Music

Toro Y Moi discusses new album 'Anything In Return' and why he's getting away from R&B

by Mark Teo

In the space of three years, Chaz Bundick, best known as Toro Y Moi, has transitioned from being a chillwave innovator to simply an innovator—period. While Causers of This, the South Carolina native’s debut, still remains his seminal work, Bundick’s made major strides since: Underneath the Pine, released in 2011, blended his electronic songcraft with krautrock and R&B tinges; he dropped fistfuls of remixes, working with everyone from Washed Out to Odd Future’s Hodgy Beats; and his house-leaning side-project, Les Sins, joined Jiaolong, an experimental electronic label headed by Caribou’s Dan Snaith.

Busy? You bet. Through it all, though, the ever-prolific Bundick still managed to record the ’90s house-tinged Anything in Return, his most sophisticated work yet. “The goal was to make [Anything] sound big-studio quality. We wanted to make it sound like it was from the ’70s or something,” says Bundick. “We wanted to make it shiny without dumbing it down. The songs aren’t all verse-chorus-verse-bridge. I still wanted the songs to be intelligent, not just stupid songs about love.”

Thematically, he says, the album’s about distance: He recently moved from South Carolina to California, which, he says, intensified the complexity of his relationships, romantic and otherwise. Yet the sonic universe of Anything in Return doesn’t end there; he says he wanted to create a “night drive” atmosphere on the album, and the graphic design-trained Bundick paired the album with interpretive illustrations and retro-leaning music videos for lead singles “So Many Details” and “Say That.”

Typical of Bundick’s restlessness, he’s also eager to talk music beyond Anything in Return. And, he hints, Toro Y Moi’s future may hold plenty of creative twists. “My next album isn’t going to be like this one, because there’s so much music out there that I love,” he says. “I like the idea of having a more traditional setup, like using a live band in the studio, and I definitely want to get away from the R&B thing. I had fun with it, but I’m ready to try something else.”

Why is Bundick so eager to ditch R&B when the genre has (perhaps rightfully) earned its place in the pop-culture spotlight? “I’m just not really into holding onto certain sounds. I find something, and I move on. But when I’m [playing a certain style], I like to be the best I can at what I’m doing. But then, all of my albums are related. I don’t know if I’ll make another album like Pine again, but each album I make influences the next one.”

Watch for our full-length interview with Bundick in February’s edition of AUX magazine, and stream Anything in Return here (via Pitchfork).