Episode 1: "we are the band" with yana
Welcome to idol board, a Fourth Strike podcast where our host, Aoife (she/her), interviews members of the garages about their music, process, and inspirations. In this inaugural episode, yana (they/it) introduces the band. “You wanna make music? Here, come make music,” yana explains. “When it comes to the garages, … having such a collaborative mindset and such a constructive mindset has taught me so much about creating music.”
yana (it/they) is an enigma who originated in the mitten state. years later, California is now their home, veiled in the mists of the bay. it could be described as an actor, a guitarist, a singer, a lyricist, but it’d protest that it does none of these truly well, it’s just too confident to not get away with it. in August of 2020 they helped found ‘the garages’, which is where you’ll find them today. this is also its first band/published music project of any sort, and that’s pretty neat. in December of 2020, it played August Mina in the hit off-off-like way off-broadway musical “Blaseball: The Musical – The Deaths of Sebastian Telephone”. you can find it making noise and other nonsense on its twitter @villainousgoo.
This episode of idol board was hosted by Aoife, directed by Tangereen Velveteen, edited by Jennifer Cat, transcribed by SigilCrafter Aya, and written by Aoife and Tangereen Velveteen. Follow @idolboard on Twitter for updates. Get all episodes plus bonuses by supporting Fourth Strike on Patreon.
This episode featured the following songs: ‘the death of god(s),’ ‘the death of god(s) live @ blaseballidays’ (instrumental), ‘heart shaped hotdog,’ ‘about a squirrel’ (parody of ‘about a girl’ by nirvana), ‘garagesong’ (parody of ‘summersong’ by the decemberists), ‘mike townsend (is a disappointment),’ ‘in the feedback live @ desert bus for hope,’ ‘rejoice,’ ‘morrow doyle hits a hole out of center left field,’ ‘relief pitcher (leave it on the field),’ and ‘parking lot woes (demo),’ all by the garages.
Listen to “death of the god(s)” by the garages and all of the other music featured in this episode on Blandcamp:
Episode Transcript
[musical intro plays]
ANNOUNCER:
You’re listening to a Fourth Strike production.
[The second verse of ‘the death of god(s)’ plays, fading out ]
AOIFE:
Hi everybody, and welcome to the inaugural episode of idol board, the podcast where I interview members of the garages about their songs, their creation process, and possible inspirations. I’m Aoife and I use she/her pronouns. My guest for this episode is garages band member yana. Thanks for coming on the show! Can you please tell us your pronouns, your soulscream, and what band you’ll be talking about today?
YANA:
[laughs] Hi, I’m yana, my pronouns are it/its or they/them, uh, my soulscream is… just the simple “…ah!” because, you know… it is. And uh, the band we’re talking about today is the garages!
AOIFE:
Great! So, first off, how did you get into blaseball?
YANA:
Uh, so I originally got into blaseball when my girlfriend told me an artist that I like @irisjaycomics on Twitter was, like, making art about a gay internet game, and I’m like “Okay I- I hear gay, I hear internet game, and I hear this artist, I’m interested.” Uh, and it kind of just captured me immediately, like, the- the interface itself was kind of, like, okay, I- it’s just watching a game simulator, and then the wiki happened and then I got lost in the absurdist humor, and I didn’t look back.
AOIFE:
Yeah, that definitely sounds like my experience. Yeah, I got started from some YouTube video, I think the People Make Games video was on my recommendations-
YANA:
That’s- that’s when you got on? Oh my gosh, yeah I- …I remember when that video game out and everyone was like [gasps dramatically] “Someone noticed us! Holy crap!” It’s weird being, like, I’m- I’m one of the original ones, even though I came in, I think season 3? So it’s been a while-
AOIFE:
[chuckles] Yeah, so speaking of things that you got into way before me, how did the garages start?
YANA:
So. The garages started in the main discord chat. Um, ‘round, like, August 1st, August 3rd, somewhere around then. The way that I remember it starting is uh, I know that ‘heart-shaped hotdog’ and uh, ‘about a squirrel’ were made, uh, early on, I think either season 1 or season 2-
[ part of the chorus from ‘heart-shaped hotdog’ plays, then fades into part of the chorus from ‘about a squirrel’]
YANA:
-Coming on season 3… rain, I think was just kinda getting started in blaseball, and was like “I’m gonna do a song and put it on bandcamp” and I’m like “Oh! We have a bandcamp?” and conversation went on, yada yada, and I’m like “I do have a guitar, I kind of know how to sing? I’m terrible at both of these things” and then someone’s just like “Do it. It can be terrible, it can be the worst thing ever, do it.” After that it was kind of like “Okay, I can do something creative and people are gonna like it even if it is kind of… a mess.” And then ‘garagesong’ was born, here’s a parody.
