[Goodsir]

Goodsir: Was there anyone in your life that introduced you to music, or did you open up to it yourself? If someone else did, who was it?

MrFrogger: Well, from a very early age I was exposed to music. My mom went to a small liberal arts college in Ohio, where the local radio station single handedly influenced her music taste for the next decade. When I was a kid, she would always put on New Order, R.E.M. and what "child friendly" material she could extract from the Violent Femmes catalogue. That probably formed my earliest taste more than anything; I had to get a new copy of New Order's Substance because I wore the first one out from overuse.

Goodsir: Wow, that's a really unique, yet great starting point! Did anyone else influence your musical taste?

MrFrogger: I really just stuck to that until I started getting a bit curious around age 12 or 13, and started scouring the internet for "Best of lists" and the like. Like many others I saw the Rolling Stone list, and tried listening to the top albums off that, but got bored of it quickly and moved on. Probably the most influential list that I found during that time was a word press blog that was called something like "The objectively greatest indie records of all time!" or some shit like that. That introduced me to The Unicorns, of Montreal, The Shins, and most importantly, Animal Collective.

Goodsir: When I was a child, I found some of my favorite albums because I liked the cover. Did you ever experience a situation like that?

MrFrogger: Definitely. I was really transfixed with the Grateful Dead's imagery, and found the whole culture to be really warm and welcoming. I was probably the only 14 year old around with a "Steal Your Face" shirt. Another one was The Clash, I saw the London Calling cover on the wall of a cafe, and thought it was the most rock 'n roll thing I've ever seen. Now that I think of it, that may be where my love of punk music originated from. That, and getting pissed at all the scene kids and trying to out-punk them.

Goodsir: This will be a pretty common question in most of the interviews, but how did you discover BEA? Did a friend direct you or was it by chance?

MrFrogger: Like a lot of people, I Googled "Best *blank* album" a couple times, and the site always appeared as one of the top hits. Then one day a friend mentioned to me that you could make lists on their, which excited me, and I registered that day.

Goodsir: Are there any extremely important albums for you that you discovered through BEA?

MrFrogger: Oh, definitely. I've discovered more albums through the site than anywhere else, looking at my top 10; I've discovered half of them through the site. My current #2 album, Ys, was discovered after seeing it in a couple different places on the site, but specifically Purple's chart, as it was his #1 at the time. That's also how I discovered Another Green World, with Saoirse's chart, and Spiderland, with Borve's.

Goodsir: Whenever I make a chart, I always connect each album to a certain time or place that I listened to each one. Do you ever connect albums to places or times? If so, do these times and places affect your chart and overall enjoyment of each album?

MrFrogger: Well, it doesn’t happen too often for me, as most of my first listens are just me, sitting at my desk, but when it does happen, it persists. A couple of the more monumental occasions for me, is listening to The Glow Pt. 2 sitting on a swing in my backyard around midnight, listening to Pink Moon while watching the rain fall on the window, and listening to Astral Weeks while stoned at a friend’s house.

Goodsir: Are there any musical artists that you look up to, almost like idols?

MrFrogger: Obviously Animal Collective, they've been my favorite artist for about 5 years now, what I instantly loved about them was the amount of emotion and life experiences they pour into their music, and how they're not afraid to completely reinvent their sound from album to album. I think I also connected with them as people, and how the band started as the four of them in high school, living in the suburbs, being the kids who listened to "the weird music". Aside from them, I absolutely idolize Dylan, for similar reasons musically, and obviously lyrically. A couple more that I adore include David Bowie, Brian Eno, and The Beach Boys.

Goodsir: Have you ever been to any live shows? If so, what were your favorites and what were the best experiences you had?

MrFrogger: Yeah, I love going to shows. It's hard to nail down a favorite, but it might be last Halloween, when me and Silverwalrus went to see The Flaming Lips, Tame Impala, and White Denim preform their Halloween Bloodbath Show, which involved Tame Impala playing their whole set in drag(and what a crazy fucking set it was) and Wayne Coyne dressing up as Carrie, complete with white dress, blonde wig and bouquet, then being drenched with fake blood as the band played the theme to John Carpenter's Halloween as confetti and balloons flew everywhere. Another favorite is seeing Yo La Tengo playing a 25 minute version of "The Story of Yo La Tengo", and Ira Kaplan absolutely demolishing his guitar, and in the process breaking every fucking string. Also, I loved seeing Animal Collective preform a 20 minute "Brother Sport" jam, which involved Panda Bear screaming his guts out, and Deakin jumping around in front of the crowd.

Goodsir: One last question, have you ever been out casted because of your "weird musical taste"? People can be cruel, and this is something that unfortunately happens all too often.

MrFrogger: I wouldn't go as far to say out casted, it's more become a joke with some of my friends, that I only listen to noise and shit. I mean, it's not like I'll go to a party and just be pissed at the music the whole night, if a handful of people there enjoy it, let them, I wouldn't particularly love to hear the DJ blasting some Swans anyway. Great way to clear a room full of teenagers, though.

MrFrogger: That was fun, thanks for that.

Goodsir: Yes, it was a pleasure! Thank you for your time!

I must say, I really enjoyed doing this interview! 😁 The questions I asked were completely improvised, and MrFrogger answered all of them with great detail and lots of information. This was just a generally fun interview, and I would honestly do it again if I could.

[MrFrogger]

Thanks for interviewing me, I had a good time


and before someone points it out, I realize I used the wrong form of "there"

[Defago]

[drakonium]

Awesome! It still is not clear why Frogger's tastes exactly conform to the coolness factor of the artists, though 😜

[MrFrogger]

[Guest]

[Cymro2011]

[Guest]

[Cymro2011]