The Dog Show Records-signee talks “Thos Moser,” medieval type beats, PC Music and much more
As I wait for Gupi to pick up the phone, I have one question running through my head: “What on earth does Thos Moser mean?” Our interview was scheduled right after the release of the idiosyncratic visuals for the track “Thos Moser” off his newest album, None. The corners of the web that obsess over experimental pop had been hysterical about the music video. It jumps between mini-skits, glitched out datamosh, and self-referential inside jokes at the speed of light (or the speed of Internet). Musically, the song feels like SOPHIE meets Skrillex with a dash of metalcore. It doles out equal disses to nightcore, Zedd and Elon Musk amidst a wink to Caroline Polachek. It’s the modern pop fan’s wet dream, but engaging with the song itself doesn’t offer any clues as to what ‘Thos Moser’ is.
“It’s like a wooden craftsman store,” Gupi explains once we begin our conversation. “I saw that name and said ‘what a dumb name, those are some words, huh!’”
It’s this embracement of cultural oddities and general silliness that defines the “Thos Moser” video. It features the like-minded artist Fraxiom, who Gupi speaks of as a best friend. “We sorta only communicated with each other and just enabled stupid, abnormal social behavior,” Gupi says. “The more we would see each other, the more we would break each other.” Their don’t-give-a-fuck attitude is omnipresent throughout both the video and the track, and even Gupi was surprised when it started to blow up. “We didn’t really expect people to understand it, but I guess the universal connection is the disregard of authority and social norms and being comfortable with what you like.”
While there is definitely an understanding of this among Gupi’s fanbase, there is more to his rise than just punk-style irreverence. Gupi’s newfound recognition in the pop-sphere comes fresh off the heels acts like umru and 100 gecs busting open the door of pop music for experimentation that creeps into the bizarre. It’s no surprise that Gupi is signed to Dylan Brady’s Dog Show Records, a division of Diplo’s Mad Decent (trace the dots there).
Gupi speaks about 100 gecs as “as glimmer of hope,” but his connections to them are more attitudinal than musical. We talk briefly about how pop music is, at its roots, punk, and he admits that he “[tries] to not really take it seriously at all.” He tells me about a recent studio session with Brady and fellow pop deconstructor Dorian Electra, a collaboration that ended with them “making goofy songs … making medieval type beats.”
When I ask him about his inspirations, he cites System of a Down and Britney Spears, then mentions seeing Sonic the Hedgehog on his wall. “I’m just looking at Sonic on my wall and like, he’s cool! Sometimes, I’ll just be like, I wanna make a song that makes me feel that way.” He adds that he, “gets a lot of inspiration from […] like, my imagination.” The music on his album None definitely references his musical peers and influences, but more than anything it feels free-form and wide-reaching, something that is wildly exciting in pop, a type of music that can at times be overly adherent to structure.
While his place as one of the more forward-thinking pop producers is solidified at this point, it took him a bit to find his niche. He tells me that he was in a “boring kid rock band” before experimenting with GarageBand. “I heard Skrillex just came out with ‘Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites,’ and then I remember seeing a video of the Grammys, and Deadmau5 comes out after Foo Fighters. I was like, ‘Oh shoot, I wanna do that, that’s cool as hell!’”
GarageBand led to Ableton, and Gupi naturally began to gravitate towards more esoteric sounds. Like many other artists in the experimental pop realm, PC Music was an eye-opener. “I was listening to a lot of PC Music in high school,” he says. “I was trying to recreate that somewhat. Less people were making that kind of music.”
Nowadays, PC Music is less of a concrete collective and more of a set of ideas about what is possible on the Internet with pop music. People tend to lump Gupi in with the artists that carry the PC flag today; one Reddit thread pondered over the question of Gupi being “the next step of post-PC music.” He remains unsure of the labelling. “I feel dumb saying this, because it’s a very artist thing say,” he starts warily, “but I’ve never confined myself to a genre. I tried to make what I thought sounded good.” He goes on to say, “I think it’s funny how obsessive people get with labelling and genres. I sorta wish people could just hear music and just appreciate it for what it is.”
Still, one shouldn’t understand his lackadaisical response to labelling as a lackadaisical attitude towards his craft itself. In fact, he has a pretty concrete vision. “My main goal this whole time has been to make this type of music normal, radio pop music, and force people to like it.” I mention Charli XCX, one of the vanguards of pushing new sounds in pop. He says he had a brief studio session with her, but nothing materialized. “I definitely wanna make music with artists like that. Shape the pop scene a little bit.”
When I ask who his dream collaboration is, he jumps back to Britney. “My absolute fantasy is going in a time machine and producing for Britney Spears.” He has some music with Slayyyter in the works, who he views as “this generation’s equivalent” to Britney. It’s telling that he doesn’t mention any current top 40 artists; instead, he seems to have a clear idea of influencing pop in small steps, working upwards alongside those who share his concept of what pop can become.
After telling me this, though, he pauses. “I promised myself, though, that the fun in it and all of that comes before anything else.” I push him on this, and he jumps into a story about Lil Nas X following him off the hype of “Thos Moser,” but not following Fraxiom. In his eyes, a major co-sign like this didn’t mean much if his best friend and collaborator didn’t get one too. “It’s my least favorite shit when numbers–or clout, for lack of a better word—gets in peoples’ heads.” While Gupi wants to bring his sound to the world, he doesn’t want to compromise. After all, there’s no time to make medieval type beats when you’ve sold out.