Seamus Tomkins had been playing his funky stew of hip-hop-electro-techno-pop as a one-man band for two decades, and he was ready for a new musical chapter. It began a couple of years ago in the Giacomini Wetlands, where he came upon Flyn Nichol, who was dancing by himself. 

Like everyone else in town, Seamus had seen Flyn around Point Reyes Station, where he dances, raps and dispenses his singular spiritual wisdom to passersby nearly every day. The next time he came upon Flyn doing his thing, he listened more carefully.

“I started really hearing what he was saying, and I realized, this guy is a bundle of talent,” said Seamus, 44, who soon invited Flyn, 41, to collaborate on a song. “I created a beat for him, the structure of a song, and he got up on the mic and crushed it. He was just so sharp.”

Their collaboration has flourished over the last year. They’ve been recording and playing gigs at various venues around West Marin, including one this Saturday at the Old Western Saloon. 

Together, they are Space Suit. Individually, they are Flyn Q and Press On Randy. (Randy was the name of Seamus’s old looper pedal, a contraption that allowed him to record and repeat guitar and vocal riffs, creating electrified harmonies on the fly.)

Both are skilled producers, and they collaborate on musical production. Flyn edits their videos, including one they began recording this weekend at the historic barn in the wetland where they first met.

Once again, Flyn danced, but this time, he was most assuredly not alone. Seamus also gyrated vigorously to a new song they’ve written called “Shake It Up.” They each shook a pair of maracas while lipsyncing as the song blared on a boombox and an iPhone mounted on a tripod recorded the show.

Seamus, a lanky fellow and the taller of the two, was dressed in skinny jeans, a light blue T-shirt and a baseball cap. He sported a pair of eyeglasses with oversized green frames. Flyn wore his baseball cap backwards, a pair of rainbow rabbit ears and a gray tail akin to a squirrel’s. A Star Trek T-shirt completed the ensemble. (In later takes, he swapped out the rabbit ears for blue cat ears.)

The song goes: “I’m gonna shake it for my mama/I’m gonna shake it for my pop/I’m gonna shake it for my cat/I’m gonna shake it for my dog/I’m gonna shake all night/I’m gonna shake it all day/I’m gonna shake it on the mic/I’m gonna shake it on the stage/Provide the assistance that you all need/Shake up the system/Follow my lead/Life is a gift/Represent the team/Life is a gift/And life is a dream.”

In the opening scene of the music video, Flyn pokes his head out of a barn window and waves his arms, rabbit ears flopping. Both men emanate joy, and the lyrics feel profound.

The song is nothing if not euphoric, but Flyn stresses that they are shaking it with purpose. “We’re bringing it,” he said. “This is the storm. Listen to these words. We’re in a journey that’s built around the heart. It’s built around forever love. Be free to rejoice with us.”

Space Suit’s songs typically begin with one of Seamus’s beats or Flyn’s spontaneous, stream-of-consciousness raps. They hone them over time, but they always leave room for improvisation when they hit the stage. 

“I’ve worked with a lot of musicians before, and Flyn is one of the easiest people to bounce ideas off, get inspired from, and just create magic,” Seamus said. “It’s one of the most free-flow collaborations I’ve ever had with a musician.”

Flyn, who was raised by San Francisco flower children, grew up going to powwows and spending time with shamans. As a kid, he divided his time between Petaluma, where he went to high school, and Point Reyes Station, where he regularly visited his grandparents. He has since inherited their house, and he shares it with whoever needs a place to stay, charging no more than they can afford, if anything at all.

After high school, he briefly attended U.C. Santa Barbara, taking classes in math, physics and astronomy. He spent several years in Los Angeles before moving to Point Reyes Station in 2012.

Flyn believes he has ascended to a different spiritual plane and attained insights he feels compelled to impart, which is why you will encounter him sharing his thoughts and energy with one and all. You’ll spot him while picking up your mail at the post office or sipping a latte at Toby’s.

Flyn is a numbers man. He finds meaning in their patterns and is tallying them all the time. Assigning numerical equivalents to the alphabet—one for an A, two for a B, etc.—he can summon the value of a word as quickly as a calculator. He sprinkles numerals throughout his raps and videos, each one an emblem of insight or the key to a puzzle. He might add or multiply before executing a celebratory flip or a handstand, gymnastic flourishes that sometimes punctuate his dance moves.

“I’m trying to get your attention, world,” he said. “I love you all so much. The scruffy guy on the corner singing and dancing is the one that’s here to help teach you all. Can you identify truth when it’s from a dude in a Star Trek shirt rapping about numbers and expressing voluminous amounts of love?”

He knows that for many a bewildered visitor, absorbing his insights might be a challenge. He also knows that most folks in the community embrace him. 

“You see him on the street, and everything he’s doing is intentional and with a purpose and with a meaning,” Seamus said. “Everything I’ve seen is from a place of love and caring about people.”

Seamus grew up in Seattle, where he began performing in high school. His parents were theater and dance people who met in a production of “Follies.” He came to Point Reyes Station as a hiking and backpacking guide and worked for several years at Blue Waters Kayaking before taking a series of jobs with local nonprofits. 

Before Space Suit, he was a one-man band, playing regular gigs around West Marin as Press On Randy. His music has always been upbeat, but the words could be cynical or dark. He appreciates the spirit that suffuses his collaboration with Flyn.

“It’s really been nice to flip the script for me and just jump on this bandwagon of joy,” he said.

On a recent evening, they rehearsed in Flyn’s garage, which once served as his grandfather’s workshop. Surrounded by dusty power tools and facing two booming loudspeakers, they found their flow. With his stringy, shoulder-length hair and long, dark beard, Flyn looked like a Hindu yogi channeling the spirit of a Soul Train dancer as he clutched a microphone and let the words fly.

Bouncing and shimmying, Seamus stood behind a table laden with electronic devices that lit up red, yellow and green as he worked an array of knobs and buttons, producing reverb, echoes, looping riffs and harmonies. When the spirit moved him, he picked up a Telecaster and threw in guitar lines.

Their rehearsals are loud—loud enough to potentially make a neighbor scream. Not Michal Hammel, known around town as Kansas, who lives next door to their old rehearsal space and has become one of Space Suit’s biggest fans. “When you hear them, you just have to move,” he said. “You just stand up and dance.”

See Space Suit videos at spacesuitmusic.com