Timezone LaFontaine - Making Music, Comics, and Collaborating - The Lorenzo's Music Podcast (Transcript)

Tom Ray: Hi, and welcome to another episode of the Lorenzo’s Music Podcast. I’m Tom, and today we are talking to a musician. This is a show where I speak with musicians. I speak with, people who create things for musicians with kind of a focus on open source and Creative Commons. And one of those today is a Creative Commons musician. And, why don’t you tell the people who it is, who you are and what it is you do? I almost messed that up there.

Timezone LaFontaine: I am, Timezone LaFontaine, and, I’m a multimedia artist. I make music. also an animator, and I draw comics as well.

Tom Ray: Oh, now we got something to go into there. I didn’t know that. Okay, continue. Sorry.

Timezone LaFontaine: Okay. yeah, you know, I’ve been a musician since I was a teenager, which is more than five years ago, if you can believe that. I won’t go any further specifics, but, you know, I’m at at this point in my life where I can, like, look back on things that I’ve done and also, feel like, I got a long way yet to go, you know, And I think about you. know, I’m into hearing about what other. What other artists have to say about their processes, you know, and especially this year, I’ve been, listening to interviews with elder artists in their 80s and 90s and just like, super inspired, how vibrant and active they still are. And so, you know, in our culture, there’s like a big focus on youth and kind of like, people sort of, like, disappear as they get older. But, you know, artists just keep on cranking along and it’s like, it’s all the now anyhow, so.

Tom Ray: Yeah, and so first question. where exactly are you located in the world here?

Timezone LaFontaine: I’m in Asheville, North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Tom Ray: Okay. Asheville, North Carolina. I’ve never been to North Carolina. It’s. I. I know. I want to say I know a couple of people who are from or live there, and I’ve never been, so I don’t know what’s it like? I’m getting travel tips now.

Timezone LaFontaine: it’s like a smaller city, but, and it’s, you know, very near to wilderness, if you like, hiking and things like that. really, this time last year, we had just been hit by Hurricane Helene. Oh. Yeah. It was right around a year ago that we got, like, running water working again after, like, two and a half months without it. And, I forgot about that.

Tom Ray: I mean, of course you guys did

Timezone LaFontaine: One disaster among many. And it’s sort of like in the media for a few weeks and there’s something else happens. You know, it’s just. Yeah, but it’s been, It was devastating. I mean, it was crazy. And it was like, At first there wasn’t any electricity or cell phone service, so it took a while just to get the picture of the enormity of what had actually happened. But, you know, it was just like, wild. There wasn’t any serious damage at our place where we are, fortunately. But I was, you know, setting an alarm every couple of hours to bail out in the basement for, for a couple of days while the rain was happening. And, you know, there’s, this area near downtown called the River Arts District, which is where artists had, taken on all these, old warehouse buildings that were no longer being used, actively setting up studios and things like that. And I love to go down there just to see like, all the murals and graffiti as well as like the, the artwork in the studios. And some of those entire huge warehouse buildings were just washed completely away. Just nothing but their foundation left, really. Yeah.

Tom Ray: Those are the type of buildings I would expect survive so much of it. Like those ones, like the way they used to build them. I don’t know why it is, that way in my head. Like, the older ones would be more structurally sound as opposed to, you know, the science and engineering that we’ve learned along the way.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah.

Tom Ray: It would make more sense that now the buildings are made to withstand that. How close to the ocean are you?

Timezone LaFontaine: Not close at all. It’s like the nearest beach is like four hours away, so.

Tom Ray: Wow. And it was still coming through strong. Well, I mean, it’s a hurricane. I know nothing about hurricane. I’m in the Midwest, so we don’t got nothing like that coming through. We just get cold fronts from the north and it goes, hey, guess what? It’s going to be rain and snow. You know, that’s what we get.

Timezone LaFontaine: It was pretty crazy. And it, like the. It’s. It’s hard. Like as I was going, you know, we’re exploring around afterwards and you know, like, there are huge trees that fell on people’s houses in the higher up areas and the lower areas was like the flooding and you know, I would just see crazy things like, you know, those shipping containers that are modular and they can go on boats and trains and the backs of trucks.

Tom Ray: I think I know what you mean.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah. Just the trailers of 18 wheelers. They were like Piled up like, piled.

Tom Ray: Up like season two of the wire. Those things that they worked with, you.

Timezone LaFontaine: Find them like stacked up on bridges, like blocking the roads they had washed up on there. And I saw one trailer for an 18 wheeler that had been like ripped in half front to back. And it was just like, how was the water that forceful? But it was just like, you know. Yeah, it’s intense anyway. It’s been like a long recovery. Some businesses are coming back, some haven’t been able to. So,

Tom Ray: Wow.

Timezone LaFontaine: But you know, we’re in a better place now for sure.

Tom Ray: Damn. I mean that’s, that’s one of the most. When I’ve asked the question about what’s the weather like, where they are, that’s the most intense answer I’ve gotten.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah.

Tom Ray: Now I want to get to the. One of the things that you said too. So you said you were watching, process of different musicians, and what they do now with the ones you mentioned, like what is one specifically that you’ve been watching or one where you’re like, oh, there’s this, this guy that does it or is it just in general you’ve been seeing it?

