Mustard Monday #02: Pacing

This interview pairs well with Las Fortunitas Tortilla Chips

Mustard would like to welcome you to another edition of Mustard Monday. In this series they will be sharing past interviews (and reviews) that have taken place over Music Shelf’s four year history. Throughout those four years they have interviewed over 600+ independent artists.

Today they wanted to share with you with an artist they first discovered on Twitter. Twitter at this time was an awesome place for the independent music community. They are not sure if it was

dullan

(an incredible singer songwriter, go give their newsletter a follow) or someone else but at some point in time a “Pacing” tweet had come across their feed. While they can’t remember the exact tweet they would like to assume it mentioned either a snake fact, something about America’s local band Cheekface, or cheeky promo of their own music.

Pacing is an artist who utilizies the internet better than anyone. They understand that in today’s music industry artists need to create content to appease the algorthim. But their brand of content feels genuinely authentic. Calling it content feels wrong as it is more than just that. The promotion they do for their music is art itself. So many clever details are infused into their marketing that you feel like you just stumbled onto something you shouldn’t have.

At the end of July they’ll be releasing their newest LP PL*NET F*TNESS via Asian Man Records.

With that all said let’s go back to the year 2022 and check out Mustard’s first interview with Pacing.

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Interview originally published on November 23rd, 2022.

1. Mustard is grateful to have Pacing join them at Music Shelf. How are you?

So pleased to be here in this wonderful corner of the internet!!

2. As a condiment who only has been using the internet for two years they really love the design of your website. Could you share more about your website? Did you design it? Are there any Easter eggs within it?

Thank you!! I designed it and built it and I’m pretty proud of my thriftiness. It’s a single-page React app deployed to github pages, so the only cost is $7 / year for the domain.

No Easter eggs other than that my code is hot garbage and it's amazing that it runs. Great idea though, updates to come!!!

3. Could you describe your relationship with music?

Oof, big question. Well my ears are on my head and they hear things and tell my brain about them and sometimes those things make me feel feelings.

In the past few years I’ve been spending more time actively listening to and studying music, so the way I hear songs has changed, for better or worse. Sometimes I hear something and it doesn’t really make me feel anything but my brain thinks “damn, the kick drum sample is mixed well.” So that’s weird.

I also recently joined a choir, and I’m trying to learn to read music. I don’t know how that has changed my relationship with music, I just wanted to brag about it.

4. You've been tasked to compile the best memes on the world wide web. What memes do you choose? What is your criteria? How do you use memes to further elevate your music?

What a fun idea! It would be hard because memes are so subjective. I feel like the more niche the meme the funnier for me. I follow an architecture meme page and I don’t even know anything about architecture. It’s just amusing to know that people have these really specific problems and other people can relate to them.

I joke about it, but honestly the line between the memes and my “real art” is getting blurrier and blurrier. There is this subreddit called “r/foreverbox” where people basically make very serious, sad confessions in the form of hideous 2001-word-art-meets-myspace-glitter-graphics memes. I find it really inspiring. It’s so much easier to be sincere when you’re joking.

5. How have social media platforms such as TikTok changed the music industry? What advice would you give to an artist trying to navigate this ever changing landscape?

Mustard, these questions are hard!! Ugh, TikTok. TikTok is a powerful and dangerous thing. It seems to me like every other platform is trying to become TikTok (reels, shorts, pinterest “ideas”) and TikTok is trying to become YouTube (trying to tame the chaos a bit and make it so people can actually find specific things instead of falling down a flight of stairs every time they open it).

The nice thing about TikTok’s impact is it’s easy to recycle your short-form vertical video content on a bunch of different platforms. The bad things about TikTok’s impact are like symptoms of long COVID - too many to list, they’re interconnected, and we’ll be finding them for years.

I don’t feel like I’m qualified to give advice because I haven’t really figured out how to have a healthy relationship with social media. I think all you can really do is post things that you would honestly want to watch (not what you think people will want to watch) and do that consistently. Try not to compare yourself to other people, and don’t worry about trends or trying to go viral. All of this is easier said than done.

6. What is your creative process?

My ideal process would be that I have a flash of inspiration and I write the whole thing in one sitting, and then record it that same day, and perfectly capture the feelings of the song while I am still feeling them, and it doesn’t need any editing, and barely needs mixing because I managed to record the parts really well and the arrangement is well balanced. That usually does not happen.

I’m actually pretty inconsistent. I often write a song on guitar, but sometimes I just sing a thing with no instruments, or write words on a page throughout the day without a melody. Sometimes I make a demo with guitar or piano, and other times I build out a track starting with drums and write the song at the same time as producing it.

I feel like I am always racing against myself to finish before I lose the original feeling of the thing.

7. Who (or what) influences you?

Many things! Stuff people say, memes, stuff I see while going for a walk, advertisements, other songs. I think musical theater, midwest emo, and folk music influence my writing a lot. For production and mixing my influences are more conscious because I am listening to music and actively thinking of how to steal sounds. Fortunately I’m not very good at that.

Some artists I super love right now are Cheekface, Illuminati Hotties, Lizzy McAlpine, Natalie Evans.

8. In 2020 you debuted "I'm Getting Kicked Out of the World" which highlighted your style of storytelling. What was the inspiration behind this song? Can a human appeal being kicked out of the world?

