Spotlight On... Tzusan

Tzusan’s latest album, WSPSNSYRP, is not to be consumed on an empty stomach. The sheer amount of references to food across its 14 tracks and 45-minute runtime will have you salivating. Lyrical food references include the spicy ‘I spread love like sobrasada’ (Pink Moscato), the hilarious ‘Half you cunts couldn’t punch the skin off a rice pudding’ (7:45am / Toothache), the confident ‘See me on a plate, that’s the full 12 courses / Pan-seared swordfish, truffle butter smothering the short rib’ (Ceviche) and the insulting ‘Must be a few chips short of the whole fish supper’ (Dear Liza). 

While foodie highlights might be spread out across the record like an extravagant buffet, it might surprise you that food wasn't the main inspiration at all; the album’s initial seed was planted after Tzusan (aka Jacob Turner) started discovering dead wasps in his studio. “Almost every day I would discover a new victim,” he says, “curled up in a corner of the Astroturf carpet or drying out on the windowsill like a South-east Asian delicacy.” And inspirations don’t stop there on an album littered with samples, guest turns and references to pop culture. 

One of the things Tzusan tells us about when we catch up over email is how he's tried to compartmentalise all of the album's many inspirations into succinct lists – five films, five records, five books etc that have helped inform the record. With that in mind, we're delighted to bring you Tzusan's favourite list where he tells us about the five books which have helped inspire WSPSNSYRP.

The Gospel According to Blindboy [Blindboy Boatclub]
The first collection of short stories from acclaimed Irish writer and podcaster Blindboy Boatclub of The Rubberbandits is an enthralling collection of tales written in beautiful modern prose that somehow manages to be both delicately constructed and simultaneously hit like a sledgehammer. 

Adding to a long canon of Irish writers throughout history, Blindboy makes excellent use of the absurd in his work without ever breaking the rules of reality, exploring the penumbra where weirdness meets logic with ease and panache using a unique approach he has dubbed “Gas Cuntism”. You can also find some readings of these short stories set to music he has composed himself in amongst mental health discussion and roasting hot takes on his weekly Blindboy Podcast, which I could not recommend strongly enough. Yurt.

My Sister, the Serial Killer [Oyinkan Braithwaite]
I’m not sure how this book came into my possession but once I picked it up I couldn’t put it down. Set in Lagos against a backdrop of class struggles and sexism, the book tells the story of two sisters, the youngest of which has a nasty penchant for murdering her boyfriends. When a love triangle emerges family allegiances are tested and the situation escalates rapidly into a frenzy of unrequited love, sibling rivalries and violence. Horny, dangerous and fast-paced, Braithwaite’s writing skips effortlessly from page to page leaving out just the right amount of detail to keep you reading right up until the last sentence.

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day [Judith Viorst]
This one is particularly close to me, a classic children’s book with a vital life lesson to impart: sometimes life is just a bit shit and there’s nothing you can do about it. I remember being read this as a child but probably didn’t truly grasp its existential underpinnings until reflecting back on it as an adult. To this day I still find myself repeating a specific line from this book whenever the mood takes me: “Some days are like that, even in Australia.”

Stories of Your Life and Others [Ted Chiang]
OK, full disclosure, I haven’t actually finished this one yet but I'll be damned if I don’t. Another tome of short stories, this time from master of modern sci-fi and speculative fiction Ted Chiang. From the first page I read I was gripped by Chiang’s wildly imaginative, conceptually rich storytelling as he constructs whole universes densely packed with lore and well-developed characters.

Almost as much an exploration of linguistics as it is traditional science fiction, the book also served as the inspiration behind acclaimed 2016 film Arrival. After reading even just a few of the short stories you can see Chiang’s impact on not only the film, but the entire genre plain as day.

A Scanner Darkly [Philip K. Dick]
Perhaps this one is a bit of an obvious choice, but it is a classic for very good reason. Delving into a murky underground world of addiction and espionage Philip K. Dick’s seminal work tells the ballad of undercover operative Bob Arctor as he slowly loses himself and those around him to a mind-altering drug known as Substance D. 

Told with a hallucinogenic clarity and a knack for surrealism very few authors can tap into, A Scanner Darkly is widely considered to be one of Dick’s finest novels and certainly deserves its place as one of science fiction’s all-time classics. Expect lucid imagery, dense metaphor and an alarming amount of aphids told with compassion and empathy for people struggling with all manner of addictions.

Honourable mentions
The Wasp Factory [Iain M Banks]
Swan Songs [Lee Scott]
Diary of a Madman and Other Stories [Nikolai Gogol]

As well as those five books, what else inspired the making of WSPSNSYRP?
This is always such a tough question to answer because I draw inspiration from anything and everything from pop culture, history, cinema and art to the ins and outs of day-to-day life. I guess musically and lyrically I take a lot of inspiration from other artists around me – folk like CRPNTR, 2T, Bounty District, CMPND, philomenah, and even bands like VanIves whose recent album Thanks has been on constant rotation in my headphones since it dropped. The dead wasps on the windowsill of my dilapidated studio also played a significant role but really it's just such a broad spectrum, I always struggle to pinpoint anything meaningful.

What are your plans for the rest of the year?
I'm hoping to tour the album in October/November (promoters get in touch!) with a few dates confirmed already and I'm working on some new collab projects with Shogun, CRPNTR and more which I'm really excited for and will hopefully start to solidify over the next few months. Other than that just trying to keep my head above water.

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WSPSNSYRP is out now

tzusan.bandcamp.com