Ghita: Is this your first tour?
Chanel Beads: No, as Chanel Beads we’ve been on some little DIY stuff up and down the West Coast a little bit. That was pre-2020. We just did one with Strange Ranger in September. That was about a similar length and size to this one. And then we’re about to go to Europe for a few days.
G: That’s exciting. How has it been so far?
CB: This one? It’s been awesome. I really like the Draag Me guys, they’re really sick and I feel like I’m like-minded to them. Hopefully, I don’t know. I hope they would say the same.
G: What is the origin of the name Chanel Beads? Is there a story behind that?
CB: Yeah, it’s kind of a joke on my first and last name. Shane L.—my last name’s Lavers—Shane L., Chanel. It’s kind of corny, I had a nickname, Shane-L Beads, and there’s a ton of class to that. Yeah, kind of a dirty joke.
G: It’s clever though, I’ll say. What’s the process behind your music-making? Do you have a concept guiding the sound, or vice-versa?
CB: Sometimes I feel very opinionated about the sound of music, and I feel like sometimes I’ll go in with an idea in my head that I have some kind of philosophy around, like how to approach it. Honestly I’m just tricking myself and motivating myself into thinking that it’s grander than it is. With this stuff, it was kind of hard to figure out how to play it live, but it started off as a lot of trying to make it this really expansive yet really cheap sounding thing at the same time. We make the music with free software (for the most part) and free samples, and we just go for the most free expensive-sounding stuff. On some of the recordings we have Zach play with us, and Zach’s like the best string player alive—he’s amazing. It’s funny cause I feel like we’ll use someone who is really technically trained, amazing, and plays in an orchestra, but in the context of Chanel Beads all the orchestra sounds are mixed with free, cheap stuff, and the person who has a lifetime of training is doing the crazier stuff that you can’t identify as string all the time.
Without being annoyingly oppositional or something, I feel like there’s an ethos of—yeah, this sounds dumb to say out loud, but just trying to make something that sounds good and sits in these other worlds. It’s not trying to be a juxtaposition, it’s just kinda like a “oh I like both of these,” kind of thing. To finish a song, I feel like the lyrics have to be worthy to be spoken to people. So I feel like a lot of the music ends up feeling really charged to me. Otherwise it feels disrespectful to sing something that doesn’t mean anything. For me. Other people can do whatever they want. Or other artists, I mean.
G: In terms of playing live, how does that work? Do you improvise at all with the sound or just the lyrics?
CB: Maya [McGrory] and Zach [Paul] improvise—and maybe they improvise a little less after we’ve been playing these songs for a while. The most challenging thing for me is to not do anything, so I do a lot of that now. I design my role in the set as to just try to perform with nothing to perform. The track set we’re playing is pretty rigid, cause we’re mostly playing music that’s not out. So I’m excited to show the song as it is, so yeah. There’s a lot of rigidity in it. And the two of them, they’re actually playing instruments, so they can do stuff.
G: Do you have any inspirations behind your music? Is there anywhere you find inspiration for a certain sound, or do you find melodies just through exploring?
CB: Yeah, definitely. There’s definitely some times that I get so inspired by something that I feel like I’m ripping it off. Usually there’s something else that comes along before I finish the thing that I’m also ripping off, so it hopefully doesn’t become too much of one thing that I’m ripping off or something. If that makes sense.
G: Yeah.
CB: I don’t really know if there’s any artists or something that I can say that I’m inspired by. It’s super about pulling from the outside world. But then, for me to actually finish something, and work with Maya on it…usually by the time I’ve found the root of the thing I’m making, the outside world has kind of fallen apart. It’s really just about that spark.
G: How did you get started in music? Did you always make electronic music, or did it sort of weave into your work?
CB: I got a sampler when I was really young. I don’t know, I’m just a fan of it. I made music alone a lot too, and it’s way easier to make electronic music alone. And more exciting too.
G: I noticed that you moved from Seattle to New York a couple years ago. How would you compare the music scenes between the two?
CB: Well, New York is just so crazy. They feel like polar opposites to me in some ways. There’s crazy ambition in New York. Ambition is kind of like, not cool in Seattle. Or viewed with suspicion. I never really liked that idea, but in New York I sometimes had to be like, “Yo why are these guys trying to be Radiohead?” Or something. Yeah, that’s like the biggest difference. But there’s cool people everywhere. I’ve never felt part of a scene, necessarily. There’s friends everywhere, and cool people and cool music everywhere. Also, things change so quick, too. Little micro-genres and things.
G: What groups or artists have you been loving recently? Any recommendations?
CB: Our friend Alana—she goes by Lipsticism. We’re playing a show with her, and she’s putting a record out that I really love. It’s got a crazy sound to it. And it’s inspiring when an artist does a whole album, like a world is stretched out for a whole album. There’s a lot of patience to her music. Some people are like, “Oh I made a song that’s like this.” And she made an album that’s like that, so it’s cool. Dancier stuff. Maya and Zach make my favorite music, that’s why I collaborate with them a lot. Hopefully Zach puts a record out pretty soon. He’s got some stuff out. And Maya plays under Colle, it’s super good. There’s so much good music, I don’t know. Those three are good though.
G: In terms of your music, are you planning on releasing an album soon?
CB: Yeah, we just finished the album and it’s got a release date. It’ll be in the spring. And we have a new song coming out November 8th. And some other stuff.
G: I’ll keep an eye out.
CB: Yeah, yeah. Sick.
