by Kris Handel
As Being Dead were about to release their new album, EELS (released September 27th via Bayonet Records), they took time out to speak to us here at Post-Trash. The band have created their own unique space both in music and their own world blurring fiction and reality with a quick witted humor and off the cuff story-telling that can baffle the uninitiated. EELS is a big step forward for the band in terms of it's musical approach with a more pronounced bit of 'girl-group' harmonies woven through their feisty garage punk, though they never really stray too far from the wild fun fueled abandon of When Horses Would Run. Falcon Bitch and Shmoofy roll through some inside-jokes/references to past interviews and lore in this lightly edited convo) with a quick wit and playfulness that rarely hesitates and is as personally infectious as their music and new album has constantly proven to be.
photo: Athen Smith
Post-Trash: To first talk about the album, I had previously heard it was inspired by EELS and you kidnapped Mark Oliver Everett and built a giant terrarium in the basement, is that true? if not feel free to set the record straight!
Falcon Bitch: I don't know who Mark Oliver Everett is, but definitely, definitely inspired by our deep sea adventures and our riverboat gambling addiction cuz thats where we were introduce to the American Eel. Where we were having a few run ins with... long... slick dudes, or worms
PT: You may know the name of Mark Oliver Everett by the name E and the great hit "Novocaine for Your Soul" from 1995.
Falcon Bitch: Mark Oliver Everett, let me take a look. I'm not sure, yeah I don't know.
Shmoofy: Is this a part of our, um... This is funny cuz we just did another interview where we were accused of kidnapping someone, was this just a coincidence or is this part of our thing now?
Falcon Bitch: OH. I didn't realize this man, he has a project called EELS.
PT: Yeah he's the frontman, they had a massive hit in 1995.
Falcon Bitch: We're hoping for a 1995 hit too.
PT: That is the dream, isn't it?
Falcon Bitch: It's gonna be tricky but we're gonna try.
PT: Time travel is hard, but having gone to Yale and everything I'm sure you can work something out
Falcon Bitch: Well I was thinking about the Mandela Effect recently, which is you know all the time travel conspiracies and I was thinking about that yesterday and maybe our next hobby could be trying to crack that.
Shmoofy: I have a Mandela Effect I was just talking to Kevin about the other day.
Falcon Bitch: Hit me.
Shmoofy: We both recently watched Grizzly Man on separate occasions, but we both remembered it from our past that you get to hear the audio of him being eaten in the documentary, but it's not in there anymore.
Falcon Bitch: No, I don't think you ever get to.
Shmoofy: Well maybe we're just on different time paths, but now we're on the same one.
Falcon Bitch: Thank Gord.
PT: To get back into previous chocolateering career you had previously, I understand there was a gummy bear argument... were chocolate gummy bears too far of a leap for the industry
Shmoofy: Well maybe I think... It's like, well I don't think they have figured out a gummy chocolate fusion. The world's not ready for it I don't think, they are being about pretty closed minded to it.
PT: That's unfortunate.
Falcon Bitch: There's a scientific barrier, it hasn't been done yet.
PT: You couldn't have been the first? It was just too much of a road to go down?
Falcon Bitch: "It's not Gummy enough' 'It's not Chocolatey enough' Like no one can agree and that's where we were hoping to come in and sort that out.
PT: What would you guys say was the biggest learning step or hurdle from album one to album two.
Falcon Bitch: Cody, you were gonna take it away.
Shmoofy: Hmm, biggest learning step... Just making good use of our studio time. When we’re spending money it's like play time is over we're here, lets do it. There's still time for goofing around for sure, but for the most part the second time around we were more business like 'let's do it" instead of lingering around on ideas for too long. We did all our demos before going, we pretty much had our songs ready to go instead of being like 'we'll just figure it out in the studio' which is what we kind of did for the first album. This time we figured it out beforehand, there was some experimentation in the studio, but for the most part it was like 'we got the sounds, we know how to make them' so let’s do it real quick.
