The Nautilus Studio M31 Files interview Tomoe and Moe (part 1)

Studio owners Mr Bill (Nautilus Studio) and Yves LF Giraud (Studio M31) interview Tomoe and Moe of The Moetones and Goathead, (part 1).

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:28

You know, we used to have this thing where we would like a little clap, you know, like a cat board. Yeah, take sixty eight. Uh well, welcome, welcome, friends. Uh, we're at uh the Nautilus Studio M31 Files, and today in the studio, we have Tomo and Mo from the Motones. How are you doing, guys? Good, good, welcome.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Thank you for having me. Nice to see you.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

You're welcome. I'm a big fan of this show. Well, thank you. You know, it's becoming huge. We can keep up with it. Yeah, we have so many hits. Tell all your friends, both of them. But we do appreciate it, man, that uh you guys watch and you like it. Yeah. Yeah, we're trying to uh to have as many people as we can, especially you know, people we like and we know, and we have doing a good service, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:21

I mean, I see people on here that really deserve recognition. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

And sometimes people don't even realize what they've done, where they've been, you know. So let's talk about that. Uh either Mo Tomo or Mo, whichever one wants to style. I'd like to know where you're from. Do you want the truth or do you want? No, just just just what you want to have broadcasted.

SPEAKER_04 1:44

Yeah. Me, I'm from Houston. Houston, Texas.

SPEAKER_03 1:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:48

And then uh 19 uh left for Austin. Was in Austin for about four years. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

And uh then Wasn't it 15, you said?

SPEAKER_04 1:59

Fifteen years.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Yeah, I was old. I thought you were fifteen when you went to Austin.

SPEAKER_04 2:05

Well, I ran away once. Twice.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Now yeah, now we're getting into this. Now we're getting into this.

SPEAKER_04 2:16

Prompted me to say something I really wasn't gonna say. Sorry. No, and uh, you know, my musical education was in Austin pretty much.

SPEAKER_03 2:25

And uh what what made you want to play music? Uh that's another thing I wanted to do. Oh man.

SPEAKER_04 2:32

Girls. No, it wasn't actually girls. Uh I I don't know. You know, my brother showed me some chords when I was about eight years old. Okay. And uh then I and I had like this old beater guitar. Uh but I didn't really learn how to play guitar until a few years ago. I'll be honest about that. I was pretty much a hack. I kind of noticed that.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

When I first met you, I was like, oh my god. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:57

But you know, now I'm like buckling down and trying to learn some stuff. I I was always able to hire, you know, real pros, you know. Right. I'm more of a songwriter, I guess, or an entertainer. Yeah. So but I want to step up the game, you know.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

Hey man, you're doing a great job. Well, we'll see. I don't know. The Moon Tones, I mean, it's it's an institution down here, man.

SPEAKER_04 3:19

Well, we we yeah, we don't play that often anymore, though. I think we got one show booked this year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

I think we played too much.

SPEAKER_04 3:28

We did for a long time we did.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

Sometimes you can saturate.

SPEAKER_04 3:33

Oh, yeah, and that's what it was, you know. And but lately it's just like I'm just kind of tired of moving equipment. You know?

SPEAKER_03 3:41

I just talked about that uh with some people today. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:45

It's like it's it's hard, you know. I mean, we're almost like 90 years old.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

Well, uh combined, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:52

No, it's we're closer to 90 than we are to 30, let me tell you that. Uh so yeah, you know, music is I I've always loved music. You know.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

Okay. And so you ended up in uh you were born you were born in Houston. Yeah. Houston. Okay. And so when you were 19 and you left, what I won't ask you what made you leave this.

SPEAKER_04 4:16

I never it was the girl that made me leave. Oh so we got to the girl. You got to the girl. And there the girl made me leave and then a girl that made me leave. So I did. How did you guys meet? We met in Austin.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_04 4:30

Uh yeah. Years ago. She was she was in town for I think a south by southwest or something, and we met through a friend, and one thing led to another.

SPEAKER_03 4:40

So Tomo, obviously you you're from Japan, am I right? Okay. Can you tell me a little bit about your story? How did you end up here? What what was going on back then?