[the second half of the chorus of ‘garagesong’ plays and fades out]
YANA:
That whole thing happened in… about… a day? For me? Uh I made a demo, and then recorded the quote unquote “full version” which was… just the same audio quality as the demo, but in a DAW instead of Audacity, and then it went up. It was incredible uh… how- how, like, slapshot it was and how quick everything came together, like, I think… the- the two singles before me happened, ‘garagesong’ happened, and then uh, rain shared ‘mike townsend (is a disappointment)’ in chat-
[the first verse of ‘mike townsend (is a disappointment)’ plays and fades out]
YANA:
-and everyone popped off. They’re like “Oh my god, what is this, this is incredible, this rules!” and then ‘we are the garages (vol 1)’ happened. At first, the singles just kind of led to this sort of grand machination of- of this EP and it only got wilder.
AOIFE:
Yeah, it’s certainly a journey. So, we kind of got into this a little bit, but what’s your musical background outside of the garages?
YANA:
Oh, that’s funny. Uh, outside of the garages is a- is a really- really wild question! ‘Cause um- I don’t have one outside the garages. I got guitar lessons for, like, a year, maybe two years, when I was… like 13, 14? somewhere around there, I was- I was a young teenager, and it was, like, fine, I never stuck with anything so it was very much, like, practice was the antithesis of me and so I didn’t really get anywhere with that. I tried out for, like, a young rock academy at some point, nothing came of that but the guitar I got then, the Epiphone Les Paul 100, was the first electric I started playing with and I still own it now. The Washburn acoustic that I have is my dad’s, uh, old acoustic guitar, and so, like, I didn’t have a musical background until… August. I- I was, like, there’s the little things, you know, like, oh I was in 5th grade choir or something like that, but I would go to bands a lot, I- I loved live music, but I never thought I could do it myself until August, and then [through its hands] Oooooooh god.
AOIFE:
Yeah, my experience is very much the same, which is what makes the garages so interesting to be a part of because I’m just looking at everyone else with years and years of experience and just being like “woah”.
YANA:
[laughs] How do you think I feel? The fact that I ended up on an EP at the start with, like, a bunch of really incredible songs already blew me away and I’m like “I don’t belong here” uh, and then it kept happening and people liked what I did and then I kept making music and it was- I- I… I’m going to say this, it’s wild that I share a- a quote unquote “stage” with some of the people in this band! There is so much… incredible talent and then there’s me, some yahoo who picked up a guitar again, like, three months ago! But I’m so happy with, like, all of the encouragement and everything that has come from that and it’s only helped me grow as a musician.
AOIFE:
Yeah, I mean, just watching you from, like, the Desert Bus show, which was one of my first big interactions with the garages ‘cause that had happened just when I joined. It’s kind of incredible because I don’t think a single person would have considered that you were as new to it as you were. Because you were really goin’ to town on that guitar. Not gonna lie.
YANA:
[laughing] Ahh, it’s funny, that was like the first time I recorded a solo for literally anything was, for the ‘in the feedback’, like, background solo that Blone did the incredible job with the lead on-
[the guitar solo from ‘in the feedback (live @ desert bus for hope)’ plays, and fades out]
YANA:
That show just… blows me away. Uh, I didn’t know how to palm mute, really, before that, I had to learn- I had to learn how to palm mute and get the percussion and the rhythm right there-
[part of the first verse of ‘in the feedback (live @ desert bus for hope)’ plays, and fades out]
YANA:
-I- and that was still recorded on equipment that was, um, kind of bad. I was using my amp with a USB sort of aux out? And so it would pop all the time, it was like a- it was like a lower quality, but it worked well enough for the Desert Bus show, so… it got us that far until, um, I finally bit the bullet and got an Aux cord.
AOIFE:
So, you’ve taken part in two garages shows now, most recently, as we were talking about, the concert during Desert Bus, what was it like, performing to thousands of people in your living room?
