Eyedress Talks about Album Let's Skip to the Wedding, The Simps, New Music, and More

We’ve swiftly become Eyedress enthusiasts here at WMF in recent months, and with good reason: fueled by a remarkable work ethic, Eyedress (moniker of Idris Vicuña) has already released a highly recommended series of EPs and LPs that is as eclectic as it is enjoyable, and he shows no sign of slowing in the foreseeable future. Not surprisingly, he’s now garnering exponentially-increasing international attention, recently aided in part by his “Jealous” video that hA quickly racked up millions of views.

Fortunately for us, Eyedress is now based close to WMF HQ, and recently managed to carve out time from his busy schedule and meet up with us for a chat. We were excited to have a socially distanced sit-down with him for our first interview of 2021, and are exceedingly happy to share our conversation here. We covered early inspirations, 2020 album Let’s Skip to the Wedding, The Simps, and more.

Bobby Weirdo: You were born in Manila, then lived with your family to Phoenix and San Clemente, and then moved back to Manila. You were getting into music when you lived in Phoenix and San Clemente, and I’m curious if there were particular bands or scenes that were inspiring to you back then.

Eyedress: I only got into bands when I moved out here to California. I remember [David Fox] played drums for Ty Segall in a band called Traditional Fools. He went to my high school, and I thought he was the sickest dude ever. They were a garage rock band, and that was the scene. There was a band Party Foul…it all reminded me of Le Shok, and that type of shit. I remember Moving Units was a band out here. I learned a bass line for their song “Between Us and Them” when I was young, and I was so stoked.

*Eyedress, 2021. Photo: Cameron Murray for WMF*

BW: Is bass your first instrument?

E: Yeah. I played in this band The Liberal Underground, and we played in [my band mate’s] mom’s living room. That was the first band I ever played in.

BW: So the name of your first band was The Liberal Underground…

E: Not my choice [of a name].

BW: And then you move back to the Philippines and start Bee Eyes.

E: My dad [was] offered a good job [in the Philippines] to be an animator, which is what he does. So we moved back there, I met my friend Julius [Valledor] on MySpace, and that’s how we started Bee Eyes.

I saw the bands he listened to, like My Bloody Valentine. He asked me if I knew how to make that kind of guitar sound, and I lied and said yeah. So we started jamming, and ever since then I’ve been in bands.

BW: You mentioned your dad was an animator, and my understanding is that he worked at 20th Century Fox at some point…

E: Yeah, he worked on Jimmy Neutron.

BW: Did he learn animation in the Philippines, or over here?

E: He told me that when he was in college, his dad made him go to culinary school, but he didn’t want to do that. They were poor and his dad was never there, so he asked his aunt for money. She got him into fine arts, and he was always good at drawing. He’s really talented, and he showed me that you can make a living off of being creative.

BW: You’re a visual artist as well. Did you learn directly from him, or was it more just following his example?

E: He definitely taught me when I was a kid. But style-wise, I just did my own thing. He’s old school, so I don’t know what to tell him.

BW: When you’re living in Manila, how much of your day is spent speaking Tagalog, and much is in English?

E: All my friends speak English – there’s an actual American community out there too, but [English] is the main language out there. I can speak Tagalog fluently, too. It’s just another language for me. If someone doesn’t speak English, I’ll just speak Tagalog – I’m not trying to waste their time.

BW: Do you ever get inspiration or ideas from Tagalog?

E: My favorite band – Cinderella – fuck with the Juno-106 and all that shit. They have those 70s synth sounds and surf guitar – it’s sick. It matches the Philippines because we’re by the beach, and people surf there. I don’t surf; I would drown. I skate, and I’m scared of the ocean.

BW: Recently you posted on social media that you were getting “closer to [your] dreams”. Is there a project you’re working on in particular that you were referencing there, or is that just more of a general statement?

E: It’s a Drake song I relate to. I just feel like everything feels more real now. Before, I didn’t have records out, and I didn’t know how to prove myself. But now I’ve put recordings out.

BW: Now that you’re here in L.A., does this city feel like a good fit for you creatively and personally?

E: Definitely. All my friends have been really supportive of me. We just try to do our thing and help each other out. For me, that’s big, because when I lived in the Philippines it was just my best friend. Out here, it feels more like there’s an actual scene because they listen to this kind of music too.

Back home, the music scene isn’t bad, but they weren’t listening to the shit I grew up with out here. You couldn’t be exposed to it unless you were out here. I always missed that when I had to move back. I wanted to play with – and be around – all the bands I fuck with. That’s what motivated me.

BW: That tension between Southern California and Manila is captured on your Sensitive G album, where a lot of your musical references are from your time living [in California], but the album’s lyrics are very much…

E: About what my life was like [in Manila]. I haven’t made an angry song in a while, but on Sensitive G, I was screaming. I have a couple songs where I was yelling, and I was like, “Why am I so hot?” The environment was getting crazy and made me paranoid. There was a war on drugs, and I was living that life. I did drugs, and wasn’t against anything, but it felt like the world was going to close in one day. It was like, “Fuck – I have to get out of here.”

I moved out here, and it’s chill. I don’t have to do drugs – I can just smoke, and there’s no problem where I have to resort to getting fucked up anymore. It’s nice. I’ve realized I’m pretty peaceful – it’s chill, and no one’s after you.