Falcon Bitch: The deadline was doing that to us, it had us up against the wall, so we learned because of that restraint. Limitations help... you, sometimes limitations say 'come here' (makes rope pulling motion). I'd say that was good for us cuz like we can play forever. Another learning experience, I think we learned a lot about ourselves in the process, right?
Shmoofy: Yeah came home definitely more knowledgeable about ourselves.
Falcon Bitch: Like the soul, mind, body. The soul and spirit if you will.
Shmoofy: Yeah, natural medicines, we got really into natural medicines in LA.
PT: Ayahuasca and stuff.
Shmoofy: Yeah, we were doing a lot of Ayahuasca, yeah.
Falcon Bitch: A lot of Ayahuasca, aroma therapy. We were making yogurt and kimchi and stuff, we were fermenting.
PT: So a lot of odor I assume!
Shmoofy: Oh yeah! A lot of odor.
Falcon Bitch: It was a really stinky one!
PT: What is the most healing thing for when Rock and Roll damages your soul?
Shmoofy: It's kind of like a hangover where the only remedy to it is more beer. It's kind of the same where the only remedy is more Rock and Roll.
Falcon Bitch: it doesn't make a lot of sense but it's like a trust fall.
PT: To the delightful portrait on the first album, that horse is beautiful. Does he have a name, and is he stabled somewhere?
Falcon Bitch: The horsey? The name is Horsey.
Shmoofy: I thought the name was Horses. The album is called When Horses Would Run (laughter).
Falcon Bitch: The name is Horses, did I not say that, I thought I said Horses.
PT: Horsey
Falcon Bitch: Oh weird, that's just a slip.
Shmoofy: That's Horses on the front.
Falcon Bitch: One horse. It was confusing us at first, people thought we were talking about more than one.
Shmoofy: It's a Greek Name *pronounces short syllable Horses.
PT: This album is a little darker than the previous one. Were there any extenuating circumstances or was that just how it played out?
Falcon Bitch: We are both a little angrier and tortured. A little haggard, the industry is getting to us.
Shmoofy: When we didn't get Pitchfork's Best New Music we decided, uh we almost quit the game, then we were like 'we'll just make one that's undeniably better. We'll show them" so a lot of that was rage.
PT: What is the actual biggest thing in Texas that people would be surprised to learn?
Shmoofy: Oh, it has to be the UT jumbotron. The UT jumbotron in the football stadium.
Falcon: I was gonna say something wholesome like the power of friendship, the everlasting bond of love and friendship.
PT: Well that is actually surprising.
Shmoofy: Yeah, Texas is uhhh is a really accepting community.
Falcon Bitch: Yeah, a really accepting community.
PT: What is the best place to eat in a mall food court?
Shmoofy: OMG, this is SO relatable! I was just at the mall. I don't remember the name of it actually, it's an independent place, it's actually Japanese food.
Falcon Bitch: You gotta go either Japanese or Chinese food.
Shmoofy: It's funny cuz there's another place right next to it, it's a Vietnamese place right next to the Japanese place I go to. There's never anyone in line for the Vietnamese place and there's always a huge line for the Japanese place. I feel really bad for the Vietnamese place, there prices are a little more... They gotta figure something out.
Falcon Bitch: Did you eat there just cuz you felt bad?
Shmoofy: Well the first time I ate there I was like 'this place is obviously better, this one has all the people'. There's a little robot that announces your order and then goes like :robot voice: 'Please take your food' it's really cool.
PT: Automation be stealing jobs tho, you gotta watch out for them, they are really tricky, they scheme and scheme.
Shmoofy: I like to believe there's someone on the other side like reading lines.
PT: Well that's actually much more comforting a thought.
Falcon Bitch: As long as there's no one that wants to do that job, I think it's good.
Shmoofy: If I could get paid $20 an hour to say "Please take the food" I'm all about that.
PT: Auntie Anne's or Cinnabon?
