Portland’s Roselit Bone is set to drop ‘Ofrenda’ on August 25th, and on top of that, they’re set to zig-zag here and there from Washington to Utah and many places in between until October. We sat down with Roselit Bone’s own Charlotte McCaslin to talk about the new music, combating life on the road, and more in this back-and-forth exchange. 

Kendra: A few years separate ‘Ofrenda’ and your last release from 2019, and during that time, a heck of a lot happened in our collective reality. Most of which was mentally draining, so with that – when did you all have the mental capacity to get back into creative mode and start working on the new album?

Charlotte McCaslin: There were a lot of false starts during the writing and recording process and half the lineup of the band changed by the end of it. It was hard to practice in 2020 while staying safe so a lot of the work was done remotely, and there was a lot of pre-production and demoing done before we headed into a proper studio at the end of 2021. I still am not sure I have the mental capacity to be on a stage again, desperately trying to sell enough T-shirts to pay for gas to the next town, but here we are. 

Kendra: Now Portland is where y’all call home, and it’s known for a multitude of things, including those food cart pods. With that, what local spot like that would you say has the perfect dish that matches up with the overall aesthetic and vibe of ‘Ofrenda?’ 

Charlotte: The veggie corn dog at Lift Off. It is substantial, half synthetic, and corn-based. By its nature a very, very sad food, it is elevated by the dreamy atmosphere and the care taken with its creation. The veggie corn dog at Lift Off has borne witness to several breakups and absorbed many tears of mine over the course of writing ‘Ofrenda.’

Kendra: One of the songs I really loved on the new record is “Crying in the USA” because, after 9/11, country music went hard towards patriotism. Toby Keith basically transformed himself into a bald eagle by 2002, so it’s interesting to hear a band like yours have this country sound but at the same time speak out against America’s antics – and there was a lot to pull from in recent years. For you, what’s the most embarrassing thing about this country and its policies at the moment, and do you think that we’ll be able to overcome the continuous BS from D.C.?

Charlotte: I don’t feel embarrassed to be from America and I don’t feel like I’m directly speaking out about its antics. I think America is a collapsing country, and most other countries will follow suit as climate change upends all governments and systems.  

I’m trans and there are very few places on the planet where I feel remotely “safe,” so I kind of just feel sick to my stomach when people find glee in arguing about politics like it’s a football game. I’m not trying to make ironic leftist country music, I’m just venting and lamenting and trying to escape into a song while the world spirals out of control. I think this is fully in line with a lot of country music traditions. I don’t think a video of my band and I slapping our asses in front of a hay bale is going to enlighten anyone about anything but the compromised state of our mental health. 

Kendra: On the flip side, you have “Your Gun,” and this song deals with a more personal aspect of life and life on the road vs. when the touring is said and done. Are you preparing to do anything different before you head out this year to combat the initial feelings that led you to pen this track?

Charlotte: I suppose I’ve done over a year of therapy to prepare. My life is much different than it was when I wrote “Your Gun.” I have a very happy and healthy relationship now, with our violinist Faith, so instead of coming home to a nightmare or crime scene, I guess I’ll just be a little bummed if our house plants don’t get watered. With my partner on tour with me, facing everything with the same enthusiasm, the road feels like home. 

Kendra: And this is going to be a lengthy run out on the road. You’ll start at the end of August in Washington and wrap up in early October out in Utah. Being an 8-piece, how much practice goes into the live shows so that no one is stepping on anyone’s toes figuratively and literally?

Charlotte: We don’t obsessively practice, our other jobs take up too much of our time, but we’ve been doing this for so long that a lot of the kinks have been worked out and it only takes a few days on tour for us to tighten up. I do a lot of arranging of each members’ parts in order to make the best use of what little time we have to play music together. 

Kendra: Time for a side note – So August is a huge month for me, with so many loved ones’ birthdays being celebrated, so I’d love to know what song you’d dedicate to your loved ones, be it friends, family, or both…

Charlotte: The title track, “Ofrenda” is a song for my friends. It’s not particularly hopeful, but I hope it can be like another warm body in the room when someone is grieving a death or feeling like ending their own life. 

Kendra: Lastly, with ‘Ofrenda’ out on August 25th and a tour already booked and ready to go, what else can the people out there expect from you as 2023 rolls along?