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah, well, I was watching the series of video interviews. they’re actually made by a still photographer who is creating a book of artists in New York City who, you know, work out of lofts up there that you know, they had been, they’d moved there or had been there since like, you know, the 60s or 70s. And so they were you know, this was just like designed to kind of like link to this guy’s book. But the videos themselves are beautifully shot and you see, you know, the personality and the energy of the artists as they’re speaking as well. So, and I think, you know, as far as processes go, they, they all are different. But you know, it’s basically just like, you know, every day it’s like work on it with whatever time you have. And so I have like my family responsibilities and like full time job and then maybe I’ve got like an hour, hour and a half at the end of some days to just work on this art stuff and music. So I have tried over time to really develop this self discipline and be organized with that time. And that’s not, you know, previously I might have been like, oh man, if I don’t have like five uninterrupted hours, I just don’t want to deal with it. But now I’m like, you know, I’ve got a half an hour, I can do something. And yes, you know, my friends, I’m always telling them about how I like to make spreadsheets. It’s kind of like a running joke how spreadsheet oriented I am. But, that’s what. That’s the way I organize big projects, like an album. I lay it out on a spreadsheet and really, like, track. You know, I’m going to. I’m sort of like defining what the overall sound of the album is going to be.

Tom Ray: Okay.

Timezone LaFontaine: Then I’m marking things off as I get to them. So I’m like, I want to have live guitar on these tracks. I want to have. You know, sometimes some of it’s really literal, like that other is. Is more figurative or, you know, just like, you know, it’s got to have like this magical twilight feeling or, you know.

Tom Ray: Yeah.

Timezone LaFontaine: Then I, like, go through and I’m like, does this have the magical twilight feeling? I gotta, like, work on it. If it does.

Tom Ray: Or you even do like retrospectives going, like, did I achieve what I was supposed to?

Timezone LaFontaine: Well, no, just as, I’m in the process of making it. So it’s like not every. Not every song has to have every aspect that I’ve defined. But, they sort of have to like, weave together in this. In this way where it’s like five of the songs have this, like, element of live guitar, and then four of these songs have this element of like, real raw, heavy drums or whatever. And then hopefully that, like, ties it together as a cohesive sounding album. Yeah.

Tom Ray: Okay. So this is fascinating to me. All right, now, M. As far now, we. When you were talking about finding the time and like, oh, if I don’t have five hours, how am I to do it? That’s. That’s something I go through all the time. When I’m talking with other musicians, they’re like, how do you find to do all this stuff? And I’m like, I don’t know. I just do it. Like one minute I go, oh, I got an idea. So I sit down for like maybe 20 minutes, try and see if I can get it down and then go, okay, move on. My head is still thinking about it, but it doesn’t mean I have to sit there and like, just do focus. I just, It just comes to me and then I do it and then I can walk away. I don’t know. My mind can go, switch, switch, switch. You know? Yeah. I could be working on like five things at once, but I’m not doing them all at the same time. I’ll Just be working on one. And then when I realize, like, I don’t think I’m going to get any better, at ah, where I’m at right now, I’ll move on to the next thing. And that’s my productivity. And you kind of sounded like that. Then you put in spreadsheets and then I was like, okay, what the hell’s happening here? That’s way too organized. But I have adopted two spreadsheets recently where I use it for promotion. There’s just no way I’d be able to track what I need to do throughout like say 45 day promotion cycle for say a release or things like that. So I have adapted to that and that helped me. I’ve always hated spreadsheets, didn’t really understand them. And then finally I was like, all right, let’s hunker down and figure it out. Now what I want to know is you’re saying you’re using it for an, album. How I want to hear this. I want to see if maybe this is something I can glean from this. So let’s say with your new album, the Unrealist, like, how did you go about. Because I heard you say, and I want to have guitar on this. And that album does have a lot of guitar, which we’ll get into because I’m curious about that. But like, how did you map out this new album that you have?

Timezone LaFontaine: Well, I’m always making little fragments of songs. Like you know in in hip hop we call like the instrumental bed of it the beat. And so I’m always making beats and I’ll just start off and it’s just like free form. It could just reflect whatever mood I’m in. And I’ll just make like about a minute long beat. And it’s just got like the drums and the bass, like the basic elements, guitar, synth, whatever.

Tom Ray: And are you, do you have these beats in your head or.

Timezone LaFontaine: No, you just kind of in Ableton Live.

Tom Ray: And are you doing it by hand or are you doing it by touch?

Timezone LaFontaine: anything and everything. I. Okay, I can play a little bit of drums, or I can finger drum on the Ableton push, or you can like just step editor or whatever.

Tom Ray: Okay.

Timezone LaFontaine: And so over the course of months, I’ll build up all these like just 30 second to minute long loops. And then at a certain point I’ll go back and listen through and see what I like. And when I find ones that I like, I try to find similar ones as well because I’ve just been, like, going in any possible direction. It’s just wide open.

Tom Ray: Does each song get its own spreadsheet, or is it all okay? It’s collective?

Timezone LaFontaine: Okay. Not at that point.

Tom Ray: All right.

Timezone LaFontaine: But, once I start to find a couple that I think could fit together stylistically, that’s when I’ll start to think in terms of an album. And so I’ll. I’ll go ahead and drop those in a spreadsheet and I’ll, like, describe the characteristics that give them the vibe that matches with each other.

Tom Ray: Okay.

Timezone LaFontaine: And like I said, it could be figurative or it could be literal as far as the instrumentation. And then from that point, when I’m like, I’m on the. I’ve got. I picked up the scent of an album. I’m like, all right, coming after it. then it’s like, ah, I’ll start to make more beats and instrumentals a bit more intentionally within. Within that style parameter that I’ve established. And, So I was just gonna, like, look at it. But it’s like, you know, the songs have like a. Or the beats. The initial beats just have a code name that is like, the date, and then just whatever word that pops into my head, and that way I can look it up by time if I don’t remember the name or the name if I don’t remember the time, the date, or whatever. And then, just like, say, like, you know, The spreadsheet will include, like, the chord progression, the key signature, the tempo, instrumentation, and then the descriptive terms that describe the vibe.