YANA:
[sighs] That was my second ever show? Like, Heckdang was my first, um… I was in theatre when I was, like, in high school, but maybe- maybe a few hundred were in the audience. Maybe. T-The great thing, and also the curse about uh, like, playing a live show in your living room, or in this case my bedroom, is, like, how low pressure it seems until it’s all of the sudden incredibly high pressure. Like, when you’re recording a live show in your bedroom, where you’re just trying to get the audio mix down and you’re trying to get the video down, it’s really easy to think “Oh, this is just some, like, random video that’s going out, I don’t have to be, like, super stressed about it. I don’t have to worry about it ‘cause it’s just for the people that are editing it and then it’ll go out and it’s gonna be great.” And then, when you’re done with that and you’re sitting there, and you’re thinking “Technically, right then, I just played to however many people are going to be showing up to this live, however many. That could be an incredibly big amount. I don’t know, ‘cause to me all I’m seeing is a phone held up with a capo over across the room, uh, and listening to my own music so that way I can play in time. So, like, it’s baffling, it’s intimidating, and it’s really exciting, and I’m, like, god, when this pandemic is over, I so look forward to, like, actually playing music to audiences. I’ve never done so before and I want to so bad.
AOIFE:
Yeah, that’s gonna be incredible. I can’t wait until garages irl live show.
YANA:
Oh god, the amount of times that we’ve uh, been like “You know, it would be fun to eventually do a live thing, but we’d have to, like, have a garages UK and a garages US, and, like, eventually we’d have to have a tour that’s like “the garages reunion tour” but instead it’s just “the garages union tour” because we’ve never played together, in real life before.” [laughs]
AOIFE:
So the garages are, we both know this, uh, organized very differently than other bands. Um, how are they organized differently, and how did that affect the development of your music?
YANA:
I think, like, the- A. I’ve never been in a band before, so I can’t really speak to, like, the quintessential band experience, but, I- … the garages are so unique because it’s so open and free form. It is… You wanna make music? Here, come make music. It is- It is that simple. Um, with anyone being able to join, there is such a plethora of talent, of skill level, of interest, of genre, and so all of that kind of rolls into this monstrosity that’s constantly moving and changing and evolving, but it’s- it’s really such a beneficial thing, like, if I was in a standard band, I don’t think I would have gotten nearly the amount of, like, musical growth that I’ve gotten out of doing something like this. Because in a- in a standard band you have kind of the same quote unquote “echo chamber” of like maybe 3, maybe 4 people, and when it comes to the garages, you have this, like, thirty plus people just going “Oh, I like this” or “Oh, you could do this” or uh “Do you want some help on this” and having such a collaborative mindset and- and such a constructive mindset has taught me so much about creating music from the playing process, the singing process, to the production process, and I’m not going to claim I’m an expert at any of these things, obviously not, but having the people who are just that, um, skilled at it, just that knowledgeable, being so willing to share of themselves, like, advice and uh, ways to improve is- is something that I think every band member appreciates a lot, and that helps every band member develop. Also, our release schedule is bonkers! Just, bonkers with so many people! Uh, I know when we started, uh, it was, like, an album a week. ‘we are the garages’ came out and it was, like, that. It was done, and then it’s, like, okay, next week, we’re gonna do this, and the theme seems to be, like, fighting god, so let’s do this, and then next week we’ll work on this theme, and it became this weekly schedule of just like, “Let’s pump out this music, let’s pump out this music” and I think until ‘ENCORE’ happened, none of us, like, stopped for more than [laughs] like, more than uh, a couple days, to be like “Maybe we should polish our music, or maybe we should, like, hold up and breathe, and dive back in”, it was, no! Every week this is what’s happening, and so, I think having the extra week gives us stuff like ‘ENCORE.’ or ‘DEICIDE’, which also came in two weeks, so, the fact that we’ve had so much time to, like, stew and percolate over uh, the siesta, is just making us more excited to dive back in in that ridiculous weekly schedule.
AOIFE:
Yeah, so, can you go into more detail about how the production has changed from ‘we are the garages’ to our now upcoming albums?
YANA:
So originally, what happened was, you had basically open calls for music, like, I have a song idea, here you go, bam, it’s up. Like, there wasn’t really like… It- It- It wasn’t as much a band as it was a bunch of, like, single artists going “Let’s make this” or “Let’s make that” and then rain started collaborating with- with MQ on some songs, and then other people started collaborating and getting involved, and then all of a sudden it just kind of organically became a band? Um, I know that the production has also gone up, like, in quality dramatically [chuckles] from the first few EPs. Uh, because I know personally I recorded my stuff on, like, a phone, and that’s it. Using an acoustic guitar on my phone, and it wasn’t until, like, later when I’m like “Oh! I can plug my electric in, and do it like that and then I can, like, actually make good music” but having the beginnings with such, like, a lofi background of, like, this may sound horrible, but the music is good. Um, sound horrible in a broad sense. Uh, is- is where we came from and so it- it took down that barrier to entry because you didn’t have to sound incredible you- your music quality didn’t have to be astounding, it just had to be music. And it- it grew from there and I think with us trying to get back into doing ‘we are the garages’ volumes, getting back to that lofi spirit of like… You don’t have to… fit into a concept album. You don’t have to fit into this genre, or this theme… just… make music and we’ll compile it. And it can be whatever quality it- you want it to be. I think it’s going to definitely help people feel like “Yeah, I too can also be a part of the band and can contribute and can grow” I think the production is super different and yet still retains the same sort of “we want everyone to contribute” spirit.
