Alder Arts Walk

Recently Joanna Kaufman interviewed Anna Moore (renowned Lobsana). Skyping in from Hawaii, Anna talked about her sound, method, and development, and her anticipation of the Alder Arts Walk. Her first live performance ever will be In Limbo, the first stop on the Alder Arts Walk at 1015 N Lawrence among other artists from 11am-1pm. 

Joanna: So you've never recorded live before. Can you describe your sound?

Anna: Um, it's sort of a weird sound. I work with a guy named Justin (he's under the name Algebraic Satelie) and I've been recording with him too for my EP. And we have had discussions on what I actually sound like and what we decided was it is alternative electric music, which is sort of a joke 'cause it's like alternative electric not, I dunno. Cause it's like alternative rock is sort of where we got that. But most of my stuff is pretty dreamy; I use that word to describe it and also sort of trancy. Not trance as in the trance music genre but people when they listen to my music for the first time they're like "OHH I'm in a trance!"

J: You know that the theme for the Alder Arts Walk is the Afterlife. Have you thought about any ways you'd like to incorporate that into your first performance?

A: Honestly, it's set up pretty perfectly for my music because I think I'm in the Limbo house, which is kinda funny because my music is sort of weird, sort of lengthy, sort of "Oh God, What the heck?" Yeah I'm really excited about being in that house because it will fit perfectly. I think it's really neat, the whole idea and how you set up the houses.

J: Yeah definitely! I'm really excited for it. Might kind of unground everyone, which is great. When did you start making music?

A: Back in 2010, I think it was, I got the programming called Ableton Live and then I also bought a little MPK mini which is a mini controller. So you plug it into your computer. And I don't have the best computer so the stuff I was making was really simple, 'cause it would overwhelm my computer! *laughs* So I couldn't do too much. But I made a lot of weird sci-fi stuff, like I made this song that I mirrored off an old sci-fi film. and I don't really have that stuff up anymore. But I just was sort of playing around. It was actually when my friend Justin, a little less than a year ago, was like "Hey, I really like your voice. Can you sing on my tracks?" And I was like "Sure! That would be fun," cause the only recording I had done was just on my computer mic and I had to put so much reverb and so much effects on it cause it was such a horrible mic. So when I first started recording with him, I was like "Hey, this is really cool having actual recordings of my voice and you can actually hear what I'm saying." That's really cool. And I thought if I can do this on his EP then I can do my own EP. And then I got a little more serious about writing songs. The other aspect of it was that I set up a whole live setup in my room. I got a microphone, my delay pedal, my microKORG - which is a synthesizer I'll be using at the show on Saturday. Also I still use by Ableton live backtracks. I write my bass lines and my drum lines and some background synth lines on it too. So that's how I started writing for the EP. It was all that stuff.

J: *comments on tapestry in background on Skype* If we didn't cover this already, how has your sound evolved?

A: It's similar to the fact that the more serious I got about it the more structured my songs would get. The more I worked with Justin on his EP (he's very professional) I wanted to have more professional sounding songs, like I wanted to have verses and choruses and actual set drumlines and bass lines, which I didn't really have before when I would just play around. It started out really dreamy, like crazy, like going-around-your-head weird.

J: When you approach creating a song, do you have something in your mind first or, how much do you "freehand" with your voice, I suppose.

A: It's a lot of experimenting. And with Ableton it's such a huge software so that's usually where I start. And then I usually try to write a basic drum line and then a basic bass line to go along with that and then I just sort of build on that with synth backtracks. I try not to do anything really concrete in my backtracks because I wanna be able to play the live aspect on my microKORG. So I write those loops and then I'll set up an instrumentation recording and then I'll figure out the microKORG parts on that, and then I'll try to write lyrics and melodies on top of that. So that's sort of how my songs go. And I do have a lot of just files that I just decided weren't good enough. So I have a lot of, like, partial songs that I'm just like "I'm done. This is not gonna work." *laughs* It takes a lot for it to make the cut. It has to sound good.

J: Yeah, and it's your work!

A: And I show people, I test it on people. So it just depends.

J: Right, totally. What do you think is the greatest challenge you face when creating a song or a set?

A: I tend to be really mellow with my music and I've been trying to get out of it. My lyrics tend to have this really mellow sad sound to them. I've had people tell me that they're really eerie and I try to get away from that sometimes because I should have more diversity in my songs. Some songs just really need to be up beat and that's sometimes hard for me to do.

J: Well I don't think anyone will give you a hard time for that in the Afterlife at the Alder Arts Walk. *laughs*

A: I know, it'll work well!!

HOUSE 2: PURE CONSCIOUSNESS 3422 N 8th 1 - 3:30pm

"Enlightenment, nirvana, Samadhi, loss of the ego, the end of a spiritual journey. 

