Mustard had the pleasure again of speaking with Bathroom of the Future. Together we discussed how bathrooms have evolved since our last conversation, what convention they would love to perform at, their upcoming single “Post Convention Depression”, and so much more!
1. Mustard is thankful to be joined again by Bathroom of the Future. How are you doing?
TIM: Wonderful! Excited about many things, in that nebulous way that “bands with things they can’t announce yet” tend to be online.
BRENDAN: Stupendous! Life is chunky.
SEAN: Pretty alright! Always busy between civilian life, band stuff and art type things.
JAMES: Feeling pretty good about the thing we’ve been up to lately!
2. How have bathrooms evolved in the future? Have plumbers been replaced by artificial intelligence?
TIM: I don’t think plumbers will be replaced by artificial intelligence, as there will always be a need for hands-on work that can respond to different situations. That said, bathroom design is likely done by AI now, as Big Interior Design has probably found some perfect algorithm for creating a bathroom everyone can enjoy.
BRENDAN: For a perfect example of a Bathroom of the Future. See Bob’s Burgers season 6, episode 19. Plumbers are far from being replaced by AI (too physical of a realm) BUT I do foresee advanced sensors in the plumbing letting us know when to eat a bowl of Craklin’ Oat Bran.
SEAN: Bathrooms seem to evolve slower than any other sort of tech. Occasionally there are more attachments to spray water in places, but the future and past toilets aren’t very different. This might explain how a band with “Future” in its name, formed in the Futuristic Year of 2015 seems to make folks yearn for the 90s?
I will not address the AI directly for fear of punishment from our robotic overlords.
JAMES: Well there’s the three seashells.
3. When we last spoke you were performing at DragonCon. Could you share what that event was like?
TIM: I’m not exaggerating when I say it might have been the coolest thing I’d ever done as a musician, or at least one of the coolest. We saw a bunch of other bands we’re friends with, we hung out with a lot of new and old pals, we spent too much money in the dealer room, and we played to some of the best crowds we’d ever seen. During our main stage set, two completely different groups of Sailor Moon cosplayers came in to see us, and it was everything I ever wanted to happen at a Bathroom of the Future show.
BRENDAN: Dang – it was a whirlwind of stimuli, exploration, and logistics. The first night was surreal. This was my first con. Rubbing shoulders with R2-D2, The Monarch, Mike Myers, Spawn, and many more within a massive hotel campus connected by umbilicaciouses!
SEAN: It was amazing! Everyone was so nice. So many people, robots, mutants, vampires, etc. It was a little overwhelming. Atlanta is a beautiful city. I’ve never been in awe of architecture on this level until this trip.
JAMES: DragonCon was great! This was my first convention that wasn’t an Autorama with my dad, so I made sure to do all the comic book convention stuff. Cosplay, artist signings, Q&As, all that stuff. I really felt like we were in our element playing there. I hope we do it again.
4. How would Bathroom of the Future define convention?
TIM: Admittedly I used to have a pretty narrow idea of a convention, in that it probably had to have someone I can buy an autograph from and a bunch of stinky cardboard boxes full of comics, but that’s pretty limiting, you know? To me, a convention can be anywhere where people of a specific interest set can come together to celebrate that interest, whether it’s UFO sightings or Transformers toys or record collectors or whatever. Heck, you could kind of make the case that most music festivals count under that definition, but I’m not smart enough to have that conversation.
SEAN: What Tim said. I went to Motor City Comic Con various times between elementary school and my mid 20s, it was wild seeing the rise of cosplay. When I was in highschool maybe 5% of people wore costumes. Now it seems strange to not do it. And to many that’s the reason they’re attending. Which is rad.
But yeah, I attended The Gathering of the Juggalos less than a month before our Dragoncon Trip. And SO many elements were similar. Dress how you feel, seminars, vendors, comradery, the hope that you’ll be able to make it to another and see the same people. The entry level cathartic moment where you become aware that the real cosplay is stupid face you have to wear the rest of the year in your crap job and terrible life. It’s the same thing.
5. Do humans need to join a coven to attend a convention?
TIM: I would say no, just because the odds of you joining one are actually much better during the convention, rather than before.
BRENDAN: same
SEAN: I just go where the carnival takes me.
JAMES: If I didn’t have to, I’m going to be really upset.
6. If Bathroom of the Future could attend any three conventions in the world, which would they be and why?
TIM: Performance-wise, I would LOVE to play at PAX or San Diego Comicon someday. Strictly as an attendee, I regret not going to BotCon, the Transformers convention that started back in the 90s before it ended in the 10s, but I would specifically like to go back to one of the early ones so I can get the super-rare exclusive toys.
