“Tonight it is just me: a sweaty man and a laptop.”

Vampire Weekend bassist Chris Baio has been branching out with some new sounds all of his own as Baio, with the upcoming release of his debut solo album The Names. Dom O’Connor caught a hold of him in the FBi studios for a live rendition of ‘Sister of Pearl’ off the new LP ahead of his show at Goodgod Small Club joined by special guest Tear Council.

“Vampire Weekend is like a movie — I’m not the director, I’m a supporting actor. My album is more like I wrote a novel, I did it all on my own.”

A novel, indeed — Baio took the conversation on a very literary turn, speaking about his interest in the life of author J. D. Salinger and how finding out that the “boring suburban town” he grew up in was the birthplace of Don DeLillo changed his perspective.

So what new tricks is Baio busting out for his solo shows?

“We made this pedalboard that can make a guitar sound nothing like a guitar.”

The Names will be available from the 18th of September.

A very dapper @oiab talked JD Salinger & Vampire Weekend and played a live acoustic this arvo with Dom. See him tonight at @goodgodgoodgod! #baio

A photo posted by fbiradio (@fbiradio) on Aug 20, 2015 at 12:26am PDT

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