A Chat with Hyper-Ska Wizard Eichlers
Eichlers explains his roots in DIY, how human connection guides his career, tour essentials and the importance of a good DJ
If you follow Eichlers on any social media, there’s a good chance you've received a message personally thanking you. Although not a unique thing to Russ Wood, aka Eichlers, it’s a pretty good indicator of the kind of artist he is. I caught up with him IRL outside the venue for his show in New Orleans. There he performed with label mates Joystick! and Bad Operation, as well as hyper-pop acts, Wasted Potency and Dynastic.
Russ would be upfront during every set, not missing a beat to help others around him. He'd grab water for different performers or pick up fallen instrument cases. And for me, I was feeling more anxious than usual leading up to and during the interview but he was kind and understanding. It might be cliche to say out loud but Russ makes music to support people.
For the uninitiated, Eichlers fuses elements of hyper-pop, emo rap and ska to create a beautiful cocktail of “uncool” music that sonically I can only describe as sour skittles in yellow Gatorade. It’s the kind of school-yard mad science that a sugar-addicted kid might concoct but ends up working in a surprisingly weird way. (Not that I’ve ever tried this, I swear it’s just a literary device used poorly. Please don’t do that to your body.)
I’ve known of Eichlers for a few months due to the buzz surrounding his debut record, “My Checkered Future,” which has seen considerable press and constant shout-outs as a bold evolution to the fairly well-defined genre of ska. The hyper-ska fusion might not sound appealing at first. Still, as Eichler’s explains in our interview, it’s the perfect combo for fun, danceable music that can also be modern and progressive. In our interview, we discuss his approach to audiences, his roots in the Bay Area, tour essentials and the magic of a good deejay.
Is this your first national tour?
Yeah, definitely the first tour as Eichler’s hitting places I've never been touring with other bands. It's not the longest tour I've done, but it's definitely the most expansive. We're going the furthest. I'm excited to be here in New Orleans, especially. This is the show I've been looking forward to destination-wise and I guess show wise.
Can you tell me a little bit about that? Like what made this the spot for you?
New Orleans seems, based on what I've heard, such a cool city. I've heard such good things about New Orleans and I know that Community Records supports so much DIY punk and the music culture of course with like the old American culture, creole culture and just the melting pot of cultures that come together to make this city such an incredible arts place. And just the food and everything. So this is one of the spots on tour where I was like, when we go to New Orleans, we have to eat some local food. So we just went to, we just got back from Mandina's. And we had po-boys and I tried turtle soup for the first time. It was good I wasn't sure what to expect. We all split a cup of soup just because we all wanted to try it. We all got a taste.
[Roaring car noises rudely interrupted my v important interview about roasted reptiles.]
Well You know, Greg [Rodrigue] with Community Records, he interned at Asian Man Records. Didn't you do stuff with Asian man records too?
Yeah, I interned at Asian Man for a few years. Like the end of high school in the beginning of college. A few years after Greg, I don't know when he was there, but when we started talking and befriending each other through the ska scene I brought that up. I heard maybe in an interview, that he did with In Defense of Ska or Ska Punk International. I was like, I worked in Asian Man for a while and he was like, “mm did you now.” And then, so that was one of the first things that we connected about.
How was working with Mike Park important to you becoming Eichlers?
Oh, it was foundational. Like the scene down in San Jose is where I learned how to participate in a music scene in the music community. Yeah. It's where I met all my best friends and people I'm still friends with to this day, who've all gone on to be in big, important bands in the scene. Like this kid Bailey who I grew up playing shows with, they play bass in that band Scowl who just toured with Limp Bizkit.
They just played Banks a couple of weeks ago.
Me and Bailey been friends forever. We met each other while interning at Asian Man. Drew plays guitar in a band called SPY, same story. And just a handful of folks in that scene and had such a supportive, amazing music community down there that was an hour south of where I grew up. So it was out of the way, but once I was able to drive and had a car, it wasn't unreasonable. Being around that scene and being around Mike, especially just so, so kind and passionate and supportive of music and people doing cool shit and fighting for progressive causes and activism.
