Quannnic Interview!

[Music] Welcome to another episode of based news network today. I am Bukar Rolusha now here with Sophie, Joana Varca aka and then we have a very special say hi Sophie. Hi. And then we have a very special guest. So I was breezing past Sophie so I can get to the guest. A quannic, a very epic musician plays very epic shoe gaze say hi quannic. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Very happy to have you on. Thank you so much for coming on. This is an honor. Congrats on the new album. Yes. So for the listeners who don't know, definitely check out Quannic's new album step dream that came out three weeks ago. Very cool shoe gaze, indie alternative rock noise pop, all sorts of cool epic genres. So thank you Quannic for joining and yeah, I have lots of questions prepared for you Quannic, but before we get into the Quannic questions, I think any question, the Quannic questions. I want to start. Yes. We're talking about the spiciest news of the week that is very heavy stuff that as a news podcast, we are obviously going to talk about, which is the headline here is boy 10 calls on Apple to redesign offensive nerd emoji. Wow. So what sticks out to me about this article is that like, so this is like a New York Post article. And New York Post is like, just like, you know, like really bad. Like they're kind of like the daily they're like in the daily mail and all those other like American daily mail for like, just like they're just like junk. That's just like they don't really contribute anything positive to society and most of their articles are like, dunking on like liberals and like dunking on like marginalized people. It's like very toxic. Obviously. And this is kind of this to me, to me, this one's funny because they're they're dunking on a 10 year old. That's a that's a that's a new level. That's a new level for the New York Post. But I'm going to read it because it actually is like, it's kind of it's it's pretty good. So it says in a bid to promote inclusivity and challenge stereotypes, 10 year old Teddy from England has initiated the campaign urging Apple to redesign its nerd face emoji. Teddy a Teddy a proud glasses wear finds the current. A pro glasses. Yeah. A pro glasses wearer finds the current emoji offensive and insulting due to its portrayal of prominent front teeth. And apparently he was like on the BBC and like was talking about like how this emoji is making life for people with glasses miserable. And obviously I'm going to be obviously based news network is on the is on the on the kids team here. Yeah. Because yeah. You know, good for this kid. You know, this kid literally has probably a million alt-right trolls who are like posting about him on the internet and harassing well, maybe not her. Hopefully, hopefully not harassing him directly. But you never know. And this kid's a punk rocker for having that for having the guts to go on to BBC news to defend glasses wearers. You can you explain how he redesigned the emoji like what did he change? Oh, here we go. Okay. He says right here he redesigned the emoji which he affectionately calls the genius emoji. And it features it features thin glasses thin frames and a small smiley face steering away from what he describes as horrible rabbit teeth. So I will say that's that is where I had there's a little bit of a divide between me and the boy because the the ten-year-old boy, you know, I think he's right to defend glasses wearers and want to change the emoji. You're a glasses wearer. I'm a glass for context. I am too. Yeah. I'm not, but I'm an ally. So I stand with you guys. Okay. Well, thank you Sophie. But here's the thing though. I find this I find this move offensive to people with buck teeth. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I never gave him much thought, but it's going to be hard getting rid of that. I mean, I know he probably they probably won't change the emoji. But I won't lie. I use it a lot. It's one of my favorite emojis. So I feel like I have to reconcile with that and I love the emoji too. I think that glasses wearers shouldn't feel threatened by the emoji. I fall asleep with my glasses on like all the time. So I'm very glad to have my own emoji. I really like I feel like it's me in an emoji. Yeah. Maybe they'll be like a movement to reclaim it. No. But do you think there's more people with buck teeth than like glasses or? I don't know. I feel like that that I didn't expect to be getting into this, but I feel like that the like term buck teeth is probably suit like kind of like how do you define how do you define it? You know, like I feel like a lot of people teeth look very different. Like everyone's teeth looks different, especially if they don't get braces. So I don't know. That's a bad term. Maybe I could say like large teeth are like prominent teeth protruding. It sounds even worse. It just sounds yeah, that's I will say though I'm