Tom Ray: Okay.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah. And, Yeah, and then it’s like, stages of mixing, and, then when it’s very close to being finished, that’s when I’ll reach out to guest artists and ask them if they’ll put verses on that so that hopefully near the end, I can wrap it up really quickly once their parts come in. And, especially with this album, unrealist because the. Topically, it’s heavy and it wasn’t pleasant to think about lot of times. So I was ambivalent a lot of the time. Like, ah, ah. You know, not that excited about continuing to revisit these, like, really, heavy conceptual spaces where I’m commenting on, like, AI Deep fakes, marketing, social media, things like that. But when I would listen to the instrumentals, I was like, this is good. I should, like, follow through. And then when I reach out to other people and they become involved, then I really want to finish because I appreciate their work so much and I want to like, and it elevates the album for sure having other artists involved. So I don’t want to let them down. So I got to, like, push through at the end. And the spreadsheet at that point becomes very technical with, like, you gotta, like, check the details of the mix and make sure, you know, the kick drum is consistent. I use a lot of different types.

Tom Ray: Of drums, so you even use it for mixing.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yes. A lot of this type of production is really focusing in on the textures and timbres of sounds. And so I’m like, it’s got to have this type of snare drum. And then it’s going to have these types of hi hats. And, And then, Like you were talking about, if you got 15 minutes, you get an idea, you can, like, bust it out. You have to have your space set up.

Tom Ray: Yes.

Timezone LaFontaine: Move at that speed because you don’t want to spend, like, 35 minutes connecting cables and, like, troubleshooting something. Sometimes that happens. Like, I haven’t touched anything, and I come back and, like, something M isn’t working. It’s like, did the computer, like, did the operating system update and break something? And then I’m, like, going through this troubleshooting process, and I’m like, all I want to do is, like, play some music. I could just be playing acoustic guitar right now, but I’m, like, struggling to make this, like, hybrid rock, hip hop, you know, all these different styles, electronic things. Because I love those sounds. But, you know, sometimes I just want to play music and not be fighting against the tools that I’m using, you know?

Tom Ray: Yeah, no, I get that. I’m. I’m in a place where I wish I could do guitar. It’s like, one of the few instruments that I don’t have, like, an intermedial intermediate, you know, like a very minor grasp of, like, all the other instruments that I play. It’s like, oh, I know just enough to fake that I know what I’m doing. But when it comes to guitar, I know so many guitarists that I’m just like, every note I hit, I’m like, nope, that’s wrong. You know, I can’t even. Even if I, like, try to learn. And I. I tried to do lessons, it’s just like, God damn it. It sounds like crap, but I still try. Yeah, I’m hoping to get there, but, yeah, I get what you mean. So do you have a studio set up at home? Do you have a studio that you go to? Do you have both? Like, what is your setup for creating, things.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah, I have a, I have a setup at home. I’m in it right now. And this is like set up on my turntables.

Tom Ray: Oh.

Timezone LaFontaine: and then I’ve got some electronic drums, like a very inexpensive entry level electronic drum kit that I just use as a MIDI controller that has. With MIDI I can, you know, have better sounds and it’s sensitive enough that I can like get ghost notes and control them the way I want to. So it’s good enough for me. And then, you know, I’ve got bass and guitar and pedals nearby and sometimes, you know, I’m downstairs in, in a basement area right now. But sometimes I will work on things upstairs on a different computer. But that almost creates a little hassle in itself trying to keep both files in both locations. Yeah. You know, so the simpler the better really. So, that’s why I’ve been interested also recently. And things like an MPC or even some push 3 that can be like the self contained box. That’s pretty cool in my opinion.

Tom Ray: I know I at least once or twice a year toy with the idea of an npc. And then I look them up and then I go, oh, that’s why the cost. but so with the album and the process, we were talking about this and that we were talking about, especially the new one which has guitar. And it’s kind of a different genre, but it’s not. So what would you describe your music as? How would you describe the genre of music that you do?

Timezone LaFontaine: I mean, for, for time zone, LaFontaine stuff, it’s always been this like, kind of, trying to fuse together elements of like psychedelic rock, southern rock, okay, electronic and hip hop, like 90s, late 80s 90s hip hop. because I mean they all fit together in certain ways. But it is really tricky trying to mix those disparate types of instruments. I like the, I like the like counterbalancing of acoustic and electronic or like synthetic and like live, you know, and I like having drums that are like a drum pattern that can just change instantly to a completely different drum kit in a different space. That could never happen in reality, but it’s just like enjoying using like the studio, technology as an instrument in its own way in some ways and also to some degree creating little algorithmic tools that can do things that I wouldn’t necessarily expect. you know, things that, you know, you can imagine. I’ve got this tool for generating drum patterns where you, it’s in Ableton Live and you just click play On a clip. And then it’s got what’s called a follow action. And it’ll say, you know, after this clip finishes playing, change to a different one, Like a different random one. So you can set up different drum patterns. And, you know, it’ll. It’s a lot of work to set up, but once it’s ready, it’s. It can do things that can surprise you, because especially working with, like, really, electronic types of music, it can get very, like, you know, on the grid and, like, very controlled. And I want to have that. That lively, unexpected element. Because I. I started off playing, like, in punk rock bands and. And then. And we would just write songs by improvising and jamming. So I like that. I like that process.

