Directed/produced by Ambar Navarro
Can you talk about your background? What is one memorable thing, musically, that you carry with you today?
I remember as a kid listening to recordings my dad made of my sisters singing on his cassette recorder. He had these big speakers and all this audio equipment. That’s probably what kickstarted my fascination with audio gear.
What were you listening to as a kid growing up? And, from those artists/bands, which one was the most influential for you?
Well as a youngster it was a lot of polka music for reasons I won’t get into right now but once I could choose what I was listening to it was a lot of 2000’s garage rock. The Killers, Interpol, and Queens of the Stone Age. But overall I would say some of my biggest influences are MF Doom, Crystal Castles and The Strokes.
Where does your musical background come from? Any musicians in your family?
My dad plays some guitar and sings. My grandpa used to be a session musician for Los Panchos. That’s a rumor I heard not sure if it’s true but either way, my grandfather was a really good guitarist.
Many people don’t know this, but you are a fan of cooking. What is one dish you love to make? And, if you had to eat one type of food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I do love cooking. I love making pasta dishes like Garlic oil pasta or Carbonara I think I could eat pasta forever. It probably wouldn’t be the best for my health but fuck it.
Bowie, in my opinion, is like the mascot of the band. What kind of breed is Bowie, what is his age, and what inspired you to write something about him?
Bowie is my boy. He feels like a roommate. He’s a German Shepherd husky mix and he’s about 7 years old. He’s a beautiful pup he’s always been good at cheering me up.
For being in the LA scene for some time now, what are some things you would like to see change?
No more pay-to-play shows.
You collaborated with artists like Banes World for Underwater+ – if you had a chance to work with any artist in the LA scene who would it be and why?
I think working with The Marias would be really sick. Our styles would mesh well together. I would also like to produce a track for Natia the God. I feel like there would be unexpected chemistry there.
The band recently released a music video for “Schemin” and you were one of the directors for the lyric video. Can we expect future videos to be directed by you? When did the interest in directing videos stem from?
Before I got into music I wanted to be a movie director. Part of me still wants that so directing music videos were a good first step in that direction. I’m definitely planning to direct more in the future with the help of my brother the vibe curator Chris Runners.
Lastly, what are you guys currently working on that your fans can expect from you?
New WYD EP is out April 3rd! We have more videos in the works. We are working to step up our live shows so be on the look out for that.