Riffing with Guitar about Casting Spells On Turtlehead

 

The artist at home

A couple weeks ago, I sat down with Portland’s Guitar to talk about his new EP, Casting Spells on Turtlehead. I was introduced to his music last summer, and I was immediately hooked by his incredible guitar (noun) sound and songwriting. Now, through the magic of RSS feeds, you can witness our conversation.

Introduce yourself

Saia: My name is Saia, my pronouns are he/him. I make music under the project Guitar, I also play guitar for my friend's band Nick Normal.

How did the Guitar project come to be?

Saia: During lockdown. I had always done rock stuff, I had a band previously called Gary Supply. It was more of a DEVO-inspired egg punk sort of thing. And then I did hip-hop during the covid lockdown, I sold beats and stuff, and got really into using Ableton. And then when shows started happening again, I was inspired to get back into doing rock stuff again. So I took my skills from Ableton, and I started doing some early Guitar demos. And it was from those demos that it started to come together. It’s sort of a solo project, for the most part, but we have a live band. 

Why did you choose the name Guitar?

Saia: I had a whole bunch of ideas, and I brought them to my brother and my other friend, who was in Gary Supply. And I pitched them to them, and when I said Guitar they started dying laughing, And I was like, “alright that’s the one”. Like, it's funny, but it’s also like, I think it's cool, you know?

What were you going for with Casting Spells on Turtlehead, and how does that differ from previous releases?

Saia: I think the first Guitar EP, it was just self titled, was just a collection of ideas. I came up with the name right before I made that project, but I had the demos floating around. So that was a little all over the place, I think there was a weird, Quasimodo-influenced hip hop song as an interlude. And some of the stuff was still influenced by my older influences, like CCTV and Toneheads and stuff. But I feel like this one has a bit more of an identity to it. It’s a bit more cohesive I feel like, ‘cause I have been planning it out, and picking songs more carefully.

WC: It’s funny you mention Quasimodo influence on the self titled EP. I was listening to it while walking home from work earlier today. And when I got to that track, I thought to myself “I should ask him if this was influenced by Quasimodo”.

Saia: Honestly, Quasimodo, and Madlib in general, is like, my favorite artist. I think there’s some influence on the way I do things, even when I’m doing indie rock, from MF DOOM and Quasimodo. Just kind of the weirdo element, that’s what I really love.

The guitar tones on Spells are a lot more processed than on your previous releases, was that a conscious choice?

Saia: Really, I think I got even more comfortable in Ableton. There’s a couple songs where I mic an amp, but a lot of the songs on the new project are just direct in, and I have some cheesy free amp plugins I use to get distortion sounds. So some of it was I found some sick free plugins. When I write stuff, I usually just work on a demo, and polish it until it becomes the finished track. A lot of that stuff I just found a preset and was like “oh, this is sick! I’m gonna use this”. So the song is kind of formed around how the demo sounds initially, and the things I try right at the beginning. It’s not like I write the song on acoustic guitar and sort of plot it out, it all happens while I’m demoing. And, I really love demoing, that helps me. ‘Cause I’ve worked on projects before where I recorded into a 4-track, like all of my old band’s stuff. And I feel like by the time we were done making a song, we all kind of hate them, we go through rounds and rounds of re-recording and editing. But when I do it in Ableton it’s so fast, and I can flesh out ideas really quickly. And by the time it’s done I still really enjoy it. And I’m hoping that you can hear when you listen to the recordings. I think on this EP also, with this heavier guitar sound, I was listening to tons of Weezer’s Blue Album, and I was like “I want to do that”.

What’s the record about, if it’s about anything?

Saia: It’s very stream of consciousness. Probably my favorite rock artist is Guided By Voices, and the way that Robert Pollard writes lyrics is how I like to think about writing lyrics. I come up with a melody, and from there on it’s random stuff that fits it. There are some themes to this record, I feel like. There are certain songs where I was definitely thinking about something. Like the opening track, My City My Rules. I grew up in Portland, but even though I grew up here and played all my early shows here, I still felt like a bit of an outsider in the music scene. It was hard to book shows and get into it for a long time. So it was kind of a joke, ‘cause even though I’m from here, it's not like I run this city or anything. But also, it was kind of like, I should have a place in this scene, ‘cause most of the people in Portland are transplants from somewhere else. But luckily with the people I run with in the Portland scene, I really wouldn’t be able to keep on doing music if it wasn’t for them helping me out, and putting me on, and getting me on shows, So I’m really thankful for that. That was just kind of one thing. I’m also really big into Dungeons & Dragons, and that’s sort of the name, it has sort of a mystical, outsider art kind of sound to it. And I think that my approach to a lot of lyrics is sort of influenced by an outsider art perspective.

