++ Hi Andy! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? You are releasing a wonderful album called “The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel” in a couple of months. But I want to go in order, from the band’s early days to today. So let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories?

Hi Roque, thanks for taking the time to talk to me about the record! It’s an honor to be interviewed for Cloudberry.

Earliest memories? That’s a tough one. Here’s one that I’ve never shared with anyone. My parents had a period when I was really young where they listened to a lot of Motown and oldies. When I was like 4 or 5 I apparently did dance routines for my parents to various Motown hits. I have no memory of any of it, but years ago one of my parents showed me home movies they had digitized and I saw it. Super embarrassing kid stuff of course, but honestly, kind of cool and funny in a way. Maybe a formative kernel, because later in my teen years 60s pop music was a major bedrock of my interest in pop music and all the melodies that ended up lodged in my brain formed the instincts of any ability I have to write pop songs.

++ Do you remember what your first instrument was? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen to at home while growing up?

The first instrument I ever laid hands on was a beat up classical guitar I found in the garage at my house when I was like 11 or so and my parents were splitting up and moving stuff out of the house. I was bummed because I wanted it to be a drum set because I was really into The Smashing Pumpkins “Tonight Tonight” as a pre-teen and I used to hit pencils on the desks at school like they were drum sticks. That may be an embarrassing and “not cool” thing to be into, but it was true, and sometimes I hear that song in a supermarket and I’m like “ok that holds up,” but they wouldn’t buy me a drum set when I was a kid so I started messing around on the guitar. I picked up the drums later in college when my roommate had a drum kit in the garage.

When I was recording Paisley Hotel I asked my Dad if he still had the classical guitar because I really wanted to do a nylon string guitar solo on “Give Your Heart Away.” He still had it, but he warned me it was totally unplayable and he was right, it wouldn’t stay in tune at all. It all ended well though I think that song benefited from an electric guitar solo anyways.

++ Had you been in other bands before Chime School? I know of Seablite, but are there more? And if so, how did all of these bands sound? Are there any recordings? 

I got my real start in music at the college radio station KDVS in Davis, CA where I went to school. That’s when things really opened up for me. I didn’t play in bands, but I had a radio show and would engineer bands in the studio to play live on air, and also did sound and logistics stuff for tons of diy shows, like probably hundreds of shows in the time that I was there, bands from all over the world. I really wish I kept a diary of it all. But during that time I started a record label through the radio station. One of the records I put out was by a band called San Francisco Water Cooler, which had two members of the Santa Cruz psych band Residual Echoes. That record got some nods from Thurston Moore and Byron Coley in Arthur Magazine which floored us all. They moved to Davis to record their second record and I I joined, primarily on drums, but also a bit of bass on their second LP, and some guitar and bass on a 7” ep. It’s all on bandcamp. Quite a bit of it holds up in my opinion, (but it’s definitely not indie pop).

When I moved to San Francisco I started a band called Pink Films with Tim Tinderholt (of Odd Hope) and a couple of the members from San Francisco Water Cooler and later Julian Elorduy of Mayyors/Fine Steps/Julian Never. I was still playing drums primarily but also getting more involved in the songwriting and recording decisions. Tim and I co-produced and arranged the “Wrong Direction” 7” and a bunch of other unreleased recordings on his Tascam 388. Pink films was directly influential to what I wanted to do when I started writing songs: jangly 60s inspired pop tunes with a bit more of a lo-fi edge. Pink Films’ last show was the release show for The Mantles Long Enough to Leave LP in 2013, although we didn’t know it at the time. Tim dissolved the band a while later after the death of a dear friend in the music community.

In 2015 I was asked to join shoegaze group Cruel Summer, again on drums, and that was great fun, nice folks, good friends, fun shows and parties. We made one record and a couple 7”s together and went on a really memorable tour with The Swirlies in 2017 before one of our members moved away for grad school. Friends forever. Seablite asked me to join right after that, and you know the rest.