looking I'm actually looking really closely now at the glasses emoji. And the teeth do look horrendous. Like they don't those are those are gigantic buck teeth. They don't look human. Like that actually is offensive. That is not like the other emojis also have teeth. Some of them like the smiley ones and stuff. And their teeth look normal. This one the teeth just looks disgusting. The teeth look healthy though. They look nice and white. All right. This is this is this is this is this is this is this is why people tune into the base use network is to get every the real news and every you know I'm really I really like this topic. I like the emoji. Yeah. Well that's that's why we invite like correspondents, you know, to provide different different perspectives. And that's what we're about. So I don't think we should change the emoji because it's it's a part of history. Yeah. Yeah. Every emoji is a part of history like the emoji movie. Yeah. That's true. What is going on in the mode? What is the glasses emoji in the emoji movie doing? Does anyone see it? I've never seen the emoji movie. But maybe we're do for a watch. I think we're so free. I think we're do for a watch. Yeah. Maybe we'll do a Patreon. I think the I think the emoji like I might get in trouble for saying this. I think the emoji movie emojis look like attractive. Wow. And I don't I don't I don't think look that's that's my boyfriend by the way. You know what I'm saying? That's that's some based news right there. That is the base news right there. All right. So everyone go on Google emoji movie and just like look it and just look at it and like look at the Riz on the poop emoji. Okay. Look it looks they gave the poop emoji Riz. Oh no. They gave the emojis Riz and like this emoji here is like blue hair. Like blue hair. How can I explain to people that my boyfriend still thinks the emojis and the emoji are interesting. No, let me let me try to explain a little bit better. I don't personally find them attractive. I think that the movie studio intentionally tried to have add a little bit of like you know that Hollywood flare at a little bit something like that is just like a handsome. What do you think about the hand emoji? Okay. So the hand emoji is definitely the ugliest one. Yeah. Like you can tell that you can see that's the thing. You can the fact that you can tell the hand emoji is ugly compared to the others like it's it's it's it's it's establishes that when they made the poop emoji like they gave the poop emoji like nice hair. Yeah. He's very charismatic. He has like a little tie. I get it. I get it. I feel like I feel like the main emoji has like a bit of a five o'clock shadow. You know, which is attractive to try to make him relatable. All right. Yeah. And every man. Wow, I didn't expect to get into this deep analysis. But yeah, I wonder if the eggplant emoji. Okay. This is my fault. The eggplant the movie emoji is like flops into the movie. Hey guys. All right, all right. Okay. So, but yeah, I'm not seeing the glasses emoji in the movie. So maybe it is and we need to watch it. But the assistant I watched it recently. Oh, you watched it. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So is he portrayed positively, negatively, like neutral? He's like the boss's emoji. It's like the assistant of the boss emoji. And it's pretty neutral, I'd say. Okay. Okay. Did you have the teeth? Um, yeah, but it wasn't like as protruded as the apple emoji. Okay. Well, that's another thing to consider too is and I guess the kid did specifically call out apples because like there's different emojis for different devices in like platforms. So that, you know, plays a role as well. Emotions aren't just one thing, I guess. You know, apples should do is just redesign the glasses emoji and just have it the exact same and the teeth are just a little bit bigger. That would be punk. Yeah. That would be an epic prank. Yeah. All right. Well, so I think that the 10 year old boy is convinced me and everyone, please spread the word. We need to put pressure on apple to like I want to see it. I want to see the the glasses emoji be a punk emoji. Take the teeth away and give it like a mohawk or something. You know, that'd be pretty cool. That'd be cool. Yeah. Well, well, on that note, well, that was Kaya's topic. Here's mine. Bad baby is pregnant. There's really not a lot to say about this. Besides the like there's a bit of a shock factor to it because she's only 20 years old. This is not a judgment, of course, but like I feel like people still see her as that like 16 or she was like 14. I don't even know. It was in 2016. So yeah. Well, how long ago was that like seven years ago? So she would have been like 13, 14 years old. And that's still kind of how I see her as like a teenage girl who's like wrapping and stuff. I feel like there's something to say about that. Like I feel like child stars are always seen as kids forever. Yeah, that's true. And they kind of have to like do increasingly edgy things to like break from that to like where do you think the corn kid will be in like seven years from now? Oh my god. We were just talking about him on an episode we did on like we did a special report on Gen Alpha because we thought it needed to be done. And we were we were talking about the corn meme. And I feel so bad for that kid because like like if you just like strip away everything like the video is cute, you know, like the kid is cute. He's just having fun with the corn. Yeah, he's talking about his favorite snack. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So imagine you're just innocently talking about your favorite snack and it becomes like a huge meme where people like making merch off of you know, like I don't know, like I don't even know what that I can't even begin to imagine what that would be like. Yeah. So yeah, it's just the entire time you're talking about the corn song, I was just like thinking really hard about like the nerd emoji. Not because I'm still stuck on the topic even though I am a little bit, but because I just picture that emoji when I think of the corn song. Like I think that is, yeah, that's true. They have the same vibe. I feel like the corn, the corn song kid should unite with the 10 year old glasses, get in, fight. They should make a song. Yeah, oh, they should, yeah, they should write a song. Yeah, and then they should have bad baby on there too. Yeah, yeah, it should be called stop being mean to kids that are famous. Yes, I actually think bad baby's music is good. Oh, me too. For sure. I really like it. Like, um, Gucci flip flops is like an ironically a really good song. I agree. Yeah, I'm glad to hear it. I think a lot of people do agree they're just too afraid to say it. I think the video for that song is really creative too. It's really good. Yeah, it's Kaya. Have you seen the video? Uh, no. I'm a bad music critic. I haven't seen it. Yeah, well, there's some music that the critics don't care about. And that's bad baby's music. But she's like, she's like in a 1950s, like, household basically. And it's like in black and white. And then she like does stuff basically. I don't know. It's a good, it's a good video. I'm a bit more into artists like Kwanik. I don't know if you've heard of Kwanik. Oh, I don't know who that is. It's like, oh, yeah, it's, it's like alternative. When I think of Kwanik, I think of the nerd emoji. Or Kwanik, I have some question. I want to look. We, congratulations, bad, bad baby. Bad baby's having a baby. Yeah, that's pretty good. And thank you for bringing that up so feet. Kwanik, let's talk about Stepdream, your new album. First off, where did you get that album cover from? So Chris Thompson is the person who painted everything like all the art around Stepdream. And I tried to work with him, or I worked with him because he does the sunny day real estate cover arts, like diary and all that. And I really, really love that album cover and how it feels to be something on and all that. And I cover. I guess I deep dove into like the credits for diary. And I found Chris and I hit him up on Instagram, thinking he like would not respond. And he ended up responding. And he was, he was really fun to work with. He really understood everything around the album. So yeah, no, I mean, I feel like looking, I mean, just like first of all, listening to the album, I could definitely tell it's like a very record with like a lot of influence from 90s alternative rocks, you gaze, etc. And like, I actually had no clue. I did not realize that the artist was the same one who did the like sunny day real estate art as well. Because I feel like this is something that happens. A decent amount in like music creation that people don't always understand is that like a lot of the times, if there's a specific artist or musician or whatever that you like, you know, you might be able to just like hit them up on Facebook or something and they might respond and might be down to like help out or like. Yeah, exactly. I think you like nailed this on like your first album too. And I think it's really cool how you like kind of brought that to the second album. And then like also expanded with like more variation in your second album, just like the really awesome shoegaze guitar tones. How do you like, you know, you don't need to get into like the specifics of like the pedals or plugins or whatever. Yeah. How do you go about like crafting your guitar tones? So between Kenopsia and Sanctuary moves like very different. Both of the albums have like real guitar on it and everything. But for Kenopsia, it was like all VSTs like I used like guitar rig and stuff. And I tried, I tried really hard to give it that like real atmospheric tone that it has on that album. And for a stepdream, it was just fucking around with like a huge pedalboard at my friend Max's