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Um I grew up in Tokyo. I was born today.

SPEAKER_03 4:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

And uh I started playing music when I was a kid. Like I did uh piano and then dance and then the drums and stuff like that. And that was like when I was eight or nine. Okay. Then I had a like a cool band. I thought that it was cool in the middle of school.

SPEAKER_03 5:16

We all do it when we all do.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Yeah, and then uh you know, copying the favorite musicians and uh never wrote a song or anything like that. And then I had a like a little state to jazz and I was like 19. And then after that um life happened and then the jobs and then I moved and I immigrated to here through New York City or maybe come to the US. I wanted to go to school, I wanted to go to university and I just couldn't afford it in Tokyo. It was so expensive. Um and then I heard that in the United States you can enroll in uh like a community college and then uh walk all your way up and then I thought that they'd like to do that. Okay. We didn't have opportunity like that in Japan, so and then sure enough I searched for the the cheapest university in the United States and then uh one of them was uh there were two of them, one was in the Pine Ridge reservation and then another one was on uh Navajo reservation and then I heard about I was always interested in the native life and then I I picked an Avavajo reservation just because I didn't think I could do the winter in the Pine Ridge. So so I came to Sadi, Arizona on the other side of the mountains, and then started my um freshman year, moved to uh Shiprock second year, okay and then moved to Albuquerque to finish my degree and came back to teach here. I was a teacher for the longest time.

SPEAKER_03 6:58

Oh what what were you teaching?

SPEAKER_00 7:01

I taught like math and science. Oh wow, biologists.

SPEAKER_03 7:06

Now you guys have not met yet at that point? No, okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

No and then I got married and I had a child and then uh Wow Yeah I used to have her, she's she's she's now she's now a big big woman. I mean like 34 years old now. Whoa. But um moved to Cortez and um and then life happened again and I just decided to make a change and then uh started hanging out in Austin. I mean I liked music, I loved uh live music and I was always dancing, going there and dancing and stuff, but I didn't play music until I went to Austin and then met Mo and and then I just needed to move more to back to Cortez because I got a job. I got a job that I was kind of wanted, kind of wanted, and then I thought I wanted to try out, and then I moved back here and then he was actually in France at that time.

SPEAKER_04 8:15

What were you the Miranda Music Festival? It was only for like a two week, three weeks.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Okay, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:23

Did you guys play in Austin together before you ended up?

SPEAKER_04 8:26

Sort of well sort of, you know, she wasn't playing bass. I had a I had I was more of a like a side person, you know. Okay, didn't really lead. It'd been a year since I'd actually led a band. But uh we we put together a little something. Uh there was a place called Roadhouse Rags. Very cool little uh like clothes store venue thing. Uh and so I had her like singing some backup vocals with another girl. Uh that was a long story on that one too. We won't get into that. Uh and uh yeah, yeah, oh yeah. No, we still have it on video somewhere. Yikes. Oh, okay. Well that's kind of cool now.

SPEAKER_03 9:11

It was very cool. And so somehow you both come back to Cold.

SPEAKER_04 9:18

She came back first, and uh and because I had obligations uh in Austin, and uh like about three or four months later, I moved here, and it was probably the best move I ever made. Uh I was able to kind of reinvent myself, you know, did a lot of cleaning up.

SPEAKER_03 9:34

And can you give me an idea of the era like the the the the 2010, maybe? Was it 2010? 2009, 2010. Okay. And I moved. So you've been in this area now, both of you, for I think. She's been here like 16, 14, 40 years. I've I've been here about 18. Right. But I mean you you so you still live there here at a while you were in Austin?

SPEAKER_00 10:00

I was I was in Austin only like one and a half years.

SPEAKER_03 10:03

Okay, okay. So you you kind of kept your your route.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

I liked Austin, the life in Austin really good, but I still had this mind wanna be, you know, I was a musician then and then I wanted to be a professional, and I was doing this really hard job, like working for like designing landscaping and uh leading the leading the you know like Mexican crews and then uh they worked so hard and then the bosses are so terrible and it was just heartbreaking.

