Sakura uh at the plaid pantry uh n near my place uh uh on Interstate. And they they discontinued that like a month ago, and I was so sad because that is the best Red Bull I've ever had.
SPEAKER_01What what season is it? Winter? Uh Spring. Spring, okay. They fucking kill it with these seasons. Red Bull, they had a winter apple a couple of seasons back that was Way better than any Red Bull apple flavor should be.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. What's what's the flavor profile of the spring one?
SPEAKER_08It tastes like a real cherry, not like cherry flavored candy or whatever. Like it just tastes like you you dissolved a few actual delicious, ripe, well cared for cherries into a can of Red Bull and then dissolve.
SPEAKER_02Nice. We had someone on who was it that they are there they were heavily into like monster or rock star, but they had the Horshada flavor was their their go-to. Could not remember.
SPEAKER_01That was famous music producer and engineer Billy Anderson.
SPEAKER_02Billy Anderson, that's right. Who really likes all of the milk-based monster energies.
SPEAKER_01The horchata or any of the creamy ones.
SPEAKER_02It didn't take very much prodding too. He was ready with that.
SPEAKER_03That's not, yeah, I would not carry my love of milk related milk adjacent drinks close to the like man. You know what my milk is missing?
SPEAKER_02Taurine. I really want to get him. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I really want to get him back on and get his take on bud on buzzballs since those have taken off everywhere.
SPEAKER_02Is there a uh They're the worst?
SPEAKER_01Have you guys ever fucking drank a buzzball?
SPEAKER_02I was gonna say like the world. This has been a very caffeine forward, uh open-minded band compared to some that we have on. So I'm wondering, is there like a band drink? Is there a band alcoholic beverage that you like? Or this seems like it's gonna be a yeah so we're having some outside. Sorry, there's children in my house. Some children's sounds. Is there a yeah, is there a go-to band drink?
SPEAKER_08Is there like um do we do we do we talk about the beer?
SPEAKER_03Oh god, yeah. I think that's the most that's the most uni, like that's the closest I felt to you all. And it was for a horrible reason, but uh yeah, you got it.
SPEAKER_08So uh we uh Oh wait, are we talking about are you are you talking about uh Ely or or uh Ed Pub? Oh I was talking about Ely, I guess. I was I was thinking about Pub, but like Ely though might be a better story um on our first ever tour, uh it was just like a West Coast run from Seattle down to San Diego, Arizona, and then we were hitting Boise on the way back. Um we were also supposed to do Salt Lake City, but then like the band that we were playing with, I just happened to look them up on YouTube. They had some like anti-vax songs and a song about like fuck you, I won't use your pronouns. So we were like, we're not gonna No, we're not gonna play with that. Yeah, that sucks. Yeah, it was it was it was a bummer. They like made up some excuse about it being their old singer. Uh and it's like, okay, so why do why are those songs still up? If if you don't if those anyway, that's that's the other point of the story. Um so we ended up not playing that show, and uh, we were all right, we're gonna drive from Phoenix uh through Nevada up to Boise, have a night to rest, um, and then we have a whole day after that to rest up again before this last show and we head home. Um, but unfortunately, uh the van's transmission just kind of blew up out of nowhere. Uh like we were like what like four hours north of Vegas?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, we were like 20 minutes outside Ely. It was snowing and it just stopped.
SPEAKER_08This is like eastern Nevada, right outside the Grand the Great Basin, so there's fucking nothing around. It's like 4 30, 5 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. So there's no mechanic shops open. There's like no services we can go to at all. Um we're on the side of the highway, it's snowing a little bit, these giant semis are just blasting past. Uh it's it's a terrifying spot to be. After like an hour, Tow Truck comes, hauls us away. We got to Ely, whole town is just like snowed in, iced over. Uh they drop us off at this um what was it? Was it a hotel and casino? It was a yeah, it was a hotel and casino. Oh my god. Yeah. Uh the parking lot was a sheet of ice, so getting our gear in from the van uh to that was was a whole thing. At this point, we're like, okay, you know, maybe we can find somebody who can take a look at it tomorrow, and like fingers crossed, it's not as bad as it seems. We can get on our way, still make it to the show. So let's just like chill for the night and try not to freak out. So Tim went over to like this discount liquor store that was across the street. Yep. Um, grabbed some beers, used liquors. It might have been better than what we got.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_08So you got like they were like orange beers that you grabbed, right?
