Download Foam Castles' four song EP for free HERE.
Describe your music.
Rock/pop. We're working on the fifth Foam Castles release and have never set foot in a studio, so there's probably a living room/bedroom/basement aesthetic that's consistent.
If you could import three bands to Portland to play with regularly, who would they be?
Nick Gilder, Andy Kim, Paper Lace.
What was the reasoning behind your EP being free on Bandcamp?
It made sense to at least provide an option for the EP to be free, especially considering it's about 15 minutes long. Bandcamp is really user-friendly for bands and listeners. Peapod Recordings will be physically releasing it pretty soon, on CD. That'll give people a chance to see D.J.'s psychedelic people collage in its entirety. The EP cover that's online is only the right half of the whole piece.
If you could own and operate one club in town, which would it be?
Would I be replacing the current owner of that establishment or would I trade places with them metaphysically? Or would I open up a new club? Ideal situation would involve Sangillo's morphing into an all night Steely Dan karaoke bar with free alcohol.
How does a song like Horticulture Friends come about? Could you walk me through that songwriting process from inception to creation.
Horticulture Friends started a couple years ago. It was built upon a bass line that I borrowed from an older Foam Castles song. On top of that it's just layered guitar parts and a super processed drum loop. And a bit more. All of the songs on that EP were conceived and created inside the recording software; they're not sit-down-with-a-guitar type songs. The lyrics were probably made up on the spot then recorded using the internal mic on my laptop. I gave an incomplete version of the song to the second Treble Treble compilation, and then somehow got in touch with Landy Shores from RAMP to finish off the song with a funk guitar part. That was really unexpected and exciting. It's also a bicoastal, Fabergé-ian song, in that it began in Portland, was mostly completed in Los Angeles, almost finished in Portland, then revitalized by Landy Shores in Los Angeles, then actually finished in Portland.
What are you working on now?
We've been working on a new Foam Castles record for about a year. The recording process is just about done, and now a guy named Chris Cambra is going to mix it at his home studio in Rochester, NH. This will be my first time not mixing, which is exciting because it'll sound different and probably better than our past releases. He's mixing Brenda's new record right now, which everyone should look out for. Hopefully the whole thing will be finished this Fall and come out on Peapod soon after that. The people on this album are D.J. Moore, Tyler Quist, Jimmy Dorrity, me, and soon, Oscar Romero, who played his first show with us on a Party Barge a few weeks ago. Also working with a new rock 'n' roll sextet called Endless Jags, which features members of Gully, Foam Castles, Brenda, Haru Bangs, The Ringers, Domino Harvey, and probably more.