Rufus Cesspool

Photography and Editing by Nia Blankson

Interview by Maggie Caroddo

So you toured several cities in the northeast this past summer. What was your favorite one? (It better be New York.)
I think New York was far and away our worst show. It was slightly disappointing because obviously you have this perception about New York - you expect it to be this insane, huge thing. We got really good bands on there but it was a Sunday night and it wasn’t promoted as well as some of our other shows. I think Boston was definitely my favorite. We played this place called the Furry Frat. You kinda walk in being like “What the hell is going on here? Is something bad going to happen to me?” Luckily everything was super chill. We asked one of them what was up with the name and they said they’re definitely not a frat and that they hate frats.

So are they more furry than frat?
It’s like furries and furry sympathizers. But that was definitely the craziest show on tour for sure. We were all pretty drunk. My pick fell at a certain point and I couldn't find it so I was just playing with my hand, bleeding a little bit. We played all of our songs at like double speed.

How did you find this venue?
My buddy Sam. I’ll just take this time to plug his album - it’s called “Fish 2 Me” on Bandcamp. Serial chiller, huge Rufus Cesspool patron. He designed our upcoming shirts that we’ll be selling at our next show. I reached out and I was like “Hey, I’m Sam’s friend,” and he was like “Oh you know Sam? Hell yeah, we’ll book you a show.” It’s an important connection to have, I think.

Are you going to make any music videos in the future?
Yeah, definitely! I’ve had a bunch of ideas for music videos for a long time before the EP came out. Portrait is one that I’ve had more defined ideas about what I would want for a music video. It’s just something that hasn’t happened because the band has been so busy. I think in touring this summer I spent a lot of time booking that and preparing for it so that’s the route we chose to go down as opposed to recording or working on music videos. I think the EP is old enough at this point that I would maybe rather release a new single with a music video. If you’re working up to something big like an EP or an album it’s a super cool promotional thing to be like “Yo! Here’s our visual aesthetic. Enter the visual realm of Rufus Cesspool.”

Would you rather film a video in Montreal or back home in Western Massachusetts?
I think there’s a lot of good locales in Montreal. Our old practice space would’ve been perfect just because it’s like this insane warehouse. But we no longer have access to it since they changed the locks and it’s getting torn down. You can watch the Piss for Pumpkin music video that was filmed in our old practice space so at least somebody got some visual use out of it. For the lush greenery I would want to go back home for sure. But probably Montreal.

What would you say is the ideal listening environment for Rufus Cesspool music?
You’re coming up with the real questions. I think I mixed the EP such that it’s ideal for headphones. But I hesitate to lean too heavily towards that because people will release something that sounds kinda shit but they’re just like “Bro you just gotta get a really good pair of headphones and go home like I promise bro it sounds great.” Realistically if you’re making good sounding music you should be able to listen to it in your car because that’s an acoustically really terrible environment. And I have and it sounds pretty good in there, so I feel good about that. I think headphones are ideal if you want to get the full sonic experience.

Who’s your dream collab?
That’s a great question. I think a lot of my musical idols I’d be just too anxious to work with. A lot of my dream collabs are just local bands I really respect. I’m trying to be a local cheerleader to the best of my ability. I’m just so excited about a lot of the local music that’s happening.

What Montreal artists would you most like to collab with?
I think I really have a ton of respect for the musical and aesthetic style of Piss for Pumpkin, of course. That’s a pretty clear one. We’re playing with this band Pressure Pin soon. But it’s different in the “indie world” - I kind of hate that word - it's not like rap where people will throw verses on each other's songs. That comes really naturally to that genre. I think in terms of the music I’m making it’s more in terms of individual musicians I really respect who I want on my tracks. In terms of the wider world of music, Drake, hahah. There’s this dude Chris Weisman from Brattleboro, Vermont who writes really cool songs. I want to collab with him.

Would he make you too nervous?
No, not really because he’s kind of just a weird dude. I wouldn’t feel like I would have to put on any appearances. He writes really weird songs and in interviews he seems like he’s pretty reclusive, which I can understand and respect.

What kind of stuff did you listen to growing up?
For a long time I only listened to the Beatles. I think it was the easiest thing to latch onto so I just got completely obsessed and knew all of their songs. That’s how I learned guitar - I had this Beatles song book with 200 songs so I’d play all of them. Then I got really into dubstep as a lot of 10 year olds do. Then I heard “Bright in the Corners” in the car by Pavement when I was 11 and that’s when I started getting into music that was not the Beatles or dubstep. I remember walking around a flea market singing “Shady Lane” by Pavement so then I got into 80s and 90s guitar rock which led into my math rock phase. Newer bands like Speedy Ortiz which is relevant because they’re from Western Mass so I got to be like “Oh, these guys are from here!”

