Chaz Bear (Toro y Moi)

Guasha, Jamaican Beef Patties, His iPad, and more.

August 28, 2023

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Chaz Bear is a South-Carolina born, Berkeley-based musician, producer, and graphic designer best known for his work as the genre shifting and highly influential Toro y Moi. Bear is a powerhouse, he spearheaded the chillwave sound in 2010 and has since released seven studio albums, five EPs, four mixtapes, and last week he dropped a lovely new folk EP Sandhills on Dead Oceans. He weaves a unique and expansive sound drawing from psych, funk, disco, R&B, hip-hop, and much more. Chaz also runs a record label that’s home to Astronauts, etc & Uffie (PI: #294), founded a design studio with Nike & Vans collaborations, and makes paintings & sculptures that are for sale on his website. Lucky for us, Chaz is here to tell us what he’s into.

Rec

💆‍♂️

Guasha / self massage

shit feels dope. I tend to hold my anxiety in my hands so I like to keep them loose by having a massage tool nearby. Some people have a fidget toy but I have a cork ball. I dont really do the face massage stuff its not my thing but love a good shoulder / neck self-massage. my guasha is the Goop-iest thing I own.

Rec

🚰

Emotional support water bottle

bout it. i have a big yellow hydro flask that satiates all my anxious thoughts. It’s kinda like my energizer battery, it lasts me all day or whatever. walking around with water is the ultimate weird-flex, sorry not sorry.

Rec

📱

iPad

iBeen drawing in my iPad way more than on paper lately and I have no shame… the work flow is nice actually. Paper is great but then there’s paper everywhere and some of it you dont even wanna see anymore. It feels bad keeping ugly work and it feels worse throwing stuff away… on a iPad it doesn’t. Fuckin. Matter. Yay.

Rec

🛒

Goodwill / Thrift

I love making trips to goodwill to get rid of stuff. I could try to resell these shoes or whatever but then I have to go some place and wait while they price it at some insultingly low price. I like to convince myself that just giving it away for free and hoping someone recognizes my items and is stoked they found it in a goodwill makes me more happy. It’s therapeutic too.

Rec

🥩

Jamaican beef patties

This is just literally the last thing I searched on YouTube. Not much really behind it except that I wanna try to make some on my own. It’d be so fun to show up with a bunch of those lol. Gifts are one of my love languages and I love gifting food.

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Chaz Bear (Toro y Moi)

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