A Few Questions with Shortstop
I see your involvement with The Divine Demo Tape is your first release since your Sundered by the Blow EP from September of 2022, how did you get involved with the other artists in the split?
“Well as far as getting involved with the other artists go, Trevor from Quarter Conscious is a day one homie of mine and is genuinely the earliest supporter of my music I can recall. On top of that he makes great music and he does all my mixing and mastering. He’s actually a godsend. Fedtodeath is the solo project of another one of my close friends, KB, who has been handling the digital distribution and merchandise for Shortstop as well as a previous band I was a part of. I think I met both of them in 2017? or so? But they’re really just close friends who make really cool music adjacent to mine and I wanted to work with them. I prefer to work with people I’ve already worked with before, because I know what to expect and I know what our dialogue will be like working together. The third band on the split, Depopulate Montana, were invited onto the split because they fill that super specific niche of one drummer, one open tuning telecaster, and a bunch of screaming recorded in a garage. I just couldn’t bring myself to make a split with the intent of “showcasing emo subgenres” without a bit of Jack Senff worship.”
I really like how you mix up Anamanaguchi style 8-bit hyperpop with typical screamo/post hardcore, how did you come to find this sound? Was this your intention when you started making music, or did this just come about as you wrote?
“It kind of just happened that way really. With the last project I started, my best friend was really pushing for like super twinkly open tuning guitars mixed with the synth-core breakdowns of Attack Attack and… well that went okay, but I still wasn’t sold. When my friend passed away I was left with a solo project and no drummer. Using my history of production I undertook the task of making programmed drum tracks for the demos we had never finished together. I think the classic drum machine…brought something unique to the techno inspired sonic hell that was my first EP. The twinkly guitars and intentionally lofi production are kind of staples of this new wave of emo. Which is cool I guess but, I really wanted it to feel different than every other band with a few soft clipping plugins on their master. I’ve been making beats for as long as I've been writing songs on my guitar, if not longer. I think the real, hard hitting drums mixed with the overly processed drum samples and hip hop drum motifs and stuff like that are just a way to let my old self shine through.”
Where did the naming convention for the split come from, is there a meaning to them? Are the songs part of one another?
“The name of the split actually stemmed from my previous project as well. Before my close friend passed away, we had the idea for this “Divine Demo Tape” based on the Divine Comedy. So we were going to write one song for the Inferno, one for Purgatorio, and one for Paradiso. We never finished the demo tape but the idea has been in my head ever since. I’ve always liked concept releases, whether it’s a concept that permeates the songs or just the aesthetics, it always helps tie things together.”
Do you write and record everything yourself, or do you have help along the way?
“I write and record everything myself for the most part yeah. I can’t really play the drums though, so a lot of the time I’ll program the drums for the song I hear in my head, and during the recording process I’ll have a drummer go in and listen and make changes so the song grooves better and has more feel. Shoutout to Melody from Gingerbee for the drums on the split- I love the way they turned out. Besides actually playing the drums, I do pretty much everything except the bulk of the mixing and mastering.”
Do you have any more plans for 2023, new music, live shows, music videos, ect.?
“I have another small release planned for this year, which consists of a lot of my more hyperpop influenced b-sides; once those are out, I plan on transitioning towards more traditional screamo/mathcore sounds and song structuring for my first full-length album. In terms of live music, shortstop does technically exist as a band, however, the process of me writing everything and then teaching it to others has proven to be tricky in terms of getting everyone ready to play shows with the current set list. A music video would be cool, but I’m not sure that it’s in the cards for me this year.”
I want to thank Jon, aka Shortstop, for taking the time to answer some questions for us!
Be sure to check out Shortstop at the link below!
