Bug Bus Piano Interview
by Owen Mahoney
20 August 2025
Bug Bus Piano by Owen Mahoney
How’s your day been? What’s a normal Bug Bus Piano Tuesday look like?
A normal Bug Bus Tuesday? I've been waking up super early lately, so that means 9 or 10. When I was setting up for Chester Fest, I was waking up at seven every day and doing drills, plugging stuff in, tearing it down, setting it up. I was practicing to do it as fast as possible. That wasn’t my typical Tuesday. Today I woke up at 10, went shopping, and got some yogurt. I'm trying to eat healthy. Then, I sat down and started mixing in Audacity. I was also trying to learn Ableton, but I hit a wall. I think now I just need to switch to an arrangement view and focus on that. I'm working on getting this LP done for Stern Records. I have about six songs that are almost there.
How was Chester Fest? I wish I could have made it.
It was amazing. It was mostly friends and friends of friends, which I expected because it's hard to get there by train. But it was so good. We recorded most of the sets. I was running around, red in the face, and I probably looked like I wasn’t having any fun at all. I looked pissed off, but I was having fun. I was just locked in.
Chesterfest 2025, Chester, NY.
How is it working with Stern Records? The Out Under Streets LP seemed to do really well.
Stern is run by a great guy. He’s a professional with the whole process of putting an album out. It's so alien to me. I usually just take some songs I've been working on, put them together, find a theme, and release it. But doing the LP is the opposite. You have to really think about it. It was nerve-racking, but it worked out. We sold out and broke even, which is the best you can hope for. It's a small label, but I want to work with him for as long as I can.
Your Instagram seems to be a wide array of feelings, from shitpost to promotional and then personal stories. How do you decide when one thing gets posted versus the other?
I’d say it's almost therapeutic for me. When I look at my page, I think, "This guy just posts a bunch of bullshit, like a random extension cord?" But when I'm posting it, I'm like, "That's such a beautiful extension cord." It means something to me. Me and my friend August used to use this cord when we were kids to plug the N64 into it. When I found it at the house he grew up in, it was a super emotional moment. It’s a post for me, but to make it work for other people, I’ll turn it into a joke and say it’s "limited edition," like I’m trying to sell it. Then with my homie Shane, we used to post each other all the time and edit our faces. That was around the time people started doing super high-def, oversaturated photos. We loved doing that. We lived together, worked at the same job, spent all our waking moments together. I keep trying to recreate this one post from 2015 where we covered the entire floor in every wire we owned.
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You’ve expressed to me before that you wanted to do movies. What does this look like to you?
I'll spoil the plot but not the delicious details. Basically, I had this idea where I was going to quit music. I think it's a normal human thing where one day you wake up and think, "I'm done making music." You make this resolution and, of course, two weeks later, you're back at it. So, I decided I was going to release an album, and that would be it. No more albums ever again. I’d still make music, but from then on, everything would be packaged as a Gesamtkunstwerk. It’s a German term meaning the "ultimate art form," where visual, audio, and performance come together. Traditionally it's meant for theater, but my idea was to make it a film instead. That way, you’d have something you can hold. It's not revolutionary. Bands like The Who, and Pink Floyd have done this. I wanted to make my music only available that way. I love these movies that would have an 80s sci-fi aesthetic, dystopian, disgusting, VHS-style worlds. Unlike the typical darkness, I want mine to be positive, where good things happen, just wrapped in that aesthetic. I was going to make a movie called Wet Heads. It takes place in a future where there's no more water and the East Coast is dried up because massive Disney-type corporations have extracted it all. People have lived like this for so long that they've adapted. Then a guy is born who can smell fresh water underground, aquifers and hidden sources. Communities use his ability to bring water back. I was obsessed with that idea. I’ll make it soon.
How has NYC versus Seattle shaped your music differently? Or has it really not made a difference?
When I started working as a dishwasher in Seattle, it made me want to drown everything out. I think that’s what pushed me towards ambient music, something to clean the brain. You just want to block out the chaos. In the kitchen, all you hear is heavy metal blaring. You come home and need to breathe. I made Out Under Streets while I was in Seattle during some really traumatic and formative years. I needed to wash my hands of that chapter and finish it. Seattle was dark for me, not in a bad way, just heavy. New York, on the other hand, has been more positive. It moves faster, and that’s helped my work ethic. Last month I flew back to Seattle, and the first thing I noticed was how slow everyone was walking. I realized how much New York has changed me. I was getting frustrated without even meaning to.
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What are some techniques you use when making a track?
The sauce is taking a really short sample, rearranging some notes, chopping it up, slowing it way down, putting it on tape, and varying the speed. Then I’ll try to find an instrument that matches, so it sounds like it was part of the original recording. Putting it on tape glues everything together. I don’t sample as much now, but when I did, I always wanted to trick people, to make it sound like either I made the whole thing or the sample did. Tape recording helps with that because it degrades things in a way I like. Memory works like that too, things blur and lose quality over time. That idea might be played out, but I still love it.
After making music for over 13 years, has it gotten easier or harder?
I’d say it’s gotten harder. Every time I start something new, it feels like starting over. Maybe that's just the funk I'm in right now. Performing has gotten easier. I don’t get nearly as nervous on stage anymore. That changed just this year. I started playing more, and the anxiety faded. The show you guys put on helped a lot. It went a long way in breaking that fear.
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