1) Does your music contain pink slime?
It's pink, slimey and cuddly on the inside. So yes.
2) Throughout my childhood, Nickelodeon was famous for sliming people who said “I don’t know”. What is your favorite Nickelodeon series?
As a kid I'm pretty sure I watched an unhealthy amount of Rupert, Are You Afraid of the Dark and Salute Your Shorts. But the best Nickelodeon series...is Avatar. Even though I only watched that like 2 years ago. Whatever.
3) Streetlight Manifesto is listed under your influences. Would you ever do an 8bit cover of one of their songs?
Hell yeah I would. There have always been quite a few Streetlight songs in the running whenever I decide on covers for live shows. I love playing covers and we play quite a bit so I'm sure at some show in the future you can expect to hear a Streetlight Song. Probably like "1234 1234" or something off "Somewhere in the Between".
4) I subscribe to a theory (which I am currently reconsidering) that people should be able to listen to music for free, and then if they like it they have a certain responsibility to buy it in some form—or just pay the artist somehow. A perfect example of this would be your “Vacation Wasteland EP”, which has a name your price download on it, but then can be purchased as a cassette… Except that the cassette is sold out. So, how can people buy your music physically and can I get a copy of the cassette?
I think in Vacation Wasteland's case, it was my debut and very first offering/release. So it felt right to make it pay what you want under the assumption that most people would just download it for free. At its initial release I considered it a demo EP. I think at this point, since I re-mastered it back in January I can feel ok just calling it an EP. I mean, not ALL future releases are going to be pay what you want. But some for sure will be. The cassette was just an added bonus meant to be fun and I didn't really make any money of it in the end. I was not at all expecting this many people to want the cassettes though and I've been trying to get more made cost effectively since last year. I keep saying that they'll "be out this month" and that never ends up happening so I'm not saying when they're coming back, and you've all heard it before, but, you know "before too long!"
Apart from that though, chances are if you go to a live show of mine I do have neat super bootleg DIY CDs available for sale. Eventually I want to print some nicer CDs or something for the people that do want them and sell them online, and then there's always vinyl. It's mostly all just an issue of money since I have to invest/pay for everything completely by myself. But I'm a fan of physical releases and Slime Girls will continue to have them...in the future.
5) Will a bunch of 8bit artists ever get together and form a super tour of sorts that goes around the country and teaches children about 8bit music? I feel like most 8bit bands don’t play outside their driving area, with the exception being Anamanaguchi.
Again, this is mostly an issue of money. I would absolutely love to tour across the country or even just the east coast. Or even just the entirity of the west coast, we still haven't been up to Portland or Seattle. But unfortunately driving costs way too much money with little guarantee of breaking even at the end of it, and it costs way more if you have a drumset you need to lug around. So in short, I would love to and it'll happen eventually!
Also, as far as the teachy thingy, in my area myself and a couple other notable acts like Crashfaster and Matthew Joseph Payne have done a pretty good job of having panels that sort of demonstrate how chiptune works, what we do etc etc.
I don't think my usage of chiptune is super specially impressive or anything but I'm always down to help people out or answer questions.
6) It’s been almost a year since your last release. Anything in the works coming up?
I've been finishing up quite a few new songs that we'll be playing, and there will be a single on Zoom Lens released sometime this summer. Apart from that I can't really say TOO much, but new stuff is certainly happening.
7) What are your thoughts on 8bit growing from when people used to strictly use Gameboys and now we have people infusing other sounds (such as metal) into their 8bit songs?
I am entirely all for it. Use a gameboy in a ska band, use a nintendo in a folk punk band. I want to hear it all. I really, really do. One of the many ideas behind Slime Girls at its inception was that I wanted to make stuff with chiptune that not really anybody was doing and I wanted to move chiptune forward a bit in whatever small way I could. We play local shows with indie bands, punk bands and synth pop bands, and I think that's wonderful and I wouldn't have it any other way. Chiptune can't survive if it's going to be insular and unchanging, so people should shake it up and add in their unique influences and try new things with it.
8) Final thoughts or manga suggested reading?
Yotsuba& is always heartwarming and perfect but Franken Fran is my eternal favorite.
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