LPC Interview With unouomedude

I had the opportunity to get in touch with unouomedude (Uno) this week, whose song "Island Summer" was posted a little over three weeks ago. We talked about past summers in Florida, future collaborations, and what the term "chillwave" really means.

Why the name "unouomedude"/"you know you owe me dude"? Is there a story behind it?

One day my cousin was telling me that he came up with the name "unoiouboi" (You-Know-I-Owe-You-Boy) for some sort of screen name. It was basically just a way to poke fun at people constantly trying to shorten words. He never ended up using it, and I needed to make a screen name for AIM and I just modified "unoiouboi" and came up with "unouomedude" and it's stuck with me ever since.

Before getting to know more about you, I got the Florida-style beach vibe from tracks such as "Island Summer". Of course you'd be from Jacksonville! Does living in Florida and going to the beach influence your music and how you write?

A lot of the songs on Marsh, including "Island Summer", are about my memories of past summers. "Island Summer" is the only one specifically about the beach though. I actually don't go to the beach very often, haha. When I was making Marsh I was aiming to make a summer-y pop record. So for this record, my songs were definitely influenced by my memories of Florida and the beach.

When did you first gain interest in writing and performing music?

Well, In 8th grade I made a video with puppets about pirates for a school assignment. In one part the video I decided to do a first-person rap about the pirate William Kidd. My cousin helped me make the beat. After I learned how to make beats, I made a few silly raps with/for my friends. One day I went to an MC Lars, Patent Pending, and Suburban Legends show with a friend. It was the first show I ever went to and I saw MC Lars with his homemade beats, controlling his own projector and still putting on a great show. That's when I realized I didn't need a band to take making music seriously. So that's when "unouomedude" started.

Your music has generally been labeled as "chillwave", which is a fairly new genre that didn't get much public notice until we heard the likes of Washed Out, Toro y Moi, etc. Do you like that label or do you feel that there's a better description for your music?

I'm not completely sure what chillwave is anymore. When Carles (of Hipster Runoff) coined the phrase, he seemed to use it to describe sample based, nostalgic, electronic, synthpop. I think since then, people have started using it to describe other music that has a few of the same qualities of the artists originally classified as chillwave. So I'm not sure if chillwave is changing, or if people are just using it to classify artists that fans of chillwave may like. But it's been helping people, including myself, find out about some pretty awesome bands even if no one knows what constitutes chillwave. I just pretty much just call my music "lo-fi pop" though, its easier, haha.

Are there any artists you feel have influenced your music?

I'm usually more influenced by visuals than I am by music. But when it comes to music, there are several artists that I listen to that indirectly influence my music. Listening to artists like Regina Spektor, Tegan and Sara, Jack Johnson, AFI, Thrice, and Rancid taught me how to write songs and work on arrangements. I always hear small things in my songs that are probably subliminally influenced by bands that I've listened to for years.

I know that you've wanted to do a track or two with Blackbird Blackbird. Name some other artists/bands you'd like to collab with.

Yeah Mikey (Blackbird Blackbird) and I have been trying to put something together for a while. There are several other artists I would love to work with though. Star Slinger, Emay, Teenage Reverb, Kiss Kiss Fantastic, PePePiano, pretty much every artist I listen to really. For me, some collaborations work better than others, depending on the similarities in the artists writing styles. I recently did a track with Police Academy 6 which was really easy for me to write to and came together easily. I do have some collabs on my bucket list though. I would love to collaborate on a track with Zach Gill and Zach Hill one day.

Recommend a band or artist to listen to for our readers, preferably up and coming.

There are so many good artist I've found out about this year. I've been listening to a lot of Star Slinger lately so everyone should for sure check him out.

What's next for you? Will you have any more releases in 2010 or are you done until we hit 2011?

Well, I've been working on a few remixes and collaborations lately. I'll probably put out a few singles this year, maybe another EP. But I'll probably be putting out a lot more stuff in 2011.