Chimchango is a musician and artist currently located in Fontucky, California, where he was born. Chimchango moved to San Antonio in 2006 and started making music in the city in 2018. Now, he’s planning to move to Arizona—so pretty please send him some money.

This interview has been edited for clarity, and brevity, and interest. But not too much.

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Where are you right now?

In my car—in my van. I’m in my childhood neighborhood.

When did you first start making music and making art? As far back as you can remember.

As far as art goes, I’ve always loved putting pencil to paper. Ever since I could—so when I was like, five, six, seven—but I never really knew what to draw. I mean, I still don’t know. [Laughs.]

And as far as music—in high school, I got a guitar and then I realized it was too hard, and I didn’t want to do it anymore. And then I started going to local shows in 2015, 2016. And I was like, damn, I should have stuck with it—because look at all these cool people [laughs] and, you know, I became friends with them and started learning again. I’d say I started taking music seriously in 2018 or so. 

What was the first local show you remember going to?

Uh, first local show was at Imagine Books and Records. I went to see a band called Octahedron, which is Elnuh’s old band. And that kind of blew me away. I thought that was interesting. Actually—no, it wasn’t Imagine—it was Jack’s Patio Grill on Thousand Oaks. I don’t know if it’s there anymore, but yeah, it was there. Same band.

So, what was the specific moment in your life when you started taking music and art creation seriously? 

There was this one night. My friend Dak was going away. I think he was moving to Dallas. So we threw a last-minute show for him at this place called the Guru; Guru is no longer there anymore. But it was a cool spot and then, you know, we still had, like, half a keg. So we went to my friend Avi’s house and we were finishing the keg and we’re all passing around the guitar and eventually the guitar got to me, and I was just playing whatever I knew at the time. And then my friends drunkenly told me, I should do this seriously and I drunkenly replied back, Yeah, I will. And that’s how that started—that’s when I decided to take it seriously.

What year was that, 2018?

Yeah, I’d say somewhere around 2018, it was definitely before Covid. And with art, I would work at an overnight job that was boring, so I would draw and people seem to like what I was drawing so I’m like, ‘Oh you know, maybe I’ll do this. This is fun.’

What were those first few songs that you were learning how to play? And what are your biggest influences? I guess your first influences, and then who influenced you later on, and how do you think those shaped you?

Oh, Front Bottoms songs. The Front Bottoms were a big inspiration because I didn’t like them, but my girlfriend at the time did. So, I was learning Front Bottoms songs and then we broke up. But I still continued to learn the songs and eventually found comfort in their music. 

So The Front Bottoms were a big influence on me, then later on in 2020 when I discovered The Frights, I was like, ‘Oh this is actually cool.’ This isn’t like The Front Bottoms, this is cool. 

Any artists that influence you art-wise?

Bryan O’Malley, the Scott Pilgrim guy. The movie was also a big influence on my life and I was like, ‘Wow, that movie is cool.’ I read the comics after and with the comics, I  was like, ‘This is great. I love this. I love the art style.’

It doesn’t take itself too seriously. Like the whole thing doesn’t—that’s where I drew inspiration from. And then, after that, you know, anime and other manga like Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha and stuff like that.

They just redid Ranma ½, actually, this last year. And then Inuyasha is also another older nineties anime. I think people mostly caught it on Toonami.

What made you want to create art? What purpose did it serve in your life? Was it like a community thing? Was it like, ‘I have to get these words out,’ or what do you think it was?

I would date girls and then obsessively draw them in my art style for practice, but then we would break up and then I’d get stuck with all these drawings of ex-girlfriends.

So I was like, ‘What do I do with these?’ So, you know, I continued to draw them and reshape them and change them up a little bit to have them become my own character. I would already have the skill of drawing them, so why not? Just like, use it for something else instead. So it was taking pain and making it into art.

Did they know you were drawing them? Or was it like a secret thing?

Oh yeah, they all know. They all know now.

They knew at the time, too?

Yeah. Yeah, so early on like one of the characters—her name is Joni and the girl that she’s based off actually helped me, right? You know, the whole thing that I was doing, she was my collaborator and she made that character after her.

That’s Cervix Sauce, right?

Yeah, that’s Cervix Sauce. So she made that character after her and then we broke up. And I’m like, well, I guess she seals her own fate. [Laughs.] But yeah, that’s how it all started. 