Charlotte: We’re hoping to shoot a few more music videos in the fall, but aside from that we don’t have much planned for 2024. I’ve been doing all the booking myself this year and it has cut into the time I get to actually spend playing music, so I’m hoping we can find a worthwhile agent before we plot out our next moves. A lot depends on how this upcoming tour is received so I’m putting everything I have into making the shows memorable.
Kendra: Lastly, with ‘Ofrenda’ out on August 25th and a tour already booked and ready to go, what else can the people out there expect from you as 2023 rolls along?

Charlotte: We’re hoping to shoot a few more music videos in the fall, but aside from that we don’t have much planned for 2024. I’ve been doing all the booking myself this year and it has cut into the time I get to actually spend playing music, so I’m hoping we can find a worthwhile agent before we plot out our next moves. A lot depends on how this upcoming tour is received so I’m putting everything I have into making the shows memorable.

The post Lift Off with Roselit Bone appeared first on ZO Magazine.

Kendra: My guy and I met online and initially bonded over Italian food and ‘It’s Always Sunny.’ What about you? Was music the foundation of this relationship was originally built on?

Christine: It was! We met at a coffee shop where I was playing a solo gig. Chad saw my set and asked if I wanted to add another guitar player. I said yeah, and we started meeting up to work on songs at the music studio he was working at. We also bonded over a shared love of certain bands, and discovering music together, including Low, which to this day is pretty much Chad’s favorite band. (Side note: We also love ‘It’s Always Sunny’)

Kendra: Now let’s talk about the music you create together as Bees in a Bottle and the new album, ‘The Sun Left and Took the Moon With It.’ This record seems to have come from a dark place; the loss of loved ones as well as the loss of other musicians over the years. Was there ever a moment in writing or recording where you had to force one another to take a break because things were taking too much of an emotional toll?

Chad: Christine did the majority of the songwriting so it never took too much of an emotional toll on me. It was quite exciting and inspiring. Christine kept learning about these women who were dealing with the aftermath of their rockstar husbands or boyfriends or son’s deaths and the coincidences just became more interesting. All the stories and twists and turns. I wouldn’t have heard Jeff Buckley’s Smiths cover without it…while it’s a dark subject, I found it all very fascinating. 

Christine: I don’t think we had to take very many breaks, even with the heavy content. This album is a direct extension of the last album, which dealt with personal losses. If I hadn’t grieved those losses and processed that stuff first, I don’t think I would’ve felt drawn to the voices in this album. I don’t claim to know their grief, but I think without my own sense of traumatic loss, I couldn’t have the mindset to imagine their complicated loss.  

Instead of needing a break, I actually had the opposite happen. I did a lot of research. I was pretty consumed with following my curiosity, my gut, and empathy. I felt like we’d had enough time and distance from our own losses to not get lost in darkness or trauma. Once we got to the recording studio, I definitely needed a few breaks and a lot of humor. I felt the emotional weight there. I wanted to do the best job I could of arranging the songs in a reverent way but also needed to keep it loose enough to allow for some happy accidents and synchronicities to show up too. I needed to remember that it just feels good to go make music with people.  

Kendra: All of the loss also sparked an interest in a perspective that not many care to view the world from, and that’s the women and partners of male musicians who’ve lost their lives to suicide or addiction. You’ve noted the misogyny some women face, which made me instantly think of Courtney Love who on top of becoming a widow and single mother, received a lot of hate when Kurt Cobain passed. That was almost 30 years ago, do you think society has gotten better since then, or are widows of musicians still dealing with that in some instances today?

Chad: Most of the album was focused on a certain era of music, so we didn’t really focus on recent history so much. But I think people are being less cruel and putting more of the responsibility on the responsible person. By the way, Courtney Love is definitely a part of the record. 

Christine: I think we’ve gotten a lot better, but we’re not where I’d like to see us. I think the Yoko Effect is still alive. I don’t know much about it, but wasn’t Ariana Grande fielding hate not too long ago for Mac Miller’s death? There’s a recent fashion trend called “rockstar girlfriend” that’s all about dressing like a female accessory to a rockstar. I still see womens’ artistic accomplishments ignored or credit implied to their male partners. 

I think this old way of thinking about women in relation to men in music is dying, but it’s a slow death. Maybe it’s because women are still so underrepresented in the music industry, especially the decision-making structures, labels, management, producers, etc. It’s harmful to men and women. I listened to an interview with Lady Gaga where she pointed out to the interviewer that he wouldn’t be questioning her use of sexuality in her music if she was a man, instead, he’d celebrate it and call her what she really was – a rockstar.  

