Lately, most of my conversations (whether professional or private) have revolved around quarter-life crises and (wait for it) how social media plays into this. It’s a fair connection to make, considering previous generations had, like, the local gas station as their social media? I know, I know, you’re going to wag your finger at me and say MILLENIALS.
Just like all the generations before us, we’re just trying to figure this shit out. Justin Vallesteros, the man behind Craft Spells, is trying to figure it all out too. It shows on Nausea, the latest release from Craft Spells — a sonically ambiguous album that leaves you feeling warm to cold from one song to the next. That’s not a bad thing — Vallesteros’s lyricism invites you in to seek yourself out (“First Snow”), and makes you nostalgic, wistful, and yeah, maybe a little nauseated. When I met up with him in Greenpoint recently, Vallesteros filled me in on living with his parents while recording Nausea, being an outsider, and keeping it real.
First off, I want to ask you about Nausea — you’ve mentioned the title came about in reference to your “unplugging” from social media and the internet.
Well, that’s part of it.
Okay, so what inspired that detox?
Mostly, just an oversaturated life. Being in my 20s and living in San Francisco — it’s a very active place but also not a very friendly place to be.
I feel that way about here.
Yeah. Places can get congested, cities can be especially. I just haven’t felt like decompressing. Smoking weed is a fake decompressant but it was nice to step away from a lot of things and just focus on one responsibility, to be at my parents house for 3 months just focusing on my writing. Unplugging all that stuff really helped me get out and walk around a boring suburb and just really feel my surroundings. I can think and be as creative as possible without the distractions.
You said unplugging from that life was part of the inspiration for Nausea, so what’s the other part?
The Nausea point is after kind of, leaving reality to kind of create my own at my parents’ house. I became fond of my own songs, they were like familiar faces. I liked coming back and recording them. But then I would visit my place in San Francisco and I’d feel that rush of anxiety again. I knew it was foolish to kind of, rely on that atmosphere. My recording process at the time made me really happy — more than my reality. It just made me really dizzy because I couldn’t focus on what was real. It was almost like dissociation and it created a little … nausea [laughs].
Is this the point where the move to Seattle comes in?
Most definitely. It’s a beautiful, serene place. Nature is so accessible there.
Is it not accessible in San Francisco?
There’s John Muir Park but that’s still a drive away. There’s no seasons there — autumn is my favorite season and there’s no foliage. It’s kind of uninspiring, it was just kind of sad. Recording made me happy. It was a blank slate for me at my parents’ house.
There seems to be a lot of nostalgia on the album to me. Do you think that’s a result of recording at your parents’ house?
Yeah. I completely agree with the idea that people need to be okay with being alone sometimes: to just stay away from social nights, it’s cool to just know yourself for a bit.
When I was doing research for this interview I saw that someone called Nausea a “return from a mysterious hiatus.” I thought that was hyperbole, but would you agree?
I disappeared for two years completely. I had a girlfriend of three years at that time. I disappeared into that world of a relationship.
To me, two years is too short to call it a hiatus. But I guess nowadays you’re expected to just be putting stuff out all the time.
Yeah, it’s kind of an added pressure to contemporary music. Everyone wants you to release at least a single or an EP after half a year of touring. I think it’s super forced. Sometimes bands end up sounding the same, which in some cases is really good but artistically, for me, it’s not pleasing. I’m a producer before everything so I always want to change it up.
How weird is it that people expect you to keep your sound a certain way and you know immediately via social media?
It’s like that in real life, too. People meet you for the first time and then that’s it, people just know you as that. Especially if they’re not someone you’ll see often: you just become “that person.” I don’t ever want to be labeled as a personality. There’s a lot of bands out there that base their career off personality, sometimes it boasts them into stardom or what-the-fuck-ever. As a kid from Stockton, I’m just normal [laughs]. If anything, I’d like to be relatable.
That’s good! That’s a good personality to strive for.
People give Kanye West a lot of shit for being such a stubborn, really angry dude. In hindsight, that dude is probably the best representation of a human being.
I fucking love Kanye!
Yeah, dude! Me too.
My boyfriend doesn’t understand. I’ll be listening to Yeezus and he’ll be like, “How does this inspire you?”
It’s either you get it or you don’t.
I think especially for people who are marginalized. People of color; for example, I’m Mexican, you’re Filipino. He represents that struggle.
The struggle of being an outsider. Not only with race but just being a loner or a sad person. It’s normal, that’s everyone! There’s always a backlash to being real.
Interview by Alex Martinez. She truly believes that groove is in the heart. Follow her on Twitter @xxalexm.
Craft Spells’ Nausea is out now on Captured Tracks.