SPEAKER_07Yeah, it was some like fancy craft or something. I was like, oh, this sounds good. Didn't read the expiration or anything, got back to the room. They were expired by years. Like they had such a nasty something in the bottom of it. We all got to drink it. What is why is it gritty? Why does it have chunks?
SPEAKER_08I just think you remember taking a sip and going, oh, it's got pulp. Oh, it's got pulp.
SPEAKER_03Holy shit, some orange beers from the mid-90s. I think that's the only I think that'll be to say that's the only time we've agreed on one drink and that that one was horrific and was trying to kill us. We tried to return it and they were like, Well, you can pick something else. But everything's probably expired.
SPEAKER_07He was so nonchalant about, oh, everything's expired here, and I'm like, what? This can't be normal.
SPEAKER_01Where does the discount come from? You know? We live in an expired county. Everything's on here is expired.
SPEAKER_02I just admire the bandwillingness to just just to try it. Just to, you know, take a few swigs of pulpy beer as if that's actually a thing. At that point, I feel like the open-mindedness is admirable, I would say.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, what do these beer stores think we want? Are we like collectors? We're gonna put this on our wall and not drink it? Clearly they've been collecting it because they're the ones who are the collectors. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um well, something that isn't very pulpy uh is uh another tune. And I think uh you all have uh at least one more to share, right? What's what's round two from from your crew gonna be tonight?
SPEAKER_08Do we want to do our other song Cowboy, or the third one we brought was the we were recommended to bring a b like another band that we want to shout out?
SPEAKER_01So let's play that one last.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we'll save that one. Let's hear another Swiss Army Life song.
SPEAKER_08So the other one we have is Cowboy. Um that one is gonna be the second single off the album. Comes out uh uh May 29th. Um so next Friday at the time of recording this. Um it's my personal favorite song on the record. Uh I fucking love this one.
SPEAKER_02Rat.
SPEAKER_01It's uh so I'm talking about Weird Hut. It's an awesome DIY venue. But it's like it reminds me of like when I was a kid. It's just you walk in, there's a room, there's one bathroom, but you have to walk around the back of the stage to get to it. And it's also the green room.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I've been yeah, I've been there for it's over here by uh the other plaid pantry pantry.
SPEAKER_01It's by a good plaid pantry. I think it would be cool to play a show in the plaid pantry on 65th in Foster.
SPEAKER_02That'd be a solid one. Friendly staff. They're always very warm and willing to give me that beer key.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that beer key uh comes into play sometimes, and sometimes I just walk in, I'm like, can I get the beer key? And they're like, What are you talking about? You don't need a key. Like they never have before. And it's just like, don't look at me like that. Sometimes it's locked when I go over there. Why would we lock it, dude?
SPEAKER_02It's fine. Do you um like how w particular are you as a band about your sound? Like there are some bands, I think, especially maybe traditionally in the punk oeuvre, that are like, fuck it, we'll we'll play anywhere, it can sound like absolute shit. But I am not that kind of person, and I like things to sound a little bit better. And I think I feel like y'all could go either way. Is there an opinion about like the minimum threshold of quality a place needs to be?
SPEAKER_08Quality maybe not so much. We get really particular about it. Um one time I wrote a d Riff and drop D, and the band almost broke up over it.
SPEAKER_03Um, argued over like seconds on individual songs. Are you talking like song or venue?
SPEAKER_02Either one, but I I love this thread that you're on because I want to know about how granular it gets on the songwriting process.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Ellie and I are Ellie is one of the most opinionated people I've ever met when it comes to music. Close to myself in the amount of specificity we will go into. Every impulse we possess is opposite. So we will get into like multi-day protracted arguments about like five seconds of one track that might not even make the record. Um we've I think grown closer as a result. It has gotten contentious. Absolutely. That is to be that'll be it to say I think we care too much.
SPEAKER_02How does something like that get resolved? Like, TMJ, are you guys like tiebreakers, or like how does a diametrical opposition get worked out?
SPEAKER_07Usually it's just one of those things we let them fight it out, kind of like they'll get tired. They'll figure it out eventually.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. After crying. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08No, I mean like sometimes you like you'll jump in as tiebreakers. Like I I I think when you don't, that's always a good sign for us that like we're arguing over some bullshit.
