Her – “We’re in a band called TOTONOKO and we like to joke that it’s post-coital freak folk. Right now we’re in a more acoustic space, with a guitar/vox/violin set up, but that may be subject to change. We like to straddle the line between what’s exciting on a sensual level, and what sparks us intellectually. Music to feel to, music to dream to.”
Him – “Yes, exactly. We want the music to be experimental but not cold, heartfelt but not boring. Introspective but not self-obsessed, extroverted but not deaf.”
“Is it hard to date someone and be in a band with them?”
“It’s a lot easier than it sounds. We’re very good at making our own space and time, for the most part, but we do sometimes argue about things. Usually it’s not about the direction of the music – we trust each other a lot, and I think that’s very important – but about our own interpersonal politics. We’re lucky to have an excellent collaborative partner in Tim Kim, who has always taken our intimacy in stride and offered his own in wonderfully balancing fashion – it’s important to have someone outside the domestic unit offer their perspective, and their ideas, because we could very well just feed off one another artistically, infinitely. When you occupy so much of the same space together, it’s really necessary to bring the outside in, or go out to meet it.”
“Yes, our friend Daniel Wright, who co-produced our album was helpful too in a similar way, where he was able to make us feel like we weren’t just a couple that writes songs together, but also two distinct humans with distinct voices.”