The ska revival was truly something I hoped would never come. Especially in the mid-late 2010s, it seemed to me that the ska scene had eaten itself and left the bones devoid of substance. Its fate was to be buried as a silly gimmick, no longer practiced with the passion or sense of purpose that made up its history. I rarely enjoyed a new ska band in those days and figured the genre was doomed to be misunderstood and watered down (much to my disappointment).
Enter the new decade, though. Is it a ska revival? Is it the fourth wave? That’s not for me to say, but there is a “New Tone” movement among us, and to my surprise, it’s good. People like Jeremy “JER” Hunter of SkaTune Network and Jeff Rosenstock have fought to get ska its deserved respect from other corners of the music world. This newer ska resurgence has full appreciation for the genre’s political history, yet a post-ironic acceptance of the sillier tropes it’s known for (checkered-everything, “pick it up,” and pop-punk song structures).
Newer bands like Catbite and Bad Operation are waving the flag of yesteryear’s ska punk, while artists on the second leg of their careers like Kill Lincoln and We Are The Union (a favorite of mine growing up) are laying the foundations for the genre to thrive, grow, and continue. This is not without the blessing of their predecessors, either. There exists a new movement, a greater community, and a group of fantastic new artists, not-the-least of which is Eichlers from Oakland, CA (previously of Salt Lake City, UT).
Arguably one of the most creative artists of the “New Tone” community, Eichlers is the stage name of musician Russ Wood. The project is more-or-less ska’s answer to the “SoundCloud Rap” or “Emo Trap” sound that gained popularity a few years back. His new record, My Checkered Future, is 10 tracks of ska guitar, 808s, and danceable jams that are just as likely to make you reflect as they are to make you laugh. The record is both vulnerable and intentionally ridden with ironic ska and punk references. To paraphrase Mike Sosinski from Bad Time Records in their most recent podcast episode, it will blow a lot of people’s minds...and it will make a lot of people mad. Some ska traditionalists are likely to be naysayers, but as you’ll see, it’s likely that Wood has done more for the DIY punk scene in the last decade than their shitty bands ever have.
I sat on the phone with Wood for two hours to talk about his history in the East Bay punk scene, the origin of Eichlers and its inception whilst living in Salt Lake, his love for community and artistic philosophy, and why ska? Why now?
Scene Point Blank: To a lot of people, you’re a new artist. But you’ve technically been active since 2016, starting as a one-person “loop pedal project” in Salt Lake City. Can you explain the trajectory of Eichlers from then up to this point?
Russ Wood: The first six months or so [in Salt Lake] were terrible because I didn't know anybody. It was that in-between time when I moved and when I started going to shows [that] I started Eichlers, playing acoustic. I picked the name Eichlers because that is a style of home where I grew up in Walnut Creek (houses are very emo).
My favorite band of all time is Johnny Foreigner. They’ve always incorporated fake drums into their music. Their biggest song starts out with [electronic] drums, and then they’re like, “Turn on the real fun! Turn on the real drums,” and the song explodes into live instrumentation. So I was like, “What if I keep doing this and incorporate more electronic elements into it?” I got into layering guitars, and the first time I bought a loop pedal, I was like, “I can just layer all these guitar parts together and make this wild collage.” As I started doing that, I was like, “What if I continue on the trajectory and play as little guitar as possible when I perform?” I thought that'd be really funny. So I’d spend the first 30 seconds of a song setting up loops, then take the cords out of my loop pedal, plug in [a drum machine], program a simple beat into the loop, put everything back, record more guitar, use my octave pedal and put a bassline on it -- and then sing my lyrics over it. I’d do that for five or six songs in the set and play very little guitar. Then I tried the Johnny Foreigner thing, putting electronic drums on top of acoustic music, but I had no idea how to quantize anything. I think I recorded my guitar to a click but I didn't know how to move the drum notes after I programmed them. So bad. [Laughs.]
Scene Point Blank: You put out several releases before scrapping everything on Bandcamp and releasing the Scene Kids mixtape, which has an electronic sampling sound more akin to what Eichlers is today. What caused the refresh?
Russ Wood: I was continuing down the electronic/acoustic rabbit hole and finally learned how to program drums correctly. That was about the time that I discovered the emo trap stuff: Juice WRLD, 93FEETOFSMOKE. I was like, “This is just emo guitars with really heavy 808 bass and autotune. It all sounds amazing. And it's genius.” Taking a guitar [riff] from a Senses Fail song and putting trap Hi-Hats and 808s on it? Immediately you've got a connection with the listener. “Oh shit, I know the song. What the fuck is this?” And then the bass has an unfamiliar sound that you wouldn’t expect and you’re like “What the fuck?” But you're already connected to it because of nostalgia.
I was like, “This is so sick,” and immediately started learning how to cut up samples and produce. I would go through my entire iTunes library, cut out little riffs, and program drums to them. I got this idea in my head, “I'm gonna sample a bunch of Salt Lake bands and then make beats out of them.” That eventually turned into the Scene Kids mixtape, but instead of sampling our friends’ bands, I was having our friends perform on it. It’s funny -- I was shuffling my music this morning and a bunch of songs from the mixtape came up and I was like, “This is so good.” [Laughs.] The ska thing ties into that nostalgia. I was like, “Why is no one doing this with ska? This doesn't make any sense.”
Scene Point Blank: When you began adding ska to your music, were you aware of the current ska revival going on?
Russ Wood: This was before “Stupid Horse” [by 100 Gecs - a hyperpop ska song] dropped. I made a couple ska-trap beats. And you know, modern hip-hop is obviously very rhythmic, ad lib, and hook-based. Ska is the same way! It’s just a no brainer. It doesn't make sense to me why I hadn't heard anyone do it. I don’t want to say no one did it because I don't know that for sure, but why hadn't I heard anyone do it before? Especially like with the SoundCloud/emo rap scene digging through 2000s nostalgia.
Every person our age who was into mall emo has some sort of association with ska -- inescapable if you're into that era of alt culture. Then I was kind of dipping my toes back into ska, revisiting the classic Third Wave stuff I grew up on, and I’m like, “This rules. I wonder what modern bands are doing” and found out about Bad Time [Records], probably through Nick Fleming [of Wicked Bears]. There's a scene and people are excited about ska? I'm excited about making this weird kind of ska!
Also, if there are two things that the general public hates, it's very heavy autotune and ska. I was like, “I want to do both of those things.” [Laughs.]
