Working in a day-glo palette of bright, analog synths, samples, and surreal vocoder tones Thomas Fec is able to create musical psychedelia sure to shock the even the most adventurous of listeners.
Fec, driving force behind Black Moth Super Rainbow and solo project Tobacco, will be serenading Summer Fest goers on the Budwesier stage at 7 p.m. June 4.
PP: What would you say is different about your role in Tobacco than in BMSR, besides the obvious?
TF: I mean my role is exactly the same but the way I approach it is a bit different. I guess the Black Moth stuff, none of its really normal but- I guess the Tobacco is more of like the stuff I'd be too worried about people getting freaked out by -that I wouldn't do with Black Moth. I did an interview recently where someone called Tobacco my id and I guess that would be the best way to explain it.
PP: I actually just realized today that you did two songs where you collaborated with Beck, what was that like?
TF:There wasn't really a whole lot to it. It was just an email thing. I sent him stuff and he sent stuff back. Yeah, not a whole lot of communication or anything.
PP: Another thing that's kind of fascinated me is how you use all this analog equipment when so many people seem to be avoiding it. Comparing advances that have been made now to back then, do you think you still could have made the same albums 20 years ago?
TF: Not quite. No. Well you say twenty years ago, maybe that. I just have to be a little bit more of a musician. I get lucky and write something quick and then I can play with it in the computer and the sampler. The only difference about if I did this 20 years ago I'd have to know how to play it for the whole length of the song or whatever. There's a lot more shortcuts these days.
PP: Yeah, and that's not a bad thing. That allows you to finish something quicker you have in your mind.
TF: It allows people who are really not talented like myself to do shit and trick people into thinking that I know what I'm doing [laughter].
PP: You could put it that way I guess. I'm kind of a bed room composer and dabble in some stuff similar to what you do but on a much simpler degree. Technology is definitely a help.
What is it like working with the analog technology though, is it real hard to find people to help you out with it and is there still a lot of it around?
TF: I think the analog thing -I think a lot of people assume that that's pure analog but really I'm sitting in a room right now with one, two, three analog synths and I've got a couple of tape echoes. I record everything into a sampler now and really it's just a couple analog keyboards that are the perfect keyboards. It's not as intense as it seems or at least how I made it seem a few years ago. Because I used to record to tape and everything. I don't even remember how long ago, like 8,000 years ago. But now I think if you have the right sampler it sounds better than tape.
FPH: I'll bet it's a bitch recording to tape all the time.
TF: You know it was stupid. I realized I couldn't even get it sound as good as I wanted. It was more of like -I was just trying to be an analog purist just for the sake of being an analog purist. There's some good things about using digital too and using tape is just really limiting and it's not always the best sounding option.
PP: The fact that you use digital and that you've moved on to using more digital things hasn't affected the sound at all in any detrimental way. And it makes perfect sense that you say you still have those three analog synths that sound perfect because there's still that warmth as opposed to people who are using purely digital equipment.
TF: That's really all it is. I could really cut that down to one synth and use that for everything and be totally fine. There's just a big difference between this stuff and the new stuff. Companies like Moog -and I don't want to say just them and single them out because there's a ton of them, they try to tell you like its all analog and that it sounds like the original and it doesn't sound anything like the original. There's no presence to anything these days. I think that's the heart of the sound, the presence. I guess the new synths are warm technically but they sound like they're wrapped in plastic.
PP: Yeah that's a good way to put it. I've played around with lots- I can't really afford anything I want now but any kind of Moog clone I've heard, it never lives up to the few times I've been able to play around with an original one.
TF: Yeah and they do all these tests on them where they compare the straight sine waves or whatever on both of them and it comes out exactly the same but that's not like a relevant test for a synth because it all has to do with the filters and the way all the circuits are reacting. It's just a completely different thing. If you go out and buy a new 3,000 dollar Mini Moog Voyager you'll spend another 6,000 dollars in processing gear just to make it sound like the original. I think that stuff is worthless. They'll sell you on it so hard. They've been spending all these years, trying to tell people that it's just as good if not superior and its just bullshit. You can hear it.
PP: You touched upon it a little before but what's your songwriting process like because maybe there's not actually as much going on as it sounds like but it definitely does sound like it.
TF: There's really no process. It's probably exactly the same as anyone with one keyboard and a drum machine. I don't know. I'll either write a beat or play around with the keyboard until I find something I like and keep layering and layering and strip away all the layers and take away all the bullshit and get it down to the couple of things that might matter.
PP: What's your live setup like? I haven't seen you live yet. Do you tour as just one person or do you bring session musicians on or people from BMSR? It just seems like it would be a daunting thing to do on your own.
TF: We come out as a three piece now -this is for the Houston show, right? They'll be a drummer and another synth player with me.
PP: Yeah because when I think of Tobacco I know it's basically just you and I'm picturing you running around doing all these different things.
TF: No, no. Not at all. Tobacco is more of DJ kind of thing and I guess we're kind of morphing it into a band but this actually going to be one of the last Tobacco shows for a very long time. We're actually going to go back to the Black Moth.
PP: I guess what in the music community today, whether it's fans or execs or other musicians, what annoys you? What are your pet peeves?
TF: Oh man. Everything. [laughter] There's an aspect to everything that annoys me. I started off making music and kind of felt like I was on a deserted island. No one wanted to deal with me, I was just kind on my own and we've gone out into the world and I feel like I want to go back to that desert island again. I think I'm just at that point where I need to hire a manager to deal with everything and I don't need to deal with anyone ever again. It's just too fucking much. I've never had a real manager or anything and I've always had to be involved, like way too involved. Most bands come up and as soon as they get a little bit of buzz, all the vulture managers kind of circle around them and then start taking their money and the kids never know anything. I kind of thought all these bands were assholes for doing that but now I wish I'd kind of done that because I just feel like I know too much. I know the evils of everything.
PP: I had no idea that you guys had no manager. I can totally see why you'd want one though so you could deal with less bullshit and just focus on the music.
TF: You know, I think so many things a manager would just jump on I would just ignore. Like 9 or 10 emails, whether they're good or bad just go straight into my trash. I just don't want to deal with it.
PP: I know it's uncomfortable and no one really likes to do this, but if someone held a gun to your head and said, “place yourself in a genre!” what would you do?
TF: What would I put myself in? Well I guess like what I was saying before, even though I don't agree with it and I don't listen to it and I don't listen to any of that stuff, everyone seems to call it psych music. So if I had a gun to my head I would have to say that because otherwise I just don't know what else I would say.
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