++ How is the current San Francisco scene? Are there any bands that you like? Any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands? 

The bay is incredible right now. I’ve lived in San Francisco since 2008 and although this is the most involved I’ve ever been in a music scene since I’ve lived here (which may cloud my judgment), I really do think it’s a special time in the Bay Area. There was a time when people would do great things here and then move away for cheaper/bigger pastures, but now that every city is gentrified, people either stick it out where they are, or are more deliberate about where they live. Couple that with a bit of a downward real estate market post-pandemic (cheaper rent, less displacement), people being willing to live a bit more spread out, and I feel like things are really thriving here.

I could list probably 50 bands and a dozen labels in the Bay Area that I like at the moment, so I won’t even start, it’ll take up the whole interview. But there are a bunch of different scenes doing slightly different things (jangly indie pop, noisy shoegaze and punk, slow/sad-core, more experimental post-punk mutant disco stuff, dark/cold-wavey goth stuff, etc) but people’s tastes are for the most part really diverse so we all still go to others’ shows and play shows together when it makes sense too.

++ When and how did the band start? As far as I know it was just you behind Chime School, but on Bandcamp I saw a photo of a four-piece, so yeah, how did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?

The first LP was entirely me. I started writing the songs for it in 2017, and even tested the songs out a bit with a shambolic 3-piece called Well Read Seals with Phil Lantz (who plays drums in Chime School) and Phil Benson on bass (Terry Malts, Neutrals) who named the group; and for a moment Galine Tumasyan of Seablite on bass as well. That group only played a handful of shows and fell apart in early 2019. Rather than find another bass player, I decided to woodshed for a bit, write some more songs, change the sound, and start making a record. I changed the name of the project to Chime School because I wanted it to be a different thing.

When the first Chime School record came out in 2021, I was doing the backing track thing, played maybe three or four shows solo, but I really wanted to put together a live band. I again recruited Phil Lantz to play drums, and also my friend Josh Miller, and Thomas Rubenstein (who played a few shows with us but had to leave to focus on other projects). Thomas was replaced by Garett Goddard, and that’s been the group ever since. Phil, Josh, and Garett are incredible musicians, who’ve been playing in bands for decades at his point. It’s truly an honor to have them playing in the live group.

++ How is the creative process for you? Where do you usually practice?

My partner and I moved out of our cramped, noisy apartment in the Mission District in 2022 and rented a house on the foggy southern edge of San Francisco’s Excelsior District. I built a small home studio in the garage, and that’s where I write and record. The band has a rehearsal space in the “rock farm” over at Secret Studios Annex in the Bayview that we share with a number of other local groups (Seablite, Neutrals, Galore).

My creative process is focused and solitary. I write songs whenever I can, and arrange them as they’re being recorded. I program all the drums, which is liberating, because (as a drummer) I program them as if I am actually behind the kit playing them, but I have the freedom to use any sounds I want, and then tweak things as I go along. I don’t record solo out of some need for control, rather, I really try and push my boundaries on every record I make, and I feel a bit more free to do that by myself, where I’m not wasting anyone’s time, and I can you know, write the guitar solo, or figure out the organ part with no pressure or embarrassment if I stumble along.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?

I always wanted to write songs, but didn’t think I had any ability to do it. My partner bought me a cassette 4-track for Christmas in 2016 and that kind of kicked me into gear because I didn’t want to let such a nice gift collect dust. Our relationship first blossomed over a shared love of sports and music, and we were always sitting around playing records and talking about our favorite “formative jangle” records. The process of accumulating influences, learning to write songs, and figuring out how to record an album was a bit like “going to chime school” I’d tell myself, so I went with it.

++ Who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

The influences are almost entirely UK indie music from the 80s and very early 90s. Razorcuts, Talulah Gosh, Brighter, Pastels, early Primal Scream, Orange Juice, McCarthy, East Village, Primitives, Sea Urchins, Close Lobsters, Teenage Fanclub, Another Sunny Day, etc. There’s some US bands too, the Paisley Underground groups are an influence in spirit, and of course The Springfields and REM. My influences shift a bit here and there depending on what palette I choose for a given recording, but ya, I really wear them on my sleeve.