Do you feel like you cut your teeth more in San Jose or closer to home?
Oh totally. My high school band played at Gilman Street in Berkeley a lot and in that area. But other shows in San Jose were always the best. That's where the people my age were more passionate about music and more involved. They wanted to see bands and interact with each other and make friends. That was the first scene I was a part of where people would hug their friends. And me and my friends, coming down from Walnut Creek were just like, “That's so cool. People don't do that,” in the Berkeley scene from what I'd seen, or like in the weird little East Bay scene that we were a part of. So it just seemed very loving and supportive scene— in a physical way and every sort of manifestation of support was in that scene. And that made a huge impact on me.
So what specifically in that scene, or in general brought you to ska music. Was that more the Mike Park, Asian Man Records thing or?
Nah, not really. When I worked at Asian Man, I really liked ska but it wasn't an enormous part of my life, like it is now. I've loved ska for a long time. My parents got me into ska. My dad bought me, The Madness Greatest Hits CD when I was 10 or something. My mom had Specials records and English Beat records. So it's always been around, but I found out about a lot of cool ska bands through working at Asian Man. But it wasn't my experience there wasn't ska-centric. It was around, but I was more interested in the indie punk stuff that was happening rather than going to every ska show. I could imagine I went to a lot of ska shows, but it wasn't ska.
That kind of brings me to my next question which was how did you decide to start playing ska and hyperpop? I feel like those are two of the most disliked genres of music out there.
That was kinda my initial reasoning. Before I started incorporating more of the hyper pop stuff into it, I was very influenced by the Lil Peep, 93FEETOFSMOKE, like SoundCloud, emo rap type scene, Juice WRLD, all that stuff. And the cool music world didn't like that stuff in general. People they hate ska and they hate auto-tune. And I was like, “I want to do both because that'll be really funny,” and it just happened to be sick. So I was like, “This is so much fun to write these types of songs, I'm just gonna go with it.” And then my friend Val in Salt Lake City got me addicted to SOPHIE and 100 gecs and hyper pop and A. G. Cook and all those PC music scenes. And I dove into that scene from those touchstone artists and just got more and more interested in that kind of production and incorporated that into the sound that I was already forming. And it just kind of just progressed naturally from there. And also the energy that's in that music just works so well with the energy that's already there in ska. Which exists as a rhythmic dance music at its core. I think it makes sense and it's really fun.
I feel like another part of you is like your music that seems inspired by that scene is your online presence. I see you on Twitter a lot.
More than I should be
I remember following you with two separate accounts I use and you messaging both of them. Is that like a thing you do? Do you message everybody?
[His deejay Gregory squatting not too far from us nods fervently almost as if their proud but slightly concerned Eichlers does this.]
Yeah. I wish I could send as I do on Instagram too, where I send voice messages. Because if people are interested in me and my art as a person, I want to do my best to make some sort of connection with that person. Because I think those relationships are important. And if this person has any interest in me, that's really cool. I'm just a person doing things that make me happy. If that makes this person happy, then that's awesome. We probably have more in common than just my music. So I just always like to reach out sincerely, like thank you for following me and thinking that I'm cool. That's wild. I'm just a dork.
I feel like that like really changes how you view audiences. You can cultivate your own by making personal connections with people in a small action. I feel like that's a huge extra step. I don't know. How do you feel like you, uh… maybe that's not a question. I'm just saying things.
