Oceanator & Maneka
By Riley McShane, Contributor
Meet Oceanator & Maneka
Elise Okusami of Oceanator and Devin McNight of Maneka are going on tour together...and apart. This January Oceanator and Maneka are performing a series of shows streamed online via ocenator.surf - each date is taking place (virtually) in a different city, with locally-inspired drink specials and tributes to iconic artists of the respective municipalities. It’s a novel concept and a welcome innovation amid the onslaught of online concerts.
Pancakes or Waffles?
Oceanator: Waffles
Maneka: Hate to choose, love them both so much
O: I hate pancakes, I think they’re terrible
What is the deal with this virtual tour? How is it going to work?
M: I was joking about it on the internet. I’ve gotten stir crazy being home during the pandemic, because I get a lot of my activity from music life. It’s almost comical to do streaming shows, and I thought: wouldn’t it be funny to put up different backgrounds and pretend we’re in Hawaii? One of Elise’s friends did [a virtual tour] solo and people were pretty down for it. So it got us the point where we thought about it seriously.
O: Bandcamp announced they were doing ticketed livestreams, and we originally had it set to run through that, but at the moment you can only do one show at a time. So we’re doing it ourselves! It’s gonna be on Oceanator.surf, you can buy single show tickets or multiple.
And Elise, you set the whole thing up?
O: I had help from the folks at Polyvinyl and Baby’sTV, but otherwise yeah.
A UK show??
E: I’m on Big Scary Monsters in the UK, they picked up the record. They opened up a social club at their shop in Oxford
Is it set order as who goes first each night?
M: I’m the opener so I’m going first. It’s different from a live show with your friends. You don’t really want to go longer than like 20-30 minutes. Also for the sake of my band, everyone’s stamina is down.
O: Yeah I was worn out from practicing the other day. My forearms were tired. Every show is about an hour, except for the one Bartees Strange is playing.
M: When do we announce our covers?
O: I don’t know, I was thinking we’d keep them a secret.
M: I don’t know
O: We can discuss. I sent my bandmates 22 Oceanator songs and 14 covers to learn. 2 covers per show except I think for one show we’re going to play 3.
M: But we’re keeping the sets completely separate. Elise was actually in Maneka for the last tour, playing bass. But the internet would melt down if we tried to perform at the same time.
Best touring memory?
M: My memories from tour are always so scattered. I was touring constantly for the better part of my twenties. I’d run into people who would ask me about a show in Chattanooga or Kansas city and I’m like “I don’t know man, not registering.” I always have this thing where the week after the tour I’ll forget everything that happened, then all the memories start flooding back.
O: I have one very specific cool moment: we were in Denver and playing “Mistakes” and after the chorus there’s a 3-beat break and this guy in the audience yells “2..3...4” and that was just exciting that someone knew the song that well
M: Good tour memory is just copious amounts of indian food in the UK. Especially if you’re with someone who really knows the spots.
O: I had a really nice walk in Brighton. Wait, Brighton? ...Bristol. It was Bristol.
And you’re “playing” a show in the UK this time, right?
O: I’m on Big Scary Monster in the UK, they picked up the record. They opened up a social club at their shop in Oxford, and so they’re doing it as kind of a live listening party
Okay how about weirdest touring memory?
O: I have a ton and they’re all about sound guys. Like them explaining my own amp to me or only talking to my bandmates.
M: I think I remember one time from an old band, Grass is Green, we were touring to South by Southwest. A lot of South By touring involves driving through the night to get there, and we’d played a show in Arkansas to connect the route. We stopped at a gas station and my band and I looked like we weren’t from there. As me and one of my bandmates were leaving, the lady at the register said “some of us think the war isn’t really over” - as in the Civil War I guess? Like is that really how you want to leave things with someone who just bought something from your shop? And at this gas station in Montana, I was using the bathroom and there was a huge swastika inside and we almost got locked into the gas station. If you’re gonna be like that, don’t run a gas station.
Do you have a favorite venue outside of New York? Somewhere that’s been special to you?
O: The Black Cat in D.C. cause I grew up going to shows there, and I just love it. I’ve played there twice or three times now.
