‘Whats To Come and More’ with Plastic Forearm
Myles Dynowski
In the backyard of the Acorn Delight, the space is filled with the melodic, hectic, and unique sounds of Fort Collins’ very own, Plastic Forearm. I met up with the band just before their set to chat about the behind the scenes work of their music, and what led them to where they are now. The band consists of bassist and vocalist Mud Gonzalez, guitarist and vocalist Casey Brock, and drummer and vocalist R. Cooper Long.
Who shaped the way you play today?
Long: I’ll say Tony Williams for sure. Being a young cat from back in the day, he was rippin’ it up and was definitely an influence on me when I was like fifteen or sixteen.
Brock: I like Fiona Apple a lot. I think she’s such a good songwriter. I’m definitely a Fiona Apple head. She just shreds on the piano and sings super hard.
Gonzalez: I like George Jones a lot, just like that fuckery. [other than that] It just depends on the mood. There’s like so much shit out there. I like stuff where it seems easy, but it’s not easy.
How did Plastic Forearm come to be?
Long: I first met Mud in Florida and we did a couple shows, just bass and drums, and that was a lot of fun. Eventually we found Casey who was in a band at the time in central Florida, and we played a show together. We just convened from that.
Brock: It happened post-covid. My band broke up and no one was doing anything, so we started playing together.
If you could describe the band’s genre, or genres, what do you think it would be?
Gonzalez: I’d say it’s country that’s gone wrong.
Long: I think each of us bring a lot of different elements that are just so different. I’d throw a million words at it and still couldn’t pin it.
Brock: We like good songwriting, that’s what comes first.
What is your favorite thing about being in Plastic Forearm?
Long: I think we have a lot of fun. We’re great friends first, so that’s really the basis for all of us I feel.
Brock: My favorite part of the band is being with two of my favorite songwriters. In previous bands, even though I loved being in them, I wrote most of the songs, so it’s great to collaborate now. The songs change over time, especially listening to demos from like a year ago.
Would you say as a trio you feel external pressures differently than larger bands?
Long: There’s a little bit of that, but I feel we all share the same amount of responsibility, so it comes down to each of us to sort of bring each other up and make it the best we can.
Brock: I think in a trio there’s this pressure to play the whole time. There’s only three of us so it has to count. I really like how we embrace dynamism.
In the future do you see yourselves maintaining your D.I.Y roots, especially regarding
house shows, or are you looking forward to playing bigger venues?
Gonzalez: I think we just wanna see how far we can take it. We just love to fuck shit up and make people feel uncomfortable and make feel people safe.
Brock: It does feel like a good joke to just keep getting to play bigger things. I think part of the reason why we like to play at D.I.Y shows is because they’re similar to the places we practice in, and we’ve sort of gotten used to the way that things sound at a D.I.Y show, and when you bring those sounds to a larger stage there’s definitely some considerations you have to take in. Whereas in D.I.Y shows you can kind of just get away with being loud and energetic.
Long: We just want to be stupid and ridiculous to as many people as we can.
On a post made by Plastic Forearm on November 30, 2022, user @atomic.zombie commented, “Do my eyes deceive me or is the world’s drunkest band Plastic Forearm?” Would you say you agree with this statement?
Long: Maybe a little bit ago. We’re always shifting and changing. We might be able to take the title back.
Brock: I think we might have lost the drunkest band title, unfortunately. Maybe a year ago we might have been one of the drunkest bands. I think that might have been accurate intel at the time. At that point we had played like one house show and we were paid in liquour.
Long: That was kind of the recipe for being the drunkest band.
And there we have it. It seems that a perfect combination of community, inspiration, talent, and possibly having been the world’s drunkest band has created what we in Fort Collins know as Plastic Forearm. Make sure to look out for Plastic Forearm’s newest EP: Brian’s Home, releasing on 12/22, as well as their EP release show on 12/22 at Little Horse Vintage in downtown Fort Collins!