Teepee Interview

How did your solo music project, TeePee, come about?

Before I started Teepee I was playing in bands like the The Mutiny, Cocksuckers Anonymous, Tusks, & Free Improv groups. They were all amazing groups but I really wanted to try and write solo based material. One particular event that just struck the whole thing was when the Electric Bunnies needed a guitarist for a show in Orlando. I told them that i'd be willing to learn the material and play the show. They decided to take me in. We drove up to Orlando and I experienced a whole new world of music. We stayed the night at Rich's house from Florida's Dying records. He was running his label/distro out of his house at the time. All of us crammed into a small room and listened to everything he had for sale. I was blown away by a lot of the records and bought a few records my friends told me to pick up. I was glued to the records and I decided to seriously take on a solo project.

How do you feel about juggling time/creative efforts between The Electric Bunnies and Melted Sunglasses and your solo music?

I guess I have a lot of energy when it comes down to playing/writing/recording music. Whenever the time comes when I have to practice with all the bands I feel good and productive because i'm running around the city, spending late nights rehearsing or recording, talking about music, and all that fun stuff.

Which band/music project offers more creative freedom?

Also I noticed at So Raw you had a live band - mostly I've seen you play entirely solo... Would you care to elaborate on this new expansion?

Teepee. Especially when I play live, I feel more freedom because I don't have to play a particular song exactly the way its recorded or even have to play the versus and choruses the same length. At times I have musicians sit in with me and the songs end up being completely different. Even though I play most of my shows by myself. Whenever I do have other musicians sit in with me, I love it because they add their own feel to the song. I'm a fan of Jazz so I kind of transferred the whole "jam session-like" mentality over to Teepee. Since I don't have a "band" yet, I like to have all kinds of musicians play with me.

How do you feel about the local music scene and the resurgence of garage rock in today's underground music scene?

I'm very excited about it. I like how there's no specific genre that were all playing. If you compare the Electric Bunnies to Jacuzzi Boys you obviously have 2 completely different sounds. In my opinion the music genre is all over the place, in a good way.

A lot of your releases (S.S Norway) seem to have very elaborate and interesting background stories, how do you come up with them?

Everyone is full of stories. Sometimes I hear a particular story that really effects me and if it strikes a musical idea, I'll tend to use it.

Also, any other release of yours have an interesting concept to them besides S.S Norway?

I released a cassette called "Wooden Noise". And the idea came to me while I was listening to chain saws cutting down trees. Their were about 4 men cutting down trees that day and I noticed that each chain saw had it's own note and the intervals of each note made a very dissonant chord in the air. I grabbed my field recording mic and recorded a few minutes of it. After that I decided to create a few songs on wooden instruments but I used some keyboard effects to enhance the sound.

Any releases we should look forward from you or your various bands?

My main project at the moment is my 2nd LP. It's been in the works since December 2009. My partner in crime, Albert Ovadia is the engineer for the album and he's done an amazing job so far. The production and sonic quality of this record is over the top (in a good way of course) compared to my past releases. Since we have no deadline we've been taking our time with it. And this album will actually consist of a band! So i'm super stoked for that!

other stuff to come out one day:

Teepee 10" on Mastermind Records

Nerve City/Teepee Tape split

The Dreams/Teepee 7" split on Kill Shaman Records

MillionYoungs/Teepee Record split on Sweat Records

V/A HoZac Hookup Klub 12" Compilation on HoZac

I fucking love this guy. Awesome local florida music!