SPEAKER_03I feel like it's just as liberating to hear you say like A or B as it is to say like it doesn't matter. It's like, oh cool, we can pull back.
SPEAKER_01When you've been on okay, so I feel like the same thing happens every time I bring out underwater man.
SPEAKER_02Oh no.
SPEAKER_01Drew's like not into this character.
SPEAKER_02Andy and I are we definitely have different instincts when it comes to doing this. That that's for sure.
SPEAKER_01There's definitely two people out there who like underwater.
SPEAKER_02There's a g you you're you're gonna do it. Like I can't I can't stop you. Like you've already laid the groundwork, so there's nothing I can do. I might there's nothing I can I can't throw my body in front of this bullet. You're like, this is like a checkoff on the situation. Yes. When underwater man is on the on the mantelpiece, someone's gonna hear underwater man later.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, maybe not. Maybe maybe this is like the one time.
SPEAKER_02It's gonna come out, he's gonna come out at the most disruptive time. You guys are gonna be in the middle of saying something very emotional and very true, and right in the middle of that, when your story's reaching its emotional climax, he's gonna come in with his bullshit voice, and you'll forget everything you were talking about and ruin, you know, a big chunk of the episode.
SPEAKER_01That is a big part of what Underwater Man is about, I'm not gonna lie. Right.
SPEAKER_02Well, he was below the sea, and most of the conversations happen above the water, and that's really hard to interface with.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_02When you have those moments when there's like five seconds of disagreement, you know, like, but it's a heated battle battlefield.
SPEAKER_03Does that do you feel like that those five seconds represent something larger, or is it just your particularness that I think, yeah, a lot of times, at least if I feel like this is a pattern that became easier to recognize, those five-second disagreements were actually like tips of icebergs that were branching into much larger like musical instincts or opinions and thoughts. Um I feel like multiple times we've started in like a how do you feel about this five-second part and ended in like our musical musical philosophies are so different and disparate now when we interact as people.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_08I mean, we we yeah, we we had to navigate so much of that in the process of writing this album, which I I do think that that's part of why it took us as long as it did to write it, but we also very much did learn how to navigate it better over the process. I mean, like I was saying, with like uh our first album, Medium and Early, to this one, um we didn't really have like those kind of writing experiences working on the first one because the songs were already there, we were just kind of like adding parts in. Whereas this was everything from the bottom, so we had to kind of like figure out our creative process as like a whole unit, um, and especially between Kate and I um as we were uh you know writing. Um but I don't know. I I feel much more equipped to handle LP3 than uh I did going to LP2.
SPEAKER_02So at a you know, in at a songwriting session or at a practice, like how much time can this argument take up?
SPEAKER_03Enough that we usually cut ourselves off and argue about it over text later. I feel like we got better at like moving it out of the practice space.
SPEAKER_02There's a lot of arguments, well, quasi-arguments with my band about how to count something. Our drummer is like, I I can't count shit, and I'm routinely starting a riff on the wrong thing, and I'm like, why can't you just play it just straight through? And so that that will waylay uh uh a rehearsal for like 45 minutes about how I can't count and I leave feeling like uh you know a kindergartner. See, there he is, underwater man.
SPEAKER_01Man, underwater man is a real asshole.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, sound like he was coming up for air there a little bit, you know. That's coming out of the water.
SPEAKER_01Doesn't have as much phlegm in his throat as I'm used to hearing. Oh man, he needs to get back in the water, he will die.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he's turning into that E the ET that they find in the the creek bed before he passes away. Yeah. He did a pretty good piece. You you've stepped in at the right time, I think. Um the songs were like you got the masters back in January, they're gonna be released in the music. What like what part of sort of like the the songwriting cycle are you in now that like you know this album is behind you? Are you in writing new stuff mode? Like what's the what's the headspace that the band is in creatively at this time?
SPEAKER_03I feel like mostly we're now in like practicing to play well live, and then also in a spot where there's zero pressure to produce new stuff, so the new things that do come out feel very natural and fun. Like I had like a riff I brought to practice the other day, and with no expectation of doing anything with it, we just kind of messed around with it for what ended up being like an hour or two, and then came away with a song that we shockingly all felt pretty happy with it. Felt and was like, oh, when there's no pressure to produce some anything on a timeline, suddenly it's the like the most fun and easiest thing to do in the world.