Death is often seen as the end of an existence as the soul, spirit, or energy exits the body, leaving it an empty vessel of blood and tissue.  A lifetime does not have to be measured in the amount of time a physical body is occupied. It can be seen as a continuous consciousness (which may or may not be currently in physical form) seeking complete control, realization and liberation of the ego. In this state there is no longer mind, a subject-object relationship or experience. Upon entering this state of pure consciousness, the differences we saw before have faded and we can see everything as one. In this condition nothing but pure awareness remains and nothing detracts from wholeness and perfection. Life does not end at death, but rather continues until it is everything and nothing."

Logan Miller sat down with Fang Chia to discuss recording, communal living, Tacoma, and the upcoming Alder Arts Walk. Fang Chia is Kevin Shintaku, Kyle Durkee, Coby Tamayo, and Matt Price.

Logan: How long has Fang Chia officially been together?

Kevin Shintaku: Almost three years. 2010 - 2013.

Kyle Durkee: Well two summers.

Coby Tamayo: Yeah almost three years.

Matt Price: No put two years it makes us look better.

L: Okay two years.

CT: We got together right after the death of The Warner House Cat -- the band me and Kevin were in before Fang Chia.

L: What kind of music was that?

KS: Jam band type stuff. We did a cover of "Fire On The Mountain".

L: Where is Fang Chia at now in their two years together?

KS: We’re recording a second album. We’re expanding.

(Dan): They’re eating more.

MP: Fang Chia is always in a state of flux.

L: Musically?

KD: And physically.

L: How's the second album coming?

CT: It's way hard. Although we know a lot more then we did when we recorded our first album. It’s daunting cause its a lot of material. Its a double EP.

L: Why the double EP?

MP: I feel its a great decision because if we can record all of it at once, then it’s done. It’d be really exciting to finish all we have cause then its like a blank slate. Then we can be like, "what does Fang Chia do next?" That way, we don’t have these trickeling little things leftover that sort of determine your future. We just cut it off clean and then we can do whatever the fuck we want to do next.

L: Is there a sort of underlying thread throughout the new album?

CT: I’d say its a lot more schizophrenic

L: Interesting. Do you guys feel the need to challenge yourselves?

CT: Yes.

MP: Uhuh.

KS: Totally.

KD: Yes.

MP: It's like a continuing mental exercise. You asked about constant threads, that’s sort of a constant thread going through this album. We write songs that are harder than we can play.

CT: Kevin’s songs are the hardest.

KS: I write out note for note. I conceive the music first, then figure out how to play it.

KD: Yeah Kevin will literally hand out scores and we’ll be like woah! This is really hard.

CT: Yeah and there are always typos in them.

L: What for you guys is the most satisfying part of Fang Chia?

CT: For me its any moment when it's at practice or a show or recording when we’re all playing and it just sounds the way we know we wanted it to sounds and we look at each other and we’re like yeah. We can always feel it when it happens.

KS: For me its those moments when someone comes up to me after a show and is like "I saw you guys before and didn’t like you but this was great." It’s especially gratifying because I’d like Fang Chia to be as accessible as possible even though we’re a little out there. For me it’s people telling me they like the music.

MP: For me its when we’re like 3/4’s of the way there and it finally clicks. And that comes a lot through experimentation -- like tonight at rehearsal we added a section to a two-year old song because Coby did something fucking cool.

KD: For me it's when something really unexpected happens and you realize the music that you’re playing suddenly became way cooler than what you had in your head. I get a lot of satisfaction from this because when you write music and then you bring it to a group and they realize it's your music from your head, they’re very grateful. And to be able to bring something to the group that can totally transform an idea on someone’s music, that’s incredible. And most of that comes through rehearsing in the basement.

L: Did living together affect the way you guys play music?

KS: Well availability obviously. We came up with a lot of arrangements in our living room, with an organ and acoustic guitar.

KD: Well when we were all living together there was a lot of communal music blasting going on. A lot of Tortoise. Coby went through a big afrobeat phase and subsequently we all did too.

MP: You know we’d be listening to the same damn Tortoise album the whole week and some melodies and motifs would naturally come out in rehearsal

L: Does living apart give you guys some healthy distance?

FG: No.

KS: I would totally live with these guys in a second -- it was a great community, the music brain was always on. But Second Cycle helps -- it’s a great community we’re still all involved in.

L: Speaking of community -- how important is the Tacoma community?

KS: It's pretty much all we got, ya know. There’s so much incredible stuff going on. It's a really happening place.

L: What tacoma bands are you excited about?

KS: Well you should definitely check out the Barleywine Revue (laughs).

