Mustard had the pleasure of speaking with Lokeigh. Together we discussed Spongebob Squarepants, Sour candy, their upcoming EP “Destined to Eat Your Flesh”, and so much more!
1. Mustard is grateful to have you join them at Music Shelf. How are you doing today?
I’m grateful to be a part of your shelf, thank you so much for reaching out to me.
How am I? I appreciate you asking. I’ve never been one to have a completely stable life. I know no sense of permanence, which is chaotic, but it also keeps things interesting. I have PMDD, anaemia, and I’m tired all the time for additional reasons I don’t quite understand, so I have to sleep a lot. But I have never been in a better space mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. I am loved and I am in an environment that keeps me safe and allows me to rest as much as I need, which is new for me. So I’m frustrated by my medical mysteries, but I am happy.
2. You have the enthusiasm of SpongeBob SquarePants while they are working at the Krusty Krab. Do you have a favorite episode of SpongeBob Squrepants?
Oh my god. Probably the Krusty Krab training video episode. People Order Our Patties? That kills me every time.
3. If you could put on a show with anyone from Bikini Bottom who would it be and why?
I would want a festival with Spongebob, the Jellyfish doing a house music set, Sandy doing her acoustic thing, give squidward an orchestra (and let Patrick play the MAYONAISE THIS TIME!) and to hell with it, throw Squilliam Fancyson on the bill too. There is an art scene in Bikini Bottom waiting to happen, I can see it so clearly now.
4. Mustard wonders what your relationship with music was growing up?
I think the radio was my first best friend. I just remember spending a lot of time in various family members’ cars, singing along to one of the 4 stations that they typically settled on. It was mostly country, alternative rock, and pop. I think I had the lyrics memorized to every song that came on the radio between 1998 until 2010. My house didn’t have internet most of my childhood, I wasn’t allowed to have a TV in my room, and streaming wasn’t quite accessible to me yet, so I would have the radio on while I wrote in my notebook or texted or played Pokemon on my gameboy. And in the car, and in my room, I would sing along to every song. I have loved singing for as long as I have been conscious. Singing is my favorite part of having sentience. When I was older I joined choir, started playing guitar, and would teach myself songs on the piano on youtube and then walk next door to my grandpa’s house to play them on his upright 70s kimball. I feel as if I was born identifying as a musician. My upbringing was by no means perfect, but my musicianship was always encouraged and for that I am eternally grateful to my family for letting me nourish this gift.
5. Jeff Rosenstock is a big influence of yours. How has Jeff inspired and influenced you as an artist? What song or album of Jeff Rosenstock do you recommend every human check out?
I love Jeff so much. He is equal parts wordy and melodic, which is one of my favorite combinations in music. I have a deep emotional connection to him because of the song’s Polar Bear or Africa, Future 86, and Twinkle. Those are all off of three different releases and from two different projects of his (future 86 is by his old band, Bomb The Music Industry,) so it’s hard to narrow down just one recommendation, album wise. Worry, actually. Listen to the Jeff Rosenstock album Worry. It’s mad at the world in love with humanity in all the right ways.
6. Are you still in the “can’t sleep because you have too many ideas” portion of your day?
The “too many ideas” portion of my day ebbs and flows, so while I am not in it at this moment, it will come back soon.
7. What is your creative process?
I think my artistic process can be summed up as daydreaming combined with intense record keeping. I sometimes start songs using the recording app on my phone, but that’s only through necessity. A lot of times a melody will pop into my head out of nowhere, during a time when it’s inconvenient to sit down and pull out my notebook, so I’ll pull out my phone and hum a few notes into my phone and get back to the idea when I have down time. It probably looks a little silly to anyone who may notice, but I try to be discreet, and I don’t mind looking silly anyway.
But the most important part of the process is my notebooks.
I have been journaling since I was 8, I’ve kept a dream journal since I was 11, and I presently never go more than a week without writing. Things really kicked off during the pandemic when I started doing morning pages, which means waking up every morning writing three pages in your notebook before you do anything else.. Nothing fancy, just random stream of consciousness, it doesn’t have to be about anything, or even coherent. It’s kind of like the artistic equivalent of going to the gym first thing in the morning.
