When I first moved to SF, last fall, I learned of a Teengirl Fantasy/Pictureplane show at the Elbo Room and was stoked after listening to each artist. Unfortunately, I arrived at the cramped venue after they had already met capacity. Although I didn’t get to catch what I’m sure was an awesome night of music, I did come away with two new projects that I really dig to this day. Recently, I was able to chat with Darkwave producer Travis Egedy (Pictureplane) before he took off to tour Russia.  

Dan Cordie: When did you start producing music?

Travis Egedy: In high school I started making beats. They were hip-hop beats, I was in a rap group in high school that I made all of the production work for and just went from there. All throughout college I was making music. I started making beats around 16 or 17 and I’m 26 now, so it has been awhile. Pictureplane didn’t really happen until 2005.

DC: What is the story behind the name Pictureplane?

TE: I was in art school, looking through some art textbooks and found it in the index of an art book. It’s a term that’s very basic, it refers to the two-dimensional surface plane that a picture sits on, like a canvas or a piece of paper or anything that contains an image. I was really into airplanes at the time too, drawing and painting them. I like the word plane and the different connotations; physical planes, airplanes, states of being

DC: What has been one of your craziest shows that you have played recently?

TE: I recently did this show in New York City, in Manhattan at the Museum of Arts and Design called Snack the Planet. It was a hacker themed cyber party. There was an oxygen bar with black lights, with cyber themed snacks (glowing jello shots and energy drink concoctions). It was really neat; the audience was all decked out in hacker themed outfits. The fashion was really cool and everyone was hopped up on energy drinks and high on oxygen. I performed inside the museum; people were throwing blow-up couches around and dry humping each other on them while blowing up condoms and hitting them around like balloons. It was definitely a pretty wild party. The coolest thing is that the people were sober; everyone was just high on life and oxygen.

DC: Could you describe your experience shooting the video for “Negative Slave” at the Aztec Temples?

TE: Sure, I was down in Mexico City performing down there. I was there for about a week just sort of hanging out. There’s a bus that you can take to that site called Teotihuacán and I really wanted to go down there. So we got on a bus, it was really cheap, and you go for about an hour and a half outside of Mexico City. The bus ride in itself was really amazing; it didn’t stop being city the whole way. There were millions and millions of people, but it kept getting poorer and poorer the farther you got away from Mexico City. It turned into these never ending shantytowns (full of homemade shacks). There were people living on top of one another in these handmade shacks. This was really eye opening to see how many people live like this. There is no comparison to this in America; I had never seen any sort of third world type situation like that before. That was really fascinating, and then we pulled up to the site and walked around and hung out all day. I had the idea to film a music video, so we just brought a little iPod with some speakers and I just lip synched on top of those pyramids. It was cool to be at such a sacred place like that, awe-inspiring and not even fully knowing what went on at those spaces.

DC: How do you like to spend your time when you’re not creating or playing new music?

TE: I love nature, going camping, any sort of exploration, I love traveling, meeting new people, being in different situations and reading. I’m open to all experiences all of the time.

DC: Who are some artists that are blowing your mind right now?

TE: When I went on tour with Teengirl Fantasy and Gatekeeper, that was really amazing. They inspired me every night.

DC: Are there any shows on the upcoming that you’re really excited for?

TE: I’m about to go to Russia next week, that’s going to be really exciting. I’m going to Moscow and St. Petersburg, really excited for both of those shows.

In October, Pictureplane will be a part of the first ever Check Yo’ Ponytail Tour with Spank Rock, Big Freedia, The Death Set and Frankie Chan. Check the dates below and stay connected with Pictureplane on Facebook and Twitter.