If you haven’t been to a Weird Fun show or listened to their music you are seriously missing out. A couple months ago my friend Malath and I went and saw them live for the first time and had some of the most fun we’d ever had at a concert. A few months later we’re sitting in an Armadillo Willy’s with them:
Mitchell:
Hey how’s it going this is Mitchell Marinaro talking for Underground Zine, and here’s the interview, let’s go, 5 4 3 2 1, alright here we go…
How did you guys meet and end up starting the band?
Mitchell:
High school! We met in high school pretty much, I went to the same school as Grace and through mutual friends we all got together and started jamming, had the same vision, exact same ideas, it was really crazy, we’re all the same person! Yeah that’s pretty much it, not a very interesting story.
What’s the backstory behind your guy’s name?
Mitchell:
There was a period of time where we were all making private Instagrams with like zero followers ahaha and one of the band associates, Jake, his Instagram name was weirdfun because it was two random words and we were having a really hard time thinking of a band name that would stick and sound cool ya know.
Grace:
You want something like short and memorable. Just not a fan of the super long names.
River:
We definitely found comfort in the name because it fit our shows, it really caught our vibe I felt.
Grace:
And now everyone whenever they go to our shows, they’re like, “we had a weird, but fun time!”
Mitchell:
Yeah which is really annoying, but completely cool if you wanna do it.
I bet that gets super overused ahaha.
Mitchell:
Yeah they go, “You’re really weird, but fun!” And I’m like ohhh my fucking god.
Grace:
Sometimes we say it, too, on accident.
Mitchell:
I don’t say it. Ahaha. I said it on the way here, I lied, I’m a dirty liar… but yeah, it was pretty much just an Instagram name and we were like “oh man we don’t even know the name of the band” and I was just like, “how about we use your Instagram name?” And he was like “yeah!” It actually worked so yeah. It’s two adjectives, isn’t that strange?
Grace:
No one believes me whenever I say our name is Weird Fun.
Mitchell:
The Weird Funs!
What artists/bands are your guys biggest influences?
Mitchell:
Let’s each give three!
River:
Slip Knot, Inccubus, and Iggy Pop
Mitchell:
I would say The Cramps definitely. The Talking Heads and Sophie, the electronic artist actually, I found so much inspiration in their music.
Grace:
Okay my favorite artist right now, and she has been for a while, is Grimes, like I love her. Everything about her is just so inspiring to me as a person and musically, but like I feel like it doesn’t really effect my drumming just more presence.
Mitchell:
Also the Pixies, they’re so good.
Grace:
And Muse, Muse is big for me.
Mitchell:
Oh yeah Western Music as well. Western soundtracks like Quentin Tarantino, so fucking good. The Django soundtrack is my favorite. I was on a plane and I was listening to the entire soundtrack and I started crying. Un Momento by Enio Moricon, the guy who composes it, so powerful.
Grace:
I know there’s like specific songs that have inspired my drumming styles, I don’t know, I started drumming two years ago, I was like one month in when I stared playing with the band. I played guitar for like seven years before that though so I wasn’t like new to music or anything.
Augustin (Hype Man):
She has really good solo music that she hasn’t released yet!
Mitchell:
Yes!
Augustin:
Keep it quiet, don’t put it in the interview!
Mitchell:
..put it in.
Augustin:
Put it in, put it in! Ahaha
Mitchell:
We all make solo music, follow us… don’t put it in.
Grace:
Aha. You should talk about Spooky Marvin for a little bit.
Mitchell:
For Spooky Marvin, my solo project, I’m trying to make it as sexy as possible, it’s like midnight 70s soul music. It’s hard to do, but it’s something I try to go for. A mix of like horror movie soundtracks with that, so something that’s never been done before. Ya know Rob Zombie? He kinda mastered the whole bloody, but sexy at the same time, freaky fun.
Do you think your city or community has had an effect on the type of music you play? And you guys are from San Mateo right?
Mitchell:
Yeah San Mateo, Bay Area.
River:
Well I think that garage rock is very prevalent in California and being where we are, it’s easy for us to find bands like the BOCs, which is a sick ass local band in San Francisco.
Mitchell:
Dead Kennedys back in the 80s.
River:
SF is great.
Mitchell:
Metallica! Other than that I don’t know. I’m gonna be real okay… I would get bored just listening to local bands, nothing against local bands, but I would get bored listening to like the same stuff over and over again and I feel like nobody was taking any chances or anything, but now a lot of bands have come out or my eyes are more open, but before that I feel like nobody was taking any chances and I feel like we had ideas that I hadn’t seen before. We wanted to put our own name out there.
Grace:
Yeah I think that’s the whole point.
River:
I think Under Daa and Kissy Boy were like kinda when I started seeing as a collective, we made really interesting and different stuff.
Mitchell:
The whole goal is to make something different, make something new.
When did you first discover the local music scene in your area and what does it mean to you?
