Smiling Dog: A RIP Swirl Video Premiere
“Smiling Dog”’s video, featuring RIP Swirl playing his guitar in a corner bar in his neighborhood in Berlin and a “grandpa” lip syncing Clayjay’s part, is a perfect representation of Seifert’s playfulness and sense of humor. He recorded half of the drums on the project with his iPhone on a childhood drum set (which is really more like half of a drum set). “Smiling Dog” and single, “Blurry”, released last month, are a great peek into the ambient universe he creates. You can imagine walking through a cold city by yourself, these songs blasting in your headphones, the rhythm falling under every step.
Blurry doesn’t have a particular theme, but instead captures textural sounds that flow from the artist’s head. The accidental nature of many of the songs’ idiosyncrasies create unpretentious and unforced sounds that swell, ooze, and pop around your brain. Among other things, Seifert drew inspiration from movies and their soundtracks such as Lost in Translation, Trainspotting, Dazed and Confused, and Harmony Korine’s movies. Recorded in Kreuzberg, Berlin, the cassette project shows Seifert’s dedication and conviction when it comes to his art; you can hear it in the attention to detail, the many layered textures, and the commitment to making something authentic to him.
Until the album comes out in February 2022, please enjoy our conversation with RIP Swirl and the “Smiling Dog” video below!
Where are you from?
I’m originally from Hamburg, so not that far away from Berlin. I lived there, went to school and studied there, and after university I moved to Berlin as soon as I was done.
How did your music taste develop? How was it influenced by where you’re from and then your move to Berlin?
I guess music taste wise, one thing that had an impact when it comes to Hamburg is that people are not necessarily the most open, I would say. People are quite reserved. So, I feel like in school everyone kind of had a more broad music taste. It wasn’t a typical high school music experience like you would imagine where you have all those different groups of people listening to different stuff. I had to find something myself that I identified with, and at that time it was harder rock and metal. That was something I felt quite strongly about and got into quite early. I guess that was also the reason I went to pick up a guitar. Especially with the internet, I could find a community to be a part of. After, I realized there were a couple people at school that were listening to the same music and made friends that way.
When was it that you started making music?
I think I played piano since I was, like, 6. I was pushed by my parents because they realized I have a good ear and musical ability. I was not really enjoying it too much because it was quite a hassle learning and practicing. My teachers were really unhappy with me. It didn’t really fit the music I was listening to. I think I was, like 12 or 13 when I picked up the guitar. The first instrument I chose myself. I got straight into making music. Got my first guitar, didn’t know how to play but figured something out. I had a friend and we decided I’m going to start guitar, he’s going to start drums, so we can cover some songs and stuff. He didn’t have a drum kit yet so we just took stuff from around the house to bang on. Recorded on this ancient Nokia phone.
So you played in bands growing up?
Exactly. Played in bands, but there was nothing ever really serious. Started with covering stuff and eventually wrote our own songs. There was one metal band I played in that we took a bit more seriously, but especially towards the end of highschool, it was kind of clear that everyone was more serious about going to university in other cities and that’s how it stopped. I realized I was the only one who was thinking about taking it seriously at some point.
How would you describe your sound, specifically in your debut album, Blurry?
Up to the album, I always had a concept for what I was doing. Whether it was moving to Berlin and trying to make something a bit more electronic and something I could play in DJ sets, I always had some kind of purpose. And with the album, for the first time, I was just trying to see what happens and not have any idea of what exactly I wanted to do. It’s still a mixture of electronic stuff, some grungy stuff, and to me it has quite a shoegaze influence when I listen to it. I don’t know if that’s obvious.
I think I got that, and a little ambient.
Definitely.
Can you describe the making of your debut album?
It was the beginning of the pandemic, maybe a little bit earlier. I was already starting to incorporate guitar stuff again like the last two EP’s, which were a bit more electronic. It would be cool if I could still play them in a club context. I also enjoy DJing but I know at some point I want to go back to just doing guitar stuff and what I come from. Then the pandemic happened, and it felt like the perfect moment to do it because there weren’t any DJ bookings anyway. Reflecting, I realize as much as I enjoy, even DJing some festival in front of however many people, would not be as enjoyable to me as doing something live in front of just a bunch of people. It will always be more exciting to me to do guitar stuff and live stuff. Not just playing songs. With the pandemic, I decided, no gigs anyways, might as well do it now. I started working on new music and wasn’t quite sure what I was going for, but realized with certain textures that made me think it would be album material. Not necessarily consciously, but listening back, there was always a certain texture or certain sound that made me finish that song or idea rather than a more classical songwriting sense, chords, rhythm, etc.
What do you mean by texture exactly? What does that mean to you in terms of music?
I guess it’s something about sound that I can’t fully grasp. Especially since I also mix, I feel like every other part of music is easier to describe than this textural, kind of, magic.
A little abstract?
Exactly. It kind of always happens when recording something on tape, fucking around with it, and sometimes something happens. It’s not something I can control.
How does Blurry differ from your previous projects?