Another part of the process is looking back on my years of writing. I sit with my notebooks and meander through them the way you would look through a magazine in a waiting room or an old box of family photos you find in your parent’s attic. I’ve finished a lot of my most recent songs this way.
Oh! And as of recently, I’ve implemented The Lokeigh Wall. The Lokeigh wall is a space in my bedroom covered in art paper where I write and doodle and glue things related to how I want my art to look and feel. My goal is to have all of the lyrics I’d like to use on the first full-length album all visible in one place. It’s coming along, but this process is taking more work than I thought so it’s mostly acting as a vision board right now.
8. You’ve been described as a positive light within the Bay Area music scene. What was your first introduction to the scene? Could you share more about your involvement within the scene?
Oh no I do not live in the bay area, I love going to shows at Gilman and Thee Parkside, but I am not a light there, only a guest. The bay area does keep a very special place in my heart though. I got into my own music scene in my hometown and in Fresno when I was around 16-17, but I was introduced to the Bay Area scene even earlier than that. I learned about the 80s-90s Bay Area scene from a book about Green Day when I was in 6th grade. I think it changed the trajectory of my entire life. I grew up on a farm in Hanford California out in the middle of nowhere, so the lifestyle depicted in the Green Day book captivated me: Living by the ocean, navigating public transit networks, meeting at a place full of people who loved the same music as me. They were all over there, just a few hours drive away, starting bands, making art together. I wanted to be a part of that so bad. Imagine my delight years later when I, a folk punk musician, learned that the head booker at the venue 924 Gilman, (the main setting of the Green Day book) was interested in booking folk punk acts! It felt like fate. When I got to play there for the first time ever on my first tour in 2013, it felt like destiny, like a dream come true. Even now when I play in the bay area, when I spend time with my friends there, taking public transit, making art, it feels like I have actualized the person I wanted to be when I was a kid. But like I said, I am just a guest there, the bay area is a place from my dreams that I somehow have the privilege of visiting in real life.
My involvement in the scene is a lot more grounded experience. I started booking shows when I was 17 because someone asked me to take over for them. I didn’t know him very well, he was an older kid who had his own tiny DIY record label with other older kids in town. My friends and I really looked up to all of them. He messages me one day like “Hey, I’m moving to Seattle and I promised these bands a few shows for the rest of the year, can you take over? I’ll email you their contacts and instructions on how to run a show.”
So he emails me some dates and a half-finished zine on how to run shows. I looked it up later and learned it was the first draft of a zine from the DO DIY website. Here is the finished version [x]
I was kind of in over my head but I was excited and wanted to do a good job, so I tagged in my very close friend and fellow folk punk musician Mike to help me. We ended up started our own little promotional group “basement club productions,” where we booked shows at parks, houses, and community spaces in Hanford, and later when I moved to Fresno, we booked shows at the anarchist collective I had the privilege to briefly call home, CAFE Infoshop.
9. Could you share more about your Patreon and Discord page?
I started my Patreon to try to hide away from homophobia and opt out of the attention economy. The more visible I am online, the more money I make jerks like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk!
Unless of course, I talk about normal parts of my life like being trans and queer, then nobody will see what I post.
Thinking about these two extremes consumed my nerouses, so I thought my Patreon would be a great way to cut out the evil middle man.
I love to share who I am and what I think, and Patreon helps me to do this without feeling self-conscious. My Lokeighverse, as I call it, is meant to be my sanctuary, where people who love me and are interested in what I create can take a look into what my life is really like.
As rewards, I send out chaos mail, share writings and scans from my many journals, and give early access to the art I’ve been working on. I also take cover requests, but the first request that was made is actually kind of a hard song and has been taking a while to get off the ground!
My Discord is more of the same, a corner of my Lokeighverse where I can be accessible no matter what happens to all of the internet’s slowly dying platforms. I’m having my first official Discord hangout on 4/20! I’m so excited(:
10. 2012 saw the release of your EP “Give Me The Moon, Then We’ll Talk.” How did Star Wars and your friend Cameron inspire this EP?