++ Your first release was a self-titled album, “Chime School”, which came out on CD, cassette and vinyl on Slumberland Records. How did you end up working with this label? How do you like the relationship with Mike?

Though I was already a fan of the label, I started to get to know Mike through my partner, about ten years ago. In 2020 I finished the Chime School record and sent it to him mostly just to ask if he thought anyone might want to put it out, and he said “ya, I would.” It was kind of crazy because I’d been working on the record for so long and I really had no idea if it was any good, so it was a trip to hear that someone liked it.

++ And talking about formats, as this record came out in 3 different formats (4 if you want to count digital), I wonder if you have a favourite format and why?

My favorite format is vinyl, but I am a record collector. I wonder if I were 20 years younger, whether I’d care at all for the format given how expensive buying and collecting records has gotten. But at this point I’m already committed. As for new music, it’s embarrassing maybe but I really think digital is my most used format. I purchase as many physical releases by new bands as I can afford to, but digital is where I end up listening to the most music. One thing I will also say format-wise, is that the process of recording music is so incredibly varied now, and the process of pressing a record has changed too (in ways I couldn’t tell you) that the quality of vinyl seems to really vary wildly from the old days. Sometimes digital or CD might be the best way to listen to new music. Tape too, because although it adds its own color, it’s more forgiving than pressing a record. As for my records, readers should probably purchase them on all formats, so you can let me know which is best (laughs).

++ I think this album was quite successful, I saw many people raving about it. I played it a lot and remember recommending it in the blog. As it is the first album, I am wondering what time period these songs encompass? Are there older and newer songs? Or most of them date from around 2020?

Thank you! I was certainly surprised. The beauty of a first record is you can spend as much time as you want making it. The songs were written from 2017-2019, there are even 4-track demo versions, and Tascam 388 demos of them. Mostly I was trying to figure out what I wanted my first record to sound like, while teaching myself how to make a record at the same time. Over that time period the songs were refined in cool ways. They still might be overstuffed, but when I go back and listen to them there is some complexity that I think I only got from working on them for a really long time.

++ There were a few videos made for songs from this first album too. “Wait Your Turn”, “Taking Time to Tell You” and “It’s True”. That’s quite a bit! I wonder which is your favourite out of the three and if you can tell me some details about them. Like where were they recorded? Or how long did it take to make them?

Photography is a long-time interest of mine, especially motion-film photography, Super 8. “Taking Time to Tell You” and “It’s True” were super 8 videos, and “Wait Your Turn” was digital– as I had to make a third video but I didn’t have time for the long turnaround of super 8 developing and digitizing. The Super 8 ones are my favorite. I really like “It’s True,” when my friend Mike Ramos (Tony Jay, Flowertown) and I drove around town trying to find cool places for shots. The merry-go-round shot is a favorite where Mike is filming me from the other side of the merry-go-round as it spins, so I’m stationary, but the background is spinning. I had the idea of it and it turned out great. And then we drove by this boarded up building that someone had muraled flowers all over, and that was a great shot too. There’s just a magic to motion-film that is totally unique and can’t be replicated digitally, like not even close. Editing super 8 on the computer is an incredibly time-consuming process, but I’m a crazy Virgo maniac so I can sit for hours lasering in on specific stuff.

++ And speaking of the videos, “Taking Time to Tell You” shows a motorcycle and a vintage car. Are they yours?

They were! I had a 1988 Volvo station wagon, and a 1964 Honda Superhawk, which appear in that video. My roommate brought a 1970s moped into our shared house when we were in college, and I caught the vintage bike/car bug bigtime. I can’t afford to get into cars, but I’ve had a number of old scooters and motorcycles over the years. I’ve sold both of the vehicles that appeared in that video, but I still have a 1960s Lambretta (mods mods mods!) and a BMW airhead motorcycle from the 70s that’s fun to ride out of town on. I traded the Volvo for a 1995 Toyota Previa because it’s a more reliable touring vehicle. I still consider it a vintage car with a lot of personality, but people joke that it’s still a soccer mom van. Previa heads know better!