Tom Ray: It’s funny how it’s changed for me over the years. Like, that was the way that we always did it. You would stand in a room and me usually being. Well, no, always. No, not always. I was a drummer for a brief period, a punk rock drummer, because I could keep a fast beat. And also because we met a guy who had a mohawk and he’s got to be the singer. anyway, that’s nothing to do with what I’m saying, but that’s the way we did the process too, is it was always you stood in a room and then everybody like, goes, what if we did this? and then the other person would go, no, no, no. It has to go like this. No, no, no. And as the singer, you stood there and go, what am I going to sing over that? And that was the process for years. But now with electronic music, what it’s given me is I now use. And also being an artist or doing graphic design and stuff like that. I’m so used to manipulating what’s on the screen and moving stuff around and using that as basically an instrument. And now with the daw, that’s kind of what I do. We will record a session and then when we’re done, I will take that session and go, I like that note, I like that note. I like that note. And then I’ll just start arranging them and then I’ll go, okay, here’s what I did with it. And they’re like, who played this? And it’s like, you did. No, I didn’t. Yeah, so that part is kind of fun. So it’s a give and take. But I get it too, because then you’re sitting there going, oh, It just doesn’t sound right. Even though it’s doing what it’s supposed to, it’s like, that’s not the sound. And then you have to do it just acoustically or, you know, in real life.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah, there, I mean, there was engineers and producers who could do that back in the day of like, tape.

Tom Ray: Oh yeah. Which is a nightmare to think about.

Timezone LaFontaine: It’s, ah, it’s awesome. It’s nice to reflect on it, like how, how much easier we have it now. And you know, plus, you know, I feel like there’s cool things going on technologically. I mean, with AI, there’s like lots of problems. Big, serious problems. Not just like a double, edged blade. It’s more like a sphere of blades that could like, harm things in many directions. But, but there’s, there’s things that, I’m, I’m fascinated with, like stem separation, and the way that you can now take a mix and to some degree, like separate it back out to individual stems. as somebody, like, I don’t do a lot of sampling, but as somebody who has done sampling in the past, that was always like a dream. Like there’s like, oh, I love this guitar part, but it’s like there’s somebody singing over it. And so you’d always be like, can we eq, you know, this way or that way? Now nowadays it’s more, becoming more possible.

Tom Ray: And so, yeah, because there’s like an entire. There are apps built around that where it’s like for karaoke, like somehow they’re able to EQ out the vocals so people can do their own vocals over it or something like that. And that’s always. Yeah. Oh, I didn’t realize that’s kind of what that was. I guess I never questioned it. I was just like, oh, that’s neat. How did they do it?

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah, Well, I mean, it’s all, it’s all related to, you know, AI. They’re, they’re like training it on music to identify. Like this is, you know, this type of instrument. This is a voice. This is like, you know, the frequencies, the drums. But of course, in a, in a completed mix, there’s overlapping frequencies where like, your voice is occupying a lot of the same frequencies as like the lead guitar or something like that. So, okay, it’s not, perfect. You can hear like this kind of digital artifacting in it. But, you know, from a sampling perspective that’s. And just like, ah, a hip hop perspective, that’s just going to become, part of the sonic signature of this decade, you know?

Tom Ray: yeah. Now one thing you mentioned too, when you were talking about the spreadsheet, you said when you, you’re going through the songs and then when it comes to time to add the other artists, one thing we haven’t talked about is. So you do have other artists to collaborate with because you’re on the BlocSonic Net label, the Creative Commons. Net label, BlocSonic And you guys do do that. You. You guys all collaborate on each other’s stuff all the time. So how do you do a call out on BlocSonic? I know you all started out on a message board. You guys met on a message board, The Public Enemy message board, right?

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah, you know, I was on that. I was on the Enemy board, but I didn’t really get to know those guys at that time. I remember seeing them on it.

Tom Ray: Okay.

Timezone LaFontaine: I remember seeing C Doc and a lot of the folks who were, you know, on the Enemy, board and like, Rap Station, the early days, like old school 76 and all that. I was, you know, it was a turbulent era of my life and I was. Didn’t have a place of my own for a while, so I’d hang out at the library a lot and, oh, just, get on the message board and talk about music. And anyway, it wasn’t until like years and years later actually, and I just started. I just started putting Creative Commons licenses on my music, just purely philosophically, because I was like, Like I said, my stuff isn’t all samples. You can take away the samples and there’s still songs there. But I do use samples. And I was like, if I’m sampling other people, they should be allowed to sample me. So I don’t have a problem with that. And Creative Commons makes sense, philosophically in that way to me. But even, even then, I wasn’t aware that there was people who are just into Creative Commons artists. And it was like, still several years later. And, I don’t know exactly how, like, I think Mike just. Mike Gregoire, who founded Black Sonic, saw me post something about, releasing an album and. And then he reached out and asked if he could put one of my songs on. On one of his compilations. And then we started, you know, went from there. But, you know, there was other artists who also reached out to me and were like, you want to put a verse on this? Like Cheese and Pot-C, they’re always like, you know, networking in this fun way, you know, to collaborate. And so. And, you know, we would just communicate by email. and so nowadays I’ve gotten to work with more and more people and, I’LL just, like, send out an email. And I’m like, okay, hey, everybody, this is times in LaFontaine. you may know me from the Bloc Report mixes. I’ve been repping your music and, working on an album of my own. So, you know, can you please, check out this song? And here’s the theme. I’ll give them, like, a. Just a general theme and then in the instrumental. And, you know, they’re all, like, so professional and just on it. And, like, really quickly turn around, like, drop these amazing verses, perfectly pristine recordings in from their own setups. And, you know, it was funny because not on this album, but on the last one I did, I asked CM AKA Creative, to be on a track, and he actually turned it around so quickly that I didn’t even see it in my inbox. He, like, did it in, like, on the same day. And I was, like, expecting. In my mind, I was like, okay, if I haven’t heard from him in, like, a week and a half or two weeks, I got to reach out and see if. If he still wants to do it. And so I didn’t even see that he already responded. And so I’m, like, waiting like a fool for, like, two weeks to follow up. And. And I, inwardly I was like, oh, man. He probably didn’t like the track. You know, he doesn’t want to do it. But from his perspective, he was probably like, oh, he hasn’t said anything. He probably didn’t like my verse because, you know, when I finally spotted it, I was like, oh, my God. Like, he did this, like, on the very same night. And I was like, I’m sorry. This is awesome. Sorry to keep you waiting. But anyway, you know, all these. All these artists are on it, though. And, And just like, you know, I’ve never once been like, oh, could you change something about what you. What you did? You know? So I’m just like. It’s like a dream come true, you know, this is what I was dreaming about as, like, you, know, when I was starting out in the 90s and I first heard about the Internet, you know, but it took a long time. It took a long time. A lot longer than I expected. But now it’s like, yes, I totally dig this. This is what I’ve been wanting all along. So I’m, happy to be tapped in to this community, you know?