Falcon Bitch: AUNTIE ANNE'S! AUNTIE ANNE'S!
Shmoofy: I think Auntie Anne's, right? I think I've been to Auntie Anne's but that's more of an airport place to me.
Falcon Bitch: Really?
Shmoofy: Well the airport is just kind of a big mall.
PT: Yeah, an airport is just a mall with large airplanes.
Falcon Bitch: At the airport? Yeah they don't have an Auntie Anne's.
Shmoofy: Really? Maybe I'm thinking about Wetzel’s Pretzels. I'm more of a Rold Gold kinda guy.
Falcon Bitch: They don't have soft pretzels!!
Shmoofy: That's what I'm saying.
PT: That's what he's saying, he's more of a hard pretzel guy, it's about quality really.
Falcon Bitch: He likes to get hads on a hard body for sure.
Shmoofy: Yeah.
PT: What is the best way to kill time on an off day of tour?
Falcon Bitch: BASEBALL!
Shmoofy: Baseball, yes.
Falcon Bitch: We have our baseball mitts, our gloves. Where is mine by the way?
Shmoofy: [laughter] This is actually bad timing.
Falcon Bitch: What!? What happened to my baseball mitt!
Shmoofy: Remember I told you that Victoria got broken... I told you someone broke into her back yard and stole all our shit. Our baseball mitts were back there.
Falcon Bitch: I BOUGHT THOSE! You actually took the one I bought with my own money not the band fund!
Shmoofy: They all got stolen! We can buy some more with the band fund, we gotta get some more.
Falcon Bitch: I'm so mad.
Shmoofy: Dude, I'm not happy about it either. I was really disappointed for you cuz I know how much you loved yours, I was like this is going to be a really hard one to tell, to break to you.
Falcon Bitch: That sucks. I'm really sad. I was actually dreaming about the mitt the other day.
Shmoofy: OMG this is so ridiculous. We'll get another one, we'll get better ones anyway. Yeah, throwing the ball around is the best way.
PT: Two person stick ball, or is this like a real game?
Falcon Bitch: I'd call it a game of betrayal.
Shmoofy: Oh shit. We like to go "pop fly' throw it up and yell 'DOUBLE PLAY' and throw the ball really fast.
Falcon Bitch: Yeah we would like to do that, we used to do that a lot, huh??
Shmoofy: We haven't even thrown the ball around! This interview has gone down the drain.
Falcon Bitch: Someone's in the dog house.
Shmoofy: I'm in trouble, I know I know.
PT: Any outside band beefs that are allowed to be talked about or is it more of a love-in?
Falcon Bitch: We still have a little bit of beef with Big Bill... I guess the beef was squashed with Big Bill.
Shmoofy: I don't know... I mean we always have beef with Julien Baker.
Falcon Bitch: Yeah, that's true, we have beef with Julien Baker.
Shmoofy: I don't even know if she knows we have beef with her.
Falcon Bitch: She has no idea.
PT: One sided beefs are the best.
Falcon Bitch: Yeah you just cook the beef on one side.
Shmoofy: Everyone loves us.
PT: It's understandable with the energy and just the vibe.
Falcon: That and if we just unleash our.. uhh... We have a lot of hot takes. Just kidding we are sweethearts.
PT: What would you say is the biggest theme of the new album?
Both: Water
PT: Water is running everywhere so when something's so massive it has to make an impact.
Falcon Bitch: It's ubiquitous.
Shmoofy: Maybe we should have called this album Now Rivers Shall Run!
PT: What is better a regular eel or electric eels?
Falcon: American Eels and European Eels 10 out of 10 better than Electric Eels. You can love them, you can kiss them, you can swim with them. They are not gonna hurt you. They are chill, they tell good jokes.
Shmoofy: Do Electric Eels actually shock you?
Falcon Bitch: They can not kill you, they don't produce enough electricity to kill a human, but they can... they will hurt ya.
Both: They'll zap you.