++ After this first release came out a 7″ with the songs “Coming to Your Town” and “Love You More” during the Covid times. I read that you actually recorded the songs while being sick with Covid. Why did you do that? Why didn’t you wait until feeling better?

Not only did I finish the 7” with Covid, my partner and I were also in the middle of a move at the time! I actually started it before we got sick, but I mixed it and recorded the vocal when we had Covid. It was sort of out of necessity since we were about to move, which meant I had to dismantle my existing home studio, and I knew it would be a while before I was able to set up a new one.

++ The B side, “Love You More”, is a cool take on a Buzzcocks song. It sounds Sarah-esque in away, right? Is this the only cover you’ve done? Or are there other ones? Maybe some that you play live?

One of my favorite things about pop music is how one song can be one hundred songs, depending on where you take it. Covers are fun, and it’s even more fun to cover a song in the style of another artist, you get to do like two covers in one. “Does Love Last Forever” by Brighter is an entire genre in itself to me. The drum machine sound of Sarah bands is one thing of course, but the particular floating jangly lead guitar in Brighter is especially unique to me. So I was going for that. I recently did a cover of “Stephanie Says” by the Velvets for the 2024 Oakland Weekender comp, in the style of Jesus and Mary Chain/Meat Whiplash/Black Tambourine, just completely noisy with a crazy ringing snare and a ton of feedback. That one was really fun. I was also asked to submit a Cleaners from Venus cover to a comp that will be out later this year on Dandy Boy records, and I did “Mercury Girl” re-writing it a bit and making it my own, that I also really like (with some of that Brighter guitar influence).

++ Last question about this release. It was originally released on tape, right? I haven’t seen a copy of that tape, was the art different? How many copies were made? What’s the story?

Mike doesn’t really like making tapes, but I convinced him to do a tape release of the first Chime School record. The art is the same, but just reformatted for the different layout of the cassette. I have no idea how many were made, but I can tell you we still have some!

++ As mentioned before, you will release a new album in August, “The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel”. I’ve been listening to it and it sounds superb. Just the kind of music I like. So you open the album with a mostly acoustic song called “The End”. Sure, that’s cheeky. But was that planned from the start or when organizing songs it made sense to put this one first?

Thank you! Album sequencing is really important to me, “Start Again” from Teenage Fanclub’s Songs from Northern Britain is one of my all-time favorite openers. When this song started coming together, it felt a little bit like that song to me, so I figured I’d write it as a lyrical counterpoint and make it about endings as opposed to beginnings. It was kind of always supposed to be the first song, but the cheekiness was not at all intentional from the start.

++ To promote the album you’ve chosen the song “Give Your Heart Away”, which even has a cool video. Was it an easy choice to pick this track as the album’s first single? Were there any other options that were considered?

“Give Your Heart Away” was definitely the consensus first single for the record. It’s less than 3 minutes, has a strong chorus, a good middle-eight, and even a nice little guitar solo. That’s a single right there! I have to shout out Britta Leijonflycht (Smashing Times, Children Maybe Later) for the video. She’s an amazing animator, and had this idea to shoot video on her phone, print out black and white stills, color them in, and re-animate them. It turned out amazing!

“Wandering Song” was the consensus second single, because it’s a strong choice, but is a bit longer.

Mike thought “Desperate Days” would make a good third single, which I thought was an interesting choice. That song took the longest to record of any on the record, so I was pretty sick of it by that time. I chose to go with “The End” for the third single, which premieres July 31 with a video I’m really excited to share.

