An Interview (That Should Have Been A Podcast) With Eyedress
Interview by Jules Ventura.
What I had imagined would be the stock standard, short but sweet interview, ended up being one of my favourite conversations I’ve had in a really, really long time.
I met Idris Vicuña, or better known as Eyedress, in front of the stage he would be performing on in a few short hours. His demeaner was aggressively cool and ever so, slightly intimidating. But shortly after we shook hands, we went backstage, and he began to let me in on exactly who he is. We spoke about everything from what it was like growing up between the States and the Philippines, to TikTok being a platform that really “blew his shit up,” to his very personal experience of owning a home in an LA neighbourhood effected by the recent fires. He was candid, nonchalant in his hilarity and, truly, just as cool as he looks.
I wish I could just share the audio file with you. But for now, I’ve pulled out some of my favourite parts of our chat. And yes, the glasses stayed on the whole interview.
This interview took place at and thanks to Laneway Festival, a festival that you already know and love, unless you’re an idiot.
I’m curious about where you began making music. Was it in your bedroom, a studio…? Tell me where it all started.
The first band I joined was in my friend's living room, and it was a cross-punk band. We would cover songs by, like, Rudimentary Peni, and every song was like a minute long and super fast… It was called the Liberal Underground… haha.
Ah yes. Good name, haha.
Yeah, all the lyrics were, like, super left… I was thirteen, maybe fourteen? And I was like I don’t know anything about politics, but… I hate cops. And then after that, I started playing with these indie guys that were into Modest Mouse, Pinback, Built To Spill, that kind of ‘90s indie rock. So, I played bass in that band too, then after that, I met my guitarist, Julius, who’s now my oldest friend. I was back in the Philippines at this point, but he was like twenty one and in collage and I was fifteen
Were you born in Manila?
Yeah, I was but when I was five my dad started working for 20th Century Fox, he was a 2D animator. And so, we moved to Arizona and it was fucking ghetto. A lot of violence and gangs, so I was just like, I want to be a skater and not fuck with this shit. It was just dumb, having rivalries over little things… not worth getting into.
Yeah, 100%.
So, when I moved back to the Philippines and met Julius, he was like, hey, do you want to start a band? We met on MySpace, and then met up in real life. He was just a like-minded person… He listened to the same bands as me. I remember I lied to him because he was like, do you know how to make your guitar do that My Bloody Valentine thing? You know that real bendy thing. I was like, oh yeah, I know how to do that… meanwhile I'm like a fifteen-year-old liar…haha. I wasn't very good. But once we started playing together, we started learning really simple things, and gradually got better over time. A long time, actually… I was in that band until I was twenty two. I think the furthest we got was we opened for our friend Mac DeMarco in Singapore. An Australian guy actually booked us for that show.
Oh, fuck yeah.
Australians know what's up.
We sure do!
Then our bassist moved to Spain. He was just like, I want to support my dream of being a teacher, and I was like, go for it. This is my dream, being with you guys. So yeah, that's how I became Eyedress. That band taught me a lot, because I learned about structure and restraint. Like I wasn’t trying to do too much. A lot of bands, they just want to fucking do solos and drum fills all the damn time. I was just uploading videos on YouTube, and then blogs would repost that shit. That was how I got signed, through the internet. The internet really is the most powerful tool we have now.
That was something I actually wanted to ask you about. I admittedly first heard your music on TikTok, back in like 2019… How do you feel towards it as platform for artists?
Yeah, TikTok just kind of blew my shit up. I like discovering new artists on there. Even if it's not a popping song, I'll sometimes stumble onto something I would have never heard. I think it’s cool that you can now post whole music videos. Before it was separated, like you had band camp, soundcloud, and then youtube or vimeo, just for the videos. Now you can upload like a fucking twenty-minute video, maybe it’s ten, but it feels like twenty.
Some of them feel like an hour… I’m like, I need to be watching this on double speed haha. But I agree, I think it’s a really good tool for artists that are still trying to find their feet. So, you’re living in LA these days, with your partner and bub?
Yeah, a third world country.
Truly… At the moment particularly, it’s fucking rough out there dude.
Yeah. It’s been rough. My neighbourhood burnt down.
Oh, shit.
