Talking backyard parties, “tactical” stuff, and not actually wanting to be a lo-fi band with The Missionaries

If you’ve ever drunkenly ended up at a backyard house show during any point at your time at Berkeley, there’s a pretty solid chance you’ve seen The Missionaries play. The quartet plays songs that you’ll want to call fast and mosh-able, except for the fact that they change tempo, rhythm, and sometimes genre quicker than you can say “is this an Arctic Monkeys cover?” With an EP on the way, on top of an appearance at BAM FEST this Friday at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, I caught up with the band to talk left-handedness, house parties, and sausages.

So, if I understand correctly, you’re recording an EP this summer. You wanna tell me about that?

Jose (Keyboards, Vocals): We’ve tried to record a lot on our own, and we’re not producers so it doesn’t really sound great. And then we decided that we wanted to do something this summer, and I think initially we wanted to do something bigger, like nine songs, or a whole album, but we only have a week to do it…

Vince (Guitar): A few days.

Jose: Yeah.

Vince: I feel like it’s less of an artistic endeavor and more for when someone asks, “Oh, are you guys on Spotify?” we don’t have to show them some dinky tracks and we can have the real stuff.

Jose: And we kind of want it to – we had this whole plan and then we stripped down all the weirder stuff, maybe kind of leaving it for later. We want maybe a solid five tracks that are easy to listen to, and they’re well produced, basically to have something out there. And then maybe later we can try and work on our harder stuff.

Drew (Drums): We found a really good guy who’s from Hayward, he’s a producer and we were able to get studio time with him.

Jose: And then we did a GoFundMe too, to raise money, and that worked. We’re booked for the end of May.

Connor (Bass): What’s the name? Homework Sleepover?

Jose: Yeah, Homework Sleepover is the name.

Vince: Homework Sleepover, yeah. It’s kind of middle-schoolish. But also kinda college-ish.

Jose: It’s like it’s middle school, but also I think of college as one big Homework Sleepover. So it’s like a play on that.

Are you feeling a more produced sound for this, or a more lo-fidelity thing like on your single?

(All somehow in unison): Hi-Fi Faux lo-fi.

Jose: Yeah, basically we called this guy up and said “we wanna sound like those bands that supposedly play ‘lo-fi.’”

Vince: But it’s pretty worked on.

Jose: Yeah, but it’s really well produced ya know?

Like Pavement or something like that?

Jose: Yeah, exactly, so calling it lo-fi is like, kind of a lie. But we want it to be a lie.

Vince: It’s like the lo-fi beats for studying. All those beats were made on a computer, which means they’re like the highest of fis.

From what I’ve heard, your live sound is fairly different than your recorded songs. Is that intentional, and on the EP are you going for more of your live sound or something different?

Connor: I think “Mirage,” the version that we have, and I’d say that mix of “Mirage” is moving more on track.

Jose: Yeah for sure, and I think we always wanted to sound different from the studio stuff, ya know? I always like it when we watch a band, and they play their songs but they’re playing faster…

Vince: Or slower sometimes!

Jose: Yeah, or slower, or they change them up to sound prettier or something. So yeah definitely in the studio we wanna fuck around a little, and make things a little different.

Vince: But yeah still, for this one we just have to get it done quickly, because we’ll just have a couple days to do it, cause it’s pretty expensive and everything.

Jose: So I think we’re just gonna go in and play ‘em live. And then obviously spend a few days after mixing everything and getting it to work

Vince: I think the goal is to just get a home run right away, like how we always do it and practice it.

Connor: I think there’s very magical stuff that can be done with just a little mixing and editing.

Vince: This guy [Connor] likes to record albums on a Dorito chip.

Jose: But yeah actually going off that, the way we’re actually trying to produce it and record it, we’re trying to minimize the kinda post production stuff we do. Minimize the MIDI instruments and software synths and shit, and try and just get sounds that sound nice the moment when we record them, instead of having to mess with them afterwards.

Live and in person. Photo courtesy of the Missionaries

So you’re all graduating (except Drew) this year. How does it feel reflecting on your time at Cal being in the band, and are you planning on keeping things going?

Jose: I think we’re all gonna stay in the Bay, which is nice, which means that there’s an opportunity to keep it going.

Vince: Yeah that’s kinda the hope I suppose.

Jose: Like when people get new jobs and get new schedules and everything, it’s hard to tell exactly how it’ll turn out. But I think we are all trying to keep it going. In terms of looking back…

Vince: …I’m happy about it. It made my college experience a lot better.

Jose: I wouldn’t have liked to not do it.

Vince: The only regret was that we answered Drew’s call.

Jose: What’s his name, if Walter Johnson III (this other guy who answered our email) is out there, we’re sorry. We’re looking to get back in touch with you.

Connor: Yeah, I think it’s been really interesting to learn more about how the sausage is made, in terms of actually putting together…

Vince: (laughs) This guy’s going into sausage production.

Connor: My grandpa was actually the vice president of Oscar Mayer. He worked in a chicken plant, his whole thing was in chicken, and since then he won’t eat chicken. Like, after seeing what happens to get chicken

Are any of you vegetarian?