++ The album keeps jangling through 11 tracks and I reach song number 9 and I see a song titled “(I Hate) the Summer Sun”. And I start to wonder, your songs are sunny, upbeat… but perhaps you are more of the kind of indiepopkid that likes rainy and moody days? 

I definitely am. While everyone’s trying to soak up the last bit of the summertime, I’m always so happy when it comes to an end. Fall and Winter are my time. Lately I’ve been thinking a bit more about how people perceive the Chime School stuff as summer-ey. Maybe people equate catchy, upbeat music as “happy” or “summery” by default, but I thought of the first record as an Autumnal/Wintry record with its blue and white cover and autumnal insert photography, and the first song, “Wait Your Turn” about winter, cold, fallen leaves, etc. Some people who have heard the second record have also described it as Summer-ey, but when I listen to some of the harmonies and the color of the music, a lot of it sounds more autumnal and wistful to me. My bandmates, and Mike at Slumberland described Paisley Hotel as more moody when they first heard it, so maybe it comes through a bit more on the second record.

++ The album is going to be released on CD and vinyl. Will there be a cassette version as well?

I hope so!

++ And why the name “The Boy Who Ran the Paisley Hotel”?

I was voraciously reading various music books last summer as I was working on the record, kind of as a divining rod looking for words or phrases to inspire lyrics or a name for the record. Reading the Creation Records Story, there was a line about “a businessman’s hotel in Paisley,” referring to the town of Paisley (where the paisley pattern was invented!), but the line struck me as an evocative sentence so I wrote it down. The name “Chime School” is a nod to all the music that inspired me to start writing songs to begin with, so “The Boy Who Ran The Paisley Hotel” seemed like a cheeky mash-up of a bunch of those influences: Biff Bang Pow, TVPs, Belle and Sebastian, Feelies, the Paisley Underground scene (generally), etc. But also there’s the Paisley Shirt label here in San Francisco, part of a local scene that I also draw a lot of inspiration from. Also, I had an idea– along the lines of the “Beat Hotel”– about a Paisley Hotel in San Francisco where all the musicians in the Bay hung out at or lived at from time to time. Then when I found the artwork for the cover, I imagined this cat who lived in the hotel, and was friends with everyone and would be allowed in everyone’s rooms and knew everyone’s secrets, like a fly on the wall or something. Naturally a cat who lives in a hotel runs the thing, so it’s sort of literal too; the cat is “The Boy Who Runs the Paisley Hotel.”

++ How would you compare this 2nd album with your first one? Similar? Different?

I think Paisley Hotel is a lot more deliberate than the first record. The first record I was so excited to be making a record at all that I was trying to stuff as many things as I possibly could into it. I also didn’t really know what I was doing, which might be evident from time to time. For instance, I didn’t initially set out to go for a Sarah-records drum machine driven sound on the first record. I initially tried to do something more organic, with live drums, but I wasn’t able to get it to sound the way I wanted. The drum machine sound– although beloved– happened to be the first sound I could get that I felt was worth building upon, especially when I switched from recording on an analog tape machine to recording entirely on the computer.

When it came time to record The Boy Who Ran The Paisley Hotel, the experience I gained from the first record and the Chime School live group, inspired me to reach for a bigger, more developed sound and dive into some of the other territory that inspired the project from the beginning. I also feel the second record is a bit more focused, with a bit more of a condensed palette.

++ I noticed that you record and produce your records. This is not that common, so I wonder why you prefer doing it that way? Is it to have full control?

Most of the bands I know either record and produce themselves, or work with a close friend who gets their sound, in their own home studio so I think it’s more of a prevailing trend these days. Professional studios are expensive, and few bands have the ability to spend weeks in a studio making a record from start to finish. When bands use studios now, they’re either more stripped down bands where the record mostly sounds like the live band so it’s feasible to crank out 10 songs in a couple sessions, or, they use it to get drums or bass to tape, and do the rest on the computer or otherwise at home.

