Episode 7: “no gods, just blaseball” with zandterbird
This week, Aoife interviews zandterbird about “no gods, just blaseball” from the garages kill the gods. “I cheated a little bit on that song because like all my regular gear, like like my main guitar and my amp and like my pedalboard, everything is sort of locked away in a rehearsal room in another city. And that’s basically, thanks again to the pandemic going on,” zandterbird says, recounting the difficulty in recording his song, and the unique sound it led to. “So I just had like a backup guitar, like a very cheap but reliable backup guitar and I basically plugged it into my interface and I simulated the amp and, like, all the pedals which allowed me to sort of explore more different pedal settings, sort of really dial in exactly that tone that you mentioned, that sort of like that closeness.”
zandterbird is a hobby musician, professional music critic and hard-wired to enjoy every 90s emo song, among other things. Listen to zandterbird’s bands at arterials.bandcamp.com and on Soundcloud at rowanoakms.bandcamp.com.
This episode of idol board was edited by Jennifer Cat with additional editing by AlmightyVeg, hosted by Aoife, produced by Tangereen Velveteen, transcribed by Merry, and written by Aoife and Tangereen Velveteen. Find all episodes and transcripts of idol board at fourth-strike.com/podcast and follow @idolboard on Twitter for updates. Get all episodes plus bonuses by supporting Fourth Strike on Patreon.
Listen to “no gods, just blaseball” by the garages on Blandcamp:
Episode Transcript
[musical intro plays]ANNOUNCER:
You’re listening to a Fourth Strike production.[The end of the musical intro plays, followed by the pre-chorus and first chorus from ‘no gods, just blaseball’. The vocals fade out while the instrumentals continue playing under the conversation.]
AOIFE:
Hello and welcome to idol board! I’m Aoife and I use she/her pronouns. In this podcast, I will be interviewing members of the garages about their songs, the creation process, and possible inspirations. My guest for this episode is garages band member zandterbird. Thanks for coming on zandterbird! Can you tell us your pronouns, your coffee style, and what song you’ll be talking about with us today?ZANDTERBIRD:
For sure, uh, thanks for having me on, on the podcast, um, my pronouns are he/him, my coffee style is espresso with lots and lots of oat milk, and the song we’ll talk about is ‘no gods, just blaseball’.AOIFE:
Great, so first off, when and why did you choose to join the garages? The band, not the team.ZANDTERBIRD:
Yeah. So, uh, I think it was basically as soon as I heard the first songs that were put out, um, by the garages the band, I decided to- to get in on- on the fun I guess. I think like the first songs came out August 1st, I guess, so like, by uh, by june and MQ, and yeah pretty, pretty soon after that I was- I decided to sort of join the fray and yeah throw my hat in with, with the band. Like the reason why I chose to, to become a part of it is because I’ve been making music for a long time, but only like in a, in a band context and it sort of, it felt like something was missing due to the whole COVID situation, so it felt like a needed creative outlet and I sort of took the chance to, to get in on that, um, yeah, as soon as, as soon as it sort of started, as soon as it kicked off.AOIFE:
Yeah, definitely. So, outside of the band, what is your musical background?ZANDTERBIRD:
So, I’ve actually been playing in bands since… I’d say like about ten years? I had a couple of bands over the years. I never had any, like formal schooling, I never took any guitar lessons, or… well I had, actually I had exactly one singing lesson about… I dunno it must have been five or six years ago now, um, and I never took that further, so, I’m basically all. uh, self-taught and, yeah! I mean, I’ve been releasing music since like, since 10 years, but still, the way the garages release music was still something novel to me, like the pace and like the, the focus of it all. Yeah, and it was also like interesting because I see myself like more as a singer than than a guitar player because I don’t really, uh, I don’t think my guitar skills are that great, so and, that’s, that’s basically why none of my songs have any, like, lead guitar melodies, and I only have mostly rhythm guitar. It’s just because of, uh, yeah, a lack of, uh, lead guitar talent, I guess. So yeah.AOIFE:
[chuckles] So, when working on, on, ‘no gods, just blaseball’, how did the song start in your mind?ZANDTERBIRD:
So, basically I had this, the intro bit of the song where there’s only guitar playing. [the guitar from the intro of ‘no gods, just blaseball’ plays]ZANDTERBIRD:
That was a part that I wanted to, had wanted to use for a song for the longest time, it’s always been, like, at the back of my mind but I never got to work it into any songs of my bands. So it sort of just like, y’know, meandered through my mind at times and was always sort of there and, um, like that’s also the, the first thing I started the song with! I was like, okay now I have, like, all this time to get creative and I have to sort of, uh, rely on, yeah, my- my skills, and my self to sort of make, make that song happen so why not pick up a part that I’ve been playing with for so long and like finally turn it into a real song?AOIFE:
Yeah, so what were your musical inspirations for the song?ZANDTERBIRD:
So, like, ever since I first put out that song I’ve been trying to write music in, uh, like, in different styles but I always sort of come back to that sound that I sort of, yeah also established for myself on this song which is like, I’m very heavily influenced by, like, mid ’90s emo stuff so all of those bands that were mostly already gone before, like, the genre really blew up with bands like My Chemical Romance in the 2000s. So stuff like Mineral, or The Get Up Kids, American Football. And, like every band that I played in had at least a hint of, of that kind of musical style in.it. So, uh, those loud and quiet dynamics or like lyrical topics, so, that was basically what I went, what I went back to because I just knew how to at least write parts, um, parts of a song in that genre, so I thought like for the first full band song, quote unquote, for the garages I’d just like go back to, to stuff that I, that I’m very familiar with, basically and that… So yeah, that were, like, my- my- my inspirations for that song that whole mid ‘90s emo vibe.AOIFE:
Yeah, that makes sense because I was thinking about the… how the guitar in the opening, how the sound works and it definitely has kind of that general vibe.ZANDTERBIRD:
Mhmm.AOIFE:
It feels very like, close to you, it feels like you’re listening to your friend play the guitar–ZANDTERBIRD:
Mhmm.AOIFE:
–like in their bedroom or something and I’m wondering how did you achieve that sorta, like, sound?ZANDTERBIRD:
So, basically I, uh, I cheated a little bit on that song because like all my, my regular gear, like my guitar, my, like my main guitar and my amp and like my pedalboard, everything is sort of locked away in a rehearsal room in another city. And that’s basically, thanks again to, uh, to the pandemic going on, not reachable for me so I didn’t have the chance to sort of get all my, my usual effects and I think it would have, would have, would have sounded quite different if I had like my main gear so I just had like a backup guitar, like a very cheap but reliable backup guitar and I basically plugged it into my, my interface and I simulated the amp and, like, all the pedals which made me… which allowed me to sort of explore like more, like different pedal settings, sort of really dial in exactly that tone that you mentioned, that sort of like that closeness, and… also very important, um, uh, very important part is also a reverb plugin called Breverb which, um, has lots of very cool ‘80s and ‘90s styled reverb presets and I tinkered with that a lot and, um, yeah that was basically like those two things, those sort of, uh, improvised, improvised recording equipment and like those, uh, this- this preset. Those are basically the two components that sort of, yeah, enabled me to achieve, uh, that sound that you mentioned.AOIFE:
That’s really interesting as someone who’s not super experienced–ZANDTERBIRD:
Mhmm.AOIFE:
–on this whole type of stuff it’s really interesting listening to like what tools people use to create the music that they’re working on.ZANDTERBIRD:
Yeah, for sure.AOIFE:
So, ‘no gods, just blaseball’ is the oldest song we’ve explored on the podcast so far, having been released on the garages second album ‘the garages kill the gods’. How did this album come together and what was production like back then, ‘cause I know we’ve, we’ve had some very big changes there.ZANDTERBIRD:
So if I remember correctly we were just like basically rolling with the punches, I guess, so as soon as someone had, um, had an idea for, for like a new song it was basically like the, the starting point for, for a new, new record. But it was also sort of the starting point for sort of the concept record and the themed records because the first, uh, album that we put out was basically a collection of all the singles the garages had released so far, up to that point. And, um, ‘the garages kill the gods’ was basically the first, the first real concept record. Um, so that was definitely new territory.It was also I think a time where it was easier for the various members of the band to sort of focus more on, I’d say the, the, the musical conduit that is blaseball because, um, it was created when it was, uh, when the grand siesta was happening, where blaseball the game took a hiatus for two weeks, and so we had a lot of time to sort of focus on the musical part because we didn’t have to cheer on, uh, the Seattle Garages, the blaseball team. And basically, I was talking to rain about getting, uh, ‘gwiffin’s here’ on the bandcamp which was the first song I wrote for the garages–