For someone who is unfamiliar with your work: what’s the one song you put out that you think they should listen to?

I would say “Chili Cheesecake.” It’s like one of the first songs I wrote back in 2021. There’s a bad recording and I re-recorded it last year and it’s a good recording. It seems that people like the newer recording.

I noticed a lot of your songs begin and end with snippets of people talking or conversations that people are having. Where do those come from?

They’re either things I find in stories, or just on the Internet. I’ll be going through stories and hear something that sounds cool. I’m like, ‘I’m gonna steal that for a second.’ 

For example, there’s a song I wrote called “Fishboy.” And there’s a snippet in there that I got from some girl who seemed to have been going through it—she was crying on Instagram Live, and I’m like, ‘That’d be great to put it in the song. I won’t tell her either.’

That’s funny. What are the others come from? Is it also just like Instagram Live or like, YouTube? Movies? Anything?

Uh, Twitch—nothing from movies. Nothing that can get me sued. But yeah, Twitch streamers or friends of mine. There are some of them that are just friends of mine in there—if we’re just having a conversation or something gets recorded or, you know, they send me a voice note—I’ll be like, you messed up—you messed up by sending me a voice note.

What about the Taco Bell one?

It’s a girl, she’s a streamer. She goes by LilVerrby—and I would go on her streams because she plays horror games and it’s always fun to watch. But every time I go on, we talk about stuff. She had this one 12 hour-long stream that she did. That’s a long time to stream, so I was like, I’ll write a song about it like, jokingly, and I wrote a couple things and she seemed to like it so like, alright. Well then I guess in six months, I’ll finish it.

What’s your process for creating music? How long is it typically take you? What do you start with? The melody, the lyrics? 

Um, that’s a hard one to answer. So, it varies in two different ways. It either takes me a year to write a song, or it takes me three days. Like “Chili Cheesecake” was written in I think like, under two days. But then there are other songs that will take me about a month. 

That one’s long, “Chili Cheesecake”. I feel like there’s a lot of different breaks and stuff.

Yeah, it took me two days. I was sad. I was heartbroken. 

What happened?

Oh, I don’t know, it was 2020. I was homeless. Apparently I charmed a girl enough for her to get a house so I could live with her and we started, you know, like kind-of dating and then eventually that ended and it was pretty sad, and I got an apartment moved out. And then, you know, I kind of just missed her and she would come and hang out and stuff, still, and then act like we’re still dating. It was a weird time.

But you know, before she started coming around again, I wrote that song and I was like, ‘I’m sad’ and I really don’t know what it’s about. It’s just me being sad. Yeah.

But it’s pretty upbeat.

Hey, you have to hide it somehow. 

How do you get inspired? I guess, in this case, it was sadness. But how do you typically get inspired or, if not inspired, what makes you feel like you have to make a song?

I feel like I haven’t written anything good because I haven’t been dating. I need to date someone for the purpose of being heartbroken. So I can put out something good.

Why do you think heartbreak is such a good avenue for creation? Because I feel the same way and I feel like a lot of people also make art after their hearts are broken and torn from their chest.

It’s one of the most relatable. Anyone can be heartbroken, whether it’s a girl, whether it’s, you know, a thing or a place or, you know, anything can break your heart. We’re all so fragile.

How do you handle creative blocks? Have you experienced any recently? You said you haven’t been making good music—do you feel like you’re blocked creatively?

I switch. If art gets too hard I switch to music and if music gets too hard I switch to art, so I’m still climbing up. But you know, I do have those blocks and it sucks.

Is there like a remedy you’ve discovered? Or is it just switching back and forth?

I guess a good remedy is finding inspiration. I like to listen to music to help me. If something sticks out in a song that I like, I’ll try to take note of that. Or just watching, even TV—just old shows. I used to watch like, Flight of the Concords or Portlandia and stuff like that. It’s just inspiration that you need to find somewhere, even in video games.

Yeah. I was thinking of video games—I know those have influenced your art. Can you tell me more about that?

Of course, I’ve been playing video games since as long as I can remember, maybe starting at four or five.

My first console was a Sega Genesis. It was a long time ago. And after that is was the PS-1 and, I’m kind of still stuck in that PS-1 era, where graphics weren’t quite that good but gameplay was a lot of fun. Quite the opposite of what games are today—everything looks great, but it’s kind of garbage.