SPEAKER_08Agreed. We've also um so uh our bassist JJ is like the newest addition to our group. Uh they joined back in It was January too, right? Like Yeah, it was like the it was like close to New Year's when you reached out to me, I think. Yeah, so we've been yeah, teaching JJ the songs, um getting them uh set up with parts and just like fully like with the band and I think that um like now that like we've all played together so much, and we like yeah, I don't know, it feels like cohesive after like six months of of doing that, and I think that also like will lend itself to uh us starting to explore writing again more too. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07I've spent a lot of time just being like, why did I write that part? This is so hard. But playing it you know in the studio and stuff once through, twice doing like that, it's fine. But then now let's play the album back to back. I'm like, okay, I need like five minutes.
SPEAKER_02Like Yeah, there's some intricate stuff just in the the tunes we've heard that I'm sure it's a grind to get right live.
SPEAKER_03I feel like I do that so often. I write something, I'm like, why did I make something I'm gonna hate playing over and over again because it's so difficult.
SPEAKER_08I have a really bad habit of improvising parts. Um and sometimes I will have so much trouble settling on something that I will be improvising it in the studio when we record it, and the improvised thing is what will make it onto the album. Um, like in Cowboy, the second verse, like tappy lead riff. I don't know what the hell I played. I know vaguely where I started and like where the like accent notes are, but I don't know if I will ever replicate that exactly. Um that's stupid, that's so dumb.
SPEAKER_03My favorite thing is when you will improvise something, and then all of us will immediately go, that, exactly that, play that, remember that instantly and play it again forever.
SPEAKER_08And then I'm like, I have no idea what I just played.
SPEAKER_02Do you all record every practice? Like, how are you capturing ideas that come up spontaneously like that? There was a time when bands didn't have access to any recording, and like I don't know how anyone remembered like think of like the millions of beautiful songs that are just lost to memory. But are you capturing every moment of your rehearsals?
SPEAKER_03Usually no. We try to record more now. I have like a pretty fat voice notes file on my phone at this point. Oh yeah. But it's more like uh that kind of felt like a song. Let's record that really quick and set it aside. Uh I wish we could record all of Racks, that'd be so nice.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, we do that like it kind of ends up being like once a year where we will record everything. Um there's this cabin. Uh I feel like I don't even want to tell where it is, so I don't want to blow up the spot that we we rent out on ABC. Keep that secret, yeah. Yeah, it's like in the middle of nowhere.
SPEAKER_07It's perfect. Yeah, it's like we stay downstairs and we transform the whole upstairs into a jam space and just we can play as long as we want, late as we want. It's amazing.
SPEAKER_02Woods, high desert, coast. What what like uh biome are we in? Woods, it's within like an hour of wild coast. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You've said too much.
SPEAKER_08Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Um do like a solid new biome.
SPEAKER_02I wonder if you have changes the creative process.
SPEAKER_01We need to make a new one.
SPEAKER_02That's what I was just thinking. Like, you know, there's like that high desert rock, like you know, Queens of the Stone Age, that sort of sort of like genre is always like desert rock. There must be something about the environment that just seeps into the I'm sure it's the same with this cappen, right? Is it like feel different when you're riding and working there?
SPEAKER_03I've always said the new record is your rock. So I feel like yeah. Um I think most of the times when we go there, it's I guess we went twice for this last record. The first time was kind of teasing out things, the second time was more solidifying things. But I think more just the environment of there's nothing else to do in this building outside of be creative. And that kind of forcing you to be uh just steeped in it for multiple days is really cool. Creatively, it makes you push new ideas, uh try things you wouldn't What about time of day?
SPEAKER_02Are there morning sessions when you're out there? Like that's I've never played music in the morning. You know, I've never even tried to try to write a song in the morning. I wonder if like 1030 with a cup of coffee might what that might produce.
SPEAKER_03When do we I feel like we do all day kind of? Yeah, so we do get some morning.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, I think so. Like since we're like out there paying for it, I think we're also trying to like maximize the time that we have. It's usually like, all right, shape, what can we do with our schedules? We've spent the entire band fund on some bullshit. Um how do we maximize this time?