studio. It was really fun to try to make it more genuine than just like nerd-necking on a computer. But yeah. Yeah, I definitely kind of, that's definitely something that stood out to me too, is like a pretty like kind of pivot between your first album and your second album is definitely it sounds more like that live guitar. And I wasn't sure, you know, because like I know now some people are so good at just like messing around on the computer. They can make a sound live, but you know, it's it actually is live, which is really cool. And I like also how you like use more acoustic guitar and stuff like that in the new record. I'm, you know, just kind of looking through because I know we kind of talked about the artwork. And I know also I'm seeing some like other cool credits and like other people that are like really interesting artists like featured on this record. Like obviously one that stated to me is Julian Koster. Yeah. Of neutral milk hotel. I guess like I'm kind of curious where you got the idea to work with Julian and how did that kind of play out? I'm a very, very, very big like neutral milk hotel fan and also just like tooling called solo work. Um, he is such a nice like person. He's so bright and he is very, I don't know. He was just so excited to work with me on the album, which is something I was not expecting. And um, I think he really added so much to rummage. Yeah, rummage was like a standout track for me when I listened through it, both because it's a great song. Also, I like, like I said, I really appreciate the the variation on the record. And like, I think it's really cool to have like a bit more of a, um, well, I mean, just like to have like a singing saw, you know, like a really cool, like, you know, dynamic to add into the record. Yeah. And then like I was into it. And then when I saw like the, the Julian Costa credit. I was like, oh, that is really mind blowing. And I guess it kind of just goes to show, like I said, like before, just it's just kind of like authentic 90s in this. And like, as Sophie said, I'm a big neutral milk hotel fan. He really, really is. And the airplane over the sea is my, my number one favorite album I have at ring just number one on my, I have this list of best albums of all time as number one. So as every music nerd should, it's very deserving. Yeah. Yeah. Epic. Yeah. And I guess I was going to, you know, ask to just like kind of looking through. I'm also seeing like Jeff Schroeder on the guitar here who's like plays in like smashing pumpkins, I believe. Oh, yeah. Um, he just recently left smashing pumpkins. Okay. Like I guess was this like, like, how did that happen? Were you, did you like reach out or this? Yeah. I met him at a max photographic memory studio. He was like, I have Jeff coming, I'm coming in tomorrow. If you want to meet him and I was like, Holy shit, that is insane. And, um, Max sent him my album and Jeff really liked it. So he wanted to play, we just wanted to work together. So he recorded a couple of guitars on like, so, and he was really nice. And we ended up hanging out again at the smashing pumpkin show in for Lauderdale. And we had a really good time. It's nice to hear like all these positive stories about like these very like beloved musicians. Oh, yeah. Julie and Costa while he was working on step dream, he told me that he was like recording on a farm. And, um, people like, we're outside of the window hearing him record and they kept saying that it was sick. And he just kept updating news stories that were just so unbelievable and like almost magical in a way that only like, Julie and Costa could tell me. Yo, what a special like thing to have. That's the magic, that's the magic of music right there for real. Yeah, I feel like he is music. He is as a person. He legit is. Uh, yeah, I, I, I think like, and I try to explain this sometimes to people who maybe don't know, but like, not, I think the like 90 to 95% of musicians are like legit, the nicest and coolest people you'll ever meet if they're like, are making music for the good reasons of reason. Well, yeah, you know, if they love art and stuff like that, you know, uh, but there are like the five, there are so there's the five percent you will occasionally run into that, um, you are going to see them get cancelled because they're bad people. So I'm really happy to hear, yeah, no, I mean, I'm super thrilled. Like, it's, it's very, it's very, it's very cool because like, like I said, like when I initially listened to this record, I was like, oh, this sounds like like a lot of my favorite 90s rock, which is very dope. And like Fireman, my project also, like, I definitely, I'm inspired by the same music too. And then it's just really funny now, like looking through and realizing it doesn't just sound like it because it's inspired by it, but it like sounds like it because it like literally has some, like some of it, some of that