KD: I don’t know, I dig Walt The Fish.

CS: I really like Red Hex.

KS: Helms Allee is crazy good.

L: So maybe not a fair question -- but why not Seattle?

MP: No I’ve got a good answer for this. In Tacoma, if you have an idea or a concept for a project you can just do it. There’s a good chance somebody has not engaged with that project, and there’s a community that embraces this DIY sort of nature. In Seattle things are very institutionalized. Tacoma is a really modular city.

KS: It's the City of Destiny. Everyone has tried everything in Seattle and everyone complains that it used to be better.

(Dan) -- There’s still enough people from different groups so it's not the same crowd, it’s not claustrophobic, we don’t raise the same barn every Friday... We’re not Amish is what I’m saying. Although to me I think the biggest issue that is going on in Tacoma is that there needs to be a venue that houses 200-300 people, ideally the size of Chop Suey in Seattle. Everyone is pretty transitory, no one wants to step up it and do it, it’s a pretty slippery slope.

L: How many Arts Walk's do you think you’ve played?

FG: A whole lot. As Fang Chia and as not.

L: How have you seen it transform?

FG: It's definitely gotten a whole lot more organized. It used to be so much more chaotic. Houses weren’t clean, things were booked at the same time. In the past we’ve gotten a lot of cool bands to play, but now it's much more organized -- it’s not just a big party anymore.

L: So the theme is The Afterlife and you're playing at the Hell house...

FG: Yes we’ve taken that into to account in our set. For a while we had a lot of heavy sounding music, and we have a lot of that under our belt that we’ve really picked out, that and taking old songs and making them heavier for our set... in Hell. Especially with the rest of the bill -- we're big fans of Sun Eater, they’re super heavy, we’re going to try and play to that and open up that hellish environment but we’re not going be like a metal band.

L: Any closing words?

KD: If you see us at the AAW, and you don’t like Fang Chia, you still might like Fang Chia -- not one of our sets are really the same. It all depends on how we craft the sets -- in pandering to everyone, we can’t pander to everyone at once.

--

HOUSE 1: LIMBO 1015 N. Lawrence St. - 11:00AM - 1:00PM

“How may I speed, if thou yieldest to dread, Who still art wont to comfort me in doubt?” - Canto IV, Inferno

In Dante's Inferno, Limbo is the first of a series of circles surrounding the abyss of Hell. Here reside the virtuous and sinless unworthy of Paradise having not accepted Christ. Without Baptism, their souls missed "the portal of the faith that you embrace," and lacked hope for that greater than rational minds can conceive. Yet in Limbo reside many a celebrated poet, philosopher, and scientist - great brains of human history like Homer, Plato, and Euclid. Those thinkers and dreamers who devoted their lives and their minds to the uncertain and to measuring the immeasurable, to challenging the status quo and reinvigorating the compliant.

Todd Sykes came down to KUPS 90.1 FM The Sound last night to discuss his performance at the Alder Arts Walk, his new record with Ra Scion, and his beat making process.

Landon: Who are you? Where are you from?

Todd: I'm Todd Sykes from Tacoma, a member of City Hall. I just produced an album for Ra Scion called "Adding to the Extra". Ra's from Common Market if you aren't familiar with who he is. Born and raised in the Tacoma area, been making beats and rapping for like 10 years.

L: How did you get linked up with Ra Scion?

T: I've just been a fan of his for a long time and just always connected with him through the internet, going to shows, seeing him when I was coming up, when I was like 18, and just you know kept giving him beats and then finally we both kinda had time to do it so it came together.

L: It's interesting because you put out a lot of stuff with City Hall, with EvergreenOne, and then you put out a couple solo projects, and then it seemed like Ra Scion hadn't put out anything in a while.

T: Yeah it's been a while for him. He kind of is trying to make some moves again, make music. He put out an EP last year called "Beg, Borrow, and Steal" and prior to that he put out "Victor Shade". But you know it's been a few years between that and Common Market and I think it was 2009 when "Victor Shade" came out so yeah, we're planning on doing some more stuff soon.

L: His style is definitely a lot different than EvergreenOne. I don't really know how to describe it.

T: He's an MC. I like him, I make beats for MCs so it definitely is a nice fit, it definitely meshed well. It didn't take a lot of work to make that album sound good. 

L: Word, and it seems like EvergreenOne is finding his own niche too.

T: Yeah, and I'm definitely still friends with him. We still kick it and we're definitely going to do another project this summer. You know he just had a kid. I'm trying to work, trying to find a new job and everything. Struggling, living life!

L: Yeah definitely. It's interesting because growing up in Tacoma, I never had many avenues to see shows, venues were always over 21 so it's a good opportunity to get artists, especially beat makers from Tacoma, to come out and do shows at the Alder Arts Walk.