As far as the production, before I started playing and writing music, I was Djing and recording/engineering bands, so I’ve always been really into the art of how things sound. That’s part of the reason I like to produce my own stuff. I like to have the freedom to take a lot of time arranging and thinking about the songs while I’m recording them. I don’t necessarily know what a song is supposed to be until I start recording it. Making an entire record in a studio is tempting because I have my own limitations as an engineer and producer, but I’d probably have to make a complete demo version of the album at home first, so I’d know exactly what I wanted to do once I get to the studio, but that’s just too time consuming.

I would love to have the band play on the records, but everyone’s really busy playing in other bands and with their own lives, so it’s more convenient sometimes to record it all myself since I can play everything, and then bring it to the band to rehearse for live performance.

That said, I love what Phil, Josh and Garett bring to the live band, they’re incredible players, and I like how everyone puts their spin on the songs. I know people tend to like when a live band sounds just like the record, but I also enjoy hearing the songs in a fresh, maybe more energetic way, and hopefully the audience does as well.

++ Your records have a particular design, where typography and patterns are the unifying element. Is that something done on purpose? Do you design them or art direct?

I definitely wanted the records to have a bit of design symmetry and it’s very deliberate. I sought a lot of help on the first record, although I still kind of directed everything. My bandmate from Seablite, Galine Tumasyan did the hand lettering for the first Chime School album cover, so I kept it for the second record. Peter Hurley, the painter/musician who runs The Hit Gallery and plays in April Magazine did the painting for the first album (and I wanted something painterly for the second record as well). And my friend Michael Aguilar helped with the graphics and layout of everything, which I was incredibly grateful for.

++ And what about the cat on your last release? Is it a tribute to your cat perhaps?

I initially asked Peter Hurley if he wanted to do some art for the second record, but it seemed like timing was going to be an issue. I was a huge fan of this artist Sally Welchman, from Brighton, UK, who has a project called MoggShop where she does paintings on wood of animals, mostly cats. They’re wonderful. I asked if I could use “Tabby Cat” for the album cover, and she agreed! There’s also one on the back that everyone will see when the record is out, called “Guitar Cat.” I’m super happy to have her art on the cover. I highly recommend folks check her out. You can purchase original pieces–which sell fast– but also really high quality prints, which are nice to frame for home or give as gifts. Have a look – https://www.moggshop.com/

++ Has there been interest from other labels to work with you?

I’ve been asked to contribute to various compilations, but no one’s tried to poach me from Slumberland yet (laughs).

++ Are there more songs recorded by the band that haven’t seen the light of day?

Not really. I’m always so busy with the recording, production, photography, art, doing logistics for the live band, etc. that it’s hard for me to focus on writing tons of songs on a regular basis. My process so far has been: write songs, record, release, perform along the way, repeat. I imagine after the new record is out and we’ve toured a bit I might start thinking about what to do next songwriting and recording-wise.

++  Are there compilation appearances by the band?

Assuming you mean the live band, no, not yet, but I hope for there to be some day! I’d be stoked if they played on the next record too if it all works out.

++ I think my favourite song of yours might as well be “Taking Time To Tell You”, it reminds me a bit of the Razorcuts! I am wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

Razorcuts are a huge influence, especially “I Heard You the First Time” and “Mile High Towers.” Gregory Webster is without a doubt a “Cool Guitar Boy.”

This song has a bit of an extended backstory. In 2019 I saw a clip online of the band Swiftumz recording in the studio, and their guitar player Chris Guthridge playing a capo’d 12 string guitar. I had resisted using a capo on my 12 string because it always made it go out of tune– the tension of the capo can pull certain strings sharp and you have to re-tune so it was a pain. But Chris’ playing sounded so good I re-committed to figuring out how to make it work, and I even taught myself to play the earworm riff that Chris was playing in the video (the record they were making at the time just came out, the song they were recording in the clip is “Never Impress” by Switfumz). When I started using a capo more, it led me to develop an entirely new guitar playing style, and I ended up transposing a bunch of my songs from open to capo finding different chord phrasings, and it just completely opened up the instrument to me in a new way. Something magic happens when you capo a 12 string, even just on the 1st or 2nd fret, it makes it way more resonant in some way. After months of playing in this new style, the riff to “Taking Time To Tell You” came together one day, and the song sort of wrote itself in a quick afternoon.