Kendra: So I wanna talk about “Jealous Mistress” and in this, it’s the music business. How often do you think musicians think of the negatives that come with fame and “making it?”

Chad: I don’t think they consider it at all. I think they just do what they think they have to do. But they should know with such ambition comes a price.

Christine: I think musicians mostly start out just loving making music. The consequences of fame and the music business catches people off guard, grinds them up, and spits them out if they aren’t able to insulate themselves and their loved ones from the negative aspects. There’s a recent book addressing this exact thing. I haven’t read it yet, but I plan to. It’s called ‘Bodies: Life And Death In Music’ by Ian Winwood. It raises the question of whether we can make a healthier framework so fewer musicians become victims of things like drug overdose and suicide. 

Kendra: This song also reminded me of fandoms, and how too often fans can and do think their favorite famous faces owe them all of their time. Do you think that’s gotten significantly worse due to social media and fans having that level of connection?

Chad: I don’t know if it’s gotten worse, maybe just different. I think that with the oversaturation of social media, there’s less mystery. We know everything about everyone, or at least what they want us to know. Fans are getting more of their favorite artists’ time because of social media. But maybe that’s lessened the demand to pry or stalk because it’s all out there for everyone to see.

Kendra: Time for a side note – So Easter is my favorite holiday. Don’t ask me what the holiday is actually about because it’s only my favorite. After all, I love Spring and the candy is top-notch. With that, if you were to receive an Easter basket, what sweet treat and album on vinyl would you hope was in said basket?

Chad: Twizzlers Nibs and ‘Flood’ by Boris. 

Christine:  A ‘share-size’ Milky Way bar (not regular-sized, I swear it’s got less caramel to chocolate ratio) and ‘Boys For Pele’ by Tori Amos.

Kendra: Lastly, with ‘The Sun Left and Took the Moon With It’ out on April 14th, what else can people expect as we continue into Spring and soon into Summer?

Christine: We’re gonna start with an in-store performance/signing at Music Millennium here in Portland on release day. We’ve got a bunch of shows coming up this summer around the PNW, we’re also making and releasing videos for a handful of the songs throughout the summer.  

We hope people will get the record and listen to it in one sitting, set aside 37 minutes to have an intimate music experience. I’m leaning hard into the experience of physical CDs lately. I miss that part of my youth; grabbing the lyric book, wondering about the hidden track, knowing the song order, accidentally cracking the jewel case. So I hope other people want to grab the CD and listen that way. No jewel case though.

The post The Coffeeshop Connection of Bees in a Bottle appeared first on ZO Magazine.

Songs penned after a long day on the road while taking a break in some random motel in a place that may have slipped the mind of a modern map maker, memories of community pools underneath the sun, and being on the road after a couple of years on hold. All of that and more came from this back and forth with Anna Tivel. On the road now overseas, the Portland singer-songwriter will be back stateside this fall with so much goodness, including new material from ‘Outsiders,’ which drops on August 19th via Mama Bird Recording Co.

Kendra: With several albums already under your belt, what’s the one obscure, little thing you hold dear about making records that those who’ve never done so would never know about?

Anna Tivel: I love the process of making records so much. I’m a very solitary writer and have done a lot of touring alone, but the way I’ve recorded has always been the opposite of that, doors wide open in-the-moment collaboration. Each album has pushed my edges and been terrifying and wildly emotional and creatively inspiring, small and momentary and meaningful all at once. 

I just love to hear other voices on the songs, they get to have this whole other life when you bring them to musicians whose sonic hearts and thoughts you really resonate with. My favorite way to record is live in a circle in a room together, everyone listening intently and responding in real-time. And when a take has a certain depth of real emotion, everyone gets to live in it at once and it always ends up being the take you keep even if there are mistakes here and there. 

I guess that feels obscure and intangible, that mysterious energy that gets in the room sometimes and just makes something feel resonant. But also I think that same mystery plays out in life outside the studio all the time, any conversation that suddenly gets vulnerable, anytime you suddenly feel seen or connected. It’s like that but in music speak. 

Kendra: However, no matter how many records an artist has – they all likely feel like your children, or at least family. With that, which family member archetype would you say ‘Outsiders’ represents best? Would it be the baby of the family, the caring grandma with candy in their purse, the wild uncle at Thanksgiving, etc?