 

Spells is being jointly released by Spared Flesh and Julia’s War Records, how did that arrangement come about?

Saia: It just kind of happened. I liked Julia’s War for a while, my buddies in Fib, they’re on Julia’s War, they used to live in Portland. I actually had a hardcore band that they both played in called Kuli. But they put me onto them, and I’d been listening to their roster. And Doug from Julia’s War came into town with TAGABOW, I saw them, and my buddy Nikhil introduced me to him. And Doug was a really nice guy, he was stoked on one of the songs off the old EP. And so I reached out to him later on, and he was down to co-release it. To backtrack, I had already done the last EP on Spared Flesh. Sebastian is a buddy of mine, and does a really great job with his label. I already knew I wanted to release it on Spared Flesh, and then when the opportunity came about with Julia’s War, I was like “let’s do a co-release”. I saw that they had done a couple of those, and there’s some heads out in Philly that want to hear guitar music. Are you out in Philly?

WC: Yeah

Saia: Oh, hell yeah!

WC: Incidentally, I got introduced to your music because I was talking to Charlie of Fib at one of their shows. And he mentioned a proposed Guitar East Coast tour that got canceled. He was like “yeah, you should check this out, it’s really good” so I downloaded Element of Surprise and it knocked my socks off.

Saia: Yeah, Charlie’s the man, man. He’s like, the best drummer.

WC: Yeah, it feels like the entire ethos of Fib is writing music that’s at the very edge of their own technical ability.

Saia: I love Fib, they write really heady tracks, but it’s super catchy and also, like, wild time signatures and they lock in so hard. Me and my partner have talked about moving out to Philly, ‘cause there’s so much good music going on, and it is more affordable than Portland.

WC: It does feel like Philadelphia is the place to be for underground guitar bands currently, though I’m kind of biased. It would be pretty funny if there ends up being a trend of Portlanders releasing stuff on Julia’s War and then moving across the country to Philly.

Saia: I could see it happening. Actually, my buddies from a different band, Parlor Hour, are moving to the East Coast, to New York. They’re really sick too, you should check them out if you get the chance.

What’s your favorite 10 second stretch of Spells?

Saia: Probably the intro to One Unit Of Chaos. It’s a sample of some weird Youtube show. It’s not even a show that I watch, I was just listening to Soundcloud beats, and it was some random crappy beat I heard where they sampled part of that show. And I was like “yo, I wanna do that too”. That’s probably my favorite ten seconds, it just randomly worked out.

WC: I always like opening a song with a non-sequitur sample.

Saia: It’s also something I liked to do when I was producing beats ‘cause I was such a big Quasimodo fan. I’d love to do more of that, but it’s kind of hard to find the right sample.

What tunings do you use?

Saia: Everything’s in D Standard. On the first EP everything was pitch shifted. I think I wasn’t used to hearing my voice singing, ‘cause I would yell in everything else, the hip hop and the hardcore stuff. So I was really uneasy hearing myself sing a tune, but when I pitched it up or down I was like, alright, “that sounds cool”. But I think this EP I got way more comfortable, and knowing that I have a live band, I figured I’d do it all without pitch shifting.

WC: I was going to ask what your recording setup is, but by the sound of things it's all direct-in to Ableton.

Saia: Basically, yeah, I’m in my garage right now, this is where the magic happens. I have a little Orange amp, like one of those solid state tiny ones. Just a tiny one that I set on my desk, and then I have one mic, and Ableton. The drums were recorded at my buddy Nikhil’s studio, and he has a sweet setup. I don’t know what he’s got going there, but it’s nice.

Who are some of your favorite music artists?