Star Wars and my time with Cameron were just some of my main joys in 2012. I was a sad kid, but sci fi like Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Mystery Science Theater 3000 were so inspiring and romantic to me. With the exception of the music scene, I wanted to get away from the world so badly. Seeing people chilling in space and then writing songs about it made me feel like escape was just around the corner. Cameron and I knew each other from church. He’s a little older than me but we kind of grew up together, we had a lot of common interests, interests that were rare in our religion. We were drawn to each other not only by our interests, but also by our beliefs. We didn’t buy into our church’s doctrine, but still wanted to be good people. We were taught that if you didn’t accept everything that you were taught with your entire being, you were missing out something special, and that you were going to “be led astray” to being a bad person with an empty life. I looked to him as proof that such things were not true. In 2012, I was taking piano lessons from him, and we recorded that first EP one day during a lesson in his family’s music room. He’s the one who plays the Star Wars theme on piano on the opening track. I asked him to do that because I wanted my discography to start as if the first track of my first EP was the opening crawl before a long series of adventures in time and space. He helped me to embody in a small way the art that we admired, the art that brought me comfort in those times. He helped me first put out my own music. He taught me how to better understand piano. I don’t think I’d be where I am today without his love and guidance.
11. Mustard wonders which arcade system your love was. Did you eventually replenish your quarters?
Oh my gosh, so you listened to the EP he and I recorded together! Aaaaaah!!!! Well, the arcade game was definitely Tekken 2. The person I wrote that song about is still my friend to this day, despite me being such a brat when we broke up, so I’d say yes! The quarters are definitely replenished ❤ ❤
12. Jumping ahead in 2020 you released “Sick of Sour Candy.” Which Sour Candy are you sick of?
I am afraid to eat Warheads, and people who enjoy them scare me (positive)
13. A human gets the chance to see you perform. How would you describe your live performances?
How would I describe my live performance? I’m struggling to find the words. It feels like I black out when I play, like this version of me that is typing to you actually has very little to do with the performance other than being a physical vessel. I know I have fun! I make a lot of mistakes and a lot of jokes, and I probably talk too much between songs. I know this version of me that leaves when it’s time to perform loves the escape, and loves to share my body with whatever entity takes its place. It’s dramatic to say that seeing me live is witnessing a symbiotic moment between myself and another realm, I’m just singing songs, you know? But from my perspective that’s what it can feel like.
14. You recently shared the cover art of your upcoming EP. What can fans expect from this EP? How does it differ from your previous work?
This release is unlike anything I have ever made. It’s always been me and my ukulele, or Dandelion Massacre, which is all acoustic instruments. I’ve wanted to be in an electric rock band for as long as I can remember, and this Lokeigh release is that dream realized. It’s not metal or hardcore, but all of the musicians who have been working on Lokeigh with me are inspired by and invested in those scenes. I’ve always wanted to meld my sad cuddly “I’m baby” sounds with the strength and technical skill of harder genres. Bands like Fall Out Boy and their metal drummer are proof that things get fun and interesting when the twee and scandalized meet the brutal and hardcore.
15. What is next for Lokeigh?
I want to open for AJJ and play Coachella.
16. Do you have any upcoming shows?
My next show is going to be my first show with our current full band lineup! That will be on the 25th of April. Then I’m playing a show in my hometown on the 29th, that will be a solo show, and then the next day on the 30th I’ll be playing another solo set in San Fransisco. Then, shortly after May 16th, when the EP comes out, we’ll have our official release show! That will be May 25th. I’m so excited for that show, it’s with Brianna Carmel, Lightweight, and Salacious Wizard Cult. Those bands have been like family to me in the music scene, and I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate the birth of this EP than with those who have inspired me and made me feel at home in what I do.
17. Where can readers listen to your music?
Right now I am moving a lot of things around. This upcoming release will be on all streaming platforms, but right now you can listen to the first Lokeigh demo I put out last year on my old bandcamp (x)
Music Shelf With Mustard 