++ If you were to choose your favorite Chime School song, which one would that be and why?

As far as songs themselves, I think “Taking Time To Tell You” or “Give Your Heart Away” are favorites just because they’re really nice, concise pop songs and I love the way they turned out on the records. As far as recordings go I think “The End,” “Wandering Song,” “Say Hello,” “Points of Light” might be some other favorites.

++ What about gigs? Have you played many?

I’m blessed to have a band of ringers, total seasoned pros who love to play shows. We are selective based on our own set of values and priorities at this point in our lives and we can’t play everything, but we love playing shows and try to play as many as we can.

++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

There’s a lot, so I’ll list a few that jump out.

Before I had the live band I did shows with a backing track. The first ever Chime School performance was under the overpass at Mountain Lake Park, a secret spot where the scene was doing generator shows during the pandemic. I was so nervous, but people seemed to like it. I was also proud that I used my auto mechanic knowledge to help Mike Ramos and Karina Gill get that generator working in 2020, it sort of kept the scene alive during the lockdowns.

I’ll never forget the album release show for the first record in November 2021 with Sad Eyed Beatniks, April Magazine, and Semi Trucks. I was still playing solo with a backing track and had only played maybe three or four shows. It was kind of unbelievable to me that people cared about the record at all, and then I was having this release show where these great bands I loved were playing it, and people came, and bought the record, it kind of made it real in a way.

The first time we played LA in July 2022 was when I met Mo Dotti, who were also on the bill. They were big fans of the first Chime School record, and I loved their two eps, so it was really cool to meet them and become friends. They’re one of my favorite bands. Meeting bands in other cities, all over the world, is one of my favorite things about doing music.

We did a quick Slumberland package tour in August 2022 with Papercuts, The Umbrellas, and The Reds, Pinks & Purples that was a blast. I remember there was an off-nite from the package tour, and the brollies’ booked a diy show in I think Long Beach, that we played with them. It turned into a pretty wild dance party during our set, and then got even crazier when The Umbrellas played; there’s some fun video on my instagram account of it. The kind of show where the energy just hits and everyone goes a little wild. You can’t make that happen, and it’s special when it does.

We did a Pacific Northwest tour with Blues Lawyer in 2023 that was incredibly fun. The funnest show might have been an outdoor pizza place in Eugene, which on paper seemed like it might not be the best show– a lot of people skip Eugene altogether– but the vibes were great, the band we played with, Growing Pains deliberately booked the show at an all ages space, and a ton of local kids came out. It was the penultimate show of the tour so everyone was kind of loose, and it ended up being one of the funnest shows of the trip. Goes to show you really never know!

Maybe the most magical show we ever played was the Vesuvio Anniversary Party in 2023, where we played outside in Jack Kerouac alley, which is between Vesuvio and City Lights Books. The whole alley was full of people, the sound was incredible. Just magical community vibes all around.

One of my favorite random anecdotes from touring was in Oxnard when we were going to play a YAY! Records-presents show. We had some time before load-in, so we went swimming in the ocean. Me and Garett were in the waves, and Josh was on the shore looking for the van keys, kind of motioning to us from the shore asking where they were. Then Garett was like “Oh I have the van keys, they’re in my pocket” like it was no big deal. Imagining total disaster, I’m like “Gary, we’re swimming in the ocean and the van keys are in your pocket?!” and he was like “ya it’s totally fine,” and it was totally fine.

Definitely looking forward to more!

++ Was there any interest from the radio?

We’ve been played a bit by Michael Bradley and Amy Lame on BBC, that’s the maybe most “exotic” radio interest we’ve had, but it’s always an honor to be played on all the great college and community freeform stations around the country like BFF.FM, KEXP, KALX, KDVS, KFJC, and the ultimate standard bearer, WFMU (among so many other great community stations).

