Hotly Buzzed Floridian Psych Rockers Tonstartssbandht Play Yugong Yishan Tonight, Sep 30

Floridian psych rockers Tonstartssbandht have been earning serious buzz in recent years, getting rave reviews from popular music blogs like Pitchfork, glowing profiles in highly regarded outlets like Interview and Vice, among other outlets. Now Beijing music fans can see what all the fuss is about for themselves, as the duo make their way to the capital for a show at Yugong Yishan tonight (Sep 30), sharing the bill with local psychedelic troop Chui Wan. Below drummer Edwin White (who co-founded the band with his brother, Andy) tells us about staying prolific, having eclectic tastes, and more.

Interview magazine quoted you as saying: "Our style of music definitely goes all over." How did your tastes became so eclectic?
Our parents played Oldies radio stations all the time, so we just grew up loving the standard Beatles, Beach Boys, etc. I still do. As teenagers, we got really into avant-garde stuff and the American noise scene – but really we just wanted to listen to everything. Miami hosts the annual International Noise Conference each February and Orlando would play host to lots of ... gigs. We were lucky to be able to easily see America's greatest weirdos play for coins at our local cafés and video stores.

On a whole, Florida offered us a beautiful noise baptism as teenagers. Watching and participating in those gigs showed us the beauty in the spectacle of performance, improvisation and the existence of limitless possibility – not only in music but also life, and the way in which music can be the catalyst for those possibilities on each of our lives ... But perhaps much more important for us was discovering late 60s/early 70s psych and prog, 80s heavy bevy's High Rise, and no doubt the Swedish hippies of Parson Sound et al. We are so lucky that right when we wanted to dive off the deep end in to the world's ocean of musical history, stuff like Soulseek and all the old Blogspot zip sharing sites were just peaking. God Bless the Golden Age of Sonic Dreams. May it continue, and restrengthen, for all and forever.

Pitchfork lauded your drumming, and Andy's "enormous, lush sound with his 12-string Danelectro." But are there any challenges bringing what you create in the studio to the stage?
The studio is like a legendary fat book that you're writing with all the secret jokes and riddles and winks and the adroit character studies and turns of phrase and insightful revelations and deep, deepest soothing beauty. And you don't just huff benzedrine and crank it on one scroll (or you can I guess), but you probably wanna sit down and drink a beer, let time pass and watch plants come and go and relationships shift, and your happiness wanes and charges. Think about all the days where you're trying to record and you are just incapable, 'cause it's after work and your bod is at zero, or you can't shake the mood you're carrying after the weird interaction from this morning. At least the stage brings adrenaline and a "this is our one shot" mentality. The studio is like, you know you can make this better, clearer, closer to the platonic form. Retakes, good days, bad days, new ideas, the overdubs, the weird frequencies that won't peace. One day you go "f*ck this song, you are now down my friend." For me the stage is easy, but I still have room to grow. But I'm definitely floating on some things I feel locked in on and I love this feeling of this ride. In the studio, well there are good days and bad days. Keep changing your expectations and allow for more, and you'll feel the full peace.

Many critics have also praised your output, calling you highly prolific. What motivates you and keeps you going at such a rapid pace?
Both of us feel like we have a lot of fun making music and performing, and pulling our hair out trying to accurately express ourselves through it. Even when tours and shows have you broken, you've added some tummy chub, your face looks like a Cheeto, and all your friends and loved ones think you're like neglecting too many other aspects of your life ... Music feels right as rain.

We have certainly had periods of waning productivity. Often it's just to hunker down and work jobs to play catch up financially and give ourselves a boost in the real world. Other times it's just that cyclical feeling of "Man I don't want to think about albums or songs or tours" 'cause you gotta try and keep a balance. But we both feel our happiest and our proudest when we are creating music we love and want to share. Simple ethos and fully universal. I hope we are able to continue pursuing these creative goals and personal projects for as long as desired. It's not easy locating your place in this world and then pinpointing the next coordinate to point yourself towards. Our tunes are just our non-verbal reactions to the whole experience and it brings us both immense joy to perform them for people as a part of that experience. Thanks for listening, everyone, even to my words here. We appreciate your curiosity.

Are you excited to play with Chui Wan in Beijing?
Yes! I am not super familiar with them other than that everyone tells me they are the sh*t! This show will be bonkers.

What's next for Tonstartssbandht?
We should have a new album out next year, and we have one or two more we would love to finish recording before the end of 2016. There are tours in the works for parts of North American and Europe next year, new places and overdue revisits. We mostly want to create as much new music as we can naturally, whatever comes about and is pleasing. So we will focus our attention on that back in Florida. We shall see what occurs.

Tonstartssbandht will perform at Yugong Yishan tonight, September 30 at 9pm. Tickets are RMB 80 presale, RMB 120 at the door. For more information, click here.

More stories by this author here.
Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
Twitter: @MulKyle
WeChat: 13263495040

Photo: genjingrecords.com