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ABOVE
Josiah
Mazzaschi posing with a toy instrument he picked up at the
discount store across the street from his studio "The
Cave". He bought it with the intention of messing around
with it and hoping for some interesting sounds to potentially
use in his recordings.
Photographed
on January 9, 2010. |
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I
saw Light FM for the first time at Pehrspace, a small space
that's a gallery by day and BYOB venue by night, which added
a level of charm to the pop quartet, now quintet, fronted
by Josiah Mazzaschi (not that they needed it). Originally
from Chicago, Josiah moved West after meeting Aaron Espinoza
of Earlimart and recently released his third, self-recorded
LP titled Let There Be Light FM. What really intrigues
me about his music is the range of interesting sounds and
the depth of layers each song possesses. I have no idea
how he writes these songs, but I selfishly hope he keeps
at for as long as he can.
I
photographed and spoke with Josiah at his recording studio
in Glassell Park in January of 2010.
How
long have you been in this studio space?
Josiah Mazzaschi: Probably since 2007,
almost three years.
You
record all of our own music here, but do you bring other
bands here to record as well?
JM: Yeah, I'm calling it The Cave. I've been
working with The Pity Party, and I did a session with Rademacher
here. Rademacher's coming back in the Spring, they're working
on a new record on an old reel to reel so were gonna dump
it all into Pro Tools. Who else have I worked with in this
particular space? Tigers Can Bite You, a lot of local bands,
Wait.Think.Fast has been in here. I usually take bands to
Kingsize or Infrasonic Sound to do drums and all the other
stuff we can do here like guitars and vocals and percussion.
Do
you like working with bands as a producer/engineer?
JM: Definitely, yeah. I started
out as an engineer, but I usually approach bands to see
if they want my opinion or not. My goal is to try and get
what the band wants ultimately, the sound they're trying
to achieve, and helping them do that. But if it seems they
don't really have a direction I can usually guide them in
a direction.
As
a musician, what's your experience been like in the past
working with producers?
JM: I've never worked with
a producer on my own stuff, except for Dave Trumfio, that's
how I met him, he produced my first band called Motorhome.
We were a noise band in Chicago and he pretty much produced
our record. I've been in the studio with Billy Corgan, he
produced the single that was never released with my old
band. I've never been represented by a management company
so I've always done it myself, not really by choice but
because I could never afford it. So I decided I had to learn
how to do this myself.
I
ask because it seems you've been on both sides, making music
as a musician and working with musicians as a producer,
and I'm curious how you approach the two, but it sounds
like you do it all yourself.
JM: Pretty much. I like working
with other people and getting ideas from other people but
in this town it's tough because everybody wants thousands
of dollars. I didn't really experience that in Chicago,
I think the motivation in Chicago was more if you
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like
somebody's music you're in their band. Here it's, "I
like your music but I'm not gonna play with you unless you
give me a bunch of money." I think people should get
paid for sure, but the indie aesthetic, like, "hey,
we're a band, we're making this sound, we're in it together,"
I've never really had that band dynamic. I wish I did.
When
were you in Chicago?
JM: I was there for a good
ten years before I moved here. I moved here in June 2005.
What
was the reason for coming here?
JM: Mostly music really.
My earlier incarnation of Light FM opened for Earlimart
at a club in Chicago and I talked to Aaron Espinoza and
I told him I had been considering moving out here. I felt
more of a kinship to the bands that were coming out of here
like Earlimart and I'm a huge Grandaddy fan, it seemed the
music coming from the West coast was so much more about
where I wanted to be. The Chicago music scene was a lot
of metal and indie elitism, like Drag City, Touch and Go,
like a real indie elitist kind of scene. I mean, there's
a really cool music scene and I miss Chicago a lot but I'm
making pop music and I couldn't really find a niche whereas
out here I felt that I could be closer to that. My wife
is also a make up artist, so that's a plus.
When
did you get married?
JM: We've been married seven
years now, we eloped to the Caribbean. (laughs)
Really?
How was that?
JM: It was awesome! Yeah,
I mean her family was a little disappointed but we just
went down there and didn't really have a plan.
Are
you from Chicago originally?
JM: I grew up in Boston actually.
I ended up in Chicago to go to the Art Institute and went
to art school there for four years and ended up sticking
around.
What
were you studying in school?
JM: Mostly photography.
Cool,
do you still do any photography?
JM:
I don't do that at all. (laughs) I don't know,
I've always played music, I started playing drums when I
was eight but didn't start writing songs until I was 18.
How
did you start playing drums at eight?
JM:
Mostly through school. I played in the school band,
the elementary school band. But [stopped] once it turned
into the marching band, those kids got ridiculed because
they had to wear those outfits.
So
you weren't in the marching band?
JM: No. (laughs) Those kids
got beat up so I never joined the marching band.
Did
you play in bands in high school?
JM: Mostly punk rock, yeah.
I played in a hardcore band.
Did
anything happen with those bands?
JM: None of them ever went
anywhere, actually one of them was this really industrial
band and we played our high school battle of the bands.
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