Felix Chofmoskee: Playing By Ear

Felix Chofmoskee listens. A lot. The self-taught, California-based guitarist has to. He plays guitar By Ear, the two-word title of his recently released album under the moniker Roman Circus. The album meanders through groovy, dreamy rock, wandering in and out of genre-themes like the phaser that frequently flits through its tracks. Chofmoskee gets down, crooning in Spanglish over his spacey guitar while a satisfyingly simple drum and bass back him up. I caught up with the self-proclaimed ghetto guitarist in between his spaceship night shift and marathon recording session to chop it up about picky pedals, guitar hero and the pervasive power of Purple Groove.

CC: I know you were working on music how’d it go?

FC: Yea, Friday was my day off. I woke up late and hit the studio around 11:00 (in the morning) and we didn’t get out of there til 1:00 in the morning. We try to get a lot of shit done when we’re in there. It’s all live, no computerized elements. Me and my friend Santoyo. He’s a drummer who can record and produce and I do the bass, guitar, and sing.

Talk to me about your sound.

I try to hunt pedals and pick out the ones that sound amazing. These are some pretty sought after pedals. I have some vintage boss pedals from the Japan era. I also have this one wah-wah pedal called the singing geisha. It’s the best wah I’ve ever had.

Is that where that space-dream-beach-rock sound comes from?

Yea it’s a combination of that and the phaser running in and out. It’s a staple of my playing man. It’s my baby.

Where’s that influence come from?

I got my first wah pedal cause I heard Jimi Hendrix ripping, just fucking shredding, and i wanted to fuck with it. I bought one- a really crappy pedal. Then I started differentiating, looking for sounds and tones. I do research and hunt down different pedals. I look at craigslist, whatever, just to see what I can find. Sometimes I get lucky.

Tell me about roman circus. Where’d you get the name?

I got it from this interview. I can’t remember the guy’s name, I think it was with William Cooper or Bill Cooper. He uses roman circus to describe the state we’re all living in. How we’re all distracted by media and other kinds of shit that’s irrelevant to actual life. We’re all thrown into the roman circus with a bunch of distractions and shit that keep us from living, you know, true life. So yea. That stuck with me. And it sounds cool too. (laughs)

I want to give light to the distraction. I want to help people be aware. Cause some people are existing, but they’re not alive. You know?

Do you think your music portrays the same message?

I do like to mess with consciousness. I want that as a constant message in my music.

How’d you learn to play?

I used to play guitar hero when I was young. My sister had this boyfriend and he played guitar. He played by ear. He was just like, “Hey we have the same music interests. I can show you some shit.” I used to like punk and metal. He liked that stuff too so I was like “Alright, cool.”  

He showed me the basics and bar chords and we would jam here and there. But then they broke up and I just learned by ear. Mainly just jammin on my own. People are really teachers in our lives. They’re all here to show us a lesson, you know? You just gotta pick up on it.

I know you just came out with a new album as Roman Circus, By Ear. Talk to me about it.

Man I just wanted to get some stuff out there, really. I have a bunch of material just laying around. But with that album I kinda wanted it to be all over the place. Purple Groove is way different from Misty Morning is different from Dry Mouth. I didn’t have a concept, but I think it’s still groovy though. It was experimental and it’s given me direction for my next project. It’s gonna be more chill.

When can we expect this next project?

Honestly, I’m always on it man. That’s all I wanna do dude. I work twelve hour shifts then hit the studio and I won’t leave til like 5:00 in the morning. Exhausted, but I just wanna get shit done.

This next EP is gonna have six songs again. I already have two tracks done so, what’s that, four more. I’ll send you some more demos.