If you go out in the Twin Cities at night, you’re likely to run into theyself in the form of Doc, who sees more music than most people I know. The impact seems to bubble up in the great diversity in music that theyself creates – and this last collection is again – something entirely new and delightful.
This is such a departure from Roost, which was a collection of beautiful low-fi pieces on the piano. But there are similarities; there is a feeling of each recording being site specific and all you. Can you tell us about the recording of the album?
Of course! 1500 was recorded in my old tour van.
Why in the van? Which came first the location or the songs?
The past couple years I’ve either been at work, home, or on the road. There was a lot of windshield time and I had the songs already lying around.
When theyself was performing around the waves of covid I would spend most of my time hiding in the van at gigs. I would cut demos before shows. It was good for developing ideas and it would help polish arrangements. Then it became a project.
I knew the van was on its last legs and that kicked off a complicated grieving process. I spent so much of my time in that thing! It survived 5 bands and several states. I grew plants and succulents in the oversized cup holders. I kept a bed in the back of it. It was practically a second apartment at points in my life. The only fitting send off felt like recording a whole EP in the van.
You start and end with ouroboros, which is clever in itself and both tracks are remarkable. I love the atmospheric elements of the first track but bringing the generational elements of the every-person in the ouroboros in the last track really pulls at the heart strings. What is the inspiration?
I think at a certain point we realize or maybe even fear that we might be our parents. It’s inescapable. It’s where we came from. There’s nothing we can do. We see traces of it in ourselves sometimes. Maybe it’s the way our own laugh sounds.
Despite all that road running there’s this nagging feeling that you ARE your father or you ARE your mother. It’s where they came from. It’s bigger than all of us and yet it is all of us.
And why does the last track end so abruptly? The ouroboros is meant to be never-ending. The ending messed with my brain a little – in a good way!
If you were going to listen to the tape in my van the EP would just start over from the top when it got to the end so I wanted to create some sort of illusion.
It’s a never ending cycle – It begins with a theme. We go on a ride. The snake eats its own tail. Then it all starts again.
Please tell us about upcoming shows.
Shows have been great so far!
Big Turn and Rochester were fantastic and playing a roller derby halftime was incredible!
The tape will be released in May and to celebrate we’re going to have a residency every Tuesday at the 331 Club in Minneapolis.
The record is now on streaming services worldwide and on my website. If you don’t want to wait until May for a tape you can find one in person at the following dates:
- 3.4 ed’s no name bar – winona, mn
- 3.18 hell’s kitchen – minneapolis, mn
- 3.21 the nakato – manakto, mn
- 3.28 331 club with mikkel beckman
- 4.1 forager brewing – rochester mn
- 4.21 earth rider beer – superior wisconsin
- 4.22 sir ben’s on the lake – duluth mn
- 5.2 release residency 331 club – minneapolis, mn
- 5.9 release residency 331 club – minneapolis, mn
- 5.12 mid west music fest – winona, mn
- 5.16 release residency 331 club – minneapolis, mn
- 5/.23 release residency 331 club – minneapolis, mn
- 5.30 release residency 331 club – minneapolis, mn
- 6.2 island city brewing company – winona mn
Mostly Minnesota 