As interviewed by the electro-pop artist Samkae
I’m Samkae, an electropop and indie artist based in New York City. I’m excited to write this piece to shine a light on independent artists SQORE and teasea, as well as the vibrant creative community they’re cultivating right here in Brooklyn.
Samkae: Ambient, multi-instrumental artists SQORE and teasea have come together to create a new album called “Methods of Motion.” I was first introduced to both of these talented artists through live showcases and events, including their album release show, which was hosted by Ambient Pasta. Ambient Pasta is a unique, multi-sensory production and event company that aims to blend creative art, food, and music. The event took place in their welcoming home and was established to bridge the gap between various forms of artistic expression.
Samkae: What sparked the project ‘Methods of Motion’?
I put out my EP, Ambient Sameness and Tom found it and thought we should
SQORE
collaborate. So, basically, I sent him a couple of seeds and then it grew from there. We worked
on this album mostly remote and traded seeds back and forth for several years.
Samkae: The album release was hosted in partnership with a creative community called Ambient
Pasta. Tell us more about it.
Ambient Pasta is a multisensory creative community where we try to blur the lines of
mediums and artists to support all the different ways of sharing and releasing art. We’ve put out
music videos, albums and we want to host more dinners, work with more chefs and put on
poetry slams. The goal is to get us all together. It doesn’t have to be weird, we all make dope
shit and it doesn’t have to be more than that.
teasea
Samkae: You said during the album release that you thought of each track in colors. Can you tell
us more about that?
I think the whole album feels very much like a journey through life and feelings. I
guess, I associate the songs and colors very plainly like blue is sad. When comparing the single
art and the album art, color transforms from these darker tones into these pastels and lighter
tones, sometimes even neon for the dancey songs towards the end. I remember “benefits”
feeling so organic and natural with a color pallet of greens. Tom had put things in a really good
way, almost describing the album as a movie.
SQORE
I view Methods of Motion as the phases of which you go through introspection. It starts
teasea
in this inland space which you’re kind of floating around. In line with I am Concussed (and the
curling waves are like spirals) which is kind of saying ‘I feel disoriented, I don’t know what’s
going on’. Then moving into Cave, it’s moving into your cave – the darkness. The guitar line
feels like a light coming through the cave and there are these crazy sounds that are happening,
which is all Em. Em’s sounds on that track are fucking crazy. They’re so strange and alien and
so good! The build up is so dramatic and the ending is so dramatic and big. It kind of feels like I
relate to that one when I’m in my dark moments and can’t get out of them.
I just love the BlaH BlaH BlaH (the mightiest ant hill) transition, it’s so funny; it’s the
“yeah,yeah,yeah” get out of your head kind of vibe. It was kind of a late add on, we were trying
to make it work. I’ve been alone fer dayz is that arch of “wow, I’m having such a good time with
myself finally” and “I’m going to let all my weird dance moves happen.” That’s a good one to
close your blinds, close your door and dance alone in your room and let it all out. Words of Age
brings you back to earth and new knowledge, the time to gain some maturity and acknowledge
this process of working through your emotions.
These Dialects of Silence is more melancholy, one of my favorites on the album; I think maybe
both of our favorites. That’s another Em beat, she really took that one and brought it to a whole
other place multiple times over, we really worked that one in. I love that one. URGENCY is the
urgency to fix the things that you just figured out need to be fixed and stroll(ing to you) is
strolling back to a version of acceptance of yourself and then benefits are the benefits of the
ride.
Samkae: I feel like there are little journey marks through this album. How did you come to add
these specific samples?
For BlaH BlaH BlaH (the mightiest ant hill), the title was blah blah blah when I started
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it. You know, you throw in random names for projects and it makes sense for it. Tom put these
sounds in the background, I think it’s cooking sounds and the other one was “sick beats,
drumming on J’s wall”. Tom was like, “I heard these things at the beginning, I’m not sure how it
will fit.” He felt it would make it more cohesive, we had different tones and octaves which felt like
it fit at the beginning. Tom can speak more on the other quotes.
Real quick, actually, I have a question.The blah blah, is that your voice?
teasea
Yeah, that’s my voice.
SQORE
It was right? Ok, I don’t think I ever asked you that. That intro is one of my favorite
moments, I love it.
teasea
The sample in Words of Age is my grandpa. I had a conversation with him and my
teasea
brother and we were talking about the nature of society and how humans are treating each
other these days. He was asking about what it’s like being a young person in New York and how
we navigate that. I shared that it’s up and down. There are people that you meet who are so
wonderful and super empathetic and understanding and then there are people who are just so
oblivious to what’s going on. He was feeling that more within his community as well and he’s 84.
We talk about the nature of how people are and money hungry people and how you choose a
path, you decide what values you want to pursue. It’s called Words of Age, so we thought it
could be cool to have an old voice in there.
In Dialects of Silence, there are samples in there that can be hard to understand without
context. It was a conversation I had with my roommates and our friend, Carly, and my old
roommate Lauren. We were talking about mental health and at the end, Carly shares how she
had a dream where she found a language where she could communicate her emotions clearly
to the people she loved without words. I really loved that so I put that at the end and was
grateful Em really fucked with it too.
benefits has one snippet which is me talking about not being ready for certain aspects of
newness in life and that being ok.
Samkae: Are you working on new projects? What are your plans moving forward?
For myself, I’m working on an album that will be very organic and natural sounding
using synths and other electronic elements. I’ve been listening to a lot of music where it’s synth
sounds, but they sound like birds and trees or leaves shaking in the wind. I want to do more of
that. I’ve been thinking a lot about making an album that incorporates orchestral elements. I
definitely will ask Tom to play guitar on stuff and bring in those beautiful atmospheric sounds
cause they’re just so fucking cool, I love it so much.
SQORE
Right now, Em and I don’t have anything right now. Maybe we’ll do another album one
teasea
day, who knows?
I’m also working on a solo album; actually finishing it. It’s an 8 track LP; pop, shoegaze, emo,
rock kind of vibe. I’m stoked on that. It’s definitely the most vulnerable I’ve been with music and
the most truthful I’ve been and the most I’ve worked on words. I tried to track it fully live, so I
would do a take or two and just use the whole take for each instrument so it sounds like I’m
playing live with myself. It creates an interesting energy which pushes and pulls and has little
mistakes that probably no one will notice but I notice. I like that though because I’ve been so
focused on making music that sounds perfect and we listen to so much music that sounds
perfect that I’m missing some of the edge of liveness. That was a big intention for this project. I
think that album is going to be called Split Crack Memories but we’ll see.