But I think it’s, what do you call it—it’s like creative boundaries, right? Like, you know, it didn’t look that good because of the resolution. But the limitations when creating the character models, or the game in general—those limitations really made it what it was.

How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard it before?

I always tell people the genre is garbage rock.

Garbage rock.

Garbage rock. Yep. Because like, it’s low fidelity, it doesn’t sound great, it’s recorded on a phone, you know. But that’s the thing is, is it really? I personally enjoy shit-sounding music. I don’t like things that are overproduced or super tight, super clean. I love a little looseness in the music.

If you’ve ever listened to, like The Front Bottoms demos—I think that’s what I like. I like demo quality music. That’s it. Demo quality.

What’s a song of yours that you think is underrated? Or that you wish more people would listen to?

I put out an EP in early 2024. I forgot what it’s called. I don’t remember any of my own music. I think it’s like, “Technical Difficulties” or something. Or, I don’t know, “Personal Difficulties,” I don’t know, it’s something. I’m just gonna go look it up real quick because it’s been a while.

But I know one of them was like, “Burrito Girl.”

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. “Personal Difficulties.” How’s that coffee? I’m stalling.

The first song is “Woah, Cancer Gun” and then the second song is “Burrito Girl.” “Burrito Girl” is an old song. I wrote it in 2019 or 2020. 

They both sound really different and really good compared to most of my other music again. I didn’t try too hard on these tracks, but I really enjoy them, if I were to pick some out of mine that I really enjoy. 

What moment in your life are you most proud of? Whether it’s music related, art related or whatever—if you do have a moment that you’re most proud of.

Oh, just seeing my children take up art and music as well. Just because I do it. My daughter, she’s become such a fucking phenomenal artist, she’s great at art and, like, it’s so early. I wish I had been as great as she is at her age because she’s gonna fucking soar and then my son, he likes to write. So they’re like a dynamic duo right there. One illustrates, one writes.

Yeah, they can make comic books.

No, they do. They have made more comic books than I have. They’re great, too.

What’s the best piece of advice you have? For either fellow musicians, fellow artists or just for people that are alive, I guess.

Don’t stop. Keep going. As far as music goes, just play what you like. If you like music, if you like a certain band, learn their songs and then, before you know it, you take off writing your own.

What’s the most unexpected piece of inspiration you’ve had for a song?

Huh. That’s an interesting question. Most of my songs are just about girls, but there was one song about someone who was kind of annoying. I’ve never written anything like that before—something kind of mean.

Really—it was like, “I hate someone?”

Yeah. Kind of, I mean, like, I have unreleased diss tracks that I don’t—I don’t—

You have unreleased diss tracks? Can you send them to me?

We’re not gonna talk about that. I’ll send them to you later.

What’s the song about the annoying person?

At the time—when I was dating some girl—her and I used to talk crap about this other girl, because she was constantly on the Internet, constantly flaunting relationship stuff, and this and that. The song is called “Because the Internet,” and it’s just me saying, like, “Nobody fucking cares what you post. Stop.” That’s pretty much it. I think that’s the weirdest out of my songs for a theme.

That’s funny. 

It’s so old. I’ve been trying to re-record my old songs because I hate my first EP. It sounds like shit and I didn’t realize this until later—every song on that EP is 120 beats per minute. So nothing changes that whole EP.

It was my first time recording ever. So I didn’t pay attention to the software that I was using. I didn’t even think twice about it. Now, I definitely changd the beats per minute on all my songs or if I re-record an old one, I make it a little bit faster or slower or whatever.

What software do you use?

It’s called Bandlab. It’s a free app. I assume it’s something like GarageBand. It’s free. It’s riddled with ads. Now, it didn’t used to be riddled with ads, but it’s easy to learn, it’s easy to get comfortable with. You can also use it on your computer. So, if you’re recording on your phone, you could just load it back up on your computer and record there as well. It’s a great program, easy.

Okay, this is kind of like, an unrelated question. What’s your favorite tattoo that you have?

Ah, I like the Neversoft eyeball tattoo that I got. Oh, I think I hung out with you that day, too. I was like, “Oh I can’t stay long,” I have to go get a tattoo.

