1. How would you describe your music? If you could choose one word to do so, what would that word be?
If I had to choose one word, I’d go with “whatever”. We all come from different musical backgrounds and bring our knowledge of metal, indie, jazz, and whatever else, add a healthy dose of ska, and call it good!
2. According to the internet, raccoons do not fly. Could you share how these powers were obtained?
According to Mariowiki.com, Super Leaves originated in the game Super Mario Bros. 3, where they turn Mario or Luigi into Raccoon Mario or Raccoon Luigi, respectively. As such, they grow raccoon ears and a raccoon tail, the latter of which lets them glide, fly after a running start, and tail whip.
3. Is “Afterthought” an extension of “Afterglow?”
It is! We funded our vinyl pressings through a Kickstarter campaign, and one of our stretch goals was that we would release a bonus EP of re-imaginings of our songs. Jessica and I had been playing a lot of these versions during 2020-2021 when no shows were happening, either through livestreams or videos we’d just take of ourselves and upload to social media of us playing with drum machines and other stuff. Being able to formally put them out was super fun, and we got to mess around with some new sounds, like the electronic pop version of Afterglow.
4. Your music features a plethora of genres. How important was communication when putting together “Afterglow?”
Our writing is always very collaborative, and everyone wrote something on this album. Sometimes I’d bring in the bare bones structure of a song and other folks would write their parts to it, so you’d hear Kerley’s metal background coming out in the drum patterns or our horn players’ jazz chops in line writing / soloing. Different folks would bring in their ideas for songs and we’d similarly fill in the gaps, such as “Don’t Wait” which mostly originated from our trumpet player Brandon. Lyric writing was a combination of me and Jessica. Some songs were written on the spot while improvising at practice, like Driftwood, and others had been sitting on my computer for years. We’re never afraid to try out new stuff and run different ideas past each other to see what works and what doesn’t!
5. Could you describe your creative process?
I feel like I accidentally did in the previous question haha. It kinda differs song to song. Sometimes I’ll send a chord progression and a set of lyrics to the group, or show them in person, and we just write to it. Other times horn players will just drop melody ideas in our chat, Jessica will send me certain lyrics she’d like to use with no song to accompany them so I’ll work them into something. We record everything ourselves, which makes it a slow process because we’re all best friends and sometimes end up just hanging out instead, but it gives us unlimited time to refine our writing… for better or worse.
6. Who would you like to collaborate with?
Oof, this is a tough question. I wanna say Eichlers. He does things we could never pull off, and having him feature on something or vice versa would be an amazing blend I think.
7. Plane, train, or automobile? What is your preferred form of transportation other than flight?
I really wish I lived somewhere with public transit, but alas, in the middle of nowhere in Mississippi it’s automobile or nothing most of the time.
8. Eichlers likes to say hi. How does Flying Racoon Suit introduce themselves?
Normally in ALL CAPS with lots of EXCLAMATION POINTS but not too many so it comes off as HAPPY and not INSANE
9. If you could make music for any 90s Nickelodeon show, what would it be? Why?
Rocko’s Modern Life would be incredible. Skatune Network just dropped a version of the Hey Arnold! theme that can’t be touched, but everyone should check that out! The horns and drums are insane.
10. You’re tasked to introduce someone to ska. Who do you introduce them too?
This is hard. My favorite ska band of all time is MU330, and a lot of AMR bands. But Streetlight Manifesto shred, and have the vocal hooks to draw in any casual music fans with the musicianship to impress people who only listen to technically impressive music. Plus they buck a lot of the ska stereotypes, for people whose only knowledge of the genre is through memes.
11. When playing Among Us, who is the most sus? Who is the least sus?
Our drummer Kerley has a game streaming channel on YouTube called KerleyStudios. For a long time we’d stream Among Us pretty regularly. And almost as regularly, he would be voted off immediately for memesake. Sometimes it was actually him though… maybe he’s both the most and the least?
12. Do you have any projects or recent works you’d like to plug?
We’re on tour this May with Stuck Lucky around the south and the northeast! Follow us on social media and check out the dates nearest you! We also have second pressing vinyl and shirts in our merch store, at flyingraccoonsuit.bigcartel.com
Music Shelf With Mustard 