literal 90s magic inside of it. Yeah, we tried really hard to make a genuine because I feel like that's all I really listened to at the time when I was making that album. I wanted it to sound like the records that I was listening to at the time, you know. Yeah. I mean, it's great. It's great stuff. It really, really is. I really enjoyed it. Yeah. Yeah, I told my sister a couple hours ago, like, yeah, so if you're not going to be interviewing Quonic, I don't know. And then my sister was like, oh, my God. I love Quonic. No way. Yeah, for real. Well, my sister, my sister is good music taste. So she really does. Yeah, shout out Annabelle. Shout out Annabelle. And Quonic says hi. Hi. Yeah. All right. She's a fan. So that'll make her really happy. Awesome. Yeah. Cool. Well, what's like this because you kept you kept mentioning this like studio, like photographic memory. Is that like a friend you have? Like, what is that studio? Oh, yeah. I flew to L.A. with my friend Rome to record the studio version of step dream. And originally, it was not going to be the photographic memory studio. But my friend Ari was like, I have this friend. And he is a big fan of your music. And I think you guys would click. And I ended up meeting Max. Okay, photographic memory. And he has this. He has this very, like, cool little studio with, it's just like crammed with instruments and ship and like big pedalboard. And I don't know. I very much enjoyed working with him. And before I, like, even flew to L.A., I didn't even know who he was. And then now he's like one of my best friends and he contributed so much to the record. That's awesome. Yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's really dope. So you were like initially gonna, were you initially planning on just kind of like doing it a bit more like DIY? Yeah, they had this studio, our distributor had this studio that was just like kind of DIY. But when we walked in, it felt like more FL studio with no, with no like, instruments or anything. So we were kind of lost on what to do. And yeah, Ari came to the rescue. Sweet. That's awesome. And I mean, another thing I definitely want to ask about too is just like, well, first off, like, congrats on hitting like a a million monthly spot of my listeners. That's crazy. It's unbelievable. That is so nuts. Can you talk about like what it was like for your music to like go viral and stuff like on TikTok and online? Yeah, it's, it's so weird because I dropped Kinoffsia and like the peak at the time was, I think 14,000 monthly listeners. And I thought that was fucking huge at the time. And then everyone kind of like forgot about it for a little bit. And then one day like randomly, it seems like everyone just started listening to life imitate's life. And I don't know now, now we're here. And it's, it's unbelievable still to me. Yeah, do you, did you have any fans who are like upset about it going like your song going viral? And like, I see a lot of people, I see a lot of people getting upset, like trying to like get keep it. And I think it's really funny. Guys, we need to get keep quannic. It's like, I don't know, it's like, I don't know if quannic wants to be gay. I don't know. I think it's funny watching them like attempt to do it. Like, I see, I see TikToks with people using my music and stuff and people asking the comments, like, oh, what song is this? And someone like a quannic fan responds, like, oh, don't tell them, don't tell them, please. Oh, it's game over. Awesome. It's game over for your smaller fans. Now that you got that based news network. Oh, oh, no, now they can keep trying. It's awesome. Yeah. Shout out the gatekeepers, shout out the new spreaders. That's the new goal is to the new goal is to close the gate on quannic. We need to get you back down to 10,000 monthly listeners. That's the goal to zero monthly listeners. Everyone's stopped. She's going to start shaming people on TikTok, like, oh, the only way you can listen to quannic is if you memorize the songs and play them inside of your head. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's already already do that. Everybody should be doing that. Yeah. It's pretty, uh, that's step one. There's one USB you can obtain a your local library that has my music on it and that's it. That's it. That's so dope. I'm going to put a virus on that. If quannic has zero listeners, I'm dead. Good. Good. Yeah. I mean, I did I did my job. All right. Um, cool. I guess like what other kind of like, okay, for example, like I see you have a song here that is, I think it's a really great song, Bryn Mar. Yeah. What inspired that song, Bryn Mar? Just because I grew up in Pennsylvania. So like that song I kind of stood out to be. Well, the title itself was recommended by Jesse, but musically, I was listening to like a lot of Bowie. And I wanted to make a song like five years. Oh, that's dope. Okay. Well, honestly, yeah, I mean, it's a