Tom Ray: Yeah, no, and on a side note, and I think I contacted you about this, but there’s the whole opposite of what you Just described that’s on me. Because in 2018 my band had released a EP On BlocSonic that we did. That took us a year. We were going through some turmoil. Our guitarist didn’t like the direction we were going, blah, blah, blah. It’s one of those things where like even me saying that he’s going to go, that’s not what it was. It was one of those situations, you know. And then just one day he up and quit. Well, in the process, while we were working on, a follow up for that, I, had been writing music in the background. I had been doing what I do now where I just kind of mess with ideas in the daw and then, you know, come back to him maybe later, something like that. And before our guitarist left and we had had success with the EP that we released on BlocSonic, I was like, well, let’s do this. Let’s do what they do on BlocSonic and collaborate with others. So I released the stems and did a call out. Now, during this time, you were one of the people that go here. I just remixed one of your songs from the stems that we did. And I was like, oh, that’s great. Then our guitarist quit. Then I was like, okay, I’ve got all these song ideas that I’ve been writing down. What if we, with the remaining members, get together and put this album out? So we focused on that. Come to seven years later when I’m doing my second remix album. Somebody sent me one that they shared to me on Google Drive and I go, oh, I gotta find it. So I just typed in remix and then I see this other song and I was like, wait a minute, what is this? I pull it up and it’s the remix you did 70 years ago. And like basically like from time factors and things that happened, I had forgotten all about it and I pulled it up and I remember going, oh yeah, this thing. And then I’m listening to it and going, oh my God, oh my God.

Timezone LaFontaine: Whoa.

Tom Ray: You know, and just forgot all about it. And it’s this amazing remix that you did. And I felt so bad and so stupid that I forgot all about it. When you took the time and effort and then going to. With what you just said there, you must have like. I probably didn’t respond to when you sent it to me because so much had happened and I want to say I responded to you when we decided to put it on the most recent remix album that we did. I wanted to say I explained it to you, but it’s one of those things where it’s like in an email. That’s not. It’s not going to make as much sense as going. We seriously were going through some crap, and it was just like a collision of the perfect storm where it was completely forgotten. So I wanted to officially explain that to you, first of all, and also just go, that was an amazing remix you did. So anyway, there’s that.

Timezone LaFontaine: Well, yeah, no problem, man. That’s understandable. And I’m glad it’s ended up being like a cool little time capsule.

Tom Ray: Oh, my God, it was amazing. When I pulled it up, I was just like, what?

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah, I. You know, I keep pretty good tabs on everything that I do. And, sometimes, like, things happen in life and then a significant amount of time passes, and then you’re like, what happened to that one project? And you go like, looking through your archives and find it. And so one, one thing that was like that for me was like, I did this collaboration way back in, like the early 2000s with this, this artist post, K. Dumarais. And we had this project called Subtropics. And we, we met each other. We were living in the same town in the Northwest. And then we both happened to move back closer to where we were born. So he moved back to New Orleans. I moved back to Florida at that time. But we were like, let’s. And we had played together in a couple of bands in the Northwest, but we’re like, let’s keep on collaborating long distance and visit each other and stuff like that.

Tom Ray: Okay.

Timezone LaFontaine: We. We made this album Like, it’s just called Subtropics. That’s the project in the album title.

Tom Ray: The one that you just released in October.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yes.

Tom Ray: Okay.

Timezone LaFontaine: And, we had almost finished it, and then Hurricane Katrina happened and like, that threw everything off. And then we made another attempt to finish it, and, other types of drama happened. And eventually, you know, time passed and it never, like, actually got released. And so I was talking to him earlier this year, and I was like, man, that’s a really good album. Let’s release it. And so I. I went back and lightly remastered it. it’s pretty raw, but it’s. It’s so cool. And it’s like, far enough away. It’s enough time had passed. I can kind of listen to it almost as if it was like someone else, you know, I’m m not so focused on critique, you know, like, as artists, we’re often very harsh critics of ourselves.

Tom Ray: Yes.

Timezone LaFontaine: Going through stuff and then later on, you can like relax a little bit and be like, yes, this is cool. So, yeah, so, we got it finally released on like, lathe cut vinyl record and sounds.

Tom Ray: Yeah, I saw that.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah.

Tom Ray: So, and this was something I did.

Timezone LaFontaine: Like all new artwork for it.

Tom Ray: Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, nice. And I did see that artwork. It was, So you had just. And it was interesting too because you released that in October and then you released the Unrealist in November and they are two distinctively different albums. So that explains a lot then because this was actually a period of time and then it was lost and then it was found again. So. All right, yeah. How are you making the records? What are you doing them through the actual, vinyls?