[a clip from ‘gwiffin’s here’ plays]
ZANDTERBIRD:
–and it mentioned there was, uh, a new album in the works and if I’d like to contribute something, and yeah then basically two days later the song was done, I sent the file to rain via email and yeah that was… that was basically it and then it just did some volume adjustments and yeah then it basically went, went on, on the record.AOIFE:
Geez, what, what is it like turning around a song in that quick time, like how do you get the inspiration to write and record and edit and do everything that requires to making a song in that short amount of time?ZANDTERBIRD:
Yeah, it’s, it’s definitely like sort of a, I mean it’s sort of a self imposed challenge, I guess, to some degree because, like, with, with my bands normally I’m going to the writing protess- process as one of the last members because I mostly, like, write lyrics and vocal melodies and like, those parts, um, mostly come at the end of the creation of a song at least for, for the bands that I play in, so it was really like sort of a challenge, “okay, can I turn like this one tiny piece of song that I’ve had stuck in my head for so long into like two and a half, three minutes of like complete song with like drums and bass and vocals and everything.”So that was one, one, like, source for inspiration and the other was, like back then the process of writing lore for all the characters, it was so, it was so quick, it was such a quick turnaround because the game had existed for…. I think three weeks when like the, the first, or like the second garages album came out and there was… everything was still like fresh and new and there was so much, so much, like, room for creativity, y’know, so, um, that was definitely also something that really, really inspired me.
I think the lyrics were like, I’ve never written lyrics for a song so fast, because there was such great groundwork already because of- of the events that happened with like the incinerations going on and like the, the Seattle Garages being the team, I think, with the most incinerations per team at that point at least, um, so it made sense to sort of take it into that direction lyrically and um, yeah! It was definitely, it was- it was like a mix of, of various factors that sort of, like, drove me to really, uh, yeah lean into it I guess and, uh, try my best to get it- get it done as quickly as possible.
AOIFE:
To put our listeners back in the headspace of what it was like in early blaseballdom, like, this song was written before Jaylen’s return, before necromancy–ZANDTERBIRD:
Mhmm.AOIFE:
–and when you wrote about fighting the gods in this song… were you thinking of the fight as purely for like, justice and vengeance, or did you have like an inkling that we might be able to, as you say in the song, get the band back together and take back our lost friends?ZANDTERBIRD:
I mean, um, I wish I could say I was predicting the future but, yeah, it was definitely more of a general, um, just like, “Man, uh, those gods they just like, uh, have to get what they deserve,” I guess, so, and I think that was also like the general vibe that was going through the Garages chat because… like as a, little, a little anecdote back then there was sort of like a, a splorts rivalry going on between the Hellmouth Sunbeams which were basically like, “Okay, of course, uh, the gods are not cool but we have the sun and the sun definitely is a cool god,” um, tying into the, the sunbeam theme and like the Garages were like “Nah, folks, we gotta kill all the gods, like, even the sun,” so that was like, definitely, um, probably, like, the- the- the- the main, uh, motivation behind that, that we had a sort of common enemy in the sun that incinerated our players, so… Yeah, definitely made sense to do the record ‘the garages kill the gods’.AOIFE:
What is your favorite part of this song? What are you most proud of?ZANDTERBIRD:
I think… Like the biggest thing for me personally was basically just making the leap to do like a full band song on my own, because of course like when I, when I put out music with my bands I, like, wrote guitar parts, and lyrics, the vocal melodies, sure, but I never thought about what sort of drum stuff would work for a song that I wrote or would- would sound cool–[drums from ‘no gods, just blaseball’ play]
ZANDTERBIRD:
–um, so I’m definitely, like, super proud of how it all came together in the end with like the- the MIDI drums and just like me trying to fiddle around for a whole day to make my guitar sound like a bass with different plugins and like amp and pedal simulations.[the bass from ‘no gods, just blaseball’ plays]
ZANDTERBIRD:
Yeah, it was basically, I think the thing I’m most proud of is that I sort of, really managed to record all quote unquote instruments on my own and sort of also do an okayish job, I think, at, producing the song and that definitely like, helped me, helped me grow as a musician. And I think my, my favorite single part would probably be the intro as well just because, um, it has been at the back of my mind for so long and I finally got to write a song that, uh, yeah, is built on that intro basically.AOIFE:
Yeah, definitely. So, for both this song individually and being a member of the garages as a whole, what has the community reaction been like for you?ZANDTERBIRD:
Well, amazing, basically. It’s, it’s like, it’s so… I mean it’s so cool to get like a really… basically an instant reaction. I mean, like the lyric videos that we, that we launch for, for various records and where like people are like live commenting on like stuff, stuff I basically sent to rain three days ago and that have like this instant reaction to it because like normally when you sort of produce a record it takes a long time for people to… to listen to it because, you know with the, with the pressing and like the distribution to all the digital channels it takes some time until the music reaches the audience and by that point sometimes you’re already fed up with your… or you, you can’t listen to your own songs anymore so it’s like, really, was really amazing that, to have that direct feedback like only three days after the song’s finished. Yeah, I’m really really super super grateful for all, like, the, the positive feedback as well.I think like the most interesting and like the most, I think the most like gratifying thing, I’d say, is that I just find it wild that the phrase, like, “no gods, just blaseball” which I myself borrowed from, um, like, the saying “no gods, no masters” sort of turned into, like some- some- some person used it as their discord username on the server, and it was also cited so many times out of context and there was just like that just brings this huge, uhh, smile on my face and like really sort of warms my heart I was able to, like, with such a, uh, a little song sort of… making that song yeah, I guess at least, in some way important to some people or like relevant to some people and that’s like really, really really amazing and uh, yeah definitely motivated me to, to keep going with, with the garages stuff.
AOIFE:
So, lastly, and this is, this is always the hard one–ZANDTERBIRD:
Yeah.AOIFE:
–but… Outside of your own work, what do you think is the most underrated song by the garages or what song do you think requi- needs just a little bit more attention?ZANDTERBIRD:
Yeah, that’s really really hard question, um, because I mean of course like every song would deserve a mention because and I’m being really really honest here there’s no bad song out there–AOIFE:
Absolutely.ZANDTERBIRD:
–under the garages label. So, um… So for the early cuts I’d say it’s, uh, ‘my name is mike’ by pat cotter which came out on the album ‘REDEMPTION ARC’. That song was, I think pat said that they recorded the song on a- just like on a mobile phone, just an acoustic guitar and like his voice–[a clip from ‘my name is mike’ plays]
–and it has such a, such a rawness to it and it’s also as far as I remember, like the first, really like first-person account by Mike Townsend himself sort of chronicling what he, what he went through, uh, in the team. And from the newer stuff… for me personally I’d say, uh, eyes in the dark because man I mean like riley’s voice and like rain’s composition they just fit together so well on that song.
[a clip from ‘eyes in the dark’ plays]
To me it feels like, sort of like a lost My Chemical Romance b side, that song. And as far as songs, um, by or featuring rain go it’s definitely one of the lesser known songs, I guess? I think? So, that definitely deserves, uh, yeah, some more attention as well in my opinion.
AOIFE:
Yeah it’s definitely one of my favorites, also the cover for blaseballidays (yeah) that was incredible too![A clip from ‘eyes in the dark (live @ blaseballidays)’ plays]
AOIFE:
Thank you so much for joining us on idol board, a podcast where we interview members of the garages, an anarcho-syndicalist blaseball band from the fictional location of Seattle. We make songs about being gay, the apocalypse, and fighting the gods, and you can find our music at blandcamp.com, with an L, Spotify, or on YouTube. We’ll see you next week! Now, here’s ‘no gods, just blaseball’ by zandterbird, of the garages![‘no gods, just blaseball’ plays in its entirety]
ANNOUNCER:
idol board is edited by Ada Quinn, BONES, Jennifer Cat, Nerdy Sims, zack.ry, and AlmightyVeg, hosted by Aoife, produced by Tangereen Velveteen, transcribed by SigilCrafter Aya and Merry, and written by Aoife and Tangereen Velveteen.[outro music plays]