AOIFE:
You’re totally right, like, I feel like the garages have changed in a lot of aspects, but we’re also kind of going back to our roots with some other stuff.
YANA:
Yeah, it- it- it’s- [laughs] It’s great to get back to our roots, uh, but it’s also so much fun to have, like, a new theme or new genre every week to- to fit into. Um, I loved when the off the wall joke of “What if we made a country and western album” became a country and western album.
[The first verse of ‘rejoice’ plays, and fades out]
YANA:
Uh, things like that just kind of happen in the garages, someone makes a joke about “Oh, what if we did this?” and then we do it. Oops! Uh oh! Like, uh, the ‘lofi beats’ I think was also another joke? Uh, and so, we’re gonna have, like, a lot of, like, great music on our ‘lofi beats’ because the joke was a joke, but also taken seriously to the point that it’s just like “Okay, this is a thing we’re doing. Let’s throw caution to the wind and just go for it!”
[The beginning of ‘morrow doyle hits a hole out of center left field’ plays, then fades out ]
YANA:
That’s one of my favorite parts of- of the garages, is just how committed we are to “ I mean, we can try?”
AOIFE:
So, not counting your own work of course, what’s a song for the garages that you think deserves a little more attention than it’s getting?
YANA:
I adore ‘relief pitcher (leave it on the field)’ off of ‘storm’s coming’.
[the end of the first verse of ‘relief pitcher (leave it on the field)’ plays, and fades out]
YANA:
It is one of my songs to just sit there and sing along to um, because it’s… I- I mean I’m a huge Decemberists fan, but it’s, like, that folky, like, ditty, with like, these very powerful vocals, that just- it’s- it’s just so much fun to listen to. That whole album, actually, ‘storm’s coming’ is mind blowingly good and yet, like, I- I think we kind of slept on it because it was very much an interim of, like, we’re gonna put this out, and then here’s ‘DEICIDE’ and it was just so, like… quick a turn around that we didn’t get enough time to bask in ‘storm’s coming’.
AOIFE:
Oh, definitely. Like, um, like, it’s definitely one of my favorite albums just ‘cause the talent is so prominent there.
YANA:
One of the things that [chuckles] um, is my funny story from ‘storm’s coming’ is uh, I’d been having some audio problems with my laptop but, I was, like, desperately invested in releasing a song for ‘storm’s coming’ because I had had, like, some tendonitis in my wrists the last few weeks, and so I wasn’t able to get on to ‘ENCORE.’ or ‘in the feedback’ and I was super bummed from that and then, like, ‘storm’s coming’ comes around, and I’ve been messing around with a song, and I get, like, a demo out, and then my computer just bricks. As soon as- like, literally the same day that I sent the demo off to rain, my computer bricks, and I have to wipe it and start fresh and so-
AOIFE:
Oh geez!
YANA:
That being a demo is… demo is the broadest sense of the word because it did not continue to exist, it was gone. That is the only copy of- of ‘parking lot woes’ that exists, is the one on the album.
[the chorus of ‘parking lot woes (demo)’ plays and fades out]
AOIFE:
So, lastly, of the work you’ve done so far with the garages, what are you most proud of?
YANA:
I mean, I’m super proud that I was able to compose a track ‘the death of god(s)’, like that- that makes me so happy that I was able to, like, make something from start to finish.
[The second half of the first verse of ‘the death of god(s)’ plays, and fades out]
YANA:
But I adore ‘in the feedback (live @ desert bus)’. That was such a fun song to play and to hear and to see the reactions of that- that is like my proudest achievement with the band so far! We’ll see where it goes from here.
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 and blandcamp.com, with an L, spotify, or on YouTube. We’ll see you next week! Now, here’s ‘in the feedback (live @ desert bus for hope)’ by the garages.
[‘in the feedback (live @ desert bus for hope)’ plays in its entirety]
ANNOUNCER:
Idol board is directed by Tangereen Velveteen, edited by Jennifer Cat, Nerdy Sims, and zach.ry, hosted by Aoife, transcribed by Sigilcrafter Aya, and written by Aoife and Tangereen Velveteen.
[outro music plays]
ANNOUNCER:
That was a Fourth Strike production.