SPEAKER_05 10:35

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

And then I I'm originally like, you know, my my job is biology. I like plants and then the biology and like land and and then the youth tribe gave me a job to uh do that kind of work and then so I definitely wanted to come back.

SPEAKER_03 10:52

Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

So it was easy for me to just okay, I'm going back.

SPEAKER_03 10:56

And so um you uh you both ended up here around 2009, 2010, a little back and uh for you. And what how how did it was the mo were the motones the first thing?

SPEAKER_04 11:12

They weren't even a thought. Okay. When I came back here, I really wasn't gonna play anymore. Oh, pretty much like but you know, like I'm sure you feel the same way, and so do you, Bill. It's in your blood. Right. And you can't just say, okay, I'm not gonna do it anymore. Like uh then you start seeing, and when I moved here, there was only like three bands, I think. There were the Beautiful Losers, there was Blue Coyote, and uh maybe maybe Pat Downey's band was playing Lawn Chair Kings, but they were in Durango. There weren't really that many bands, you know. So like now it's exploded, you know. I mean, like there are so many, and it's it's so cool, you know, to see it come from like you know, very minimal to just like and it took only a few years.

SPEAKER_03 12:00

I mean it's really surprising how fast when I got here, it w it was it was pretty decentrality.

SPEAKER_04 12:06

You came here like around COVID time?

SPEAKER_03 12:08

Yeah, that's actually why I ended up here at first.

SPEAKER_04 12:11

Uh I remember I think I commented on Facebook, I saw you playing at the uh Mancus Brewery. I didn't know you were like six foot, you know, three or whatever. But I saw you and I'm thinking like that looks like me, you know, because you had this ad on or whatever like that. When did I do this? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's cool. But yeah, 2020 uh and and that was already, I mean, I had already started exploding, sh I I know before that. Uh so so tell me if did you do anything between until the the the motons were created, was there were there other things that you guys did?

SPEAKER_04 12:52

Was it No, we just kind of lived. I mean it wasn't that long. When I moved here, it was only what about a year before we started playing. She wanted to play. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

So I don't remember that.

SPEAKER_04 13:05

I don't remember when you actually started Motones, but I think we can check it with uh KSJD because our very first gig was there when they bought the bank beach to turn it into Yeah with the DJ with KSJD for like out at the old trailer when he was over by the San Juan uh Yeah, he had a motion and then I had a splash.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 13:32

Then they moved then they moved to the bank and I had some trouble because I uh I used to play stuff off Spotify. I I I still remember the day when when it was Halloween, I was talking to someone who was in the studio with me, and Tom like looks on the door and goes, Man, you just dropped about five H bomb F bombs, you know. I'm like, oh no. And it was like at that period, it's time to like bring it up. But I I did that for like five years. Oh wow, I didn't know, man. Yeah.

unknown 13:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 13:59

It was a great show. But uh she wanted to play, so I kind of stuck a bass in her hands. I didn't show her how to do it. I mean, she learned on her own.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

I wanted to play.

SPEAKER_04 14:10

I wanted her to play, but she wanted to play as well.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 14:15

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

So I remember Mo said that uh I'm gonna start my own band for the first time in how many years, whatever that was, yeah, long time. Because he hasn't done that for a long time. And I was like, do it, do it. And then uh at that time I didn't know I was gonna be part of it. But the one day Mo said, Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:35

He he sent me Let me tell you, to have a bass player in-house is the best thing. Oh my god. You know, like uh the the motones, we've been pretty consistent with drummers and bass players. I've had the same two. I've had a lot of other guitar players come and go, and uh I've had a few piano players.

SPEAKER_03 14:55

So and uh so were the motones the the the the first name, like it was there was another version before that?

SPEAKER_04 15:03

No, there was not, and I will never name another thing after me as long as I live.

SPEAKER_03 15:09

I you know, I think it's an interesting thing because first of all, how come your name is it is this really your your first name? So Mo? Mine isn't. Oh, so what is your first name? Uh it's a secret. It's a secret. Yeah, it's like uh we can't have an excuse.