Grace:
Probably like my freshmen year of high school, my best friend was in this band called Koroshi Hotline and they played the first show I ever saw. I saw them at Honey Hive to support Riley. They were the first band I saw play at the areas we play at now. So I guess like freshman year was when I first started getting into it. I actually played my first show with Riley, opening up for Koroshi Hotline in my Sophmore year and the next year I joined Weird Fun. It’s really cool to see other bands play and your like oh I’m never gonna do this, there’s no way I’ll ever have a lot of people coming to see my show, but then it happens, it’s crazy. Especially at the Gilman.
River:
Yeah being on stage at the Gilman is really cool because I’ve seen so many shows there.
Mitchell:
Also Green Day. They like started the whole Gilman thing. Uncool fest was one of the first big shows we went to. I was like this is sick, I wanna do this.
River:
Uncool fest really inspired me and brought attention to like the scene.
Mitchell:
Koroshi Hotline, too. Shout out to Koroshi Hotline.
Grace:
We wouldn’t have probably known about the Honey Hive.
Mitchell:
Yeah!
Grace:
We really started there.
Mitchell:
Shoutout to Danny, the owner of the Honey Hive. Very cool man.
Was that the older guy who works there?
Mitchell:
No I don’t know about the older guy, he’s weird. Danny is like really short and probably like 30 something. He’s just always in his PJs and he’s just so chill. He lives there, he lives above the Honey Hive.
Have you guys played any house shows in the city?
Grace:
No.
Mitchell:
Not in the city. We played one in Berkley in this place called the Fulton House. It was a lot of fun. We had a really fun house show at River’s house! Ahaha.
Grace:
That was like our third show ever.
River:
That was so fun, holy shit. Ahah.
House shows are just so special.
River:
There’s no rules.
Mitchell:
No ones telling you to turn down. The music sounds really bad a lot of the time, but it does not matter.
Grace:
I’m always the loudest, it’s just all drums. It’s my show! Ahaha.
Augustin:
I saw them (Weird Fun) play at my friend’s show..
River:
Oh Varni Fest!
Mitchell:
Varni Fest is a music festival we are trying to put together at a man named Alex Varni’s house, shoutout to Alex Varni, he wears Hospital gowns at our shows, he’s one of our hype men. We go to his house and we make it as intense and scary as possible. At the end of Varni Fest we payed Territorial Pisssings by Nirvana and we had a bunch of boxes and he came out with one hammer and a saw, and it was like a theatre performance, no one was really dancing, it was just Alex ripping the shit out of the boxes.
River:
The first time we met Augustin was at Varni Fest.
Mitchell:
Everyone had like a weapon and we just beat the shit out of the boxes, it was really fun.
River:
Let out your aggression.
So you guys obviously have a very distinct sound, what was your journey to this sound? Have you guys always sounded like this and have you guys experimented with other sounds?
Mitchell:
When we started jamming we had a very specific sound. We all kinda wanted to go really really really fast because once you start playing live, it’s all about the atmosphere of the crowd and we wanted to make fast music for the crowd. As we’ve gone on we do wanna experiment a lot, with electronics, with different styles of rock, more into post-punk and other genres, kinda make our own genre, that’s the ultimate goal, but you know it’s a hard thing to do. It came to us naturally though and it’s hard to get rid of it, we’re stuck in this like loop of our sound, which is cool, completely fine.
Grace:
We’ve gone through different eras of sounds, sometimes it’s more like surfy, I don’t know, I feel like all of our songs are very different and now we’re just really experimenting.
Mitchell:
We’re working on an album!
Grace:
It’s very different!
Mitchell:
It’s gonna be VERY different, you guys are gonna loose your minds, it’s new wave.
Shit! Are we the first ones to hear that?
Mitchell:
Yeah!
Oh wow Underground exclusive!
Mitchell:
Experimenting is huge with us, we don’t want to sound the same ever. Ever! It’s boring, nobody wants to sound the same, we wanna sound different, always.
What artists or bands currently releasing music do you guys idolize? Or look up to?
Mitchell:
The Garden, shoutout to the Garden. Shoutout to the Parque Courts, the OCs, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard.
River:
The Buttertones are pretty rad.
Grace:
We’ve made friends with a lot of people we’ve played with too which is cool, like Small Crush.
Mitchell:
Totally! Shoutout to Small Crush, they’re very very good people.
Grace:
And we love their music of course.
Mitchell:
I love Pierce and The Gals, they’re great. And 1-800, shoutout to 1-800, he makes great rap music as well.
River:
Dude Boss Baby!
Mitchell:
Rose Mother! Mt. Eddy! They’re local. We’ve played with them, they’re very sweet dudes.
What are your guys favorite local venues to play or go see shows?
River:
Honey hive is my favorite forsure.
Grace:
Honey Hive is really fun, it’s just a classic. Greek Theatre is my all time favorite venue, the outside feeling and everything, it’s like if I could play anywhere.
River:
The Catalyst, too.
Mitchell:
The Warfield. Oh and Oakland Fox Theatre.
Grace:
Greek Theatre all the way.
River:
Yeah that’s the best.
Grace:
I really liked playing 1-2-3-4 GO! Records!
Mitchell:
That was the best! That was my favorite show!