(Connor and Drew point at each other): We are!

Jose: I was for a year!

Connor: What year was that?

Jose: Before I knew you.

Connor: That means he gets five points on the veggie scale. Actually, let’s put it to the readers: At what point when somebody becomes vegan from being a full meat eater do they get to start judging people? That’s the ultimate Berkeley question.

Jose: I think I started judging people before I had even gone vegetarian (laughs). As soon as I decided “tomorrow’s my first day”  I started judging people.

Worst show you’ve ever played?

Jose: [We played at] Independent Brewery, we played for six friends, it was pretty wack.

Drew: We played for six of our friends, and then there were people at the bar, like normal patrons. We asked them “Is it too loud?” and they were like “Yeah,” and then they left.

Vince: And then when we went to play at a fraternity, we played six songs.

Jose: It sounded awful cause there was feedback the whole time.

Connor: The room was so bad, it was all wood.

Vince: We were all yelling at each other, and then Jose was like “okay okay fine, we’ll just play one more song.” But then as we were about to play it, he realized he was the only one that wanted to do one more song, and then he said “okay fine” and we just walked away and started yelling at each other.

Jose: It was so bad that I had friends come up to me afterwards and be like “So your band’s kinda like a noise rock band?” ‘Cause that’s how it sounded.

Connor: There were people I had met before we played that said “Oh, I’m so excited to hear your band” and afterward it was like “Heyyyy…you guys… you did great!” (laughs).

Jose: I don’t know how relevant this is, but what convinced us to actually get a band together is when we [Jose and Vince], just the two of us went to play at a Thorsen house open mic night.

Vince: And it was so bad.

Jose: Yeah, absolutely horrific, especially because most of the people there knew each other and were friends, and it would be like “Hey, Billy’s playing!” Then we come in, no one knows us, and we play two weird songs (Vince: With an organ) and then we leave

Was it like drum machine stuff?

Vince: Nah, I had an acoustic guitar that for sure nobody could hear, and then he (Jose) had an organ and he was singing, but no one could hear that either, so it was just a weird organ. And then we left.

Jose: Yeah we sat down and all agreed we could never do that again.

Favorite venues to play in Berkeley?

(Collectively) House parties.

Jose: Yeah I’m always a fan of the house parties.

Vince: We probably did our last one, just cause they’re so unbelievably taxing, emotionally and logistically. ‘Cause you’re inviting everyone and you’re bringing everything. You’re bringing PAs, you’re bringing a drum set, you’re doing two trips! (laughs)

Jose: Yeah it’s like a whole thing that takes a whole weekend, but those are always really fun. ‘Cause people are drunk and moshing

Drew: And drunk people like music. They like all music.

Jose, you set up your keyboards perpendicular instead of stacked, why?

Jose: I used to have a stack, yeah, and then it broke.

Vince: That’s it.

Jose: But once it broke, I also realized that I actually liked having it perpendicular more, mostly for form. When I had it stacked I felt like I was hidden behind this big mountain thing, and now I like being seen. I like the spotlight.

Vince: I personally want him to have a progressive rock thing, like with Yes, with two stacks perpendicular to each other. Maybe one of these days.

Jose: It is also fun to like, turn and do something.

Vince: It does look sick, I agree with that.

Connor: Yeah, hiding behind the stack as the singer seems pretty goofy. The person who hides behind the stack is the same person that thinks gear labeled “tactical” is really cool. Like, “look at how sick this stand is, it’s so functional.”

What have you all been listening to recently/What are some musical influences that you don’t necessarily sound similar to? Favorite albums of 2018?

Vince: Like, rock. Like the Arctic Monkeys (laughs). That was a joke.

Jose: Even though we do like the Arctic Monkeys. But 2018, I actually just listened to it for the first time today, Wide Awake (2018). By Parquet Courts.

(The interviewer accidentally brings up Ween after seeing it in Vince’s Spotify history)

Vince: Yeah I just listened to “Ocean Man” for three days straight. And then I started to listen to “Push th’ Little Daisies” and it’s one of the best songs I’ve ever heard in my life. The Chocolate and Cheese (1994) songs are really good too.

Jose: I spent the past three days listening to Billie Eilish’s album. It’s fucking sick. I dunno what else.

Connor: What’s crazy about that (going back to Ween) is that two weeks ago I looked up the Spongebob Squarepants Movie CD, ‘cause I had that, it was my jam in second grade. That soundtrack is fucking sick. There’s a Flaming Lips song that’s like narrating a point in the movie, and in second grade I didn’t know what that was. But now, listening to it, it’s a fucking dope album. So now I’ve been listening to “Ocean Man” a lot. My girlfriend hates “Ocean Man.” And then I came to [the house we were playing at] and you all told me “we’re playing ‘Ocean Man.’”

