America's 'Dog-shit' Decisions And Writing Music For Cartoons

Jeff Rosenstock is probably one of the busiest people in music. He's just wrapped up a huge 29-date North American tour, represents one-half of Antarctigo Vespucci (his band with Fake Problem's Chris Farren), is writing music for an upcoming show on Cartoon Network, is the founder of the first ever donation-based record label Quote Unquote Records, and he's somehow found time to head back to Australia for a 12-show stint this September.

When we caught up with Rosenstock a few weeks back, he admits his day has been "interesting" in light of recent events in the US. "This morning I wrote a theme song for a cartoon that I'm making music for, and this afternoon I saw the President of my country defend white power. So... my day's kinda fucked!" he says half joking, though you can hear that the situation is weighing on him.

"There's like, bad stuff happening [everywhere]. But, you know, America is an innovator and we've managed to leapfrog everybody in absolutely shitty times and dog-shit decisions and do something really bad. It's wild. It must seem nuts from over there; it seems nuts from over here too.

"I'm sorry that it's a thing that I'm talking about, it's just a weird thing that's been kinda on the front of my mind. Like, I saw that video like 30 minutes before I started doing a bunch of interviews," he laughs. "There's this Australian tour that I'm really excited about! But it's just like, can't stop thinking about it."

We move onto the fact that Rosenstock has been here a number of times in the past few years - besides regularly touring, he also produced The Smith Street Band's Throw Me In The River in Forrest, Victoria in 2014. "I feel like an honorary Aussie, I've lived there for months at a time," he jokes.

Rosenstock is affable, especially given the topic of the day, and talk eventually comes back to the topic of the cartoon, though he's not sure how much he can say that this stage.

"I know that it's called Craig Of The Creek... It's going to be on Cartoon Network and I'm just super excited about it. I don't think I can say anything else because I don't know anything else for sure," he laughs. "Except that I sent them a theme song today so, in theory, nobody's pulling my leg and I am actually writing music for a cartoon!"

In between his extensive tours and producing gigs, Rosenstock has also found some time to record the next Antarctigo Vespucci album with Farren, with the pair sharing the process across their social media accounts a few months back.

"There's definitely an Antarctigo Vespucci record coming out next year, and I'm always writing so you never really know what can happen... Yeah, I think next summer that should come out. And then in between I'm writing music for this cartoon, so I'm getting to do a lot of cool stuff right now."