Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Here at Impact 89FM, our staff has the opportunity to interview a lot of bands, artists and other musicians. We're excited to be highlighting those conversations and exclusive live performances.
Live from the East Lansing Underground, this is eighty eight nine bringing you The Basement. I am your host as usual, Liv.
Speaker 2:And I am the cohost, Griffin.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the studio tonight, guys. There's already been a lot of laughing, so I'm excited for this session. We're gonna see how it goes. But we have a wonderful band in studio called Zora Ruibas. Lot of time confirming that name.
Speaker 1:But would you guys take a second to introduce yourselves? I'm Zora.
Speaker 3:I'm Rich. I play bass.
Speaker 4:I'm Jake. I play lead guitar.
Speaker 2:I'm Joe. I play drums.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you guys so much for being in studio with us. You are actually the very first shoegaze that we've had, at least in our tenure on the show here. So always excited to bring something new to our listeners.
Speaker 5:Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1:If you do not know what shoegaze is, turn the volume up, listen in. This is June.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Welcome, Zora Roivas.
Speaker 5:Roivas? Roivas? Roivas? Roy however you wanna pronounce it.
Speaker 2:Well, welcome to The Basement Show. Thank you.
Speaker 5:Open to interpretation.
Speaker 2:I we're so glad to have you, and we have so many important questions to ask you. But before I get to ask your names and where you're from, I have something very important to ask you. So two things. Would you rather feed Snooki a Costco sized tub of peanut butter every day, or would you rather work a nine to five as a human table?
Speaker 5:I feel like I already work a nine to five as a human table, so let's switch things up. Snooki.
Speaker 2:You're gonna feed Snooki? I would feed her too.
Speaker 5:I would feed her.
Speaker 1:See, I feel like really important to know here, is she protesting or is she, like, also on board? I I
Speaker 2:don't know. I just envision her as that South Park episode where she was, like, some monster in a closet, and they oh, you know what I'm talking about? I sure do. But no. I don't think she'd be protesting.
Speaker 2:So, I'm glad to and why why would you want to feed her instead of being human table, Azura?
Speaker 5:She sounds more exciting.
Speaker 1:At least you get to meet Snooki, end of the day, you know?
Speaker 2:I think she's an icon. Just like you guys.
Speaker 1:I do really feel like we can't pass up the comment though that you already work as a nine to five as a human table.
Speaker 5:I feel like working any nine to five feels like that, like the essence of just being a human table.
Speaker 3:It's a stable job.
Speaker 5:Yeah. Yeah. Well, so They're all the same online.
Speaker 2:It's amazing. That's good. That's rich.
Speaker 1:That is rich.
Speaker 2:Wait. So you already are a human table?
Speaker 5:You could say that. You could say that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Okay. Let's break it down to essence. Let's break it down to essence though. Because these nine to five workers, the people who are in office every day or, like, in a store every day getting a job done.
Speaker 1:Like it's very functional to society. A table is very functional. Maybe it doesn't have a lot of frills but something you need.
Speaker 5:Exactly. Exactly. Anyone wanna chime in here?
Speaker 4:Yeah. You know, tables, you eat food on them, you do your homework on them, you cry at them. They're pretty important, you know? So to be a human table, I don't know what that means, but it sounds like a lot of us are.
Speaker 2:What if you were Jesus, but no one believed you?
Speaker 4:You know, funny story. One time I had someone mistake me as Jesus, and then I kept telling him, that actually, I'm just a surfer. I'm not a surfer. I just wanted the conversation to end.
Speaker 2:Do you get mistaken as a surfer a lot?
Speaker 4:Funny enough, I get mistaken for a surfer from California quite often, and I just started working at a dispensary. And quite often, that will happen. I don't know why there's no water to surf around here. But that's what happens. I used to live in Illinois, and the same thing happened.
Speaker 2:Well, that's cool. Do you ever tell the truth and that you're in a band?
Speaker 4:Yeah. Sometimes.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I feel like that's not an uncool alternative, like, persona to be, you know. The options on the table are Jesus, surfer, and guitar player. So
Speaker 4:One rides sick waves, one plays sick riffs, and one heals sick people.