Timezone LaFontaine: So, well, I was looking into different lathe cut services and I found this one, it’s in the UK called Elastic Stage. And you know, my, my concern was I didn’t, you know, I figured sound quality isn’t going to be great. You know, I was trying to research a lot of it online. People say like, oh, you know, lathe cuts sound just as good as a pressed record or well, there’s a lot of surface noise, you know. And so I did like. Well, I use this software, I think it’s called Perfect Groove and it, it’ll like generate the, what the grooves look like at a microscopic level, flag m any issues you have with your mix. So, you know, the main things are, you know, you don’t want things to be so loud that the grooves can actually touch each other. Right. Or something like that, or have too much in the highest frequencies because the needle and style, you know, stylus can’t physically keep up with things like that. So really, I mean it’s, it’s a, an art and a science like mastering for vinyl. There’s a lot to it. But, you know, I did, I did a test cut with them and I was like, oh, they even let.

Tom Ray: You do a test cut?

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah. Oh, all right. And it’s like really, really good sound quality. You know, in my opinion, I’ve been, I’m not like the kind of person who buys like a five thousand dollar needle for a record player like that type of audiophile level. There’s definitely people that are like that. But I’ve been DJing with vinyl for decades, so I, I have my own opinions about sound quality and I think it sounds like a lot better than what I was expecting. Like it sounds very, very good. So I’m really happy with that service.

Tom Ray: Okay.

Timezone LaFontaine: Having said that, I don’t know. How long are they going to last? I don’t know.

Tom Ray: Right. Yeah, that’s. That is something that’s, especially over the years, has been factored in. There was one company that was out of Seattle, I remember they used to do short pressings. Like they would do even like 20, you know, like that little. And it was because they found or acquired or something, some sort of, like one of the, like, single pressing machines. It was just something they found and they were like, oh, we’ll offer this service. And they did it. And then around the time we were toying with the idea, they shut down because basically the machine broke and that was it. That was. There was nothing else they could do.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah, Yeah. I mean, you know, we’ve seen vinyl have a resurgence in popularity and CDs now as well. And, you know, I think they’re cool mediums. I. I don’t. I mean, I. A lot of people might be into that for nostalgic reasons, but to me, it’s just like another medium in the present. And especially having grown up in the time that I did haven’t come up in this era. It’s like vinyl was like the holy grail. But it’s always like, too expensive. I can’t afford, you know, to. To buy a thousand copies and then I would sell like 100 if I’m lucky, you know.

Tom Ray: Exactly. Yeah. No, you still have to have some marketing instinct going, am I really gonna sell these?

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah, probably not. But these are like made on demand, so I’m like, I can. That’s cool. Yeah.

Tom Ray: I didn’t know that. Okay. On demand is definitely a much more handy way to do it. But it’s also that process in any way, shape or form is always a little bit more expensive too. But that’s the give and take of it. I mean, that’s what you have to deal with. And you’ve mentioned before, too. You said, you know, with the needles and everything, that sounded wrong. That sounded, you know, with your history with needles, that you dj. And, one of the things you do is you DJ on the Block Report podcast, which it’s the block tha. Because there is actually a podcast called the Block Report, which is like a news podcast or something.

Timezone LaFontaine: Really. Okay.

Tom Ray: Yeah, there is. If you spell it T, H, E, and then block with. So BlocSonic is just bloc, which is always hard to remind. My spell check thing that, yes, this is proper.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah.

Tom Ray: But the Block Report is spelled block like it’s a city block. Anyway, you DJ on that. I Don’t know why I just went into like, all of a sudden I’m a grammar teacher. but you DJ on also, like share the different artists on BlocSonic and stuff. So what do you do for that? How are you. How are you doing that DJ set?

Timezone LaFontaine: So, yeah, it’s like Tha Bloc Report is about an hour long. Donnie Ozone hosts it. And we’ll play like new releases or music from the archives, just like the full cuts. And then in the middle I do this mini mega mix called the 20 Minute Workout, which is more like, you know, a minute of each song going through many songs rapidly and beat matching and mixing them in key, just going through the entire BlocSonic catalog. So it’s something that like we’ve been doing for about three years now. We took it over for after Pot C moved on from Tha Bloc Report. And it’s been going really well and it’s just like, really fun way to explore the Block Sonic catalog, which is. I think BlocSonic has a reputation of being primarily hip hop, but it’s actually very eclectic with all sorts of. I mean we’re on it.

Tom Ray: So that hip hop band. Yeah.

Timezone LaFontaine: and it’s just a process of exploration for me and I’m. I’ve just am constantly impressed with all the releases on there. So it’s, it’s a lot of fun.

Tom Ray: Yeah, no, it’s. It the. The work that they do and continue to put out. And the way that Mike approaches it too, because he approaches it like record store releases. Not in the sense that he’s going, hey, it’s all vinyl. But he has specifics on like, okay, this is a, like the, the amount of songs and length that it should be is relative to say this is an EP 12 inch release or a, you know, he releases them. And I don’t remember the specs off the top of my head, but I know when we did rep, he was just like, can you make this song longer? Or something like that, where it had to so we can release it as this. Otherwise it’s going to be released as this. And I’m like, I don’t understand the difference. It’s just going to be released.

Timezone LaFontaine: Right?

Tom Ray: But I, Then when I looked at the site more I’m like, oh, I get it. Because he does the, he does the PDF where it’s laid out just like the artwork that would be on an album and the inner sleeve and all that kind of stuff. And he really does that attention to detail and it’s pretty fun. Once you get it. Yeah, yeah.