Yeah, that one. It was done by a friend of mine. My old bassist’s fiance did the tattoo and she does great work. Her name is Danae. I don’t know what shop, though. She’s out of town right now, but she does a lot of great work—so I would say that’s my favorite one.

If you weren’t making music or art,  what do you think you’d be doing instead?

Playing with Legos. I had got Legos when I was like four years old and I fucking love Legos. Excuse my language, but I love Legos. They’re great. They’re fun.

We had a box of them as a kid like that, I don’t remember actually having any kits where you follow the rules or anything. I just remember having a box of Legos. And it was super fun.

When I was a kid in this neighborhood, across the street from me there was a kid named Bradley and he had like, a huge tub of just Legos. And one day he had a garage sale and he was selling his Legos. So me and the kids all gathered money and then we bought the Legos and they let me keep them. I don’t have it anymore, I think it’s in my dad’s basement.

What’s the biggest setback you’ve ever encountered in your life?

Um, women.

Fair—but it also seems like you’ve got a lot of inspiration from them.

Yeah, it sets me back and pushes me forward.

So here’s another reason I tried not to date so often, too: when I start dating someone, I stop putting time into my creative projects, and more time into the person that I’m dating. And then when they leave, I’m like it’s all creative project time. This is all I’ve got.

How do you experiment with your sound and art? What pushes you to try something new or grow and develop as an artist?

Just hearing something new. I’ll look at something and ask, “How did they do that?” And, you know, instead of trying to find a shortcut on how to do it online or something, I try to figure it out myself—how to recreate something without knowing what I’m doing. And then that might give me a whole new sound that I didn’t know I was looking for, you know, or a new technique and art that I didn’t even know I was trying to find.

Have you ever used AI in your workflow or experimented with it? Also how do you feel about it? Because I know a lot of people hate it.

I think AI is a great tool. So here are the ways I’ve used AI—if I do get stuck in art, I will put up a prompt.  I struggle a lot with poses and stuff—so, I will put it into a prompt and then I’ll draw with the AI gives me, and then I draw that again. So, I think it’s a good learning tool instead of like, kind of ripping off other people’s art directly. I like to use that because it can’t really be traced. But, you know, I just use it as reference.

Describe your favorite project that you’ve ever done.

So, I never really finish my projects. Like I’ve been working on the Cervix Sauce thing for years. The thing is like, when I had my ex-girlfriend writing for me, we had come up with a lot of stuff, but when we stopped talking, she kept about half of it and I had about half of it.

And I never really heard back from her. So I took a break on that for like a year, and started again. But I had to do everything from scratch and write it all over again. And you know, it’s changed a lot since then.

But I mean, that’s my favorite project to work on—Cervix Sauce. Not that it’s completed or nearly completed.

Do you envision yourself completing it at one point? Or is it just kind of something you like to work on?

I know it’s gonna take years. I know it’s gonna take a while, you know. Speaking of setbacks, like losing things—I no longer have access to an iPad, and stuff like that. I was just getting used to doing digital art. So I’m back to pencil and paper, really learning how to do all that stuff and going back to my phone for edits and all that.

Are there any phrases, or lyrics or quotes that you’ve ever heard that have deeply impacted you—like a mantra? Do you have any mantras for yourself?

That one is a thinker for sure.

But I know. There’s an album by the Frights, it’s Everything Seems Like Yesterday. And not a lot of people like that album, but there’s a lot of, I guess, phrases in that album. I can’t really come to think of—but I know when I listen to it. I’m like, “Oh dang, that’s good.” Like there’s a song called “For Someone Else’s Sake.” And the title on its own, you know—I think about that a lot. Thinking about other people before myself. If I thought about that earlier in life, or if I didn’t have such a hard time learning that before, you know, it could have saved me a lot.

In what ways, would you say?

Mostly relationships, but then all those songs wouldn’t have been written and I would be a different person but, you know, we are who we are right now, so it doesn’t matter.

All right, any final thoughts? This is my last question—if you have any final thoughts or anything you’d like the world to know, or at least whoever’s gonna read this.

Uh.

Yeah.

Can I just put, “uh”? That’s my final thought. That’s it.

Yeah, you can. Perfect.

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You can find Chimchango’s music and art on Instagram, Bandcamp, Spotify, RedBubble, and more.