BRENDAN: I recently plunged into the world of Pinball and am looking forward to some expos this year in Chicago, Ann Arbor, and Kalamazoo. A Star Wars celebration would be cool but I’m mostly a sucker for the props, ships, and costumes which can be seen at art exhibits. Cons = a LOT of people! South by Southwest would have been cool…like 10 years ago?
SEAN: I want to play most cons that will have us. DragonCon was a big one since I was 15 and saw that GWAR and the Misfits played there and I thought DragonCon had to be amazing. Attending? Some sort of Transformers convention, maybe a Bigfoot convention or some Alien event where I can meet Giorgio A. Tsoukalos.
JAMES: I also think SDCC and PAX would be great to play. I’d like for us to get out west. Plus Youmacon. It’s home turf so I’d love to play that.
7. Mustard wonders what your first convention was?
TIM: Mine was Motor City Comicon back in 2002-2003 in Novi, MI, before they moved into the bigger building. My dad took my sister and I because he thought we would like it, and he wanted to get the autograph of Lou Ferrigno because he was a huge Hulk fan growing up. I bought some bootleg video tapes of the Clerks animated series, and someone drew me a cute anime-style nametag that I wish I still had. It was after that first one that I knew I’d be trying to chase that feeling forever.
BRENDAN: Dragoncon!
SEAN: Motor City Comicon, 1994? I was ten. I don’t remember too much, other than I bought a pack of Marvel Comics Series 1 trading cards and got a holographic Wolverine card.
JAMES: DragonCon was my first comic convention, but in the broader sense, I’ve been going to the North American International Autoshow and AutoRama in Detroit with my dad since I was a kid. We try to make it to at least one every year.
8. Do you have a favorite convention concession meal?
TIM: I will eat giant soft pretzels with cheese dip at the slightest provocation. And, to get more specific, there was a time during DragonCon where Sean and Brendan vanished from us, and then reappeared holding one of the tastiest cheese pizzas I’ve ever tasted, but either of them would do a much better job telling the story than I would.
BRENDAN: I’m so glad Tim brought up the pizza story. I’ve been playing a lot of Diablo 2 lately – imagine there is no fast travel or portals to town. Sean and I had a quest: leave Cybertronic Spree stage, up two floors, across the ambilicous to the other hotel, down a floor, wait for pizza, accidentally be charged double, get a bonus pizza, and proceed to BACKTRACK before the Cybertronians hit the stage with greasy cheesy health/mana boost.
SEAN: What they said! Not only did we obtain this magical pizza, but we also somehow accidentally cut a lot of people. We somehow got in before Tim and James, who were waiting much longer than us.
JAMES: Hotel continental breakfast, reheated in our room later, on the George Foreman Grill Sean brought on the road. That thing was a tour game changer.
9. On March 14th you will be releasing your new single “Post Convention Depression.” What can listeners expect from this single? Is it based on your actual experience?
TIM: In a weird way, this song is a little more of a return to more direct, melodic pop-punk compared to the stuff on our last EP “Maclunkey”, but it was sorta fun to get back to those more Smoking Popes/The Ataris influences. I’d been trying to write a song about this specific feeling for a while (to the point where it’s not even our first song about attending conventions!) but it was my first time addressing it so directly, and I think we finally got the feeling across pretty well. (Plus, it’s our keyboardist Brendan’s first appearance on a recording, so that’s been fantastic to see!)
BRENDAN: Expect a fun catchy song with power chords and beep boops. We recorded the song a few months after Dragoncon. I can honestly say the lyric about being lost in the dealer’s room was an actual experience.
SEAN: Catchy pop punk that will make you wistful over something that took place a month or two ago. Musically. I dunno, I punch my bass a bunch and somehow the drummer of Smoking Popes(!!) makes me sound good.
JAMES: I think this song was one of our better collaborative efforts. All of the individual instruments meld really well on this song. The whole is greater than the sum if it’s parts, or however the saying goes.
10. Is post convention depression covered underneath by American insurance companies?
TIM: I would hope so, but I worry that doctors have to check and see how many conventions you’ve attended to determine if it counts as a pre-existing condition or not.
JAMES: Whatever it is, my current prescription seems to take care of it, so… yes?
11. Where can readers check out your music?
TIM: We’re on all the major streaming services like Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, and the like, as well as our own personal Bandcamp and the Laptop Punk Records Bandcamp. You can find them all by going to bathroomofthefuture.com, or just by searching for us – but PLEASE remember to type “bathroom of the future band”, because if you look up just our name, you tend to get a lot of articles about interior design.
BRENDAN: At the Ghost Light in Detroit on March 24th with Jeremy Porter!
JAMES: We found out a few years ago that our music could be downloaded for free on a foreign pirating website, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend you try that. Do what Tim and Brendan said.
Sean: Most of our music is available to be posted in TikToks, reels, instagram stories etc. We’re only going to jump for joy if you use our song in a video showing off your Roll.EXE cosplay.
Music Shelf With Mustard 