SPEAKER_01Um that's I think y'all, if you're not, you should be sleeping with your instruments so that you can just be ready from the rise. Sit up and start playing your bass and just start your day that way. Man, that would be fucking cool.
SPEAKER_02Well, sometimes I practice on a Sunday morning and those practices, everything will be I don't know, 10 BPM slower just because we're really tired. And sometimes I love I love those the most. I'm like, oh, this is what it should be. We should be pulling back on this one.
SPEAKER_01I thought those are your worship versions.
SPEAKER_02No, it's we just like it's everything's a little cleaner. It feels like we're just half asleep, but it's like it finds the right tempo because our bodies can't go faster than that. That's kind of nice.
SPEAKER_01I stumbled onto that on Bandcamp this week. Christian EDM. Yeah. And it was just the right pace, you know like Christian EDM. It was like, what is this? It's like old soul songs that have been turned into like house church bangers. Because even the Pope is at raves now. It's fucking wild. I know. An American good for them. But they mean shocker. The church is latching onto something popular to draw in people because nobody goes anymore. Well. At least not in Portland. I feel like Portland's a very like church-light city.
SPEAKER_03And like pretty rave heavy. I think our rave. Our rave to church ratio is a lot heavy.
SPEAKER_01And I think in like Vatican City, it's like church to rave is much lower, but the rave is like, it really wants to happen.
SPEAKER_02So in Vatican City, it's such a low population. It's kind of a one-to-one thing, you know? I can see that. Yeah, it's it's Europe. So EDM positive, but it's also Vatican City.
SPEAKER_01There has been some like uh Swiss guard, they fucking drop it. There's been a lot of like secret generator raves happening all over the city of Portland all the time.
SPEAKER_02I'm ready for Christianity to ruin EDM for people. I wouldn't have years too late.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's like dubstep, but it's like Christ's step. Yeah. Yeah. It probably is. They probably aren't even created with it. It's probably exactly what it is.
SPEAKER_02Speaking of Christian EDM, I I know y'all brought a friend band to share with us. And before we run out of time, I'd love to hear their take on our savior. Who's the uh who's the band that you brought to share tonight?
SPEAKER_08Yeah. They're called Citrus Jr., they're a band from San Diego. Um just became aware of them pretty recently. Uh we're good friends with this band called Art We Amphibians, who are from there, and uh we had hit them up about San Diego on our upcoming tour. They couldn't play it, uh, but they recommended this band. Um so we hit them up and they're such sweethearts, they're they've got that show booked for us like that. Um and they sent us uh like the like a preview link to the dirty record. I think it came out like last Friday. But this was this was a couple months back, and um we checked it out as a holy shit. This band of the fucking rules. Like this is like what I feel like the West Coast has been missing anymore.
SPEAKER_02Oh fuck yeah, let's give it a spin. Do you know what the name of the song is? Uh it's called Sisyphus, and I'm gonna go to the house. No boundaries to the question I'm about to uh ask you. Um if um can we have your skin? Of course. Thank you. Easy answer. That one's easy. We just have a little jar, we just need a little a few sloughs to keep it going. No, we just want part of the thing.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for my working on our cloning situation, and um right now it's goats. Yeah. Well goating.
SPEAKER_02It's so dark in here because we don't have enough skin for lamp lampshades. So we're pretty low on we're heavy bulbs, but low on skin lamps. Um if there are no resource restrictions, you have infinite resources, but you are required by some cosmic force to do this thing. And it has to be a Swiss Army Wife themed restaurant. A chain of restaurants. So it's not this like bespoke one-off thing, it is a chain. It's gonna be in 60 American cities of all sizes. What is the restaurant chain that you would create as the you know, the food representation, the culinary representation of your band? For people listening, there's a deep thought going on. This is the set of people taking this question very seriously. For that I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_03I really like the restaurants where the staff are allowed to be really mean to you. Oh, and that's part of it. I like it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like a wiener circle type of situation.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think that would be like I like that element a lot. I think consumers need to be more challenged when they're seeking a nice meal.