Speaker 1:There we go. That was off the cuff. Snaps.
Speaker 2:So, Jake, when you work at the dispensary, like, does that ever influence you, to get into creative mode? And,
Speaker 1:I'm sure there's a lot of people that you come across or where it's just like little little slices of life and you get, like, thirty seconds with each of them.
Speaker 4:I have met some very nice people, some incredibly strange people. And, you know, your normal person who doesn't talk much and just wants to buy their stuff and get on with their day.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 4:Did I answer the question?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yes. You did. Oh, you did. You did.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Do you have any particular anecdotes which can, can leave the store and grace our show tonight? Like, what is what is the strangest interaction you've had with a person? I guess in a wholesome light, if we can if we can skew it in that direction.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I'm trying to find one that's wholesome. It's usually people being somewhat creepy towards me. So, let's see. A wholesome one.
Speaker 4:This guy came by and he, like, did engraving and stuff, and so he was showing me all this, like, cute stuff he engraved for his daughter. The most wholesome one I got, he was missing a leg, but was really good at engraving. And I'm pretty sure he could run faster than me even though he only had one leg and one fake leg.
Speaker 2:Why do you think that
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What gives that impression?
Speaker 4:Well, usually, he rides a bike up to the drive through window.
Speaker 3:Oh. Oh. Oh.
Speaker 2:It's a drive through?
Speaker 4:Yeah. We got a drive through.
Speaker 2:So you so people pull up and they're like, can I get blank, like, and you'll have it ready? And
Speaker 4:Yeah. So they come to the window. If I'm the person working the window, I'm I'm the best person to be working the window because, you know, I'm quick about it.
Speaker 1:But Well, it's that personality.
Speaker 4:Thank you. Thank you. I suppose I suppose that that that does help. Yeah. You know, they come to the drive through.
Speaker 4:I say, hi. What can I get you? I usually can't hear them, so I usually you know, most orders are one of three things. So I just kinda go, you you got this one? And then most people go, yeah.
Speaker 4:That one. And I go, and how many? And then I'll hear some kind of mumbling, and I'll go, did you say two? Two three of them? You want three of them?
Speaker 4:I go, no. No. No. I just want one. Okay.
Speaker 4:Anything else? No. Pull forward. That's about it. Do a lot of that.
Speaker 4:Sometimes I add things to the order. I just kinda go, hey, I thought you might like this, and I don't know anything about them. And I scan it, and I go, yeah, your order is $5 extra. Well, why? Oh, yeah.
Speaker 4:Remember you wanted this? Oh, I did. Yeah. I think you did. I probably shouldn't do that.
Speaker 1:I think it's master sales techniques. But I think we've we've also digressed pretty far from the point here. So Zora, before we heard June today, I threw out the term shoegaze. Is that, like, correct? Is that how you would characterize the music that you're making?
Speaker 5:I would say so. Yeah. When I first started making the EP, I wasn't really thinking of it in, like, terms of shoegaze. But my lovely friend Joe over here who produces and engineers my music just made it very shoegaze. Kind of willingly, kind of unwillingly, but I like how it sounds in the end.
Speaker 5:So, yeah, I would say so. It's very noisy. You know, it has that type of vibey sound. So I would say, yeah. Some of them lean in different directions, but I feel like I take inspiration from different genres.
Speaker 5:But in
Speaker 1:the end, I I would say that, yeah, it is kinda shoegaze y. So there were versions of this prerecording, preproduction where these songs sounded totally different. Like, that wasn't in the
Speaker 5:I mean, I think I think Joe kinda just, like, enhanced it in a way that made it, like, extra shoegaze. Like, it was definitely, like, shoegaze y. And then when Joe put their spin on it, it kinda just became even more, which I think was the right direction.
Speaker 1:Very cool.
Speaker 2:Is this the direction you always wanted to go into?
Speaker 5:Like of shoegaze or I wouldn't say always. No. Like, growing up, I feel like I listened to a lot more like I mean, I definitely love my, like, alternative indie rock, but I also like folk. I like alternative R and B, different genres. So I feel like I kind of try to mix them together in a certain way.
