It’s time to rejoice, Her Campus readers. This week for Campus Cutie, you get not one, not two, but three times the cuteness with the oh-so-charming and hilarious band Mobius and the Strippers, featuring Zander Chickenboots, Rob Oda, and Francois Barbe. Maybe you’ve seen this trio perform at a campus event and jammed to their extensive and unique sounds. Curious? Keep reading for some insight and check out their SoundCloud. Disclaimer: they might just become your new favourite band.
Left to right: Rob Oda, Zander Chickenboots, Francois Barbe
Francois Barbe (FB): Masters in Microbiology and Immunology
Rob Oda (RO): U3 Physics and Computer Science
Zander Chickenboots (ZC): U3 Computer Science and Math
Victoria Tran for Her Campus McGill (HC McGill): I have to ask this first for sure: what is everyone’s relationship status?
FB, RO, ZC: We’re all in an open but polygamous relationship – with each other. So it’s complicated…But okay we’re actually single.
HC McGill: Single, but deeply in love with each other, of course. In terms of girls though, what girl fashion trend confuses you the most?
FB, RO, ZC: Ohhh man. There’s a lot. Where do we even start?
FB: Okay, those high-waisted jeans?
HC McGill: … Hey, wait. I’m wearing high-wasited jeans right now.
FB: Oh, oops. No, those are fine. Yours go to your belly button, but the ones that go right below your chest, I don’t understand.
ZC: I don’t like straight bangs, but that’s just me though. And uh, those woven hats with the dangly pompoms on them? Those aren’t cute. Any use of pompoms… just no pompoms.
RO: Uggs. Hate them.
FB, ZC: That just goes without saying.
RO: Oh wait, and those infinity scarves! I don’t get that with girls.
HC McGill: Really? Why?
RO: I feel like scarves should be something that you should put effort into tying.
FB: It’s like a Mobius scarf.
HC McGill: Wait, yeah, you should like infinity scarves because it’s like a Mobius strip.
RO: But they look so stupid and puffy.
FB: Any non-oriented surfaces have to be okay with Mobius and The Strippers.
HC McGill: Obviously. So do you have any advice to girls about guys?
RO, ZC: Simplicity. Keep it simple. It doesn’t need to be anything more than what it exactly is. Don’t try too hard – you don’t need to be two different people around your boyfriend and everyone else.
FB: Well… I don’t want to say simplicity. It feels like you’re just giving yourself away. I think being mysterious and giving them something to think about is interesting.
RO, ZC: Wait are you kidding me? Your advice is to make it hard on us?
HC McGill: Nothing like contrary advice to the ladies. On a lighter note then, what was the best event you’ve performed at?
FB, RO, ZC: Definitely last winter at the MISN (McGill International Student Network) show at the Holiday Inn. It was great, everyone was dressed really well. We had our tuxes on, it was a giant made up room with bottles of wine and champagne, very baroque style. A violin quartet was playing and everyone was eating politely and then Mobius and the Strippers came rolling in. We started playing “Stacy’s Mom” and everybody stood up and started dancing; we had the whole room dancing for the entire duration of our set. We were just ecstatic.
HC McGill: How did your band form anyway?
RO: Well, we all knew each other before, but way back I told Zander that we should try to play at OAP. We got the gig, but we didn’t keep in contact with each other at all over the summer. Then four days before OAP, they told us that we had to perform. We were screwed – we hadn’t practiced at all and were ready to call it off, but we ended up playing in the end.
ZC: Yeah, so after OAP we went to Gerts to celebrate. We had our instruments with us, so we went to the parking lot just to play because it was a nice summer night. As we played a bunch of people gathered around us, listening to our music. At the end of the night the manager at Gerts came up to us, told us that he was looking for an act to regularly play on Mondays and asked if we were interested. We agreed and from then on that’s how all that happened.
RO: About two weeks after OAP there was a house party at Francois’ place and we were jamming with them, and we knew Francois played the djembe and asked him to join us for a Gerts gig. And after that first gig at Gerts, he officially joined the band and it’s been the three of us.
HC McGill: That’s awesome. I also heard you had an album…?
ZC: Yeah! Our album is done actually, it’s up on our SoundCloud. It’s called Set Theory. We spent reading week in the studio every day, writing a song every day and recording it at night and we came up with a full 10-song album [available] for free on SoundCloud. The goal of the project was to make a song from as many different genres as we could. We did a country song, a reggae song, electro swing, 90s pop, soul…
RO: I mean, all three of us come from different musical backgrounds and instead of trying to fit just one we decided to do it all. That’s actually why it’s called Set Theory – it’s a set of everything Mobius and the Strippers are.
ZC: Oh hey, what about our opinions of Tinder?
HC McGill: Your opinions of Tinder? Yes! Do tell.
RO: It’s pretty much the band’s favourite app.
HC McGill: Swipe right, ladies.
FB, RO, ZC: Yes, definitely swipe right. If you listen to our album though, we do have a song about it. If you want to know what we think about Tinder, you should listen to “Swipe”.