Tindree Interview

Conducted by: Ryan Freeze 

Transcribed by: Ryan Freeze

This interview was recorded December 16, 2025. In it, me and Tindree discuss his new EP, his collaborations, and his old EPs. 

I’m Ryan from the Setlist and who am I here with? 

Tindree: Tindree 

Now, Tindree, you’ve got a new mixtape coming out, is that correct? 

Tindree: It’s a fish-tape, loosely themed around fish. 

What do you mean by that? I don’t really know what that means. 

Tindree: Basically, I don’t want to say mentally-kidnapped, but spiritually absorbed into this guy named G-Fishman. I don’t want to say he’s a Nordic folk tale sort of figure, and he came to me in a dream. 

Was he a God? 

Tindree: I wound’t say god, more of a guy with a large orange fish-looking head. 

So he has a giant orange fish-looking head 

Tindree: Yes, yes. I can send you a picture if you’d like 

I got to see this to believe it, man. Were you doom-scrolling and you found this guy? 

Tindree: I have proof, he wasn’t on any social media or anything, but I have photographic evidence. 

Right, like Big Foot? 

Tindree: Sort, sort of. Kind of smells worse than you think Big Foot would smell. 

And you know this for a fact? 

Tindree: I do, I was there. 

You were with G-Fishman and he serves as the basis for the sound of this new mixtape, right? 

Tindree: It’s performed by me, but he’s the guiding spirit throughout the tape. 

Your last EP, ‘Industrial Crybaby,’ it’s more of a different vibe than that. 

Tindree: I would say so. That was more focused around my own production, 5 out of 6 songs on there were self-produced. Whereas, I only produced 4 songs on this new tape. The rest being produced by ItMeMisha, who is a close collaborator of mine. 

They collaborated on you with ‘Peach Rings’

Tindree: [ItMeMisha] produced that song as well. 

Industrial Crybaby - I don’t know how to quite describe the sound - it’s a good sound. It’s a great production, once I really got into it. How did you get the sound for ‘Industrial Crybaby’ ? 

Tindree: I wanted to focus more on loud, abrasive production. I started a lot of those songs when I was performing a lot. Just around Delaware. We would do a lot of really loud, aggressive performances, so I think that inspired the sound of that tape. A lot of it really started around 2023 into early 2024, I just never ended up finishing the songs. 

You're talking about performing around Delaware, can you talk about performing at Secret Tunnel? 

Tindree: I played a few shows there. Secret Tunnel was a really cool community because I think everybody there was super open-minded. I wouldn’t say what I do is necessarily represented within the local scene. The Secret Tunnel was super open-minded and ready for whatever I had, and it was awesome. 

A lot of the scene is majority alternative and indie, there wasn’t a niche for your style of hip-hop. 

Tindree: Even some of the shows I played there, they would pull artists down from Philly that were more into the hyper-pop or electronic space. Delaware is super underrepresented with that sound and style. 

I feel like the Delaware music community is underrated. I have a bias because I live here, but it’s very slept-on. 

Tindree: I think there’s a lot of potential to grow within the scene. 

You touched briefly on your collaboration with ItMeMisha, I just wanted to ask you if you were going to collaborate with Nyquil again? 

Tindree: Maybe, maybe. 

Are you going to collab with Nyquil, produce some tunes? 

Tindree: We performed one song at the Secret Tunnel. It was called “Parking Service (Bob Dylan),” that was the song with Nyquil. 

What does Bob Dylan have to do with it? 

Tindree: [Nyquil] was dissing Bob on that. 

Nyquil was dissing Bob? 

Tindree: He was dissing Bob. I don’t know if he plans on dropping that. 

The Bob Dylan diss track it exists? 

Tindree: It exists. Let the world know. 

That is amazing, haha 

Tindree: Um sorry, did you mention glocky too? We got one, he’s on the new project, for sure. 

I’ve got another question for you here - how does it feel to be washed? 

Tindree: Was this from you, or? 

No, these are questions from the fans. These are questions from the people that listen to you, they’re saying you're washed. 

Tindree:  Honestly, not that bad. Feels pretty good. 

Feels pretty good? Now you’ve got a chip on your shoulder. 

Tindree: Yeah. I mean, my veins are coursing with omega 3s right now, so I’m not really too worried about it. 

That’s a good spirit to have. I want to ask about your online presence. You promote your music very well. I took a look at your Twitter account, and it reads March 1st, 2024, “I will never stop making music. I am on a creative journey, I will never stop creating, performing, or scamming middle-schoolers for financial gain.” Are you scamming middle-schoolers for financial gain? 

Tindree: Who isn’t? It’s about to be 2026, do you know how much of pop-culture is based on scamming middle-schoolers for financial gain? 

A lot of grift culture, making a quick buck. Are you capitalizing off of these current trends?

Tindree: Not as much as I could be. 

So you're different, you're not conforming to what the mainstream is, so-to speak. 

Tindree: That was a nice way of framing it, so thanks for that. 

Let’s talk about today, because there’s the proliferation of AI in music, and people are using AI to create music. I wanted your two cents on people using AI to create music. 