I just feel like community building and you know, making relationships with people through art is one of the things that I love about art and we talked about with the scene in San Jose, that's what was so amazing for me when I first got into music and really dove into DIY punk and ska. That's the stuff that I latched onto and that's still stuff that's super important to me as I move forward and kind of pursue a music career. I don't want it to be me gathering fans. I want to create a relationship with that person as best as I can personally. And you know, obviously there's gonna be some sort of relationship connected. They're listening to my music cause they're gonna relate to it in a way that they can. But I want to try and add that extra element while I can, because it might make it more enriching for the folks who like me and it's also more enriching and special to me. If I can connect with people who like my stuff that makes me feel good and I hope that it makes them feel good too.
It's not just like numbers on your streaming or whatever.
Exactly. Especially in this day and age of Spotify stats, that's what the industry's concern is about. It's all numbers. So trying to add a human element to that and not just focus on my follower count. It’s much more important to me to try and establish a connection to the people who engage with me rather than just be like, “ah, yes number go up. More clout.”
I feel like it's hard to make an organic audience sometimes. Especially like nowadays with the way that algorithms have sort of taken control of everything. But you’re doing that. It reminds me of Gilman’s history specifically with Operation Ivy. Did Op Ivy have any impact on your look at ska or community?
Not in a major way. It was definitely more the general scene rather than them specifically. Obviously, growing up in the bay area, they were a huge band for me when I discovered ska and punk.
I’m sure it gets old over there.
Yeah. Well, the first time I went to Gilman, I was like [nasaly sarcastic voice], “Wow, Op. Wow Green Day.” You know what I mean? But I don't want to downplay them as well.
It's like mythical. I'm scared to even go there cause I'm worried it's not gonna live up to the hype, you know?
Fair. I was riding over to the show with my friends who are the coordinators, the folks who run Gilman now. And we were talking about the mythology that surrounds the venue and they’re like, “It’s just a warehouse with concrete floors.” And you’re just like, “It is, it is.” We attribute so much more to it. And I don't want to downplay Op Ivy’s influence as a band, but they're not like the seed to me in terms of what sparks my love of ska or that kind of ska punk. They're an awesome band and I love them, but they're not the band.
I feel like some of what you're doing carries on what I guess Gilman street and all of these sorts of bands did. So I guess that's a statement of me like complimenting you and that's not really a question again, so sorry!
It's cool. That's awesome to hear. And by your observation, if that is the case, then that's just by virtue of me coming up in that bay area music scene. Like I played at Gilman a ton with my high school band, my college bands.
It's like everybody expects artists to have a jazz influence and stuff in New Orleans. It's like maybe subconscious, you know. So, I'm sorry if I'm like regionalizing you too hard.
No, no, no, not at all. Like we've already said in our conversation that the Bay Area scene is crucial for me. Like being who I am, not only as a musician and a music fan, but as a person. I've learned from the folks that I grew up going to shows. It really influenced me and my politics and how I approached relationships and being friendly and being nice. Because all those people are so nice and wonderful.
You seem to be meeting a lot of people you’ve connected with online in-person now because of this tour.
Yeah. That's the thing that I've loved about being so online with this project. Like more so than any other band or project I've been in, being able to meet those folks face to face I've talked to in Twitter DM’s, like you. It's been the coolest thing or people reaching out to me as I've announced this tour or when I did the shows in March and April on the different coasts. People who I've talked to and become online friends with over the last two years and being able to hang out face-to-face and just immediately fall into. It's like we've been kicking it as IRL friends for six months. It’s really interesting and it’s definitely a highlight of touring and being able to play shows. I finally get to exist in that space with that person who in my head, only existed on my screen for the last six months to a year.
I saw y'all stopped at Buc-ee’s and you had a Squatty-Potty.
I've become accustomed to a certain style of living. My wife and I bought Squatty Potty’s for all of our close friends for Christmas last year. We're team Squatty Potty, ride or die apologie. We bought a two-pack for the house and just had an extra and my wife was like, “You're taking that on tour, right?” So it's been awesome. And that's the first time I've taken a picture with it and I got so many messages, “Is that a fucking Squatty Potty? Really?” “Yeah dude.” It's just piece of plastic, easy to take around.
