State Shirt sculpts fiery, intense indie rock anthems for the wondering, wandering and hopeful.

Venturing wildly into the farthest corners of heavy-hearted American landscapes, State Shirt’s music displays vivid, gripping stories of nostalgia, despair and hope. From Southern California’s droning and faceless San Fernando Valley to the snowy back roads of Western Massachusetts. Steeped in a cycle of inescapable, mind-numbing full-time jobs, State Shirt relies on hand-built loops, neglected instruments and riveting vocals to artfully describe captivity in a familiar never-ending cycle: work, drink, sleep, repeat.

But, through it all, a glimmer of hope shines.

From a modest bedroom sanctuary devoted to writing and recording, sparkles of surreal, melancholic melodies bubble up. Voltage runs through a collection of dusty pedals, guitars and electronics to deliver This Is Old, State Shirt’s deeply textured second album, a set of swirling and burning indie-tronic statements proving that monotonous lives can produce exceptional results.

State Shirt who?

Hi, I’m State Shirt. My real name is not State Shirt (it’s Ethan Tufts), but I do wear a lot of state shirts. I live in Los Angeles, CA and spend as much time as I can writing and recording music. Sometimes it’s real hard to do that while living my alternate, monotonous life in front of a desk doing nerd shit. But I try to keep the music going. If you can help me, I’d like to be able to spend more of my life making music. How about you buy a CD, it will be the best $10 you ever spent.

What music have you released?

In 2001, after a long hiatus away from music, Songfight inspired me to start writing and recording music again. In 2002, I released my first EP New Planet, and in 2004 my first full-length album Don’t Die, and was surprised at how many people actually went out and bought it. Then life got busy again. I can’t really remember what the hell I did for the last four years. But I did start to find spare moments to write and record again, and my latest album This is Old just came out on 11.11.08.

Where can I buy your music?

You can buy CDs and MP3s right here on stateshirt.com. You can also find my music on iTunes, CDBaby and Amazon, as well as others.

So, it looks like your music is available for free? How the hell does that help you?

Inspired by Brad Sucks and Jonathan Coulton (and you thought I was going to say NIN and Radiohead), I have decided to give away music for free. I love to make music. I’m going to do it no matter what. I’m hoping that giving stuff away for free will help get the music out to people who want to enjoy it, and maybe more people will want to come back and pay a little for it. The old music industry mentality of locking music up is done. And in the end, it just feels better to share.

Ok then, I can just grab music for free?

Yes, it’s here for free. Though it is available for purchase as well, and of course I would be grateful if you purchase the music, buy a t-shirt or other State Shirt yard sale items. I’m lucky to be able to have the gear to play and record songs, and for the many people who have heard my music thus far. But I’d really like to keep making music and do so more often. Your support will help me to continue to make music. Even if it’s only a small amount, whatever you think is fair, I’d be immensely grateful! And you get stuff! Works out well, right?

How can I help spread the word?

Tell your friends about State Shirt. Put my songs on mix CDs (and cassettes! yes, kick it Maxell style) and give them to your friends. Play State Shirt music on your podcast. Link to stateshirt.com from your blog. And last but not least, sign up for the State Shirt mailing list (on the right side of this page), and I’ll tell you about ways to get hooked up for referring your friends, selling CDs, getting people out to shows. Earn t-shirts, nerd prizes, and cash money!

Can I make remixes of State Shirt songs?

Sure! The entire This Is Old album is available as MP3, FLAC and WAV source files, ready for your remixes, mash=ups and crazy ideas. This includes every separate instrument, loop and vocal part recorded for each song. The files are also available on CCmixter. Grab them and go crazy. Post your remixes on CCmixter and be sure to send me a link, and I’ll also post them here. The source files for older songs will be added in the next few months. Stay tuned.

Can I use your song in my student film, youtube video, podcast?

Absolutely. And please show it to me when you’re done! All State Shirt songs are licensed under the Attribution-NonCommercial Creative Commons license. This means you can use my songs in a non-commercial use as long as you #1 - credit State Shirt and link back to stateshirt.com, and #2 - don’t use the music to make money. More about Creative Commons here.

Can I share your songs?

Of course. Send them to your friends. And encourage them to come to stateshirt.com and buy a t-shirt, or just stop by and say hi.

How do you do all of that live looping stuff?

I guess just a lot of practice. And two Echoplex Digital Pros. And luck.

Can I play your music on my podcast / radio show?

Sure. All of my albums are podsafe, so please go right ahead.

Where can I find lyrics?

Go to the Music page, click on any ‘info’ link which will take you to the song info page which includes lyrics.

What independent music do you like?

Matthew Larsen, Brad Sucks, c.layne, MC Frontalot, Scott Andrew, Parts & Labor.

What gear do you use in the studio and for live shows?

Studio Setup

• Pro Tools, Reason 4, Line 6 GearBox
• Macbook Pro
• Digidesign Digi 002, Mackie Onyx 800R
• Yamaha T116 upright piano
• A crapload of effects pedals, Echoplex Digital Pro, Line 6 DL4, Echo Park, Boss DF-2, etc
• Fender Toronado, Peavey Predator, P.O.S. Peavey bass
• Pieced together 1980s Slingerland/Ludwig/Pearl/Zildjian/Sabian drum kit and cymbals
• Kids toys, sound books, Casio SK8, Yamaha PSS140, Korg MicroKorg, what else am i forgetting… and yes, I did sell my Casio DG-10 digital guitar. When Flight of The Conchords became popular I figured I’d just let it be “their thing”

Live Setup

• Fender Toronado
• A couple beat up Gibson Echoplex Digital Pros for live looping
• Absolutely horrible and slightly broken Behringer FCB1010, soon to be replaced with a Roland
• Line 6 DL4, Spider Valve, a bunch of wack effects
• Yamaha PSS140 digital wrecking machine
• Mackie 1202VLZ (replaced a beat up Tapco), Sure SM58
• About 1000 cables, chewing gum, scotch tape and a prayer

Tell me some other useless facts.

• State Shirt isn’t really State Shirt’s name. It’s something other than State Shirt. But he does wear a lot of State Shirts.
• Bought a keyboard in 5th grade, brought it to school and got made fun of. Went back home and recorded 1000 goofy seven second long songs on portable cassette player.
• Forms a wack Phil Collins inspired light-rock band with friends from grade school. Plays the Easthampton, MA fall festival among other fine establishments.
• Buys a $200 drum set, breaks a lot of cymbals. As a drummer, bassist and guitarist, he plays in a death metal band, a light rock band, and an indie emocore band.
• Begs for and borrows music gear to record indie rock songs in his bedroom. Comes home from high school and records nearly every day. Records ‘The Ethan Album’ and gives the cassette to friends. Goes to work at Caldor in the evenings.
• Gets a small scholarship and attends Hartt School of Music in Connecticut. Drops out of school and delivers pizza.
• Goes on tour with noise-punk band. They play clubs and dives all across the east coast. Band calls it quits, back to delivering pizza.
• Relocates to Los Angeles.
• Moves back to Massachusetts and works at a car wash. He doesn’t record anything for a year. Gets drunk.
• Relocates to Los Angeles.
• Gets sucked into a mind-numbing day job and isn’t heard from for a while.
• SongFight inspires State Shirt to start writing and recording songs again. Songs are received well and he keeps recording.
• Saves up some money, self-releases New Planet and Don’t Die and people actually buy them.
• Surprised by the shitload of radio airplay across the US, celebrates with a frosty Sam Adams.
• Disappears once again into obscurity.
• Wastes away at a droning, mind-numbing day job for years.
• Slowly finds spare moments to record This Is Old