Anna Tivel: Oh man, I’m making a big messy family if we’re going down that road. This record would probably be the 19-year-old kid who moved away and did some heady and empathy-inducing drugs and got rocked by the big beautiful chaos of it all and came home for the reunion hell-bent on the kind of radical love and squirmy honesty that everyone takes fake phone calls to escape. But hopefully, it means something real to all of them later when they’re awake in bed and going through the pages of the day.

Kendra: Let’s talk about that title track because I was listening to it while scrolling through memes based on that new image of space from the Webb telescope and found it ironic. Once upon a time space was this glorious thing to explore and today we’re like, cool – MEMES. “Outsiders” feels like this reminder that we used to feel together, but now that is far from the case. Why do you think we’ve lost that sort of united sense of amazement and wonder?

Anna Tivel: Those Webb images blow my mind. And I’ve been trying to sort through my feelings about the way we take things in now, to separate what feels dark and detrimental from what is just my humbug reaction to new technology. Because the James Webb telescope is a new technology, and so is TikTok and all of it comes out of the same wild grab bag of humans learning from past human learning and wanting to be closer and better and more. 

Maybe there was a deeper united sense of amazement back then, but maybe we also had less information coming at us to be amazed by and now we have everything all the time at our fingertips and that makes us both more aware and nuanced and also more fragmented and numb because how can you possibly just stand around looking up into the sky when all of human learning and emotion and noise is in your pocket? 

Ha. I don’t know. To me “Outsiders” is a hopeful song about the way everyone seems forever united in thinking they don’t belong somehow, and only through things way bigger than us do we get these glimpses of ourselves in connection to each other. 

Kendra: On the flip side, your July single, “Black Umbrella,” reminds me of driving through the US for the first time last fall. Living in California, and LA for 16 years, the mind forgets America isn’t all big cities and that there are – as you saw when you penned this – so many of these run-down places on the map that feel like time’s forgotten. However, this song is anything but forgettable as it tells a pretty insane story. Was that based on any truth or was your mind running wild that day?

Anna Tivel: “Black Umbrella” came out in a big rush in a Virginia motel after a long drive and too many hours of radio news. With all songs, but especially with story songs, I don’t seem to know where I’m going until I get somewhere, no plan or preconceived destination, just a mad tangle of emotion and images piling up over days and weeks that need to get out I guess. I think stories really help me distill the too-much-all-the-time sensory nature of the world. 

You see two hopelessly sad and scabby kids asking for drug money outside a convenience store and then two minutes later you’re driving by a neighborhood of gated mansions. There’s just no way to make it all make sense, to hold it all. But stories are these slowed-down focused moments that tell just one small thing and I think that feels good to me even when the thing is sad. I guess that’s why we make and seek out art, to elevate the ordinary and make things feel meaningful that might’ve been awful or confusing or just too big to explain in concrete ways.  

Kendra: Fans have gotten to hear those and more this summer as you’re currently on tour and you’ll be overseas in August, and then back on the road this fall. How has it been returning to the road after some time away due to unforeseen circumstances these past couple of years?

Anna Tivel: Everything is very new again and it feels so good to be driving around playing shows and also really raw. The energy of being vulnerable with strangers in new towns every night is powerful and feels like such a privilege after two years of not getting to connect that way.

It makes me want to cry when people are willing to be in that space with me, to pause in their busy/chaotic/painful/joyful day to listen to some random girl sing weird dark poem songs. The connection and inspiration I get from touring and the stories people share is the best part of being back on the road. There’s definitely an uneasy feeling and a doubt machine that comes along with climbing out of my hermit nature after so long and I’m slowly figuring that part out. I named a lot of new things inside me over the pandemic and it’s a little scary to step back on stage and try to honor all those new truths and not feel a bit breakable and uncertain. But every part of making music seems to feed the other parts so I’m mostly just feeling so lucky to get to bump up against the world again. 

Kendra: Time for a not-so-side note – with it being summertime, I’d love to know your favorite memory from this season whether it was from your childhood or more recent…

Anna Tivel: I got my laundry out of the dryer today and my underwear is getting all worn out and pilly, and it made me remember riding bikes with those plastic beads on the spokes down to the community pool with my sister in the summer when we were kids. And we’d swim and then sit around and watch the teenagers flirt for hours and the butts of our suits were always all worn and nubbly from sitting on the rough concrete like that. 