SPEAKER_04 15:26

You can find it if you really want to know, it's out there. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:30

But uh because for the longest time I was like, this is so interesting. You guys are together, you have you have a band, obviously called the Motones, which is a great name, actually thinking I thought that was your first name. And then I'm like, and she's told how how did that? Well, her daughter's name is Momo.

SPEAKER_04 15:47

So when we all get together, it's uh Tomo Momomo.

SPEAKER_03 15:52

And so let me ask you something. Does that have to do with with something in Japanese? Does it mean something?

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Tomo?

SPEAKER_03 15:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Well, my name is Tomoe actually, and in uh it has uh E after that, but Tomo is Tomo is just my nickname. Everybody calls me tomo, and but tomoe means um uh mingling of like spirits or body or whatever. It's just mingling. So tomoe means uh like in and the an sign, for example. Okay, right. That's tomoe.

SPEAKER_03 16:28

Okay, and your daughter's name.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

My mama means peach. She was born on a peach ceremony day. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 16:37

Interesting. Yeah, I figured that to have something to do with something Japanese for sure. Yeah. And you you go back over there from time to time when you can. Because you still have your family there, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Yeah, all my family is there. Okay. I mean, like I I'm I came here by myself, so that was another thing I was wondering.

SPEAKER_03 16:55

So you came alone at the time when you signed up to be uh a student here in New York. Okay. Wow. That's commendable. That's hard that's hard to do by yourself. I know. I mean that's a big done it.

SPEAKER_04 17:08

Were you by yourself when you came here? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you didn't know anybody.

SPEAKER_03 17:12

We were with two musicians and we didn't know anybody and you came here with a friend. Yeah, yeah. That he was a guitar player in my band at the time. Well, I was his bass player actually, I should say, because he he was incredible.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

But um I really think it's easier to do it alone solo when you make a big change.

SPEAKER_03 17:31

You think?

SPEAKER_00 17:32

I do. I mean I if I had somebody else and in like now I like in a little little respect, if I had a somebody else and tried to do it, put it off for both of us, I think it would have been harder.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

Yeah, very good point, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

Yeah. And you gotta be in the same wavelength, uh, you know, when on your own, you can go do whatever the heck you want to do.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Yeah, you might make a big mistake, but the responsibility is always on me. That's you know, and that's easier to do.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

Just do it twice. But I was wondering before the Motones uh when you came up from Austin, did you have uh a little quiver of songs, original songs at that point? Yeah, I've always lots of them. Yeah, and so when you when you decided to do the band, uh you had uh uh enough songs to play a gig, maybe, huh?

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Well, maybe a lot of songs, full months. But we did a lot of covers too.

SPEAKER_02 18:32

Yeah, and I was thinking you did probably a lot of covers there that as you had more originals, the covers kind of got a little more back.

SPEAKER_04 18:40

Yeah, I mean I've always liked doing originals, but the more I realize it, you know, unless you're like, you know, Bruce Springsteen status, the people really don't want to hear. I mean, I'm fortunate that people like some of my songs, right? But as a rule, you know, people want to hear songs they know. Yeah, I absolutely see it for sure. And uh so I I don't know, you know, I've never really had an aversion to cover music, but uh I I tend to be like moving back towards that area, you know. But but you know, yeah, I you you probably don't know it's because you're so young. But uh the older you get, the more your music kind of changes. Like I noticed now, like I was the angry young man and you know wrote a bunch of like angry rock songs or whatever, or yeah, high high uh energy energy something. Yeah. Now they're more like you know, senior kind of moments, you know, slower ballads.

SPEAKER_03 19:43

Well, the songwriting. So you styled early on songwriting that was something you're interested in in, or did you No, I didn't start till later on.

SPEAKER_04 19:51

I I played guitar, I was in bands, uh, but never really I mean and I did write some songs back, you know, in like the the eighties. Right. But they were, you know, they were your typical first song that you ever write, you know. Just you look back on them and you go like, uh, you know cringe.

SPEAKER_03 20:09

Uh but for the times they were great because you know it it's it's your first steps once you're then.

