Meet Computerwife

A self-portrait by, Computerwife

Would you rather…

your bed breathes heavily, or narrates everything you are doing.

My bed breathes heavily. That sounds relaxing

Some questions with Computerwife

Hey there, nice to meet you. Can you tell us a little about your project? How did Computerwife start out?

Nice to meet you. Computerwife is a kind of private experiment in trying to make music that sounds like music I like. I work on it as often as I can but lately I’ve had to focus on cleaning up an album so I haven’t made new music in a while. It started out when I realized you can produce music from listening to grimes and because I was lonely.

If you had to be on one reality show from any decade what would it be? Why?

I like flavor of love and Jersey Shore and Vanderpump rules and Selling Sunset. Probably Jersey Shore season 1 so I could listen to house music and hang out on a boardwalk with those people everyday and hang out with Snooky. I don’t think I would be able to handle the other ones mentally.

Do you have any house plants? How are they doing?

I have one and I can see it right now. It loves my new house, but I’m seeing some dryness. I’ll water it right after this.

I saw you’ve been playing a lot of shows out lately. What was your favorite recent performance? Why?

Oh man, I think the best was Lodge Room because I got to go to LA and meet some of my favorite people on earth, which I had not expected, and the crowd was great and the music was fun and it was my first time blending mutual aid with music. I loved LA so much. I really like seeing bands through playing with them and TAGABOW was another favorite for sure! But I had just started and I feel like I personally wasn’t good. I went to Fordham for that and I really like Fordham too! Lana Del Rey graduated from there.

Do you write music in your head, in a notebook, on a computer, or your phone?

All of the above- mostly notebook or phone when I don’t have a notebook. I produce the songs on my computer and when I take breaks I write down quotes I read and see and hear and then write a song over the production.

Do you drive? Are you a good driver?

I used to and I really don’t know if I could remember how. Me and my friend group are all going to try to teach each other and get our licenses renewed at the same time. I have only been in one accident and it’s because I was smoking a cigarette while backing out of a parking space and I hit a car in a no parking zone. The cigarette distracted me. That was a suss day.

What attracts you to the synth and shoegaze genres?

Righ right so I have probably around 60 fully recorded and fleshed out songs and I happened to choose 5 for that EP. Not all of my music is shoegaze or synth but my best songs kinda are so that’s why I release it. I am human I like lots of things. I think that it comes easy to me because synths and sampling is way more open than writing on a guitar and shoegaze is pretty formulaic in a lot of ways and once you have enough pieces on a track it often will sound like that. I wish I made music faster and had more styles of songs released. But at the time of the release I was trying to explore my spacy/airy side (therefore listening to a lot of shoegaze and electronic) but I realize balance is good in life now and rejecting things in pursuit of diving into others is not necessary.

Do you have any rituals or routines before a live performance?

Caffeine and alcohol! And going to the bathroom.

How do you feel about the reception to your self titled 2020 release?

I am super grateful and flabbergasted and I really will never understand how this happened to me or why. But I’m trying not to get caught up in wanting too much for myself and just continuing life moment by moment and appreciating small things and not stressing. Sometimes I get worried that what I’m working on people won’t like as much, or that I am taking too long for people, but I have to remind myself 1. That’s not the point 2. There’s a lot of people who like things. Things you would never assume people would like. If everything fizzled out I would miss meeting people and traveling but I’m pretty sure as long as I try and stay grounded and participate in what I like then I will get to meet people and travel.

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

Thank you this was a nice interview. And I have been working with Danger Collective to make an album and all the things that come with it happen. Danger Collective is amazing. I love Reed and Lizzie and Siena and Yiwei.

Computerwife