Do you feel have any other touring essentials that people should know?
No, but I've been joking all day that I'm gonna bring a bidet and hook it up to everyone's water line everywhere we go. Just imagine like crashing at Greg [Rodrigue's] house, for example. “Hey! Thank you so much for letting us stay over. Can I hook this up to your toilet? Can you show me where your water line is?”
At a home you’d likely spend only three hours at before hitting the road the next morning.
Exactly. Let me lock into your plumbing real quick.
I wanted to ask you about your deejay.
Do you want to talk to them?
Sure!
[Gregory is in the middle of sipping a beer, about to start a conversation with someone and I instantly feel bad for pulling him out of that.]
Yo Gregory. You wanna answer some questions?
Gregory: Sure
Russ aka Eichlers: You wanna answer another?
[Everyone laughs. We’re having such a good time. You should laugh too! We go through all of the motions introducing ourselves and whatnot. Gregory has gems glued under each of their eyes and big hair with one-half dyed blueish-green and the other orangeish-pink.]
So how's the tour been for you?
G: It's been cool. I really like going to new places, especially places that might have like a negative connotation in people's eyes and then you get there and the people are wonderful.
You mean like the south or?
G: Yea! Like specifically Texas, beautiful place. People were so wonderful. Their government doesn't represent them.
Are you from California?
G: I'm originally from Philly. I've been in Los Angeles for nine years. Nine years. But I've never been down here like Texas, Louisiana, Nashville.
Were you expecting things to like be a certain way or was it just sort of like wait and see?
G: Honestly, I don't really have any expectations. I try not to have expectations of things because people are disappointing. So if you are prepared for that, they won't be, but they weren't disappointing in Texas. So that was cool. It's been dope here so far. I love it's so beautiful here. The architecture here is amazing. It's cheap.
It's definitely not as bad as other cities. So how long have you been playing with Eichlers?
G: I met Eichlers two years ago. He DM’d me. I was in another project and they were like, “Oh, I really like your project, I made you these beats, if you want to use 'em go for it.” And they were dope. So I messeged 'em back and I was like, “Yeah, I'll use them.” And one of the songs turned into a collab and we just stayed friends. When he wanted to do the shows, he knew I used to DJ raves ten years ago and I had my DJ controller still just sitting around. He was like, “Oh, you want to like try this?” Yeah. Why not? It's been great.
R: The first show we did together was that March 18th show with the Best of the Worst and Kill Lincoln. We ran the set together in my friend's apartment, like 30 minutes beforehand or something. We'd never played together before. And it was awesome. The chemistry was instant. Obviously we were friends before almost two years. But yeah, that was our first time playing together and it was perfect.
So do you just do the live sets or do you like help with some of the writing or producing?
G: No, that's that's all Russ. I have my own project called oldphone that me and Russ collab on but I've been getting asked this question a lot on the tour, like, “Oh, so you're like making the beats, right?” I'm like, “no, no, no, no. That's all this person right here.” I can't make beats like that.
R: Gregory makes sure that the songs sound good coming out and everything is set correctly and the vibe is there. Crucial, much more important than what I do on the mic. For sure.
G: CAP
R: It’s not!
G: CAP. CAP.
R: I'm doing those two shows by myself next month and I assume it's going to be far less fun.
G: I'm sorry buddy. I gotta record.
R: I know. I don't blame you. I'm curious to see how it goes, but yeah. Gregory brings so much to the live component that it's just next level, honestly.
G: Love ya buddy.
R: Love you too.
The conversation slowly pittered out from there. They told me their plans while visiting New Orleans like checking out HEY Coffee but they had to be in Nashville the next night so unfortunately couldn’t stay to explore very much. Check out Eichler’s new album “My Checkered Future” and follow them on social media to check out their tour dates.
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Nice work, and a really great interview with one of the nicest guys in the world!!