SPEAKER_04 20:15

Yeah, and then you know, and then I got out of it and started playing. I played bass, you know, not very well, but I was able to like you know make eek out a living, you know, in Austin. There's a lot of people, it's like around here, you know, there's a lack of bass players. You are great bass players. I was very basic, but that's for what people wanted. Yeah, but uh and uh you know I got to tour a lot, you know, which was you know through Dave Insley or you know, or Cal Hyde or you know, whoever Gene Caffeine. Uh which she's the one that really gave me my start as a bass player. That there's a whole there's a whole other story right there, Gene Caffeine. I love that, I love that girl.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

But uh Bill, do you know who I don't is that uh anybody that we wouldn't know?

SPEAKER_04 20:59

No, it's not. I mean, she you know, she's a prolific songwriter. And uh that's an Austin. Okay. She's from like she's from San Francisco, I think. You can look her up. You should look up Gene Caffeine. Yeah, and like her early stuff is just brilliant, you know, very basic, but very brilliant. Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

So can you tell me a little bit the the the the motones uh the the the now motones? You have Dale Allen on guitar, uh Jump Jurgen Kump on piano, Pete Ortigo and Tomo, they've been with me since day one.

SPEAKER_04 21:39

Right uh and uh but you know like the I think the thing now would be Goathead, you know, because Goathead plays not as not as much as we had liked to, but plays more than the Motones. Right. And that's you know, there's some talented people in that too, Bobby Witcheringham and and Mimi, you know, and and Willie.

SPEAKER_03 22:02

We had Willie, we had Mint. He was like your first one, wasn't he? No. The first one was actually Chris Bjorn.

SPEAKER_04 22:09

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:10

Who is now become a yeah, yeah, and it was at uh Bill's student.

SPEAKER_04 22:15

You know, I was gonna ask about that because it, you know, like way back when it you I think Bill did you didn't you have a thing where you would kind of like look. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

And it's still there for I use that for all intros. Yeah. Well when we were first trying this concept, you didn't even have this house, right? No.

SPEAKER_03 22:32

I wasn't renting this yet. So it was logical. We said, well, this is where we're gonna do it. Okay, you know, even recording, if anything.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

Yeah, and our first little uh introduction to the thought of doing this was me and Eve were just talking about what we thought we might want to do with this. That's a cool little project, man. Yeah, and at the end I would we we were walking out of the control room in my studio and I was must have I think I was talking uh about uh quality musician Bruno Mars or something. You know, uh I I'm still back in the last millennium and everything, but God, a a cat like him that can come out and sing and dance and all the shit he does. I go, that guy's badass, you know. So I I took and so we were walking out and then uh uh he had that thing running and uh uh It wasn't playing at all. Uh yeah, it wasn't playing. I I think as I was walking up, I go, is this thing on? And he goes, Yeah, it's on.

SPEAKER_03 23:33

And then I thought that's a great way to say goodbye.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and so Mo's been over, uh we uh did practice at uh my studio a couple of times. Very cool little place you got there, yeah. It's a nice little place.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

And we would have kept doing it there, but then uh it's not that I necessarily like this space more or less, it's different. Yeah, but I would have to take all you know the different things every time. And to be honest with you, my time has become just weirdly busy. Yeah, yeah. And we are like, you know what? Yeah, but I mean I could technically take half an hour to pack and go over there and set up. But I said, you know what, I've got this space, I've got cool lights. Let's just do it here and it'll always be here. It's easier for me. So that's what happened. Yeah, easy is great, man. Yeah, yeah. And we might go back sometimes, you know, over there just to do something. We could do that, yeah. That's what we call it. Not as studio is the name of Bill's. And mine is Studio M31, which is whatever at since 2007. Yeah. That's uh living room.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

And you're asking if we might go back to my place, it's when Misty wants her living room back. This is living room back. You know.

SPEAKER_04 24:47

Living room is meant to be lived in, you know. I know I'm I'm gonna be I know I have to, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Oh, when you smile at me. I live. I want the eagle fly, spiral in the heads away, as a mother.