M: Thalia Hall in Chicago is really nice but I’ve only played there once with Speedy Ortiz and Hop Along. They give you cool socks after you play there. But I would say Great Scott. I lived in Boston for a few years and that was just home base. You would go there and the bartenders remembered you, I knew the sound guys. I’ve had some of my coolest show experiences there.
Since you’ve both done your fair share of touring, what’s your best touring hack? Like something you do to save money or preserve your sanity?
M: I have heard all kinds of things, and sometimes they’re not really a hack, the person just thinks they are. Someone I know would buy a huge pack of white t-shirts so he didn’t have to pack his own clothes for tour, and he was so proud of himself.
O: I don’t like that.
M: Yeah, that’s not as cool as you think.
O: Mine’s silly I think, but bring a water bottle? Just so you remember to drink water. I’m terrible at drinking water so I always forget. And stretch, you’re sitting in the car all day so you end up feeling all crumpled up before you play the show.
M: For a while, my number 1 thing on the rider was V8 juice, cause you can’t guarantee what food is available to you. And you need some kinds of nutrients. Venues always ask for a beer request, but I tell them I want V8. I mean it’s just on a different aisle in the grocery store.
O: In 2021, I would like the drink tickets thing to go away, just give me $5
M: If you want to do this for a long time, and you want to keep it going, you’ll find that drinking a lot of beer every night isn’t the best idea. I can’t drink like that anymore. You gotta hydrate, and places just throw booze at you - how is that helping anybody? Especially if I’m hungry and tired, which is pretty much the default on tour.
And the venue experiences outside the US sound different. Sounds like they treat the artists better.
O: Yeah, one time in Germany they thought they’d brought us the wrong 6-pack of beer and seemed really upset about it, like they were going out of their way to try to replace it. And they cooked a great meal for us!
M: There’s all these punitive aspects to our culture and maybe after the pandemic that’ll end. Like, you’re the band and you’re selling tickets to the show at our venue so let’s make you drink a vodka sprite. Like really?
What do you make of livestream shows this past year? Any particularly good examples you’ve seen?
M: Well you do what you gotta do. I feel lucky that I was already savvy with recording software which makes it easier to sound good. I used to work in live sound and that’s all I usually think about pre-gig. How big is the room? What pedals and amp to bring? Once you’re constrained to your bedroom, all that goes out the window and I was starting to unravel. I did a show for Baby’s TV and it went alright but it was weird to not have any crowd response. But Elise’s Baby’s stream sounded great and was full band and that made me think about doing a full band stream. For this live stream, I’m going to be engineering a bit, and mix it a bit - it’s pre-recorded so I’ll have at least some control. It’s an extra annoyance because you just want to focus on playing well and now you have to be your own video tech and sound tech. It’ll sort of seem like Band Practice Live. But the Tiny Desk at Home series has been great, they’ve changed the dynamics and reinvented their songs. But I really can’t wait til I can show up and play live somewhere, cause that’s what people want.
O: I was doing a weekly cover set livestream, and at first I thought it was so weird. And the chat is weird, normally if people were talking through the whole show I would lose my mind but now if the chat is quiet, I’m like is anyone even here. I would also rather be playing a real live show, but thinking about this as a show is cool, you don’t get to start the song over. I was watching a Jeff Rosenstock stream and when he botched a solo he had sad emojis pop up. And the Courtney Barnett stream was so good, but once they messed up an intro they had to start over and they still kept that in there. It still felt like a show, even though it was pre-recorded. During a Jeff Rosenstock stream, YOU WILL NOT CONTROL - in the chat
M: In the future, it would be cool if even during live shows that people could stay home and tune in
E: That will definitely happen, there’ll be in-person tickets and live-stream tickets
D: something for everyone
Any resolutions, cool plans or projects for the early part of the year (after the tour, obvi)
M: Be at the point where I can quit my job, I just want to be making music
O: I haven’t made any super specific resolutions yet, because I’ve been scatterbrained but definitely finish LP2 - which I’m working on now, and also drink water and stretch!
The Oceanator + Maneka virtual tour is January 11-17 and buy you can buy tickets here