Kendra: Lastly, with ‘Outsiders’ out on August 19th and dates already lined up for the fall, are you already looking ahead to next year?

Anna Tivel: ‘Outsiders’ was recorded just before the pandemic, so it’s been stuck in the cogs for a while and I’m pretty excited to put it out. I’m actually in the mixing process of a record made during the pandemic and it feels strange/fun to be talking about one while listening to another one while getting very excited to get them all out there and have that good empty bucket writing time again. 

The post On the Outside with Anna Tivel appeared first on ZO Magazine.

Sometimes all it takes is one time to be impacted by a place and for me, Portland, Oregon is one of those places. Beautiful does not even begin to describe it, and for that reason, I knew all too well why Lindsay Clark was moved, in part, by the natural world around her when it came to penning her June 24th release, ‘Carpe Noctem’. We talked about the gorgeous, natural views as well as the power of nostalgia, and more in this back and forth exchange. 

Kendra: One of your initial inspirations in music was your father’s record collection. Was there one album, in particular, you remember spinning on repeat?

Lindsay Clark: Simon + Garfunkel ‘Bookends’ and Joni Mitchell ‘Ladies of the Canyon.’ I don’t think I really understood Joni’s writing at this point but I was intrigued by it, and that was the first album I heard, especially the song “Conversation.”

Kendra: Now you make your own and have ‘Carpe Noctem’ dropping this June. With “Evening Star” being heavily driven by nature, and you living in one of the most picturesque places in the US – Portland, Oregon – would you say a lot of this record pays homage to our natural world?

Lindsay Clark: Yes, because I think a lot about the mythology and folklore that comes with nature and specific plants and flowers that I encounter. I unintentionally use nature as a backdrop when I’m writing, possibly because it is the actual backdrop. I do a lot of emotional processing in natural spaces so it tends to filter in, and it’s an important reminder of solace, even though we don’t treat it with the reverence that we probably should.

Kendra: So yes, “Evening Star,” you penned this after sitting by a river in your hometown in Northern California which – we’ve already talked about the nature aspect but for me, there’s also something powerful about the nostalgia of home. Why do you think our creativity pushes forward most when we step back in time?

Lindsay Clark: I think it lets us reconnect with a more innocent, primal part of ourselves, something that’s been untouched by all the events and chaos of life. I think, if you’re lucky to feel a connection to whatever “home” is for you, you can use that as a point of connection. I think it also helps us see the ways we’ve changed and grown.

Kendra: Again, you now call Portland home and what a home it is. I’ve only gotten to go once but I’d go again if I could because it’s 1. So clean! When you live in LA for 16 years you appreciate a clean street, but also there is so much artistic vibrancy. Would you say all the various art scenes are what drew you to lay some roots there?

Lindsay Clark: Yes, I was really drawn to the music scene between 2005-2010, when labels like Hush and even earlier, K Records were more active. I was intrigued by how many creative people seemed to be able to make it work out there, and it had this sort of magical quality to it. I think the culture has really shifted but at least in my era, it’s been a city that supports artists, though there is still a lot of work to do in that regard.

Kendra: You’re playing some shows on the West Coast in June leading up to the release of ‘Carpe Noctem.’ Will this be your first sort of tour since 2020?

Lindsay Clark: Yes, I think actually since 2019? I played a ton of shows from 2018-2019, but not really since then.

Kendra: Did you think for a second there that live music was going to be off the table longer than it was?

Lindsay Clark: Actually I thought it would be back sooner than it was, it was a difficult realization because I had tours planned and things starting to happen in Europe. I really thought touring would be back in 2021. When people started saying not until 2022, that was tough to accept at first, and it definitely created a different focus for so many of us. I don’t know whether it’s good or bad but it is a change. 

Kendra: Also, with Coachella still fresh on my mind and all these artists from today bringing out the likes of Shania Twain and Hayley Williams, I’d love to know what artist you’ve drawn inspiration from would you love to connect with if you had the chance to at a festival like that?

Lindsay Clark: I’m not always that in touch with bigger name artists, but if we’re going for a dream scenario, someone like Rickie Lee Jones or Jackson Browne. On a more indie level maybe someone like Will Oldham or Laura Marling? 

Kendra: Lastly, with ‘Carpe Noctem’ out on June 24th, and a string of dates already on the books – anything else you can share with us?