SPEAKER_01Yes. I was talking about this the other day. There was like somebody was uh they went in to buy this super expensive handbag, and they were um given a bunch of flack by the people who ran the store because it was a $50,000 bag, and then they came back and bought it, and it was like Adam Sandler's daughter or something. Uh and I was like, no, I think anyone who works at a handbag store that have $50,000 bags should be an asshole to everyone, so that there is a bar to entry. Like you have to really want this thing that's stupid expensive, and you probably shouldn't have, because the person who's trying to sell it to you says, I don't think you should have this bag. It is way too cool for you, and you suck.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, more service industry workers should neg you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's going in. I think so. Oh, I think they're doing a pretty good job. Have you been anywhere recently? That's true. It is a neg experience. That's my only quibble with your your approach because I liked those when I was a kid. I loved being, you know, mocked as a child. But now I feel like people are just so indifferent to me that I want I want sincere like I want one of those places where they have like paper boat hats, you know? I want and they're all wearing aprons and they're very polite to me. Well, what kind of food would you serve at your your rude service restaurant?
SPEAKER_03Hmm. I contributed service, so someone else is gonna be able to do that. Yeah, you did.
SPEAKER_08You I'm just stuck on like decor, so I don't know if we're quite there yet. I think we need to bring in some Rainforest Cafe vibes. Oh amazing. Exactly. There's just like a parrot next to your table that's just like hurling horrific insults at the end of the day. I love rude animatronics.
SPEAKER_02That is fucking animatronics.
SPEAKER_01People don't uh talk about that enough about uh Disney World. What they really nailed is like shitty food in cool places. Where you're like, I'm gonna go to that cafeteria that's like open air and has all the loose parrots.
SPEAKER_02And it's like kind of like a shittier version of Rainforest Cafe, but like, yeah, just like May I suggest for this restaurant that I think this might fit hand in a glove because it actually requires more interaction with the staff. Tapas. Okay. So they come to the table and it tapas menus always require a conversation with the waiter, and the way that just like is teeing the waiter up to get off one-liners and insult the people at the table. You have to ask how many people it feeds, all kinds of annoying questions come with tapas.
SPEAKER_01Does that one have almonds? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Any any dietary restrictions? Oh, what?
SPEAKER_01Yes, tahini. Uh-huh. And then you have to like be like, well, then you're not gonna want to go to this section of the menu. It requires a lot of dialogue. These curry deviled eggs are not for you. A lot of tahini.
SPEAKER_02The rudest rainforest-themed tapas restaurant in America. Son of a bitch. 60 cities. Yeah with high pulp beer to finish it off. Yeah, okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_01With expired pulpy beer. The thickest beer in the game.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so what's what American city would you choose for the flagship location?
SPEAKER_08Ely, Nevada.
SPEAKER_02Perfect. Pulp Town. Americans Pulp. America's Pulp. Incredible. This is a great answer. I would I can't wait to go to this restaurant. You've really got the art of trees. What is being sold in the gift shop? Because this place has got a gift shop, right? There's some gear. Like, what kinds of things are we selling in this gift shop? Earplugs. Earplugs. Nice. Just earplugs. What is it? The size of a gift shop. And some of them are like plush giant earplugs for the kids.
SPEAKER_01Like the squishamals type of things? Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Does it have whatever you see in like the sword shops at the mall? Like they just transplanted that mercantile to there.
SPEAKER_02Dragon rings.
SPEAKER_01Um you guys, I know a lot of things um in the world of technology have like kind of peaked or stopped like blowing up as much. But I don't know if you guys have seen stuffed animals lately. Oh yeah. They are fucking at an all-time high. I know. Dude, those squishables, those squishy guys that are like in the shape of food. Oh, yeah. You can get a grilled cheese sandwich.
SPEAKER_02That technology is like the opposite end from the red lights that I was talking about. This is like they are a peak. They never stop. It's incredible.
SPEAKER_01And if you um are a fan of Pokemon, you can pretty much get any of them. There's like a thousand different plushies out there in the world. Yeah, it's Pokemon and stuffed animals. That's pretty much what we got going on. So I mean, shout out to that industry.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I like that there's gonna be some stuffed animal earplugs there. Maybe some with like wax on them. So you could tell they've been used. Yeah, more grip. I have this, I just threw some in my car just for shows and stuff, but uh the the place only had like the skin-colored ones. So that there's like this weird like flesh tone in earplugs. It is very unappealing to put in your ear. You don't want to put this color of thing in any hole in your body. It does not, it doesn't really work. Oh man. It's like a little belly button that you're just wiggling in there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's rough. That's really interesting.
