by Pat Pilch (@apg_gomets)
Good Flying Birds use 20th century tech to craft 21st century guitar rock. Sharp, punchy, and loaded with hooks, their latest record combines analog recording techniques with Internet ubiquity. Talulah’s Tape is like YouTube Shorts with tape hiss. The Midwest bunch is a part of a new wave of young bands favoring tangibility over accessibility. Led by Kellen Baker, the Birds champion zines, tape comps, Neocities websites, and catching your friend’s set. Post-Trash spoke with Baker about dreams, home recording, and their excellent new record Talulah’s Tape.
Courtesy of Good Flying Birds
*This interview has been edited for clarity*
Post-Trash: Talulah's Tape is technically a compilation correct?
Kellen Baker: I mean yes because it's culled from things I was posting individually on YouTube and other compilation tapes and whatnot. It's a compilation and it's an album.
PT: Tell me about your YouTube channel and Talulah God. Your YouTube username is paintypaintypotsmoker68.
KB: Yeah it is. That is a 800 Cherries reference. When I started all this it was the website and the YouTube channel. I wanted it to be very anonymous and Talulah God was my stage name because I felt like I could be more raw and honest that way. But I folded pretty quick when there came a time where there was an interview or something and I dropped my name. That was just to be anonymous and that was the only place I intended on any of these recordings existing.
PT: Are there any redacted recordings from Good Flying Birds floating around?
KB: There's a lot of redacted recordings from the rest of my life but I think since starting this project I've felt strongly about everything. I haven’t gotten cold feet after putting it out. Putting it out is a cathartic moment for me. It’s like therapy for me when I release it. It’s not mine to bear the weight of anymore.
PT: Can you talk about the significance of physical media to you?
KB: It's everything. None of this stuff was on streaming until now, and it was put on streaming before there was a social political pressure against it, which obviously there should be. But for me, streaming completely commodifies and devalues music. The interaction you used to have of going into a record store and picking up something you thought looked cool and giving it a chance or through word of mouth or taste-making zines is such a more meaningful way to digest and find music.
I'm really glad that's happening in Chicago. It totally revived my spirit in that stuff. It's hugely important. It's a superior way to interact with music and art.
PT: How'd you get into analog recording?
“Good Flying Bird,” the Guided By Voices song. I had friends who were using four tracks but I didn't understand how to fit a full band. I didn't understand bouncing. That song is just two vocals and two guitars and I was like, “okay that's four tracks.” So I made a song that was kind of a ripoff of that song and just didn't give up after that. I hate digital recording because I get option paralysis. I get lost in the sauce and I usually just go direct to the four track with no processing because it's the only way I can get anything done.
PT: What was the first Guided By Voices record you got into?
KB: Alien Lanes for sure, but recently I've been on King Shit and the Golden Boys a lot.
PT: Tell me about the content and the sequencing on this record.
KB: My goal was to encapsulate where my head was at and my experience through the day. All these songs are little snapshots or feelings or moments. They’re pretty sporadic and immediate. I wanted to encapsulate my life during this time and part of that is being on my phone looking at memes and shit. So it was a necessary piece of my experience. That sounds weird and I feel like it’s annoying to talk about a meme in that way, but it's legitimately a part of my daily diet.
I'm generally just coming from my own experience with this stuff, but I'm sure a lot of people can relate to the constant juxtaposition of going through something in your life or feeling something genuinely emotionally heavy and in the midst of that seeing some dumb ass brain rot that makes you laugh.
PT: Can you talk about how it felt to be asked by labels to put this record out it?
KB: It felt really intimidating and confusing because every single recording is a first take in my bedroom. Each happened within a day. It's truly just a collection of demos, so I really wasn't expecting that. I was pretty overwhelmed with the labels but ultimately Carpark was the most adamant about it. They really wanted to work on it and that felt like a good sign.
PT: Tell me about your dream with the fish.
KB: In the dream, we were going into this really depressing bar that this band I knew was playing. We were skipping into the side room and there is this little fish in a tank with a crab. I go see the show and there's nobody in there and the band starts drinking. Then I hear this guy say, “sleeping with the dalmatian’s better than sleeping with the wife.” They’re also trying to sell these nerf guns to kids that shoot real bullets. Then I go back and the crab is so big it's filling up the tank and it killed the fish.
PT: And the fish tank was a microwave, right?
KB: Oh you read it! Oh my god yeah. I actually forgot I put it on the website. Wow yeah that's the one I'm talking about. Those dreams stick with me for a long time but they don't happen very often.
PT: Have you ever dream journaled?
In those moments when I can remember the dreams, yeah. It feels like it's so rare for me that I even wake up and remember a dream. It might be once every six months sometimes. I don't smoke weed so I don't know why that is.
PT: Have you ever lucid dreamt?
KB: Only once on my birthday two years ago. I got way too fucked up and woke up in a cold sweat and went back to sleep and had the craziest lucid fever dream. I was flying all around the world and doing whatever I wanted.
PT: How do you feel about apples and bananas right now?
KB: I'm way bigger on bananas but I haven't had very many of either recently which is not healthy and I should make a change and this is a signal to do that.