++ Looking back in retrospect, so far, what would you say has been the biggest highlight for the band?

Although music hasn’t always been my focus, I look back and realize I’ve been involved in a DIY music scene of some form or another for almost the entirety of my adult life, from back in my KDVS days, to playing in bands sort of casually while going to shows, to DJing at bars and shows here in the city, and now having my own group. Thinking about all the things you can try to “do” with music, I’d say the only thing that really matters at the end of the day, is the community with people who have a shared musical interest and admiration for each others’ work. Your band might achieve some fleeting fame, or be one of the lucky ones and be able to eek out a living doing music. But for most of us, it’s important to remember that it doesn’t get much better than playing a show with bands you really like, full of people who are all having a good time and love the music. Doing music is such a struggle so much of the time, the camaraderie really keeps me going. As far as highlights go, meeting your heroes is always a cool one, and I’ve been fortunate to have a few of those cool experiences too, and may be fortunate to have a few more in the future.

++ And now, in the near future, what are the plans for the band? I suppose promoting the new album? How do you plan to do that?

We playing three California shows with our friends The Telephone Numbers after the new record comes out:

August 23 at the Makeout Room in San Francisco with the Telephone Numbers, and Hits.

August 24 at Permanent Records in LA with Telephone Numbers, Nic Hessler, and Le Pain.

August 25 at GONZO! In Carlsbad with Telephone Numbers.

We are incredibly honored to have been invited to play the Paris Popfest on September 27, where we are kind of starstruck to be playing with The Orchids, and Would-be-Goods, among other amazing and legendary bands. That will be followed by a 10-show UK Tour we’re incredibly excited about!

Aside from that we are going to start booking a Pacific Northwest tour for early December, and we’d like to play the East Coast in March or April of next year!

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

I spoke about the vintage motorbikes and photography, but aside from that I’m a  baseball and basketball fan, so I follow The San Francisco Giants and Golden State Warriors. I’m also a runner, which I got into during the pandemic and it completely transformed my life. I run about 2-3 times a week, about 7 miles at a time. Last year I ran almost 700 miles!

++ I went to San Francisco about 20 years ago! And then I wasn’t really into music. So I want to ask a local. What are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Are there any food or drinks one should also try?

Hit up some locals before you visit to see if there’s any shows going on that you might want to catch, there almost always will be, but there’s no local free-press like the old days so sometimes you have to follow the right people or accounts online to know about them. Some places to check might be the Makeout Room, Kilowatt, Knockout, Hit Gallery, Edinburgh Castle, or Rickshaw Stop in SF, or Stork Club, Eli’s, Little Hill, or Golden Bull in the east bay.
Here’s three activities for a visit to the city:
Hit up North Beach and visit Golden Boy Pizza where you can get a slice of clam and garlic pizza (mmm), or a delicious sandwich from Molinari, and then visit Vesuvio in North Beach, one of the still-extant legendary places in San Francisco.
Go to the Mission, buy some records at Thrillhouse on Mission and 29th St. Then grab a burrito, everyone has an opinion about the best one, but the correct opinion is an al pastor super burrito (no sour cream) from Taqueria Guadalajara on 24th St in the Mission. If you’re a vegetarian the
super veggie burrito from Taqueria Cancun is about as good as they come, and if you’re vegan I suppose you can go to Papalote. When you’re full, grab a drink at The Latin American Club on 22nd Street, and then walk up to 16th St and catch a movie at the Roxie Theater.
Walk through the panhandle, then through Golden Gate Park and into the Richmond district which has maybe the most and best food of anywhere in town. Grab a burger and a beer at Bill’s Place or some fried chicken at Hard Knox Cafe, then go see a movie at the 4Star Theater or the Balboa theater. Hit up Tunnel Records in the 4Star while you’re there (or their Sunset district location).