Tindree: It seems like some people really want to make the most technically perfect thing possible, right now. I think with this new project, I’m inspired by the idea that you can make flawed art is what makes you human. I am not focused on making the most technically precise song. That’s not fun to me right now. At the moment, I am driven by flaws in artistic choice.  

That’s innately a human thing. Innovating with music that has all these imperfections, that’s very human. I think what’s also human about your songs, there’s a lot of comedic sensibilities in a lot of these songs. In “Santa,” there’s a bit of a section in there that got me to laugh. It’s funny. Do you like bringing a sense of humor to your music? 

Tindree: I don’t see it as a joke, and I hope people don’t think I see it as a joke. Humor is just a part of life. There’s a line on this new project about AI, “never used AI, but I still feel that I could use slop.” A bit of a double entendre kind of thing. Humor is part of who I am as a person. 

Slop was just named word of the year. I feel like there’s divisiveness around the word “slop,” some people hate it. Some people love it. 

Tindree: The word itself, or slop? 

Slop as a concept. Slop as in like, “I think x is slop,” slop bowls, etc. 

Tindree: A lot to hate there for sure. I think there’s a lot to hate. Just the idea of mindlessly doing something I think is slop. I don’t really stand with that. 

Do you agree with slop being a catch-all term for stuff that is overproduced? 

Tindree: I think there’s a time and place to use it for sure. 

Gearing back towards you as a musician, I wanted to talk about your YouTube. The music video to the song ‘Struggl,’ it has a rabbit. The rabbit is tied-up, what’s with that? 

Tindree: My friend, Kenny, who I was at a stand-up comedy club with in college. He had a pretty realistic-looking rabbit costume. He brought it to one of our shows, it was crazy, I don’t know where it came from. I was like, “we got to do a video with this.” 

I feel like it makes the video ten times better. Another interesting video on here, ‘Bounceback,’ it has this VHS quality, like this home video aesthetic. 

Tindree: That was shot on - Autumn, a.k.a. glocky, - he has this video camera, that’s fully a film video camera, which I’ve never used before. That’s natural grain in there. 

It brings authenticity to the video. I feel like this record, ‘Catchmeonbluestreet,’ I think some of your best songs come off of this EP. ‘Dollhouse,’ is the big hitter. I also like ‘Newlane,’ and ‘Gascap,’ could you talk about what went into those songs? 

Tindree: That whole project was inspired by the idea of a super chaotic car ride. ‘Dollhouse,’ even the hook I thought of while I was driving. Randomly stopped at a red light, I thought of that hook. It’s all super just energetic in bursts, which I think is something that carries on in my music. 

What are your influences towards this specific style of production? 

Tindree: I think I pull from all over the place, I don’t have one genre or artist where I think, “this is my biggest influence.” I like to listen to a lot of things and pull from what I like. 

I’m not sure if this is something that you pulled from explicitly, in the back of my mind, this sounds like something off of like a Brockhampton record. Maybe some Yeat in there. 

Tindree: Those are definitely two artists that I listen to a lot. 

I had a big, kind of Brockhampton sort of phase. Do you have phases where your listening to one artist and sort of slowly getting back into them? 

Tindree: Not really. I feel like I’m always listening in waves. I’ll have a big phase where I listen to one artist, and then move on to the next thing. 

Do you see yourself as more cerebral or do you take yourself a little less seriously? 

Tindree: I think the best songs are made when I don’t take myself too seriously. 

Tindree: There’s always time later to put more thought into it. Whether it be through the mixing, or production. I think the songwriting for me is more based on emotion and feeling. 

I really also enjoy a lot of your collaborations with other artists. What would you have to say to someone that wants to do what your doing and wants to follow their own creative path? 

Tindree: Just use what you have, it doesn’t have to be much. I think sometimes with creating, less is more. I made some of my favorite songs ever, on just cheap analog synths. Even some of my closest collaborators, like Misha, I met through Kenny Beats’ Discord server in 2020. This whole project really would not exist if not for the community that Kenny Beats made in 2020. 

Was it difficult at first? What was the learning curve to get the sound on these songs? 

Tindree: I’m naturally drawn to experimentation, so that made it a little less difficult. There was definitely a phase where it was super hard for me to create things that I like. If your willing to stick with it, it will definitely pay off. 

Were there feelings that people wouldn’t take you seriously? 

Tindree: Yeah. I didn’t put too much energy into worrying about that. 

You can’t put too much energy into something that you think is going to happen but in all likelihood probably isn’t. 

Tindree: You have to be driven by the right things to get where you want to go. 

What drives you? 

Tindree: Making stuff that I think is cool, that I don’t hate. 

Will you ever make stuff that you hate? 

Tindree: Oh yeah, all the time. But I move on. 

In the moment this idea,  it might evolve, become this, but then you’re like, “Ehh” 

I try to just see it for what it is. 

Do you have any other messages that you’d like to share to the folks at home? 

Tindree: First of all, www.pitstain.com, I just want to shout out anyone who’s ever listened to my music, sardines, salmon, trout, mackerel, tilapia, tuna, flounder, all that. Shoutout to the fans, shoutout ItMeMisha, new fishtape on February 17th, 2026, thank you. 

That was the interview from the wonderful Tindree, I am Ryan from the Setlist, that was Tindree, signing off.