Journey to the Before Times with Sugar Candy Mountain

You're listening to BFF. fm's InFrequencies, a new podcast of varying length and varying schedule, where we share some of the amazing stuff that's happening at BFF.fm. BFF is known for its live community radio on the internet, but this short season of InFrequencies comes with the launch of our podcast network.

I'm Lily Sloane host of this season of InFrequencies, and I'm also a podcast producer and organizer for our podcast network. Quick note, we want to grow our network. So if you have a podcast or you're thinking about starting one and want to be part of a supportive creative community, visit bff.fm/podcasts, click join and fill out the application.

And now let's dive in to episode one of infrequencies.

Oakland based psychedelic duo Sugar Candy Mountain is a local favorite. Their website bio aptly says "If Brian Wilson had dropped acid on the beach in Brazil and decided to record an album with Os Mutantes and The Flaming Lips, it would sound like this, all psychedelic pop wall of sound and beach balladry."

In March, 2019 DJ Duffy of BFF.fm's The Greenroom talked to Ash Of Sugar Candy Mountain. Back in a time when plans were made, tours were had, and the demise of beloved Bay Area venues was on the mind of musicians and fans alike. This really highlights how essential touring and performing live is for working musicians. But stuff happens and Ash even shares a perfect example of when things didn't go as planned and the show couldn't go on.

As we all know, just a year after this interview, life as we knew it had been completely altered, but also, in the midst of it all Ash and Will had a baby. This interview in some ways can feel like a Relic of the before times, but it also taps into some of the hopes and fears indie artists are experiencing today.

Alright. Well, we are going to get into the music up first. I want to play your new single in my own world by sugar, Kenny mountain.

Tell me about the vibe for this track. Cause it does feel a little bit different in tone from your previous work. So what's it all about?

I guess we were just getting a little Cynthia A. Little bit, like. Funkier and sort of base your dance here, but lyrically it's sort of my husband and I are both in the band.

He's will the drummer spend a lot of time together? Cause we're always touring or writing together or working on the house and life stuff together. So we're like together all the time, which is good, but the lyrics kind of deal with the idea of maintaining your own identity while still being so connected to someone.

Cool. And

not in a bad way. Yeah. In a bad way. I love you. Well, I

think, I think it's good to identify that because also it's tricky to work with somebody and then also be their partner, you know, I have like, I dunno, we are multifaceted people. And so,

yeah. And we get so much from each other all the time.

You know, how, how do you be in, how do you be in your own world? How do you be your own person and, and still be so. Involved with someone else.

Definitely. And then one other question about this track. I love the album art for it has this like really beautiful, vibrant pink art, and who's the artist behind it.

Good question. All of our album artwork is done by a good friend of mine from high school. Her name is Jess Willa Wheaton, and she's based out of New York. And she's a fine artist that. I mean, she does our album artwork, but mostly she's just a real artist that is shown in museums and galleries and things.

So we're, we're lucky to get her to let us use her work.

Yeah. I mean, that's awesome do that. You have that personal connection, but then also to have that cohesiveness in terms of imagery, if you have, you know, an artist where it's like, alright, we're gonna keep collaborating on that. Cause that's, it's so important with that visual part.

Yeah.

Yeah. I feel like it creates a, a cool vibe and I like. Just the medium that she uses sort of somehow fits my idea of what our music means, how she like takes these collages that are from disparate sources. Some of it's like from, you know, old magazines from the fifties, some of it's from like contemporary ads and she creates this collage of old and new, real, and surreal and lots of space yet a feeling of lushness, which I think we like to try and play around with space and, and.

Sweet.

All right. Well, that's a new artist to check out. Yeah. Putting it on the list. All right. So here, sugar, candy, mountain. This is

So you,

you all performed at desert days this last

year. What

was it like for the weather? Cause I heard about the whole team

Paula

thing, having a camp. So what happened there?

Well, pretty much fortunate because I mean, it's called desert days, so you're not really anticipating a bunch of rain. Basically.

There was a thunder and lightning storm and it started three minutes into Tim and Paula's set. Three minutes, three songs in, Oh man. And so, you know, after the third song, Kevin Parker had to come out and be like, hi guys, I'm sorry. We have to go. And you all do too. And so then there was just this crazy storm lasted all night and yeah, so it.

It was unfortunate, but what can you do

exactly. And it's one of those you're out in the elements. And I think everyone, it's easy to forget about that. And then when you realize, okay, we, we cannot prevent lightning. Um, and this

weird situation, it's sad to see. So many people act so angry about it. I'm like, you know what?

Just go. These people put on an event for you. Use this as an opportunity to bond with the people in your camp site, you know, there's still, you know, another like 48 hours of music.

Yeah, exactly. Just relax, take a nap.

Yeah. I mean, I know a lot of people like came for Tim and Paula, so you can't have people get electric.

Exactly.

Shit happens. That's just life sometimes. So you have your big UK tour coming up, UK European tour. But then when you come back here, I know that you organize a festival called Hickey Fest.

It's up in Mendocino on the eel river. So there's like a sweet little swim spot. It's not too big. So we were kind of talking before about how we're.

Both a little bit frightened by the really big festivals too much personally, for me, I just, I can't handle it. I get so distracted by all the people that I can't see the music. Yeah. A little

overwhelming. And I also don't like feeling. The whole ant thing when you're just like trying to get through masses of people, just a little too much for me.

Yeah. And so that's part of why I do it. Cause I, I love the idea of people gathering together for that kind of thing, although centered around music, but I just can't do it in that format. And so I created something that felt right to me. So it's nature and friends and just one stage. So you're never choosing between things you're just choosing between like, do I want to chill my campsite?

But I want to chill at the beach or do I want to go see music?

