tofusmell, the project of musician Rae Chen, talked with host Jill Riley about his new album All My Time, moving from Florida to Winnipeg, and performing at The Current Happy Hour Series.

Listen to the full interview in the player above, and find a complete transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Jill Riley: You're listening to The Current, I'm Jill Riley. Well, this afternoon it's gonna be time for another installment of. The Current's Happy Hour series. This time, The Current will be in Fargo. That's right, North Dakota, Fargo, North Dakota, at Plains Art Museum. Nil from The Morning Show is going to be there, DJing starting at 4 o'clock, and then at 6 o'clock, tofusmell will take the stage. You can go to thecurrent.org/happyhours to get all the details. And when it comes to The Current Happy Hour series, we love to gather you all together to enjoy live music. But a big part of The Current Happy Hour Series is about music discovery, and we've been spending some time on The Current getting to know the music of tofusmell, the moniker of Winnipeg-based singer-songwriter Rae Chen, and Rae Chen is on the line on The Current. tofusmell, thanks for being on The Current, and good to meet you.

tofusmell: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Jill Riley: I understand that you have been in Winnipeg for a few years now, but originally from Florida. So I wonder if we could talk about where in Florida are you from? When did you start making music? And, I'm really curious about what led you to move to Winnipeg. So let's start with you being from Florida. Where did you grow up?

tofusmell: Winter Garden. It's like a little bit, like maybe 20 minutes drive from Disney. So Central Florida area. I moved to Winnipeg almost three years ago, and basically, one of my friends, Leith, I was on tour with them a lot, and we would spend a lot of time here afterwards because they lived here. So when I was moving away from Florida, which is like super natural to do, at least for me, I guess. But I was just like, okay, where do I know people and like have a little bit of a community already, and who do I want to hang out with? You know, so it was a pretty natural move, and I also had been to a few shows and met a few people I looked up to, and I was like, "Yeah, this is this is a cool environment to be in. I'd love to know more about it."

Jill Riley: There are so many artists that come out of Winnipeg. So, what is the music scene like in that city?

tofusmell: At least from what I've experienced, it's just a lot of people really willing to interact in a way that's like less to do with I don't know, a business or anything. It's just kind of hanging out or wanting to actually meet people and see what they're up to. Outside of music too. It's just so creative. Everyone is doing some sort of strange thing and being artistic, so yeah, it's just a really awesome place.

Jill Riley: I'm talking with singer-songwriter Rae Chen, who performs and records under the moniker tofusmell. Rae, I'm very curious about your moniker, what inspired the name tofusmell?

tofusmell: There's really not a lot of a story. I was trying to imitate the randomly generated usernames that happen in a lot of games and stuff, and it was my Instagram username, so it wasn't like a lot of weight on it.

Jill Riley: I will say, years ago, I remember asking beabadoobee, I'm like, why do you call yourself beabadoobee? And she kind of laughed when she gave the answer because she said, "Well, it was kind of a joke at first, and then the music caught on, and then I kind of had to go with it."

tofusmell: Okay, yeah. I wanted to do that imitating the randomly generated thing, and then people started to know me from my social media when I started to post about music. So people were just like already being like "tofusmell, when will you drop this?" So I was like, “I can't use anything else. It's already happening.”

Jill Riley: Yeah, and then a moniker, a professional creative name was born. On the line with tofusmell, who is performing this afternoon/evening. The Current will be in Fargo at Plains Art Museum for The Current Happy Hour series. tofusmell will be taking the stage at 6o'clock. I am curious, I know that you're on Sub Pop [Records]. Could you tell the story of that? Because that is such an iconic label. When did you get signed? How did that come together?

tofusmell: I think I got signed in 2023 or 2022. But because it's the label Hardly Art that's within Sub Pop, and the team is almost identical. Basically I was in contact talking to Matt [Kolhede], I think he's the manager? So he's like the main point of contact. He kind of doubled as A&R and all of that, and he was just really great and they had their 15-year anniversary, they put out a record that was just like one song from a bunch of people. Maybe some people were signed to them and some weren't, but I wasn't yet, so I just signed like the single contract for that one song, and then yeah, my manager Ian was like, “okay, yeah, if this goes well, they'll probably reach out for more,” and that's what happened.

Jill Riley: Okay, so you signed the record deal, and I know you've put out an EP a few years back called Humor. Your debut full-length record is called All My Time. What about lyrically? Where do you find inspiration, especially for a song like "Dreams I've Had." I mean, do you find inspiration in your dreams? Are you someone that wakes up and remembers your dreams? Was there something particular about a dream that inspired this song?

tofusmell: Yeah, I have very strange dreams sometimes, and usually very vivid. When I was going through songs to put on this record, I kept on being like, okay, well I said the word dream in this one. I said the word dream in this one. Okay, well I'm always talking about dreaming, I was feeling like dreams I've had was a tie of like roping everything together. It was a bit of the glue. Yeah, that song is about literally dreams that I've had.

Jill Riley: Well, hey, I want to say thank you so much for letting us get to know you a little bit before you perform as part of The Current Happy Hour Series. It's been great to give that song a spin and to get to know you. Rae Chen is tofusmell. The debut full-length record is called All My Time, and The Current Happy Hour series continues this afternoon. Nil kicking things off at 4o'clock with a DJ set, and then 6o'clock, tofusmell will take the stage. thecurrent.org/happyhours is where you can find all the details, as The Current is headed to the Fargo Moorhead area for this afternoon/evening. Rae Chen, tofusmell so nice to meet you and get to know you, and thank you so much for checking in.

tofusmell: Thanks for having me.

Credits

Guests – Rae Chen
Host – Jill Riley
Producer – Nilufer Arsala
Digital Producer - Natalia Toledo

External Link

tofusmell – Bandcamp