Timezone LaFontaine: It’s really well organized and you know, to me it’s like, I think about the future of doing stuff like that. I’ll continue to do the 20 minute workout on the block report for a while longer, but at a certain point I want to either, you know, shift it over to its own stream and also include music from all of the other Creative Commons labels and. Or get a show on like a community radio station that’s actually terrestrial broadcasting, and rep all the stuff on radio, I think.

Tom Ray: What is the community radio station in your location? I’m always listening to different community radios and college radios and I’m always looking for something new. What’s yours?

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah, there’s, ah, Asheville FM 103.3.

Tom Ray: Okay.

Timezone LaFontaine: And yeah, really cool radio station. And it seems like it would be a, a good angle, you know, for a type of show that they don’t already have, just to rep Creative Commons music in general.

Tom Ray: Okay. Yeah, no, sorry, it’s. That was a short tangent on mine just because we’re always. Because, the other down. The up and downfall of it is the shows are only an hour long, but then what’ll happen is like, especially on Sundays, every damn community radio station in town plays really bad tropical music. Like they have some sort of like Caribbean hour. And not in a good way, like modern. Like, I don’t know, it’s like. It’s like the Mustang Sally type blues version of Caribbean music. You know, like the kind where it’s like. That’s not really it anyway, that’s my opinion anyway. And so we’re always searching and we run out of stations to try because of that. So I always like to have extra ones to go to. all right, sorry. Now the next thing I wanted to ask about because you brought this up in the beginning and I want to make sure I don’t forget. So you said making comics. What comics are you making? What are you doing? What’s your, your thing in comics?

Timezone LaFontaine: I’ve been working on this comic series for a long time and it’s it’s called Zoom Bats.

Tom Ray: Zoom Bats. Oh, okay.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah.

Tom Ray: And that’s in your header.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah,

Tom Ray: Okay.

Timezone LaFontaine: And, so I started this when I was like, albums.

Tom Ray: Okay.

Timezone LaFontaine: I started drawing this, writing and drawing the story when I was about half the age that I am now. And It’s a long continuing story. It’s like a road trip adventure that takes place in another world. But the main characters are like there’s obviously a lot of similarities to our world, here, but the main characters are like working class artists and as they travel, they’re just talking about their lives and their cultures and communities and you start to piece together the, the backdrop of their world. It’s like this, you know, this struggle with this oppressive kind of like interplanetary trade organization that has gained more, more power than the local governments. Okay. So, but you know, I started it at a younger era of my life and then I life stuff happened. I couldn’t work on it for a while. And so when I have returned to it, it’s interesting because now I’ve got more experience and perspective and I’m kind of like, you know, adapting the focus of the story to things that interest me more now as well.

Tom Ray: So are you writing, drawing and like doing everything on it?

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah. Okay.

Tom Ray: See, that’s the hardest part is for me, it’s the writing, like the drawing, no problem. But, but actually writing it out. It’s like, oh, I’m going to make a comic where. What the hell do I do?

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah, yeah, I, I definitely can, relate. It’s not, it’s not easy for me, but it’s a really cool challenge. And it’s also the kind of thing where it’s like, I wanted to make this at like, you know, a certain level of quality in drawing and writing. But inevitably you can see as time goes on that you’re, you’re improving, you know, you’re getting better. So that’s, you can’t hide that. I know some artists will want to like, go back and redraw things they did years ago. I m. Don’t want to do that. I don’t really want to try and conceal my growth process. So you can see that if that’s something that you’re interested in as an artist yourself, you know, I think it’s helpful to see that everybody is growing and developing. And also, you know, I, I print these. I consider it print first, but you can also read it all for free on my website if you want to. So how are you printing? There’s been times when I haven’t had enough money for things like books. Yeah, at times. So I understand. But you know, if you, if you can, it’s like they’re beautifully printed. Much nicer than like the Xerox copies that I started out with.

Tom Ray: Oh, you did do the Xerox copies?

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah.

Tom Ray: Okay.

Timezone LaFontaine: Like I used to work in, Kinko’s in the middle of the night. So I was like up in there, do the. Do the jobs that came in and then by about midnight or 2am it’s time to do the zines. Do the show flyers for. Not just for my own group, but for everybody in town. Like we. I was like, you know, I’m in a band. But there’s this other aspect to the band, which is a collective that reaches outward and collaborates with other people. So I’ve always been about that.

Tom Ray: So how are you printing them now then?

Timezone LaFontaine: I use this service called mixam. And you know, you just upload a PDF and specify like they’ve got options for what types of paper, this and that.

Tom Ray: Okay.

Timezone LaFontaine: And it’s actually because at first I was like, well, I’ll just go to It’s not Kinko’s anymore but FedEx office or whatever. Right?

Tom Ray: Yeah.

Timezone LaFontaine: Their machines these days are crappy and they use crappy paper and they’re expensive. So this service is less expensive and higher quality.

Tom Ray: Yeah, in the. I like the being able to choose the paper on the inside. I did try doing, So my stuff is a lot more like the Gold Key Dell comics of, you know, kids comics. Like that’s. I finally had to come to terms with the fact like I’m not going to be a fine artist. I’m always going to be a cartoony guy. There’s just no way around it. So what I used to like to do is I would make my own at home, but I had a color printer and I would buy old yellowish, construction, like crappy construction paper from the dollar store. So it would be like the pages in those Gold Key comics and then do a glossy cover. So I would do my own on that and I’d print them out on at home. And then when I was done doing it, I’m like, does this cost more?

Timezone LaFontaine: I didn’t know.