I’ll show you some pictures. My friends could see the fire, like just over the mountain. And that’s when I was like, alright guys you need to go to my house and kick my door down, and take my family pictures, just the important stuff. And one car because I don’t want to be carless if my house burns down. Our place didn’t burn down, but everyone’s around me did, my entire neighbourhood is gone. It looks like they dropped a bomb.
So mental… Watching from here, I’m like, it all feels so, I don’t know, helpless.
Yeah, I was watching too, from Florida, because I was on vacation. I was like 90% finished my album at the time and I had been working on it like non-stop for two years. So, I just kind of watched my whole neighbourhood burn through my screen.
Fuck, that is so heavy. I’m sorry.
Yeah, you know, I try to like laugh at it. It’s not funny. I’m that kind of person who like laughs at serious things, not because I think it’s funny but because I’m just trying to stay afloat.
Yeah, I guess it’s a way to cope though right.
Yeah, yeah. I mean I’ve donated and tried to help as many people that I’ve encountered physically. Like before I left to come here there was this old lady, who like pulled up, when I was trying to get reception to text, and she’s like, do you know where I could find a place to stay?
Awwww.
And I was like, I don't know, dude. Like, there's no signal. I'm trying to, like, look for resources for evacuation centres. And then, I learned that she's ninety one. She had friends that went to evacuation centres that got covid, and she was like, I'm not trying to get covid, I’m ninety one. So, I was like, I'll drive to the ATM, and I'll give you cash, and I got her cash, and then I was like, actually, we'll put you in a hotel, because she was sleeping in her car with her dog. Her dog was wrapped in, like, twenty blankets in the front seat. And I was like, oh, this poor old lady, man. Like, and she was my neighbour. I didn't know her at all, but that's how I got to know her, and now we're friends. I bought her a cell phone too.
Wow, I mean, silver linings. That's such a beautiful thing to do for someone.
I mean, like, everyone in my neighbourhood, I feel like, has been doing their part, and that was my one chance to, like, you know help someone directly.
You realise, like, what's actually important. I feel like you see humanity at its best when there's a crisis like that unfolding… People step up.
I mean the government don't do fucking shit.
That’s a whole different conversation.
But the people stepped up. Like, all the independent restaurants would bring their trucks, and they'd try to feed as many people as they could. So that is the good thing about it. Like, community-wise, it really woke everyone up.
Well, it sounds like you've really been doing your bit, and you should be proud of yourself.
Thank you.
Okay, well, on a lighter note, you mentioned an album that you've been working on for the last couple of years.
Yeah.
What can we expect, from a genre point of view? I feel like you've tapped into quite a few different genres throughout your last few albums.
Yeah, I like to just do it all. Like, I make rap songs, I make punk songs, I can do an R&B song right after a punk song, you know? Like, there's no rules, but I'm only like that because I grew up on TRL.
I was going to ask, who some of the artists were that you grew up listening to, and if you feel as though they influenced your work?
My actual work, probably, like, this band Red Cross, and I like this guy Vincent Gallo. A lot of punk bands, and when I discovered hip-hop at like 16, I got into beats and, like, sampling, and then through sampling, I learned about 60s bands or, like, these 70s bands with these crazy synth lines. Quasimodo and MF Doom, like, put me on to a lot of old stuff, so that's why I try to, like, make old sounding stuff. But then I also do make, like, new sounding music with 808s and autotune. You know, there's no rules, like, I listen to it all. I can make a folk song, you know, some plucking guitar riffs… I don't know if I named any bands.
No, you did, you did. You said Red Cross, Vincent Gallo, MF Doom...
That's too vague. I mean, I wish I could just, like, give you a list.
But also, when you get asked a question, suddenly everything just disappears from your mind.
Yeah, yeah. I guess, the people that physically inspired me was, like, when I met Mac Demarco, because he was my first friend doing this whole lo-fi thing and making a living off of it. And Homeshake was his guitarist at the time, so those two, really, like, inspired me to keep playing my instruments too. Particularly because I got signed as an electronic artist. I got bored after our bassist left because I was used to, like, going to practice and recording every day. So, instead I just started making beats on Fruity Loops, like, trying to make 80s beats with software, and I thought that was cool.
Sure, yeah. You were just investing into something that maybe you didn't even realise was happening at that time.
