A conversation with Chaz Bundick of Toro y Moi

Junior Varsity

I caught Toro y Moi’s set this year at Fun Fun Fun Fest just a little before I was supposed to meet up to have this interview. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a solo musician who works mostly with computers and synths in a live setting, but to my surprise, he had a full band with him. Though the music was different from the recordings most people are used to, it stayed pretty close to the same aesthetic and was much more entertaining to watch than what I was expecting. After having a great experience watching his set, I ran over to meet up with Chaz Bundick. Jv: So I heard it is your birthday today. How old are you today? Chaz: Twenty four Jv: Oh wow I hear that’s a good year. Chaz: Haha, oh yeah twenty four is awesome man. Jv: Anyway, the first thing I was curious about was, after seeing you live and listening to the recordings, was how does your process go, about switching your recordings to live

performance. Chaz: Well the guys, Patrick and Andy, Patrick plays bass and Andy plays drums, we have all played together in previous bands and so we sorta know how we work. I mean, we change it up to accommodate the way we work together a lot, not like how the record sounds. Jv: So do you write everything by yourself or do they ever help with the recording process? Chaz: No, maybe that would be cool to let them help out with the recoding, but like if I ever want to do something live tracked, that would be cool to try to do, something old fashion style, everything played live. Jv: So what are your plans? You’re coming out with a record soon right? Chaz: Yeah, I’m trying to shoot for February or March. It’s actually on its way to mastering tomorrow. Jv: So how is it going to be different from what you’ve put out before? CHAZ: Well, It’s pretty much all acoustic and live instruments. The goal is to try to show another side, show another approach, reach out to different fans, and see where it goes. Jv: Would you say it’s in the same vain as the first album or is it something totally different? Chaz; yeah it’s very different; there’s a lot of haziness atmosphere and that kind of stuff. My influences were completely different. Jv: I’m curious about your gear. What kind of stuff are you using up there? Chaz: Well I have a Korg R3. I’ve got a couple of loop pedals, delay, and I have an SP 404(a sampler made by Roland). Yeah I just started using the 404; I’d never used a sampler before. It’s cool; I mean I don’t even know what else it can do. All I know how to do right now is press and load samples. But it’d be cool to use it actually as its full potential. Jv: So what are you going to do for your birthday? Chaz: I don’t know, probably going to hang out with friends, the band and the Washed Out guys. Yeah, we have a rental car and we have a hotel so yeah. Jv: Oh cool, so are you hanging out for the day in Austin? Chaz: Yeah we’re here for like 3 more days. Yeah, we have a couple of days off. Actually we’re in the middle of a 6 week tour, so we did like 3 and half weeks in Europe and now we

have like two weeks left up the west coast. Driving around the states is so much more brutal than driving in Europe. It’s like Europe is pretty much scattered everywhere people wise. Driving in west Texas is a nightmare.