River:
There was some Dad. There was this massive 300 pound Dad.
Mitchell:
Yeah he was picking up people and throwing them all over the place! Ahaha. I don’t know how he got in there. He was pure muscle, it was crazy!
Augustin:
He picked me up!
Grace:
I feel so safe behind my drums, like you bring all these horror stories of what happens in the crowd and I’m like back behind my drum set.
River:
You know I always say after the shows, I really wish I was in the crowd getting moshed, I always talk about how fun it looks. I was talking to this dude and he said our mosh pits are the most fun he’s ever had.
Mitchell:
They’re crazy and like extremely violent which is awesome! Kids wanna be violent ahaha.
My Friend Malath:
It was me who you hit in the eye with your bass! At the December show. Ahaha.
River:
Holy Shit! I actually talked about that like two days ago. Dude oh my god, I’m so sorry!
That was so funny!
River:
Holy fuck I’m so sorry! I hit you, like I really hit you! Dude I nailed her bro!
Mitchell:
We will pay for anything that got damaged. Sue us please!
Where do you guys record?
Mitchell:
GarageBand, my bedroom. Ahaha. Do it yourself or die!
Grace:
Drums are like the worst thing ever to record, it took us like so long to do even just one.
Mitchell:
I gotta say though bedroom recording is quite a experience because it’s really fun. It’s dirty, it’s weird, we turn off all the lights, we turn on this one red night and we just get really weird.
I honestly think that’s part of the essence of your music.
Mitchell:
Yes! Trashy, disgusting. Ahaha.
Grace:
You just like feel more open to, it’s less pressure to record.
Mitchell:
If we all get a good take we all scream and while somebody was doing a guitar solo we were moshing one time.
Where are your parents? Or your neighbors? Ahaha.
Mitchell:
Usually they’re not home. It’s always at my house and my neighbors are really weird. The person that lives cross from me doesn’t leave his house. Our other next door neighbors don’t ever talk to me. Sweet lady on my left though. Guy across the street doesn’t talk, guy next to him doesn’t talk, yeah my neighbors don’t talk. They’re not gonna talk, they’re not gonna complain! Maybe they’re dead, don’t add that, but I don’t know… maybe.
Grace:
We practice at my house and my parents love it. They love our music. They sing along after they leave.
Do your parents come to your shows?
Grace:
They came to one of our shows I think. They went to my least favorite show, it was the one at DNA lounge, not a fan.
River:
I did not like DNA lounge.
Mitchell:
It felt like a talent show. I felt so patronized it was terrible. I felt so awkward with myself.
River:
It really felt like a talent show.
Mitchell:
It was a lot of parents and no one was dancing which makes me feel weird.
River:
We had some mosh pits and stuff.
Mitchell:
Yeah towards the end, but it was mostly just parents being like oh they’re so cute Ahaha.
So that’s all the questions I have so now is the time for you guys to talk about whatever you want.
Augustin:
Talk about how you guys got into playing live shows!
Mitchell:
It’s all about who you know! Try to make friends with people who have played live and know how it goes and just go under their wing. You can try and do it yourself, it’s really easy, just gotta email or DM them, in today’s world you can just DM them on Instagram. They will totally be cool with you for the most part. Don’t expect that there’s a way to do it, do it your own way. It’ll come to you naturally.
River:
Have fun with it!
Mitchell:
Have fun with it! Exactly! It’s really easy, too.
Grace:
Just be like, “hey can I open for your band?” That’s how we did it.
Mitchell:
And just like keep doing, if someone says no, just keep doing it, like don’t get discouraged. Keep asking.
Augustin:
Just show up with your drums!
Mitchell:
Surprisingly people don’t say no, everybody needs openers, like local bands.
Anything else you wanna say?
Mitchell:
Themes! We’re really into themes. We really like to have themed shows. It’s cool to see people like get involved, like we had a pajama party, that was one of my favorites.
Grace:
That was the best show we’ve had!
Mitchell:
Everybody wore pajamas, we had a pillow fight, it was amazing! We wanna do it again!
Grace:
People were sliding on the floor. People were slipping from the sweat.
Mitchell:
The themes really add an atmosphere to the shows that’d I’d never seen before. I know that there are themed shows, but they’re always like beach theme or something that’s simple. I like when they go above and beyond, I wanna do a blood theme, that’s kinda far fetched. We also did a costume party.
Grace:
Everyone loves Halloween costumes, so like why not do that for every show.
Any last words for the interview?
Mitchell:
Please start it yourself, be different, do something that has not been done.
River:
Have fun.
Augustin:
Make music for the right reasons.
Mitchell:
Yeah make music for the right reasons! It’s 2018, but it’s still cool to try. A lot of people think it’s not cool to try, but it’s really important to try your best and put in effort in life. Make a difference, be the change in the world you wanna see. And not even in music, in other things!
I want to give a huge thank you to Weird Fun for letting me interview them. I had a huge blast talking with them and hanging out with them. If you haven’t checked them out, do yourself a favor and do it:
pictures and words by mac
