Queens NYC based Raccoon Fighter shoot laser beams out of their eyes, smoke fuzz boxes and swim in the sky with Alex Chilton. Back stroking with him in time to gritty 1970’s east village NYC, where they shoot pool/sniff glue with the New York Dolls and Television at CBGB’s. Their latest release Spiral Flag in the words of Alibi “comes off like a brawl between The Beatles White Album and T Rex’ The Slider” all the while putting their own modern twist on things, creating “a sound that’s both timeless and feels particularly of-the-moment” frequently compared to bands like the Growlers, Ty Segall, Tame Impala and Black Lips.
Since forming in 2009 they’ve shared the stage with Ex Cops, Joywave, Das Racist, Sunflower Bean, Spirit Family Reunion, Ski Beatz and The London Souls. The end of 2014 and beginning of 2015 brought the band good fortune as they landed a few TV placements, including two songs on the Showtime series Shameless, beginning with the season premiere and multiple MTV spots. Their upcoming EP ‘Hover Craft’ is due out on Papercup Music summer 2016.
In this interview feature, we chat with members of Raccoon Fighter discussing music, the new project and more.
Full Q&A, links and video streams can be found below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
The band is based out of Queens NY, but we all grew up in New Jersey. We play the rock and roll music with heavy psych and garage influences.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to stay the course?
I think we all started playing music for different reasons but the thing that motivates us now is that we have fun with it. We’re actually all friends outside of the band and playing/making music is our favorite thing to do.
Who or what are your biggest influences when it comes to your creativity?
Probably whatever we’ve been listening to most as of late. We have access to almost all of the music ever created, which is amazing and overwhelming at times. I’ve been on a big 70’s Nigerian pop kick lately. We don’t play that style of music but I’m sure it’ll somehow influence the way I write this week whether I notice it or not.
How is your new release different than previous ones? Did you set out to accomplish anything specific?
A friend of ours actually approached us with free studio time to make this record which, as you probably know, studio time is really fucking expensive, so we jumped on the opportunity. All but one of the songs on the EP were written for our previous LP ZIL, but never made the cut. We had about 22 demos that we cut for whatever reason and four of the songs from Hover Craft were part of that group. We threw in one new song and worked on the other four and pretty much just jumped into the studio. We worked on a song a day from start to finish. We’d record basics first live, then vocals and then we’d overdub and record any fun ideas we had at the end of the day if there was time.
Do you face any challenges as an indie musician in a digital age? On the flip side, how has technology helped you (if it has)?
Breaking through the noise is the biggest challenge. There’s so much content being thrown at people these days, so it’s hard to stick out. I think Shazam helps a lot though. We had a few songs on TV shows or whatever and we gained fans because people liked what they heard, shazam’d the track and it directed them to iTunes or Youtube so they could buy the album or subscribe to our channel. That part of tech is great.
How do you feel about streaming services? Any romantic attachments to the physical formats: vinyl, 8-track, cassettes, CDs?
Physical formats are far superior. I’ll never get the same enjoyment out of streaming that I will with vinyl but, I’ll also never be able to fit all of the vinyl ever created in my Queens apartment. Streaming is convenient, but it sounds a lot worse and the ADD generation is missing out on the art of the record. Singles are cool but I like to close my eye and enjoy the journey.
Where can we follow you online and hear more music?
Stream our music on SPOTIFY! haha. No but seriously, we’re very google-able – “Raccoon Fighter” is on the facebook, IG, Soundcloud, YouBoob, iTunes etc. you name it
Anything else before we sign off?
slap da bass, get high on god