It has more drums and stuff like that, which some I just did in my DAW and did electronically to make them sound like real drums, but I also played real drums which I didn’t do before. I spent during the pandemic some time at my parents place where I have my childhood room and a kids’ drum set. It’s not even a full drum set, it’s half a drum set for children. For example, “Smiling Dog,” those are the drums. Just recording crappy drums with my iPhone and editing them and playing around with them until they sound like big drums. It was very much more experimental in terms of making it because of the fact that I had no idea what I was going for. The main part is trying to incorporate more real instruments That definitely comes through in the sound. What’s your favorite song of the project, and why? I think “GUts.” I really like that one. It’s a good example for this thing that’s so difficult to describe or grasp, the reverse guitar in there. This guitar effect I have and it was my first guitar pedal, this delay pedal and has a reverse setting, but it’s super delayed, because it needs to be reversed first. So everything you play comes out really differently, timing wise. I made this song and played this reverse guitar melody over it, and it was really not in time. I wasn’t sure how it would even come out, but I just played through the entire song, and it somehow really fit it, although it was kind of an accident. I was expecting to cut little pieces up, but it somehow really worked well. It’s almost like a voice because of that.
So much of the making of Blurry was you experimenting and trying different things, and it’s really cool that it became something that speaks for itself and is complete on its own.
That’s nice to hear. This experimenting is the place where I can switch my head off and not think about anything. Often when I do other music stuff, whether its producing for other artists or doing some fashion stuff, I always have some idea of what it’s supposed to be. With my own stuff, I can come back and have a blank piece of paper, basically, and kind of meditate on it. I don’t have that many other hobbies.
I saw you’re a skateboarder as well, and I was wondering if that influenced your music taste at all?
It definitely did. As a teenager, for sure. That was my main source of music. There was MTV and stuff, but I wasn’t allowed to constantly watch MTV. With skate videos, the soundtracks and visuals together had quite a big impact on me. It was also a way to easily explore those different genres because I didn’t know about blogs and maybe at some point would order CD’s from England. There weren’t many places for me to find music besides skate videos. I’m actually not really a skateboarder anymore. I rarely properly skate anymore these days. But I used to skate a lot as a teenager. Broke my arm three times and got kind of sick of not being able to play guitar every time that happened.
What are some musical influences of yours?
I love Dinosaur Jr. That’s one of the first bands I discovered. Always absolutely love My Bloody Valentine. That band is the perfect example of this kind of “texture” thing. One chord for three minutes, but the textures are so mesmerizing. Definitely a huge influence. One of my favorite bands is definitely Black Sabbath. Still listen to them every other day. I really love Duster. If I had to name one band, that’s probably the band that influenced me the most, in recent years. I keep going back to them and feeling like that hits exactly the spot for me.
How has the reception of your first single been, “Blurry,” released Nov 17th? What was it like releasing the first taste?
It was really cool, actually. I was very excited to post it and to share it and show the new direction. I was really enjoying it. I was nervous, of course, also. With streaming services these days, it’s always good if you fit in some certain category. All the alt stuff, electronic playlists, you think about whether they’re gonna get that, maybe you’re stuff’s difficult to put into a genre. I also don’t care too much. I was really feeling good about it, though!
Tell me about your second single, “Smiling Dog” with Clayjay.
We released the song last week, and the video today. The video is pretty basic. I wanted some sort of performance in the video. Since Clayjay’s in the U.S. it was difficult to get together, and it didn’t sound too great. We were thinking what else we could do, and we found this really cool looking grandpa. I filmed it in my favorite corner pub here in Berlin, playing the song on guitar, and he’s singing Clayjay’s part.
If you weren’t making music what would you be doing?
I studied economics, which was horrible, but I wouldn't know what else to do, so I would probably do that. I’d feel pretty bad about it, I think.
What’s it like recording on cassette?
I have a 4-track tape deck. I can record 4 tracks at the same time if I want to, or one at a time. I just take a tape that usually has some other shit on it and just override it. Record some stuff on it. What’s so nice with tape, as soon as you drive tape a little hotter, put a little more signal into it, it starts to distort in a really nice way, that you can’t, in my opinion, recreate in your DAW or whatever. Tape decks have varied speed so you can pitch things down or up in a much more natural way than it sounds in the computer. It’s nice to have an actual tape afterwards so you feel like you actually achieved something.
Big fan of tangible objects over computer files.
It’s also nice to switch the laptop off.
Your press release states your evoking the ambience of “Lost in Translation.” I really love that movie, and I was wondering if that’s something someone else said, or if those are your words.
I think I was talking to Linda, who does PR, and I was telling her that it's one of my favorite movies. To her, it was fitting. It’s not only the movie, it’s the music as well. The soundtrack is one of my favorite soundtracks ever.
Yeah, I was gonna say, It’s an amazing soundtrack. And I do think your music does somehow evoke the ambience, and also just the sense of loneliness and observation from the outside of something.
That’s really nice, I’m really happy it comes across that way.
What does RIP Swirl mean?
I wanted some kind of moniker to kind of detach the music from myself in some way. Like to have it less connected to me as a person, making it easier for the listener to take the music and interpret it their own way, especially with a name that doesn’t really mean anything. I kind of like my music to not have too much background or story so you can just paste it onto your own life. I’d rather have it just be a feeling, you know? There’s this TV show called the Larry Sanders show, which I really love, and my favorite character Artie is played by Rip Torn. Which I thought is a really cool name, and I also kind of like how it sounds a bit dark. So, I just took his first name, and I’m not even sure where I got the swirl from, but in retrospect, I feel like maybe it’s just me swirling all the different genres together!