That's great. So you said you guys have played Germany a few times before in

Berlin. What is

the, there's kind of like a wonderful art scene there, but what is the vibe with the crowd at shows? Like, are they very dancy at shows or like, what is it, what is it like performing in Berlin?

Well, first time we played there, we played eight millimeter bar and that's like a cool little, I guess, Anton from Brian Jones, Sam asked her that's the, his hangout. So that was cool. We like saw him walk by and stuff. And it's just weird because like, it is like a sort of a late night it's sort of town and like people stay up and stay out and drink a lot.

They can smoke inside there too, which is strange. And like

was like a blast from the past.

Yeah. That, that particular spot was like fairly small. So it's like the audience was like on you and smoking at you while you're like trying to sing. So that was like, Fun, but somewhat negative. I don't know. I just can't handle indoor smoking.

Yeah, it will. I know rip, but hemlock Tavern. I loved him like Tavern, but you could, they did have that like smoking area that was like supposedly

outside, but it definitely felt.

Pretty inside. I was

inside. It

was inside, but I was, I was definitely sad to see him let go. Um, just cause I saw so many, you know, when bands are emerging and just starting out in

that back room, those meet locker curtains kind of.

Yeah, I do. It's like

one of those really, it was a little gross, but like. You saw some, you saw some

new things going on there. San Francisco's changing. I know elbow room is officially closed now, too. I know

a lot of good memories there, like the soul parties, like the Saturday nights, whole parties and everything like that.

So I guess we'll just see, we'll just see what happens here. Hopefully we'll keep having,

we're going to open a bunch of historic new nightclubs because our city values culture, right? Maybe culture over commerce, right?

Yeah, exactly. Are you listening? But I mean, London, London,

are you there grants? We want grants.

Yes. We need some art and music because that's what makes the city great.

Our culture is going to crash and nobody's going to want to live here anymore. Actually. They're going to still keep wanting to live here. They just won't know that what they have missed out on.

Yes. True. That's true. What do you think about, cause you're based in the East Bay, do you have any thoughts on kind of like come into NSF or.

East Bay SF vibes and everything like that. I know you like you like versus

East Bay versus

not versus, but just like if you have any kind of feelings about East Bay, I guess, versus San Francisco, I was like, I don't want to pit them against each other, but I guess that is

where else can I say this? Uh, no, I, I think just the.

The Bay area. I mean, obviously they in San Francisco are different, but I think they're sort of a conglomerate and I think it's, it's all just going through a big change right now. I am serious. It's about, uh, it's, it's unfortunate that it's become a place that's not affordable for people who have lived here for, you know, Decades, if not generations, and it's not affordable for people to really focus on being creatives.

I mean, if you're in the creative class, unless you're already successful, it's like really hard to give art a chance when you're so tired from working your three to like totally try and like write a song or paint a painting, or write a poem or. You know, even go be a patron of the arts. Cause you're like, well, you know, it's 10, I am being

a lot

more I'm working because I need to make my rent.

I'm like bartending it, you know, until 2:00 AM. So I, I really do wish there was. There was a little more support for the arts. And there was a little focus on channeling. Some of, of the wealth. That's obviously here towards arts and education. I mean, we, we have the, that big strike that was just going on in Oakland and you know, those teachers got some things.

I was a teacher first. Several years in Oakland and it's such an important career. And it's so important for our culture here to like, not be supporting those people that are out there really giving their all to our youth. It's just, there's a lot that could be done. Yep.

Definitely. Yeah. All right. Well, why don't we play another song of yours from your last album do right.

Crystalyn. So, what is, what's the story behind this one?

This was written on a bluff in Spain.

That's a fabulous

naturally as one does. That's what one does when you're sitting on a bluff in Spain trip, the name of the city. We had a day off in some little town, I guess. It's, it's just, uh, I kind of just came up with that one little line.

You clinged to me like salt in the sea, and then I built sort of a love song around that.

So much has changed since March, 2019. So I wanted to check in with DJ Duffy and see how she's feeling about the music scene these days.

I'm DJ Duffy from BFF .fm's The Greenroom. I've really been missing live music over the past few months with shelter in place. On one hand, I definitely appreciate the creativity and ingenuity from some of my favorite artists like Little Dragon. They streamed their album release show for their record New Me, Same Us from their Stockholm warehouse, which was very psychedelic and fun. And San Francisco band Fast Times with Andrew St. James, they have been doing these really cool pop-up shows all around the Bay.

On the radio side, BFF.fm has been doing Besties Bashes over Twitch. So there was one recently with Maggie Gently and Boy Scouts. And I felt like I was back in the Secret Alley with all of our friends. But at the same time, I've definitely been sad and it's been hard. Um, really missing the camaraderie of the bay area music scene. And I also feel afraid for some of my favorite venues, like The Independent or bars, like Pop's Bar, which has been so supportive of bff.fm and hosted a ton of events. And I really hope they'll prevail. They'll make it through it. And that the bay area music scene will come together.

So after this, I'm going to go grab a drink to go at another one of my favorite local dive bars, the Tempest in SOMA. So I hope you go out and support some of your favorite local venues too.

Listen to The Greenroom on bff.fm. If you want to discover under the radar artists, take a load off and just feel like you're hanging out with some good friends.

Listen to DJ's Duffy and Kelly on The Greenroom every Thursday, six to eight pm at bff.fm. And we've got great music and DJs ready for you to tune in any time, any day. For more Sugar Candy Mountain visit sugarcandymountainband.com.

This episode was edited and produced by Jonathan Sosa and me Lily Sloane. Theme tune also by me. If you haven't already, subscribe to this podcast, wherever you listen, leave a review and learn more about the show and the station at bff.fm.