Yeah, at the time it was new, you know. Like, this was before, Charlie XCX made that “I don't care” song… And then electronic music got really crazy, and I remember, like, I met FK Twigs at a show. I was really immersed in that whole thing. Because I moved to London for a while. I signed with this label, XL, and through them, I met King Krule and other artists.
Yeah, I've seen you've done a bit of work with King Krule.
Yeah, we have a couple of songs.
He’s sick, I love him.
Yeah, Archie, was there for me when I got dropped by that label, who he was also with. But he was just like, don't worry about it, it's just a label, like, if you're a musician, you're still going to make music, right? And I was like, of course, bro, but it was just depressing, because it was, like, my first deal.
Of course, I mean, I'm sure that label's kicking themselves now.
Yeah, but, you know, I also was just fucking up when I was that age, I was, like, in my early twenties, and I was still, doing molly every day, and not giving a shit about, like, my goals in life. Up until my late twenties, I was just pissing my life away, doing drugs, and just being dumb, you know, getting into fights, and just stupid shit. Then things got really bad and dark, and I was like, I want to move to LA, and just take this music thing seriously. I really worked hard for, like, three years, from 2018, to like, 2020. I feel like that's when, Jealous and all those songs that I made, like, blew up… I was trying to make a video every week, like, you know, every freaking day I'm recording a song with anybody, and I just wanted to work, and I did't want to sleep until I had, like, a hundred thousand songs, but I'm getting there. It's not close.
What number are you up to?
Maybe just a thousand, but a thousand good ones, because, like, it's hard, you want to put out good stuff. Not like some of the bullshit that’s out there.
Haha, of course. That’s amazing, though. I mean, that obviously speaks true to your work ethic as well, right?
Thank you.
And really cool, considering what you came from.
I came from nothing! I really was born in the slums in the Philippines, like, I can't really say I could imagine even doing this, like, talking to you about my music. Like my house literally had a tin roof over it. It wasn't a real house. There were cockroaches everywhere. You could see all the pipes on the walls. It wasn't like when I moved to America. Even when I lived in the ghetto, it was, like, you had a toilet, you know, you had basic things, like hot water. We didn't have any of that in the Philippines. But, you know, my dad worked hard and gave me a good life in America. We lived in the hood, and he didn't know there were, like, gangsters now and freaking scary shit like that. But for me, that was the best life I ever had, and I wouldn't trade it for the world because it was still cool. Like, I got to meet all types of people, punks, skaters. Just weird people.
Yeah.
You know, living in America was, I don't want to say a blessing. I mean it was a blessing, but it was, like, a privilege. So, I always try to recognize that because when I moved back to the Philippines, I was, like, already educated, and I played in a punk band that was anti-fascist, and, like, I didn't know what that meant when I was 13… I guess I had some values, and I didn’t stand for a lot of bullshit.
For sure.
I don't know. I just try to inject, like, those punk roots and, like, being DIY, learning how to do everything yourself, into what I do. I hope kids that listen to me will try to do the same because you can teach yourself anything. I started recording on GarageBand, so.
A lot of the good ones did, to be fair.
Yeah, because t’s about the idea. It's not about, like, having the nicest shit… which is nice, too. I later discovered that when I acquired money. But I when I was broke, I was like dude, it doesn't matter, my favourite band just uses GarageBand, too.
My friends and I grew up on GarageBand, as well. I mean, I'm no artist. I like to interview artists, and I guess I say that because it made me appreciate what could be done on there.
Yeah. That was the cool thing when I lived in California… Even now, like, most of my record, I made in my studio at home. It's not a bedroom, but, you know, like, when I would record with real producers in their fucking fancy, schmancy studio, I'd be like, alright, now just make this sound shittier, because this is too clean. But I'm trying to embrace it now, like, as some baller shit. Like, okay, now I'm using the Ferrari of, like, recording equipment versus, like, a fucking garage band and a hundred-dollar mic.
But like you said, it still has its place, right?
Yeah, that's what I made my hits on!
You've just, you've leveled up slightly, now. Well, it's been such a pleasure to talk to you, and thank you for being, so honest about, like, what's going on in your personal life as well. I wish your neighbourhood peace, and just, healing. And I'm really excited about this next album!
Thank you, it’s been nice.