SPEAKER_02Um well, I have to say, best band restaurant that has uh debuted on this show. I will tell you that. I would go there.
SPEAKER_01I don't think you're gonna be a bar rescue anytime soon.
SPEAKER_02Um Swiss Army Wife, thank you all for hanging out with us. The record comes out June 13th. You're playing 12th. June 12th. On the 12th. Okay, my bad. I saw the 13th and I just stuck in my brain. I don't know. I don't know where that came from. Even better, June 12th, one day earlier. There is a a record release show here in Portland. Tell people the deeds for that one.
SPEAKER_08Um that's at the uh musicians union on Northeast 20th and Sandy. That's also on June 12th. We're playing with our friends in Willow Knows My Name, Key Smash, and Non-binary Girlfriend. Um it's promoted by our dear friends all brawlred. Um it's gonna be really fun. Our former bassist John is gonna be joining us to do vocals um on the songs that we played. He's the one doing uh most of the screaming that you hear. Uh wonderful guy. That's probably one of the last times you've seen John for a while. We're gonna bury him back in the ground where we left him since he quit after that show.
SPEAKER_02Awesome.
SPEAKER_01And take an turn up.
SPEAKER_02That's a great lineup. And uh from what we've heard of the record, it's gonna be a great record. So I'm excited to hear it. Uh, how can people keep track of y'all generally and follow what you're up to?
SPEAKER_03Oh, our music. I mean the internet amount the uh home addresses. Um I feel like we're most active on Instagram and Twitter. Or whatever Twitter is now. Um stuff's on Spotify.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, for keeping up with shows, especially Instagram's the spot. Um but if you want to see us just like expiral, you I guess you can follow us on Twitter as well. Um fantastic.
SPEAKER_02Love it. Well, thank you all again. Really appreciate you on earlier tunes and really excited for the next chapter. Um also want to say thank you to all of our listeners out there. Glad you're tuning in. Hope you had a good time. I know you heard some good tunes tonight, so hope you hope you'll appreciate what we're doing for you. Yes.
SPEAKER_01And if you like what you hear or hear, but you wish there was less talking and more like just dirty curse words. I do a show on Shady Pines Radio every Friday called Hash Air with Mr. Tomorrow. It's at 6 p.m. And it's nasty with it. Uh here's a song I found on and on uh bandcamp that I'm gonna really dig in. This is um uh an empty from uh like the city of industry area of uh California. Sure. His name is DMH. And this is one of those things you find out at Bandcamp and you're like, holy shit, this dude is amazing. He is gonna be big. And he's only, you know, just getting started. So he's got a bunch of stuff on on Bandcamp that you can find. Uh, this is off of his newest release called Beer Run 3. And this song is called No Such Thing as Ethical Consumption under Late Stage Capitalism.
SPEAKER_02Excellent. Well, for Cade, Ellie, Tim, and JJ of Swiss Army Wife. For Nate, for Andy, this is Drew. We will see you next time on Hot Garbage.
SPEAKER_00No such thing as ethical consumption under late stage capitalism. If I don't get my mental intact, I might need to look at the facts. Death date, I keep pushing it back. A lot of more, but when is it happening? Putting it work and ain't seeing no traction. Fitness start slang, get it off the back end. I just take life three bits at a time. Uh so many advanced, I was looking for cloud. Fit so crazy, you can see the orbit divine. Don't let being tough, pull you still plus heads and crack spots. I get that when I get there, I'm on black top. I got a knack for making all the wrong choices. Voices in my head like I'm randy order. I need all the portion, fuck a portion. Married to this shit, fuck divorce. Drop without a license, still flooring. Scary in the whip when the lights flip. Living this life ain't priceless. Tribulation, fish, the language got me in the vice grip. Vision blurry, it was hard to even type this. Bubble under pressure, never fully submit. Shit seemed to get crazy, never seen it like this. On the brink of what seems like the yeah, numb to everything. Just gotta sit back and grin. Sift that is sin. Click, clack, defend. Click, clack, defend.
SPEAKER_05You cry in my You cry up the money in the bag.