How old were you when you properly learned to play guitar?
I got my first guitar when I was like 8 and started taking lessons and stuff. I had like one of those chord charts on my wall and I would just play the cords. But I would say I got decent at it when I was like 13 or 14. That’s a pretty important taste-making age, and that was when I first started recording my own music. A lot of that sort of show offy math guitar rock definitely catalyzed me to become a better guitarist. Bands like Chon.

Do you find the music you grew up listening to influences the music you make now?
Oh, yeah. I think I’m maybe moving away from that a little bit now but for my basis the strongest influences are gonna be 90s indie and guitar rock. I’m always just attracted to pop songs structures with like loud and weird guitars. I’m not married to all of that, though. Maybe in 5 years I’ll be making straight ahead folk. Probably not, but there’s no way for me to say definitively.

Do you like Spirit of the Beehive?
I love Spirit of the Beehive. At least their most recent album. That, to me, cemented them as my favorite band right now.

What’s your song-making process like?
It used to be this entirely solitary thing where basically I’d just come up with a guitar riff and then figure out where it goes from there and then just basically write a bunch of guitar parts and stitch them together in a structure I find interesting. Then, use that as a scratch track, record drums and base, then do vocals last. But that’s not always how it is. The song “Collage Rock” I wrote guitar and vocals first and then wrote the second part on piano because it’s sort of a more freeing thing for reharmonizing parts. Now, I’m honestly figuring it out. I have a band and we’re sort of figuring out our collective writing process, which is obviously going to change my personal writing process. I’m very into the idea of including them on writing stuff more.

Do you have any tips for musicians trying to break into the music scene, more specifically in Montreal?
I would say make sure whoever you're playing with, you really enjoy being around for long stretches of time. I would also say booking shows is really intimidating at first but ultimately there’s kind of a formula to it. A lot of times venues prefer simplicity. Just tell them what you can bring, and if it’s nothing, you might get booked anyway. A lot of the logistical stuff was really hard for me at first because I don’t really think of myself as someone who is amazing at reaching out to people or to venues. But it’s gotten a lot easier. Book shows, because they’re fun and they make you a better musician.

Where did the Cesspool nickname come from?
It’s a bastardization of my given Swedish name, which is Cespul. I was like oh, this sounds like the English word Cesspool, so I just sort of went with that.

What are the top 5 songs on your Spotify “On Repeat” right now?
I’ve been listening to last year’s album from Fievel Is Glauque like every day. So it’s probably just going to be that. Yeah, Fievel is Glauque, the album “Hayday” by Feeble Little Horse, and Swirlies. Lots of Swirlies. And Guy Ferrari (now called Robber Robber), they’re a punk band from Burlington.

What’s your favorite Rufus Cesspool song?
Probably “Portrait.” I put a bunch of different stuff in there so it’s not boring to play. Sometimes it bugs me though. I’m like “why do I need to do 4 key changes here?” It’s a little indulgent. I think it’s closest to stuff I want to make in the future. But who knows, maybe I’ll just strip it back. I really like pop music, at the end of the day.

Who’s your favorite pop artist?
Right now, Fievel is Glauque. But also, the Beatles and the Zombies.

What’s your favorite performance you’ve done?
The one at the Furry Frat was up there, for sure. Since being in Montreal, I think our last show at the Diving Bell was really good. I think we were getting to a level of comfort with one another as musicians which is something I’ve really been striving for and I’m really happy to see that happening. Opening for Horse Girl, more than anything, was a huge honor. Also, they’re just really wonderful people so I enjoyed hanging out with them a lot. It was also just a completely different audience than we’ve ever had before.

What type of audience was it?
It was a weird mix of 19-20 year old nonbinary people that come to Rufus Cesspool shows and then 40-50 year old indie heads. I’m glad that the older heads were enjoying it.

Style-wise, what kind of direction are you taking your music in?
Music is eternally an outlet for nervous energy for me, so I make sort of nervous music by default. But I want to continue sort of along the path that I’ve been on of trying to make shit that’s not necessarily complex - complexity is not my goal - but more like elliptical. I just want to mess around with song structure but still have people, like humming it afterwards. That’s really my main goal. A lot of bands that are either musically complex or sonically adventurous are often not that concerned with making songs that people are gonna remember or keep listening to, which is something I’m definitely concerned with.

You want your music to have replay value?
Not even that. That’s cool, and that’s a very flattering thing when people stream it a lot but I just want it to stick with people. I want someone to see something non-musical and have it remind them of one of my songs. I just want to make memorable music, that’s all. I want to ask a musical question and give a musical answer that maybe the audience wasn’t expecting.