cool title. It's like, I think even if you don't have a relationship to Bryn Mar, Pennsylvania, like it's still a cool title. So that's totally respectable. Yeah, I wish I had like the coolest story ever title, but Jesse was just like, you should name it this. And I'm like, okay, because I didn't know what I was going to name it at all. Well, it sounds like Bryn Mar. I've never been to Bryn Mar though. So I can't say what it sounds like. Kai, you haven't even been there either. Well, it's, well, that isn't your state. It's in, it was in your state. Well, I mean, no, it was actually in my, oh, I don't know, in my county. a Delaware County. So I probably drove through it. I don't know. I just thought it was like a college there or something. No. So all right, that was a easy-peasy question to answer. So quannic. Now, so you have a tour coming up. Yep. With Jane Remover. Yep. You excited? Very. Why? I love Jane. And I think that playing a lot of shows is going to be fun, especially with Jane. Like, I don't think I would want my first tour to be with anyone but her. Oh, so this is your first tour? Yeah. As quannic. Yeah. Sweet, congrats. Thank you. I mean, it's going to be dope. Have you played very many live shows as quannic? No, I've only played one. Was it like with a full band? Yeah, it was in L.A. And we had Rome and Max and Austin. That was really cool. Playing is so playing playing. Playing rock is live is literally the best. It is very fun. I'm jealous. I'm honestly jealous of this tour. I mean, I'm going to go see you and Jane when you come to New York. So that I'll live through you. I'll get to live the experience. But no, I mean, that's great. And I didn't realize. So you and Jane are friends? Yeah. I mean, it makes sense. You two have good. I mean, you're on the same label and got similar music. But like, do you have you two like hung IRL? Yeah, we've hung like three times, I think, now, but I've known Jane for like, I think four years now, three years. So you two have gotten to see each other grow. You have two have grown symbiotically. Is that the right word for that? That's cool. Yeah. Sweet. Wow. It's a little shoe gaze. That's going to be double shoe gaze. Yeah. Are you going to Minnesota? I don't know. Probably not. I'm going to say no. They don't get Minnesota doesn't get. I'm from Minnesota. No, we're not. I don't know. Okay. No, it's okay. I'll be in New York. We'll fly Sophie out for the show. Awesome. Sweet. That's great. I'll be there. Yeah. That sounds dope. And you know, you know, I feel like sometimes as a musician, like, well, I guess, okay, before I say what I'm going to say, how are you like, so now that you've released this record, first off, congrats on the record, it's really dope. Congrats on the million Spotify, whatever all that. How are you feeling now? Because I asked the same thing to Jane, are you already sort of kind of a little bit thinking about what you want to do next in terms of your creative output? Yeah. Right now I'm doing some big brainstorming by listening to a lot of music. That's how I that's how I do the pre-album game, I guess. Does that look like do you make playlists that inspire you? Yeah, usually, usually, I'll make like a playlist on like Spotify and just add entire albums that I like and just keep them on shuffle, I'm driving or sleeping or something. So when you tour, are you going to be both doing vocals and guitar simultaneously or is it just going to be vocals? Do you know yet? I know for me, I'm always going to be playing guitar while singing, but I think for Jane, she does vocals without playing guitar and also vice versa. dope. Yeah, the reason I ask was because like one thing I have found is that when you when you play a lot of shows, you just get a lot better at your instrument and like you just get you just get you just like, you know, there's no trade-off. Like it's not like you're getting detracted from working on your next record because you're touring. It's like actually the touring is going to help you figure out like, oh, I really like how this feels when I'm on stage or whatever, you know what I mean? It's going to. Yeah. But I mean, I guess I've got I'm hooked like I'm even though like I know it takes a while. Like I'm already looking forward to more. Like obviously I'm very satisfied with the step dream and your your output already, but it's you know, it's really awesome. So that's thank you. That's great. And I love my favorite thing to do is let me do this real quick. Oh god, what is he doing? Nothing. Don't worry. Give me a second. I really like the beginning of that. I don't know if you could hear that. That was Komatos. I think Zoom just suppressed the hell out of it. Yeah, I don't think I could hear it. Oh, come on. That was the lame. It's just like the awkward silence. You're like, what does that happen? Okay, that is all right. Well, I was I was I was playing the intro of Komatos. Like, oh, that's so cool. I was just imagining it now. Yeah. And it sounds epic. It's great. It's great. That's that's what I've been doing is like preparing for this interview. I'm just opening up Komatos and go. Ginger. Ginger. Ginger. Just press. Maybe you can send me send me like an audio file of you doing it. Okay. I would love to hear that. Okay. All right. So it sounds like me pressing play your song. I will send you. Yeah. I want to hear that. Okay. I'll see what I can do. When we're not on zoom, zoom, you know, these these dang cooperators, these zoomers, are you a zoomer? Yeah. Yeah. Are you technically general? No. No, I'm 13. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. That was a troll. Don't worry. I was trolling. All right. It was a just I actually turn 19 tomorrow. Oh, my God. Happy birthday. Thank you. That's so great. Like, I think we were asking Jane about this, but like, because Jane is also quite young. I don't I don't I don't want to like say that. No, like patronizing or anything like that. I just I think it's really cool that like you and Jane are so successful so young and like, how does that feel to achieve what you've achieved that you're still you're still like 18. Yeah. School. I feel like sometimes I feel like I have like no room to improve musically. Like I feel like I peaked or something. Not like in an ego way, but like where do I go from here? But I have like a million years left to live. You know, so there's just I don't know. It's very weird. Yeah. A million a million years left to live. Yeah. I'm only I'm only two, so. All right. I'm the youngest shoegays or next to Jmaskies. I wonder if you are. I'm just kidding. No. I mean, you might be. You might be. Well, there's probably some like 14 year old making shoegays somewhere. We're going to find we're going to find. Yeah. Jmaskies. Yeah. Is he even shoegays? No. Exactly. So he's the youngest shoegays are. I looked at my shoes before. Makes me a sugar. Okay. That was the worst joke I've ever made. I'm sorry. Please cut that. Oh, I want to. I'm going to replay that. I'm going to. That one louder than the volume up on that one. Yeah. Whenever we talk about music on this podcast, I get really insecure because I like me. I actually love shoegays, the genre of shoegays. And I like music, but he's far better at speaking about it. And I don't know, like, like the rate your music types of the world have intimidated me into into silence. I'm like too scared. I'll say something stupid about music. So I'm quite anxious about it. Yeah. The rate your music bullies want you to stop talking about your favorite music forever. Yeah. They do. That's not even a joke. Yeah. I get scared of them. I feel like that's why I had to say that, like, to clarify, I didn't call Jmaskies' shoegays because I know the rate your music dudes would have for me. Oh, my God. That I feel like. We've talked about rate your music being weird. Like they literally banned Kaya multiple times. And yeah, even though he is like a patron to them. Yeah. They tried updating my rate your music profile with something that I didn't want them to put on there. And I like voted no on my rate your music account. That is like the user name is and they're like, "Why did you do that?" Like it's epic. as if I'm not the person that you're trying to like, update. - That sucks, that sucks. - Yeah, cool. - There's two websites that I wish never existed and it's right, your music ingenious, but album of the year can chill. - Album of the year is dope. - Album of the year is very chill. - Ben camp stands in the house. - Ben camp is the goat. - Pre-pre-pre-getting sold to whatever we can't remember. - Epic games, the fourth one. - Epic games, yes, of course. - I like Epic games. (laughs) - They made quake, right? - I think they made quake. - Did they? I don't think they did. Maybe they did, but what I do know is they put Peter Griffin in Fortnite. - That's awesome. Then that made me feel like a little better about Ben camp. I'm like, they're in good hands. - Well, no, no. - Just kidding. - No, 'cause know what happened is Epic bought Ben camp and then they came here. - Oh, they sold it, that's right, I'm sorry. - They sold Ben camp, yeah. - Never mind, never mind. - Who has it now? - It's this company called Song Trader that no one knows anything about, but what we do know is when Epic sold that to Song Trader, Ben camp, like a significant amount of Ben camp staff was fired. - Whoa. - So are they like refusing to, oh, sorry. Like aren't they refusing to recognize their union or something to or adhere to like a union to me? - Yeah, that's the union definitely plays a critical role in the drama. And I don't know how, like it's very clear that like in this sale from Epic to Song Trader, like a lot of the union members specifically were laid off. So that's a whole thing. But you know what, the core infrastructure of Ben