Saia: Guided By Voices, and all of the associated bands. Robert Pollard also has this group called Teenage Guitar, which I thought was funny. I found that out after I had the name Guitar, and there’s some really cool tracks on there. Yeah, Guided By Voices, The Sundays, love The Sundays. I think everyone loves The Sundays.

WC: I’ve never heard of them.

Saia: Oh, you should check them out! Charlie put me onto that too, funnily enough. Quasimodo, MF DOOM, and YMO. I love Yellow Magic Orchestra, for a long time that was my favorite band. And yeah, Weezer, love early Weezer. And then, for modern bands, TAGABOW, Fib, a lot of the bands off the Julia’s War roster, Worlds Worst, really fuckin good.

Who are some of your favorite non-music artists?

Saia: I do like James Joyce a lot, at least I really like Finnegan’s Wake. I sometimes read it for lyrical inspiration, it’s just so out there and strange. A lot of the visual art that I, I guess look at, it’s music artists who do art. Like Captain Beefheart’s paintings, I really like the artwork he does. Same with Robert Pollard, I really like a lot of his visual art. But I can’t say that I’m an art head, or aficionado, or anything. I just see stuff and fuck with it, and that’s about it (laughs).

What’s the scene like in Portland?

Saia: The scene feels smaller than what I perceive the East Coast scene to be. But it’s cool, people come out to shows and have a good time. Sometimes it can get a little cliquey, it kind of depends on the scene. Like hardcore, and screamo, and Portlands had a long running emo scene that's kind of cool. There’s little pockets of it, I think that’s to be expected from a city that’s not as big as Los Angeles, or Philly, or New York. But it’s cool, I do miss some of the DIY venues that were around before COVID. I remember going to a lot of really cool house shows, but a lot of those venues died off during lockdown. It’s mostly bar shows, although now there’s starting to be some house shows popping up. Yeah, I think DIY is doing good over here, I can’t really knock it.

WC: My own personal experience is with the Philly scene, which is very rooted in the various colleges in the city. Does Portland have a college scene?

Saia: It doesn’t really. It has, like, PSU, but the other schools that are more known are University of Oregon, in Eugene, and OSU in Corvallis. I think those towns have good shows, I just don’t play there that often. But yeah, I can imagine that being a big driver for the scene out there.

WC: Yeah.

Saia: But I think Portland’s interesting. There’s all kinds of different acts and genres that end up commingling. You get weird lineups with hip hop, and hardcore, and indie, a good mix of stuff. I think of the shows I go to out here, my favorite’s are the hardcore stuff. I think one thing that’s really popping out here. Like Olympia, and Portland, and the Bay Area, and Los Angeles. Hardcore is just so fun, so many good bands, good venues, such a cool energy.

What’s your go to pre show meal?

Saia: Like two Guinnesses, probably (laughs). I think there’s probably enough calories there to be considered a meal. I don’t know, I don’t like to perform on a super full stomach. Even though I’ve been doing shows for so long, I still get kind of anxious about it, so I usually don’t eat until afterwards.

Do you have anything you want to plug/shout out other than your own music?\

Saia: I’ll shout out the band I play guitar in, Nick Normal. Nick is the Portland head, he’s been doing it for a long time, and doing it right. I think that without his encouragement, I don’t know if I would still be messing around with rock stuff to the extent that I do. Gotta shout him out, his music’s really cool, he has an album in the works. My friends, including Nick, they have another metal band called 22RE, they’re sick, you should check out their tape. It’s like, crossover thrash metal. And they don’t talk about it very much, but they formed in McMurdo Station, Antarctica. They all did a demolition job for a couple months in McMurdo, and they had a jam room there, and that’s where they wrote all the songs for the EP. And my friend's band, Kill Michael, they’re really sick, I don’t know how to describe it, there’s a little nu metal influence. And they’re really good people, my friend Zoe from that band, who did the screamo vocals at the end of Unleashed, he’s a really cool guy, does all kinds of cool art. I shouted out Parlor Hour, they’re really sick, good songwriters. Yeah, that’s all I can think of now. And yeah, for the most part I’m just doing Guitar-oriented music now, I would like to get back into beats eventually, but I’ve just been really inspired by guitar stuff now.

You can buy Casting Spells On Turtlehead here (digital only at the moment).