I’m so glad you asked!!! My friend Hali bought this painting from Pyramid Studios, this super rad art and music program in my hometown that serves adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. A man named Rick painted it.

One day I was looking at it on my wall thinking “that’s fucking metal” and wrote the song. To me it’s about feeling left out. So maybe the closest thing to an “appeal” is finding other people who feel the same way you do.

I don’t know what the painting is about for Rick, but my buddy played the song for him and he liked it. :) I really owe him a writing credit, the song would be nothing without him.

9. The internet lies. What is the most outrageous lie you have been told by the internet?

No idea! I’m probably still running around believing it.

10. Mustard loves the concept of your album "hatemail." Could you elaborate more on the process of putting this email together? Have you personally received hate-mail?

Thank you! Yeah so I don't know why my default songwriting voice is so mean. I think a lot of people default to writing heartbreak songs. My default is mockery, often directed at myself. Back to that whole sincerity through glitter thing. My idea for this album was songs from the mean voices in your head. Stuff you would never say to another human because it sounds ridiculous when you say it out loud.

I have never received hatemail unless you count this album! Someone did comment “kys” on one of my videos the other day though, which felt like some sort of internet milestone. I’m not saying I encourage this behavior, but I almost prefer a strong negative reaction over just boring people to death.

11. What is next for Pacing?

I’m working on an album!

Here is a thing:

Real poetry is always about plants and birds and trees

And the animals and milk and honey breathing in the pink

But real life is behind a screen

12. A human gets invited to see you perform. What kind of show can they expect?

It would probably suck! I’m not very good at playing an instrument, which I get around using the magic of computers. But lately I have been practicing playing my songs on acoustic guitar and it actually is really fun. I would love to play shows one day. I love going to shows and talking to people and I love attention. I will keep practicing.

13. Where can readers listen to your music?

Everywhere! Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, possibly the vending machine in your building.

Here are the links to my album

Lately I have been having fun making some special less-polished stuff for YouTube. I just finished a cover of Political Science by Randy Newman and I asked People of the Internet to send me the “most American photo on their phone.” So there should be a cool video of those up soon. I also made a collage with them. Look, there is Mustard in the sunrise!!!

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Bonus: Pacing Interviews Mustard!

This interview was posted later that same day. It contains some Mustard lore.

I think sometimes we artists get so wrapped up in our own lives that we forget to ask... How is Mustard?

Mustard is doing well. Just trying their best to run a music website.

You are a condiment, running a music blog. What's up with that?

The seed was planted in Mustard's idea by North Carolian band "Carhop." Mustard had been supporting independent musicians on TikTok. Carhop suggested Mustard expand what they were doing and create a music website. Shortly after, Music Shelf was born. They are grateful and appreciative of everyone who has allowed Mustard to interview them.

Could you describe your relationship with music?

The first song Mustard heard while they were being stocked in the grocery store was "Only Wanna Be With You" by Hootie & The Blowfish. This was Mustard's introduction to music. Mustard was fascinated that humans could create music using their mouths, voices, and instruments. Ever since then Mustard has been determined to learn more about human music in all its forms.

What is your favorite type of you? (yellow, spicy, dijon, etc)

Mustard is commonly in their Yellow form but they enjoy being Spicy. Their father, Grey Poupon, is of the Dijon variant. They are very posh and proper.

What are some of your favorite genres of music? (yellow, spicy, dijon, etc)

Mustard loves all types of music. Mustard, while being a semi-sentient condiment, is also trying to learn Japanese. So they've been listening to a lot of Japanese music to help them learn the language. Additionally, they have become hooked on Carly Rae Jepsen's entire discography and listen to that on repeat. It is their new goal to own every Carly Rae album as their music pleases Mustard's bottle cap.

What are some qualities of a great album according to Mustard? Do you have a favorite album?

This is a tough question for Mustard. They think from a stylistic perspective it should be consistent yet diverse. If that makes sense. As mentioned before, they are teaching themselves Japanese. Anri's "Timely!!" from 1983 is one of Mustard's all time favorite albums. While they do not understand everything on the album they can appreciate the music. They recommend you treat your human ears to it. Here is a link to it:

Have you seen the A24 film Marcel the Shell? What’d ya think?

It is on Mustard's to-watch list. Nathan Fielder is involved which makes it a must-watch for Mustard. They also just love the concept behind the film. What are your thoughts on it?

In 2020 you apparently gained sentience and the ability to interface with computers. Do you ever miss the old days where your only responsibility was to simply be?

Yes and no. Mustard appreciates being able to communicate with kind humans such as yourself. They have learned life is not all French Fries and beef burgers.

The internet lies. Have you told any outrageous lies on the internet?

Mustard has not. They have learned it is not nice to lie. Deception and intentional manipulation is distasteful.

What is next for mustard?

Hopefully continuing to build up Music Shelf. Interview more incredible musicians such as yourself. Be able to speak some Japanese.

What’s the most interesting or important thing you’ve learned about humans?

Humans just want to know they are being listened to. That what they say is not discarded. Humans are very sensitive creatures even though there are some humans who try to be "alpha." Those "alpha" humans may be the most sensitive of all but not know how to properly communicate their feelings.

What do you want people to know about Mustard?

Mustard appreciates you and all that you do.

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