Photo credit: Jordan Farley
After a beautiful symphony of tropical beats, along with the first live performance of the recent remix of ODESZA’s “All We Need (feat. Shy Girls), we caught up with Jake and Louis, the duo known as Autograf, to chat after their Saturday night set at U Hall. The duo delivered an upbeat, groovy, move-your-body set infused with their signature future summer style. And after their set, the boys were gracious enough to hang out with us while we enjoyed the funky stylings of Zimmer.
If you could be any dinosaur, which would you be and why?
Jake: Stegosaurus. Easy, stegosaurus. He’s the fucking pinecone of the dinosaur world. You can’t find a stegosaurus without getting your shit handed to you. Seriously. They have spikes and they got that tail that could beat the hell out of you.
Louis: I’d say pterodactyl because you’re a lizard the size of an airplane that flies. You’re a lizard! A cold blooded lizard flying in the sky! The size of an airplane, well a small airplane.
What is your favorite weird color?
Jake: Russian blue.
What is that?
Jake: Russian Blue. It’s like a grey-blue. It’s like a neutral blue. Ever since I was little it’s been my favorite. You know that shit that builds up on the outside of a blueberry? It’s like a deep blue but a tapery blue. That’s my fucking color.
Louis: White because it’s pure. It’s just representative, I mean, I am wearing black and white.
In all honesty, this question is meant for when I find the man that says his favorite color is the mac and cheese crayon in the 64 pack.
Jake: I will say this, this guy more than just about anyone else I know, lives in very black and white world. So when he says “white”, that is a pretty fucking good answer because that means pure, that means clean, that makes blank slate. That means everything.
Do you agree that you live in a very black and white world? Are there not 50 shades of grey in your life?
Louis: No, I just like the pure colors. It’s all or nothing, nothing in between.
If you could be any ice cream flavor, what would you be and why?
Louis: I think mint is always weird because it’s this color that doesn’t exist naturally yet it’s supposed to be this natural flavor. Mint flavor is not green. When I see mint chocolate chip ice cream that’s white, I love it. It goes back to the whole pure color thing. I don’t know why, I just love pure colors. I don’t like when ice cream gets weird. Just be mint.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/191443152″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]
If you could have anything named after you, what would it be?
Louis: I think a continent would be cool. The thing is, Earth is always making new continents. Back when we’re at Pangea again, that should be called Autograf.
Jake: A solar system, not a galaxy. It’s way more specific than a galaxy.
That’s cool. I love space. Would your solar system include Pluto?
Jake: Absolutely not. Pluto is a loser. It has no value.
What! No, Pluto’s a valid planet.
Jake: According to current human psychology, Pluto has absolutely zero value.
[Jake, Lotanna, and Jordan agree to disagree after a long conversation re: Pluto’s legitimacy]
So were you more into science or history growing up?
Jake: I’m a pretty big history buff. I loved the Romans. I know a lot of stupid history that I probably shouldn’t have spent so much time learning when I was in college.
What’s your favorite era of history?
Jake: I really like the Dark Ages because the Dark Ages were fucking cool. That’s like the misty era that we know of. Generally around the year 600-900 is really fucking cool because there’s literally nothing. Nobody knows anything around 300 years of human history and we have so much recorded before then and then 300 years are just fucking gone. It’s fascinating. Especially if you look at the Mediterranean area in particular developed really independently from everything else and it’s fascinating.
So were you a history major?
Jake: No, I went to art school. I studied metal sculpture.
That’s rad. What’s the coolest thing you ever built?
Jake: So I used to work for the Department of Defense. So I did research and development for new weapon tech. Before I did that, I was doing metal sculpture as a fine art degree and I made this giant robot and this colonel in the army really liked it so he hired me and I started doing R&D for the Department of Defense. I graduated and that summer I was working for the DOD. I started working on a stealth helicopter and a whole bunch of stuff like that.
That’s a sick background!
[Jake disappears for awhile]
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/171194575″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]
What’s your favorite sea creature?
Louis: Well, you already have it embedded in my brain, but octopus. They’re cool because they rearrange shit. They’re creative and they’re too smart.
Where is your dream venue to play?
Louis: I feel like I’ve played at a lot of places but I really like playing internationally. There are a lot of weird venues in Asia that I’ve never even heard of on the beach and it’s epic. But the best places I’ve played so far were Brazil and Bangkok because people in those places go to clubs at 2am so they are out until daylight so they just go to the beach.
If you could be a musician in any type of genre or musical performance other than your current one, what would you be?
Louis: I want to be stadium rock from the 80s with ten minute solos and a lot of guitar. It’d be epic. You know live Van Halen or Depeche Mode from the 80s. That kind of pop new-wave kind of shit in a stadium.
What’s the best new SoundCloud song you’ve been listening to?
Louis: Teemid did a remix of Jasmine Thompson. You know Jasmine Thompson, right? Her voice is ridiculous so everyone is doing remixes of her now. She’s fucking awesome.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/187503683″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]
What’s your favorite slang word?
Louis: Sometimes I dislike slang. Think about how butchered the English language is now. Think about old English, you can’t even read it. That’s a sign of the decline of society. Like Latin did the same thing so we entered Middle English in the Dark Ages.
This has been an interesting interview. It’s been a fun interview.
Louis: I hope you got some stuff. I’m sure it’ll entertaining. If not, just make shit up.
[Jake’s epic return]
Louis: I want to ask you a question. If you could ask one final question at the end of the world, what would it be? The world is about to end, a meteor is about to strike, and you have one last question.
Literally, who invented pizza because it’s the greatest thing ever.
Louis: Well, his name is probably Pizza. That’s what I would do.
I think my last question to any random person would be “are you happy?”.
Louis: Wow. That’s deep.
Jake: That’s real.
Interview conducted by Jordan Farley and Lotanna Obodozie