Tom Ray: I didn’t know how to factor in the cost. So yeah, you at Kinko’s, you probably just got to do it for free, Right? So you even got the cheap, the cheap way to print and doing it for free. So.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah, yeah, that was like. It was, you know, it was strategic. That’s why I got that job because I was like, I want to be able to do this for my own projects but also help out everybody else. All the other artists I know.

Tom Ray: Yeah. Kind of like when I moved out of my parents house, I had a second job working at a pizza place because then I didn’t have to buy food.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah.

Tom Ray: So how are you Promoting these books. Are you, are you taking them to shows? Are you, just selling them online? Like, how are you, how are you promoting them?

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah, I have, I have tabled at like independent comics shows.

Tom Ray: Fun. Okay.

Timezone LaFontaine: It’s a tough, It’s a tough situation though. Like, it is you know, even like I was just there to pedal my wares and it was very overwhelming for me. It’s like, you know, it’s. It’s noisy. I like to get around and see other people’s work. But you go to like each table, it’s like, you know, this much space and they’ve. And it’s like this explosion of creativity and it’s like overwhelming. So, I wish there was some better way to do that or like, in addition. Yeah. Because I also saw, you know, in. In like comics and kind of like geek type culture. There’s a lot of people with neuro diversity and stuff like that. And I could see they were, you know, people were clearly struggling in this loud, chaotic environment. So I was like, there’s got to be something better than this. I was talking to my wife about that. You know, I don’t know what it is. but you know, I put stuff online and I send stuff out to. There’s a few places where you can, People do reviews and things like that. So little by little it gets out there.

Tom Ray: That’s cool. Yeah. Funny story about me tabling when I used to go to those shows. I take. I went. I tabled at a few here in town. And then, one time during the, it was like maybe in the fall or something, we went to Milwaukee, which is like an hour and a half away to go to. Just to go to a comic convention that was there, an independent one. We’re going there and we walk up to this table and there’s my name on it. And I’m like, oh my God, I forgot that I actually, I actually applied to get a table at this show. Clearly they didn’t contact me back. I forgot all about it because I want to say, like it was because you have to, you have to contact these people like a year ahead of time to get placement. And I had probably done it along with all the other ones that I submitted to and then just completely forgot. And then I went to it and I’m like, there’s my name on this empty table. Yeah. Anyway, okay, so, now you have this new album out, the Unrealist. You have the subtropics out. Are you planning to play Live at all. Are you doing any other promotion for it? Are you? What, what can we expect from these two new albums?

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah, I periodically will do live streams on my Twitch channel and so I’m gearing up to do some more of those. I don’t do it like a regular, regular basis like weekly, but when I get them lined up and scheduled out it will be like you know, weekly for a few weeks. And so it’ll be a similar type of thing where I do like live mixes and remixes of some my own stuff. And then you know also some segments where we talk about music in some fun ways. And I am also you know an animator and a video editor. So I’m like just like I. For 20 minute workout I’ll be grabbing these samples from old commercials like shows and this and that. Like I’m also like adapting like TV commercials from back in the day but changing them into modifying them into commercials for times of Lafontaine and stuff like that. It’s just like you know, fun little diversions and whatnot. But I also like some of my performances on them are like one time like it’s like an album that hasn’t been released. It’s like a one time performance of a set of music. So I did that earlier like in February of this year. so get your tape recorder and set it next to the screen. You can get like a very rare release. Isn’t available anywhere else.

Tom Ray: Exactly. And do you have any other plans for things coming up in the future that you wanted to mention to anyone?

Timezone LaFontaine: not really. As I just finished.

Tom Ray: You did just release two albums. I’m just checking.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah, that was a lot. I’m shifting gears back to like next year is going to be mostly focusing on comics, more comics. Because it’s interesting that making music and drawing comics, they both are very fulfilling but they also give me a very different feeling.

Timezone LaFontaine: At the end of the day. So like with music it’s almost like athletic or martial arts practice. And I’m like kind of really energized afterwards I might not be satisfied with what has happened, but it’s like it’s good in that way. And then with comics it’s like after I’ve been drawing and I finish a page, I feel so serene. It’s like meditation, or something. So yeah I’m thankful. In our world it’s like chaos. Like it’s crazy intense. Everything is at maximum intensity around us. I’m really thankful to have artistic practices that ground me and center me like that.

Tom Ray: Yeah. And I can absolutely relate. When I was focusing on my comics, I always kept thinking to myself, I keep feeling like I’m trying to work on music more, even though I’m trying to finish these comics. Now I’m focusing on music more. And I’m like, God, I miss drawing comics.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah.

Tom Ray: It’s literally like the. The worst relationship in the entire world, but also the greatest.

Timezone LaFontaine: Anytime, like, one of your creative practices get really gets going, it’s sparking all these other ideas for other directions you can go in. And that’s when you need, like, some discipline and experience to discern. Because not every idea that pops up is going to be a good idea that’s worth Right using that time for. So. Yeah. But it’s. It’s a good problem to have is like.

Tom Ray: It is.

Timezone LaFontaine: It is.

Tom Ray: I. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I’m just going. I’m just going, shut up, brain. I’m doing this right now.

Timezone LaFontaine: Yeah.

Tom Ray: So now, if people wanted to check out your music and your comics, where could they go do that?

Timezone LaFontaine: Well, you know, I would say go to my bandcamp page, timezonelafontaine.bandcamp.com and you can find links to everything else from there. But that’s. That’s a good central hub. And anytime, like I schedule, a live stream or something like that, I’ll post it to my community there. Okay.

Tom Ray: All right. Well, I want to thank you so much for talking with me today.

Timezone LaFontaine: Thank you, Tom. It’s been fun.