Speaker 5:Yeah. Bias.
Speaker 1:Which I think, I I've been asked this question a lot, so let's break it down. Maybe it's, maybe we're preaching to the choir here explaining this on Impact because a lot of our audience comes for shows like pity party or other areas where we feature these kinds of music that maybe aren't in the complete mainstream. You know, like, you wouldn't hear it on a a top 40 radio station. We're just not like other girls. But but shoegaze is lots of effects.
Speaker 1:Lots of distortion. Kinda like our our host, over here, Ashley, at the pity party likes to describe it as a wall of noise. Are all these things that you kinda draw on and that you also see in your music?
Speaker 5:I would say so. Yeah. I really love noise. If you if you listen to my EP, you'll hear, like, just at the end, I like to make it just very noisy. There's not really, like, a structure to a lot of my songs.
Speaker 5:I like
Speaker 1:to just feel it out
Speaker 5:and then just make it however it feels best, but it always ends up kind of just with a huge noisy outro like you just heard. So yeah. I love that.
Speaker 1:Like, the devolving sort of, and
Speaker 2:it all just
Speaker 1:Yeah. I think it's an awesome sound.
Speaker 2:Thank you. And then, Joe, you produced all the music? Yeah. Yeah. I recorded.
Speaker 2:I mixed it. I mastered it. And you do you write? No. Yes.
Speaker 2:You do. Kind of.
Speaker 4:Yes. You do.
Speaker 2:Not my stuff. I mean, I do, but
Speaker 3:I don't put it out.
Speaker 2:Interesting. Do you wanna share what your your shirt says? It says dog in a boy suit. It's my friend Austin's band. It rules.
Speaker 2:Cool. You should get give us the information afterwards. Yeah.
Speaker 3:There's a
Speaker 1:lot of music to shout out tonight because as I understand it, all of you have separate projects that you work on.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Yes. Yes. I realized that we can't just nod our
Speaker 2:heads because it's a lot of music though.
Speaker 4:But yes. Yes. We all have other music.
Speaker 1:Let's hear about it real quick. Just get a rundown, kinda like build an idea of all the stuff that's coming into this music.
Speaker 4:So Richie and I play in another band. Am I allowed to, like, say the band? Am I allowed
Speaker 3:to, like, say the band? Or am I allowed to call it?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Go for it.
Speaker 4:We play in another band called One Exit Down.
Speaker 1:Oh. Oh. I know you. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're good. Really cool.
Speaker 4:And, that music, we have an album out that sounds kind of like, indie pop rock, and then we're working on another one that sounds much more closer to a similar sound to what Zora is playing or what we're playing here with Zora today. In Zora Rui Rooibos. Yeah. I I play in this band, and I can't pronounce the name.
Speaker 2:And Rich?
Speaker 3:And Yeah. No. Currently, just, like, in the plan for, Zora when I can, as as much as they'll have me. And then also with wanting sit down, yeah, I absolutely love the music. We've been we've been working on some new stuff, so it's been exciting.
Speaker 3:It's been a lot of fun. I played drums in that band, so it's a little different than what I'm doing here today. But, yeah, we have we have a good time with it. It's great.
Speaker 2:And Zorra, what about you?
Speaker 5:This is my this is me. This is Zorra Orbis. This is my really only project that I have right now. I did used to play in a different band when I was attending MSU. Probably never heard of it because we didn't really play much, but it was called Pamelo.
Speaker 5:We have one song out, and it was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Joe. So it was it yeah. Yes.
Speaker 4:And Joe and I, I noticed you didn't grab the microphone. Grab it. Alright. You tell them.
Speaker 2:Okay. Jacob and I play in another band called Propolis. That's it. That's the only other thing
Speaker 3:I do.
Speaker 2:What it sounds like?
Speaker 1:Oh, it's sad. It's really sad.
Speaker 2:It's folk ish. It's, like, not folk punk, but, like, punk folk. I don't know. What do you think, Jacob?
Speaker 4:I believe the genre, as Lucas described it, is
Speaker 2:post country gays.
Speaker 4:Folk punk.