T: Yeah, it'll be a good place to meet people and hear good music.

L: We talked about the record you did with Ra Scion, "Adding to the Extra." When did that come out?

T: That came out March 19th, about a month ago.

L: Have you guys been getting good buzz on blogs and elsewhere?

T: Yeah we got a good review in The Stranger, I don't think it's actually in The Stranger but it was online the other day. It's been getting a lot of positive feedback, a lot of love on KEXP. We just did an in-studio there last Saturday. And I know Ryan's going over to Sasquatch this year, which is gonna be dope, so I'm gonna go over there with him. Get that free three day pass!

L: Dope! That's good times, Sasquatch is super fun. With the record with Ra Scion, did you change anything sonically from what you normally do in terms of beat making?

T: Naw, a lot of those beats, probably I'd say half of them, were beats that I'd already made prior to us deciding to do the album. So I gave him a bunch of beats and he picked what he wanted and I kind of adjusted a few things. But nothing really drastic that changed the sound, just some rearrangements and stuff like that. And then I'd say the other half I actually sat down and made specifically for him for the album.

L: What is your process then on making beats? Do you come up with the drum loop or is it the sample first?

T: It depends really, usually just digging. I just dig (records) every day and then I'll listen to records when I'm cleaning or doing laundry. And then if I hear something I like I'll take it, and sometimes I'll start with the sample, sometimes I'll start with the drum break. I really wasn't using drum breaks for a long time like looping them or anything but lately I've been kind of chopping them and replaying them out. But it changes all the time, I try to keep it fresh and different so it doesn't get stale. 

L: Definitely. And your style harks back to a lot of producers from the 90s, then there was the influx of software and it got much more intertwined with mainstream culture. Is there anything in particular that influenced you, like listening to A Tribe Called Quest or anything?

T: Yeah, listening to Tribe, Gang Starr, Pete Rock. I was a really big Jazz fan, and I really didn't like rap music growing up as a kid, like real young, and then I started hearing DJ Premier, Pete Rock, and that kinda turned me on to Hip-Hop. Just hearing all the familiar loops and stuff that I'd already known and hearing a dope way to remix it.

L: And it seems like your style is also reminiscent of J Dilla, especially on your LP "Studio Apartment", where the drums aren't necessarily fully on beat.

T: Yeah I never quantize any of my stuff, I'll just tap it out a thousand times until I'm happy with it and then it is what it is. 

L: So do you go through records and find drum sounds?

T: Yeah, I mean when I first started I used sample libraries but I haven't used a library drum for like 5 years probably. 

L: And at the Arts Walk you're going to be doing a lot of live MPC stuff.

T: Yeah it's gonna be just 30 minutes of beats coming out of the MPC, as much as I can fit in there, play it back and tap it out live. I use zip disks, so I have 100 megabytes in one zip disk. It's just the memory in the MPC that can only fit 32 megabytes, so that's like 5 minutes of samples. 

L: Well dope! Thanks for coming down to the show.

T: Yeah definitely, thanks for having me.

---

THE AFTERLIFE

LIMBO - 1015 N. Lawrence St. - 11:00AM - 1:00PM

Simic - http://simic.bandcamp.com/  IYVSV - https://soundcloud.com/iyvsv Morg - https://twitter.com/MorgBeats Lobsana - https://soundcloud.com/lobsana

PURE CONSCIOUSNESS - 3422 N. 8th St. - 1:00PM - 3:30PM

Todd Sykes - http://wearecityhall.com/album/out-of-the-blue  Vikesh Kapoor - http://vikeshkapoor.bandcamp.com/  Balto - http://balto.bandcamp.com/album/monuments 

REBIRTH - 818 N. Washington St. - 3:30PM - 6:30PM

Rhinoceros Rex - http://bit.ly/ZyNQeR Humble Cub - http://humblecub.bandcamp.com/  Wheelies - https://soundcloud.com/wheelies-2  Big Eyes - http://bigeyes.bandcamp.com/  Time Eater - http://timeeater.bandcamp.com/ 

HELL - 951 N. Alder St. - 9:00PM - 11:00PM

WE'RE BAAAAACK!

This year's Arts Walk is on April 27th. The theme: The Afterlife.

Children of Kids is a versatile band living in Seattle, melding folk styles with electronic sounds. We talked to band members Madeline Franks and Richie Nelson.

The official Alder Arts Walk kick off will be hosted by Wetlands Magazine! http://pugetsoundwetlands.tumblr.com/

Friday, April 27th

3422 N 8th st

6-10pm

6:30-7 'F 'N' A'

7-7:30 Erik Ryan

7:30-8 Bardo Basho

8-8:30 The Understory