C.J. Red Mouth, the recording/performance name of Chapel Hill/Boston-based acoustic singer-songwriter C.J. Yang, will be playing a show at Flemington DIY on Saturday, August 6th along with Cats On Film and Mango Core (show flyer below). This is an amazing lineup that you won’t want to miss! Vax and masks strongly encouraged to keep touring musicians safe.
Cats On Film is a Boston-based indie rock duo and self-described “sad-songwriter supergroup” made up of solo acts Anxiety Superstar and Lonesome Joan. They released their Two Bridges EP last year. If you identify as a Pinenut, you will definitely dig it. If you missed Mango Core’s last show at Flemington DIY, you can check out our coverage here.
Earlier this year, C.J. released her excellent 3-song Wick EP (stream below). We recently had a chance to chat with C.J. about the EP, as well as her songwriting process and musical inspirations. Read about that conversation below and stay tuned for our coverage of the show.
RTB: How long have you been recording/performing as C.J. Red Mouth? Can you tell me a bit about your musical journey?
C.J. Red Mouth: I started recording and performing as C.J. Red Mouth in 2020, around a month before the U.S. began enforcing COVID-19 restrictions. Before that, I grew up playing piano and flute, but I didn’t pick up a guitar until college, inspired by my roommate at the time, Serena (a very dear friend of mine and an absolute musical genius). I started writing my own songs in 2019; I thought I’d just record little tunes in my bedroom on a borrowed USB mic and post them to Bandcamp occasionally, for my friends to listen to. Until I did the She Shreds 1 Riff a Day challenge in 2021, and the warmth of all these incredible musicians on the internet inspired me to try playing some virtual open mics, which ended up leading to gig opportunities. I played at the virtual Club Passim campfire. festival twice, and the Bummer City Historical Society in Boston put on this DIY outdoor show that was super fun. I got lucky stumbling into these really welcoming, encouraging spaces that offered me real opportunities, and those experiences pushed me to take my music more seriously.
RTB: So, congrats on the EP (Wick) – it’s fantastic! I would love to hear how it came together.
C.J. Red Mouth: Accidentally! I marvel at the way the EP came together, because it very easily might not have happened – or at least, been something very different. I took a songwriting workshop taught by Buck Meek (of Big Thief) in March of 2020, which left me with a handful of songs that seemed to tell a larger story together. So I borrowed a Zoom mic and an SM57 from my partner at the time and recorded very raw, unprocessed demos that I planned on publishing to Bandcamp, just me and my acoustic with some vocal harmonies. Then other musicians started independently reaching out to me, wanting to help me with the songs: someone I’d met through 1 Riff a Day wanted to mix and master “Bark Thickening”; Cats on Film came up to me after the Bummer City show offering to record the EP with their home set-up (they also pushed me to go full-band on some arrangements, which was the right call); Serena was down to work on drums; and June of Boston’s Miss Bones finished up the mixing and mastering. I moved down to North Carolina for grad school in the middle of it all, so I was only able to finish recording after I received a Club Passim Iguana Fund grant and got my own mics. It was a very collaborative effort, and I named the EP “Wick” in part because that’s how the work felt – all of us twining our ideas and skills together until we ended up with something that could ignite. The project ended up taking way longer than I’d thought it would, and I felt like I was herding cats a lot of the time, but I’m so grateful for everyone involved. I wouldn’t change a thing about how it came together!
RTB: Where do you draw inspiration from? Who are some artists/bands that you enjoy?
C.J. Red Mouth: It’s maybe cliche to say in 2022, but Mitski means a whole lot to me. A lot of songs off Bury Me at Makeout Creek were the first ones I ever learned to play on guitar, because many of her live arrangements are in open D – which is probably why so many of my songs are in open D now. There’s also this quote of hers I keep coming back to: at the beginning of a full 2018 set posted to Youtube, she says, “I’ve gotten a lot of complaints saying I can’t play guitar, and it’s true. I’m a keyboardist. But I do this because for a lot of girls, it’s kind of scary to try to start playing guitar, because you feel like you immediately won’t be good enough. So I’m telling you right now, I can’t play guitar, and I’m playing guitar on stage. You can just start where you can.” I think about that a lot because I often feel insecurity around failing to be a “real” musician. I can’t necessarily whip out riffs on the spot or improvise like other artists can. There are all these metrics of legitimacy I tend to hold myself to, ignoring everything else I can bring to the table. Mitski gave me permission to feel like I could take up space and not apologize for the kind of work I bring to the stage.
Mitski rant aside, a lot of artists I enjoy are in the Boston music scene! Some favorites include: The Michael Character, Miss Bones, Tuxis Giant, Eleanor Elektra, Jesus the Dinosaur, Pink Navel, and (of course) Cats on Film. My friend Serena is the one who inspired me to even pick up a guitar and write songs in the first place; their work isn’t recorded yet, but it’s incredible. Evan Stephens Hall of Pinegrove has influenced a lot of my acoustic arrangements, with the dynamic way he performed songs off Cardinal. I also listen to a lot of Indigo de Souza, Dijon, Weaves, Half Waif, and Katy Kirby.
RTB: Has the pandemic affected you as an artist?
C.J. Red Mouth: I’m not sure what C.J. Red Mouth would have been without the pandemic. I don’t think I would’ve had the courage to perform my music at any in person open mics, and all the mics were migrating to the internet in 2020. My first gig was virtual, with Club Passim, and my second was outdoors, with Bummer City. The gigs I’ve had after that were also mostly virtual. Which is not to say that the pandemic was a good thing – far from it! I’m just not sure I’d be on this exact path if music hadn’t been forced online.
RTB: So, this will be your first tour then? How did the tour come about?
C.J. Red Mouth: Yes, this is my first tour! Like many good things, the tour came about because of a joke. I’d met Matty and Amanda of Cats on Film through Bummer City; I’d always loved their music, and it was such a lovely experience working with them on Wick. From what I recall, we were all on the Bummer City open mic Zoom, messaging each other, and I joked that I needed a ride down to North Carolina from Boston at the end of this summer. Amanda reached out later mentioning that they and Matty had been thinking about a tour, and that giving me a ride down south might be an opportunity to play shows together on the road. I agreed without thinking too hard about it, and I’m so glad I did!
RTB: That’s awesome! How did you come across Flemington DIY?
C.J. Red Mouth: I first learned of Flemington DIY through Reddit, on a thread about DIY venues in NJ. Looking through your website and Instagram page, I could tell how much y’all care about building community – it seems like such a welcoming, creative, open space. Can’t wait to be there (and see Mango Core as well)!
RTB: For sure – Flemington DIY is such a great space! We’re so lucky to have a place like this in small town NJ. Any other upcoming plans/news?
C.J. Red Mouth: I’m currently recording an EP, Greenhouse, which I’m very excited about! Wick was something of a test run for how to put an EP together. Now that I’ve done that, I’m finally recording songs I’ve been sitting on for years – I wanted to wait until I could do them justice. June Isenhart of Miss Bones is helping to record, co-produce, and mix the songs. I’m not exactly sure when Greenhouse will be out, but I’m excited to finally be exorcising these tracks from my stockpile of songs!
RTB: That’s great, I look forward to hearing the new tunes! Can’t wait to see you perform on the 6th with Cats on Film and Mango Core!
C.J. Red Mouth: Thanks so much for having us play at Flemington DIY!
For the latest C.J. Red Mouth updates, you can follow her on Instagram.