Paslaski: I had my cello and then Ben had this—
Paulson: I had a contact mic attached to a yo-yo string.
Paslaski: We had an electric toothbrush, a drill, and a cello. But that was the spirit of it.
So take me from those first jams to creating “Maintain the Bliss” in 2021. How do you get from Point A to Point B?
Paulson: We have to thank the lady downstairs, because we were like, we can’t make music here anymore. So we found this cheap studio in Humboldt Park. I wasn’t working, so we were on Trump bucks, going to the studio every day, really grinding.
Paslaski: Wasn’t it Biden bucks at that point?
Asani: A little bit of both. But money from the government was funding that. We didn’t have anything else to do. Everything was shut down, so if we weren’t at home, we were meeting in the studio two or three times a week. We had a lot of time to hone our sound and figure out what we wanted to do and how to do it. Then one weekend, four years ago, we turned these jams into what they are.
Paulson: Our Lillerne Tapes release, Puredub, and the Purelink EP that was on UwU dust bath were recorded before “Maintain the Bliss.” Trying to get them out took forever. We felt like we were advancing past them day by day, so we recorded those two songs in a weekend and were just like, right, let’s just put it out.
Paslaski: Those are the only tracks that are truly just a live recording—each one is like an hourlong recording.
Asani: “Bliss” was one day; “Swivel” another. It all happened one weekend. That’s never happened again.
Paslaski: There was something so organic when we were making it. We had two computers going and we were taking turns with stems, talking and coming up with ideas.
Paulson: You just hit “record” at some point.
Paslaski: Why don’t we do that now? We torture ourselves with this slow process. Why don’t we just hit “record”?
Paulson: It was a funny day; we had a bunch of friends over and we wouldn’t stop playing.
Paslaski: It was just looping for hours.
Paulson: We were in there for, like, 12 hours, just like, This is so sick.
Paslaski: That’s the litmus test—if you don’t get sick of it after six hours, then it’s something.
Paulson: I remember one of our friends was like, It’s too long. And we were just like, Nah. This is it. We reminisce so much about those days.