All my musician friends take care of each other and make sure we’re not around any weird shit. I feel like I have a good community of friends. All the shit going on now is tripping us out. I don’t like the cancel culture, because people fuck up all the time. How to forgive people if they’re really trying to change is a conversation that should be had, instead of saying, “Fuck these people!”

BW: You’re a partner and a dad, in addition to being an artist. How do those roles work together for you, as far as time and commitments?

E: I put what I want to do second, and I put the family first. If they’re taken care of, then I feel like I can indulge, which is recording. Doing what I do is fun, and I feel like it sucks the fun out of it if I’m not giving them time. It’s just become a part of my day now.

BW: How did you come up with the concept of Team Loyal?

E: Me and Zahara…who made that up? Me and the homies were just like, “Let’s be good to each other.” It’s just me and the squad type shit – a positive thing.

BW: You mention Zahara [Jaime]. The two of you have the project The Simps together, and then even when you’re performing as Eyedress, you play on stage with Zarhara, right?

E: Yeah. I met her at one of my shows [while touring], and she also met my old band mate. She came over to our Airbnb and I asked if she wanted to record. We jammed, and she was shredding – going hard. I couldn’t believe it.

So when I moved back [to L.A.], I was like, “what’s up, Z – you wanna jam?” She’s always down to record, so it’s perfect. I’m always trying to work – every day. When we were doing The Simps’ album, she was always down. I’d ask, “for real, dude? Aren’t you tired?” But she’d pull up with a coffee, and we’d record.

BW: The Simps’ single and video “On Fye” – which I love – came out in December. Do you have a lot of Simps recordings ready to come out in 2021?

E: Yeah, we’re dropping a nineteen-song album. I was trying to make a thirty-minute album, but there were a lot of different songs from different times, and it made sense [the way it is]. So we have that coming out. It’s fun, and we’ll just make videos for it.

BW: Were you actually pranking Zahara’s mom in that video, the way it seems?

E: She did. We were just filming the last scene and she Facetimed her mom, saying we were at Glendale Adventist [Medical Center]. Her mom was really scared.

BW: You’ve said you were influenced by Nite Jewel on your Nature Trips debut EP.

E: Yeah, I showed Nite Jewel to Julius in Bee Eyes, and asked what he thought. I made that beat on FruityLoops, but we were a band, and I never thought I’d sing over a computer program.

Now, FruityLoops is a whole genre – an actual thing. Back in the day, there’d be a punk scene and you’d go to a punk show. Now there’s a SoundCloud scene. It’s interesting. I fuck with that kind of music too.

Music’s really changing these days, and it’s so instant. Now on YouTube there’s an “Eyedress Type Beat”, and a “Dâm-Funk type beat”. It’s like, “what is going on?” Everything becomes a mockery of itself.

BW: On your new album Let’s Skip to the Wedding, the track “Jealous” has blown up on YouTube with well over three million views. Did that happen through TikTok?

E: That was through TikTok. My friend Kane [Caples] skates and is in the video. We [decided to] make the video with him and my friend Anthony [who] is out here killing, working with a lot of bands.

I [wanted to] curate a good event with our friends hanging out because I’m not really, deep friends with everyone here that I’ve met – it’s just work-based. So [I figured out] which of the homies we could make a cool video with, and we shot it.

I remember I was so not down, because they wanted us to buy some amps and busk, and I was really on some shy shit. I was like, “I’ve got to play this song at Venice Beach of all places? No way – I’m not that kind of guy.”

BW: But it all worked.

E: It worked. Now that I look back on it, it looks like a GTA video, shot on VHS. When you play GTA, you go all around California. It had that vibe.

BW: How did you start using the Yamaha DX-7?

E: You like that synth?

Suzy Weirdo: I love it.

BW: Among others, Gary Wilson uses it a lot.

E: I don’t know – everyone was saying it was the cool synth from the 80s. I know Mac DeMarco had one, and I found one online. I made my song “Xenophobic” on the DX-7.

SW: Do you use tape? I can hear the cool compression that adds that warmth.

E: Yeah, I do it just after, because I record on my laptop. Respect to the guys who record straight on tape – for me, all the best bands do that. I kind of make my music like rap beats. I’m sure I could make my music direct on tape, but I’m so lazy.

BW: Does your latest album’s title, Let’s Skip to the Wedding, reference something particular in your life? It’s a cool and specific phrase.

E: Where did that come from? I don’t know. When I met my girlfriend, I felt that in love. We haven’t gotten married yet, but we have a baby. And for me, the baby is the for-life promise.

BW: Your girlfriend Elvia makes music as well, right?

E: Yeah, we just recorded a song the other day. It’s something I like to do with her, and she likes music too, so it works out.

BW: Does she perform under a different name?

E: Lil N1p.

BW: 2021 is going to be impossible to predict for everyone, but what do you have planned for this year?

E: I made some songs with Dâm-Funk that we just finished – I’m stoked.

We have The Simps’ album coming out, there’s an Eyedress album, and an album with my friend YUNGMORPHEUS. I have a song with Kane, and I’m encouraging him to make more music. I’m just trying to make a bunch of albums.