Jose: We didn’t end up playing it, but that was the plan

Connor: Also SWMRS (all laugh). I just like the fact that there’s a whole song about the Milo Yiannopolous thing. I was there! I think that’s cool, but the album’s kinda weird. It also makes it sound like way more of an event than it was. I was here when he came wearing a Supreme American flag tuxedo jacket. Me and my friend saw him on Sproul, he sang the national anthem and then got into an armored car and drove away.

What’s your game plan for BAM FEST on Friday?

Connor: We played Sunstock…

Vince: Yeah we played at the exact same place at the exact same time.

Jose: Gonna play the exact same set.

Drew: It was nice to play outside. It was a fun, relaxed sort of thing and I’m excited to do that again.

Jose: The sound was good, and like when we play backyard shows and stuff I don’t think we focus that much on sounding good, we focus on having the energy and just going crazy and trying to make the people have fun.

Vince: Give the people what they want. But now they’re giving us what we want.

Jose: Yeah, like when we played Sunstock it felt like we could actually make it sound like it’s supposed to sound. And that was nice.

Connor: Recently I’ve been trying to sound better live while still maintaining the energy. I think we as a band have gotten better at that, like I think Drew and I are more locked in than ever

Jose: Yeah cause if you’re playing loud and fast, it’s easy to stop giving a shit, like I just start pounding my hands on the keyboard (laughs) and then if I fuck up no one’s gonna hear. ‘Cause no one hears! But then at these shows it’s different.

Connor: I’ve realized the mentality of live sounds is that drums and bass carry so much, and you can tell if they’re even slightly out of sync, but then everything else, you hear it, and if there’s a guitar solo or something it can sound really good. But in general, more people want the feel.

Weird anecdote, but at one of the backyard shows you played at someone poured vodka on me because they were mad I was moshing too hard.

Vince: Yeah we’ve definitely come in contact in those types of situations where there are people who don’t exactly know how to act. It’s like, let’s tone it back a little bit, let’s have fun here.

Connor: Yeah the mosh pits at our concerts are kinda dangerous cause it seems like it’s people who don’t really know how to mosh.

Vince: Also some of the people whose houses we play at aren’t happy about the moshing.

Connor: Someone almost fell on us crowdsurfing when we played at Casa Bonita.

Jose: Yeah two people almost fell on my keyboard, like the crowd pushed them forward enough to where I was like “God damnit they’re gonna fall.” (laughs)

Connor: And it’s always girls in the front row who are small and not paying attention. Or there’s always a couple, where the guy’s just groping his girlfriend in the pit. Like do they think we can’t see them?

Do you ever get the macho-type bros going a little too hard?

Vince: So girls hang out in front of [Jose] but the super bro-ey guys hang out in front of me, and like laugh at me, (all laugh), like “look at this fuckin idiot headbanging.” Sick guys, thanks.

Connor: They all pretend to shred, like (mimes air guitar)

Jose: Yeah sometimes the lines between the performer and the crowd are blurred, and people take it a little too far where they’ll come up, during a song, and play my keyboard or something. Like, I get it, we’re all friends here, but it’s kinda weird.

Vince: And then one of our really good friends always yells out “Fluorescent Adolescent” so I always just start playing it.

Jose: And then everyone starts singing along.

Vince: One time we did that and some guy yelled at Jose “PLAY IT!” and it felt like, what are we doing? What’s happening here?

Connor: One time also, at a backyard show we played, one of our friends was sitting watching us play, and said some bro-ey guy came up and started hitting on her, and he was all like, “Oh, this band sucks.” (all laugh) And she said that to me between our sets, that wasn’t what I wanted to hear. (laughs)

Jose: Do you have any idea who that was?

Vince: Damn I wanna see his band play.

Connor: You see this bullshit? I got “Mo Bamba” on my airpods, come in the bathroom let’s listen.

Drew, you’re ambidextrous, does that help in any area outside of drumming?

Drew: In the office and in the bedroom. The world needs more left-handed scissors.

Connor: So when you say you’re ambidextrous, does that mean you can write left-handed and right-handed equally, like no difference?

Drew: Yeah, like in high school I would, but it’s just inconvenient. You smear with your pencil and pen and stuff.

Connor: Being left-handed kinda sucks. It’s just really inconvenient in class. A lot of the big lecture halls, some of the older ones have no left-handed desks. And it’s like, what the fuck? Were people just not left-handed back then? Did they just not go to college?

Wait, do you play bass lefty?

Connor: No, I’m like the weird thing where I’m left-handed in some stuff and right handed in other stuff

Vince: Do you bowl right handed?

Connor: Yeah, I do bowl right handed. When I played baseball, I hit righty. But for a while my parents thought I was regularly ambidextrous – well, first they were like “you’re left handed, ‘cause when you write, you pick up the crayon left-handed, and you’re a lefty in baseball.” But you’re like, three years old so you can’t throw a baseball, so there’s no way to tell. But then I would always switch the glove to my right hand, and my parents were like “whoa, that’s weird.”

Any last words for the kids?

Jose and Vince (sort of trading off): Stay trill. And if you’re not trill, get trill.

Article and Interview by Kieran Zimmer

Photos via The Missionary