camp, the service they provide is very good, regardless of what capitalist overlord is doing bad stuff to it. It's still a good website and I will defend it and use it. - No. - Not you, Kwanik, just kidding. Not you, not you 1 million Spotify monthly. - I am the capitalist overlord, I'm like. - You look. - Yeah. So you get like, you got like a solid like, $14 a month from Spotify. - Yeah. - Dope. (laughing) - I think the Biscoe of Shoegaze. - Cool. - Yeah. - The Jeff Bezos, Jeff Bezos, like today I'm gonna listen to Kwanik. - That would be crazy. - Yeah, well you're on your way. - You got all the greats and now Jeff is next on the list. - We could collab. - You could collab. Honestly he's probably like looking to like, gain favor with Gen Z, you know what I mean? - Do you think he plays instruments or things? - Hmm. - I feel like he can play a few chords on the guitar. And that's just my guess. Do you know Kaya? - I definitely can picture him on a yacht playing Wonder Walk. (laughing) - That would be awesome. - That's exactly what I was thinking too. - Yeah, now I feel like 90s Jeff Bezos, looks like he listens to, they might be giants. And like, and like 2020s Jeff Bezos, looks like he listens to like Pitbull. - Yeah, I don't think he listens to anything. I can't picture him listening to anything at all. - He listens to the sound of screams of his employees and cries. - Do you think he listens like hypothetically if he actually does listen to music? Do you think he listens like through the Amazon music streaming service or do you think he just uses Spotify because it's better? - I think he uses Amazon music because he is so self-centered, probably. I don't know him personally, but. - I know, perhaps we're, yeah. - He might be a really chill guy. (laughing) - I'm sorry for hating. - Hey, we don't know. Maybe he made all that money very ethically. We don't know. - Yeah. - Make question mark. So. - I feel like he's on hip-hop Twitter, on like a smurf account. - He falls like rap, rap TV. - Yeah. - Some of the best accounts on the internet. We need like rap to do a tweet about Qwani. - No, no, no. - Okay, never mind. - No. - Okay. - No, okay. - I feel like they would hate me for some reason. - I just think it'd be funny in the format. Like, you know how rap does their like- - Yeah, are y'all rocking with Qwani? (laughing) - That would be sick. Maybe I'll make that for the promoting this podcast episode, I'll like make a, 'cause I've already made fake rap posts before, or would that be not cool? I don't know. - Rommage. - It's so cool. - Okay. - Rommage. - Yeah, we could do that. I was gonna say this song, Rommage featuring Tom Mcdonald. - Oh no. - That's gonna be the next Qwani. (laughing) - The remix. - The remix. - The remix. - Tom Mcdonald just rapping over a singing saw. - Yeah, that sounds like hell. (laughing) - All right, looking forward to it. That's gonna be dope. - Sick. So, is there anything like you are working on right now that you wanna like talk about quickly before we wrap up, or yeah, like what's, what's, what's, - I'm not really working on anything right now. I'm just preparing for tour and stuff. - Sweet, and like, can you provide some like details on your tour for like anyone listening? - Yeah, I'm touring with Jane, and my backup band is just some of my best friends and we're going to places like Cali in New York and Seattle, and it's gonna be really cool. And I would love to see you guys. - Where can you get tickets? - The Dead Air website. - Sweet. - All right. - And wait, I was also just gonna say, it's from February, it's in February too. - Yes. - And you gotta freaking, well, you and Jane, mostly Jane, you gotta pitch for, you gotta pitch for announcement about the tour. - Oh yeah, Jane, Jane did that. - But no, but it says right here in the subtitle, in the subtext, dates with Koaliner Quonic. So-- - That's the first time that they've said my name. - So you, that's dope. That, I mean, that's pretty nice. - The grass, they're sleeping on, they're so well. - Yeah. - Wow. - Thank you. - The TikTokers, Gen Elphal beat pitchfork to the next day. - The real music. - Pitchfork is dead, and that officially is it. That's not, well, sorry. - Here it is. - We love you, pitchfork. Don't cancel us. - All right. Well yeah, be sure to check out their tour. We'll link it in the description of this episode too, so that you get easy access and check out Koaliner's music. - Step dream, the new actress, the famous dope. - Yeah. - And thank you so much for coming on, Koaliner. - Yes, thank you so much, it's been honor. - Thank you for having me. - You're goaded with the sauce. - Yes, this is, you are, I was, you're really, you're done with the news. - No, I was very impressed. - I'm pretty based. - I think so. - You're very based. - You're based. - All right, well, this has been "Base News Network." - "Base News Network," bye-bye. - Bye-bye. - Bye.