Lindsay Clark: Creating and releasing an album is such a time-consuming process, I’m excited to have more space to focus on writing new material again and envisioning how to record that, which is my favorite part. Other than that, I’m hoping to focus more on collaborations, honing my live performances, and a creative nonfiction project. And regular stuff, like going to the river and hanging with my cat. 

The post Lindsay Clark: Naturalistic Creations appeared first on ZO Magazine.

The lot of us who took pen to paper during adolescence squirm at what we used to write, so Laryssa Birdseye is not alone there. Thankfully though, she kept at it and like all things people put their heart and time into, she grew and today is the talented lyricist that stands before us with a new record out now. We talked to her about ‘Wildfire,’ channeling her inner Buffy, and more in this back and forth from the west coast.

Kendra: What motivated you to initially pursue music?

Laryssa Birdseye: I never dreamed of pursuing music professionally. I was such a painfully shy person, and playing songs in front of people seemed like the equivalent of ripping my skin off in front of a crowd and screaming “hey, look at me bleed!” So I spent my early 20’s sort of running away from the inevitability of pursuing music. I would say it pursued me, but that makes me sound like an asshole, haha. I just kept finding myself in jobs and situations and relationships that I felt empty in, and there was always this nagging little voice that always sort of asked “is this all there is?”

So when I hit 25, I quit my corporate finance/recruiting job and sort of flailed my way into a music career. It hasn’t been the most natural thing at times, but it’s made me feel alive in a way I wasn’t able to feel when I was trying to be someone else.

Kendra: Listening to 2019’s ‘Press Play’ and this year’s “Wildfire,’ the evolution in sound is quite apparent. What progressed in the year between then and when you started formulating your latest EP that inspired this shift in sound?

Laryssa Birdseye: It’s a pretty crazy transformation, right?! I started in music sort of not knowing what I wanted to sound like, though I’ve always had an unabashed love for pop music. There’s no better way to tell someone to go fuck themselves than when you can get a room full of people to sing it with you in a catchy chorus. ‘Press Play’ and ‘Wildfire’ came out of the same three-month-long songwriting fest stemming from my equal parts grief and fury after getting out of a very controlling and abruptly ended relationship.

As I was sorting through the songs, and through the grief in general, I began to conceptualize ‘Press Play’ as the sort of final farewell to the acoustic/pop-rock/ songwriter genre I had been skirting in, and Wildfire would be the way I usher in a new chapter and genre. The genre shift into a more fully produced pop EP like ‘Wildfire’ sort of reflects the way I underwent a personal shift. I would not be accepting any more bullshit, and if it was brought to my table, I’m gonna write a banger about it and blast you.

Kendra: One thing ‘Wildfire’ showcases is an unapologetic atmosphere. Is that a trait you have outside of music as well?

Laryssa Birdseye: Absolutely. I think many women can probably relate to this, but when I was younger, I was so non-confrontational, so terrified of conflict, and I would rather step on my own throat than voice what I needed in a relationship, be it personal or professional. I think when you’re raised to play nice, but you have a lot of pent-up anger, it’s only a matter of time until the dam breaks and you just say what you need to say. I’ve learned to advocate for what I want and what I won’t accept. I think I tend to intimidate or sort of scare people a bit, but I hope I also inspire them to stick up for themselves as well.

Kendra: When I hit play on “Won’t Remember Your Name,” I was transported to a 90’s RomCom – but if they could swear and have a bit more edge to them. With that, if you could place one song from ‘Wildfire’ on the soundtrack of any movie ever, which song and movie would you choose and why?

Laryssa Birdseye: Haha, I love that! I basically am a 90’s RomCom, but if it was a French art film and the heroine was just alone forever smoking cigarettes off her balcony cursing her ex-lovers. In my case, it’s a vape pen and a driveway, but it still works. If I could have one song land in a movie…I would actually switch it to the show ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer,’ and I would have Sarah Michelle Gellar sing “Fuccboi” to Spike as she chases him around with a stake. I just feel like he was the early prototype of guys I’m attracted to—totally unavailable, a complete asshole, probably gonna kill you at some point—and it would be a cathartic moment for me.

Kendra: This EP reminded me of Katy Perry’s first two albums, in that it possessed the joy of pop but elevated it to a real lyricists’ level. Have words always come naturally for you, or was this gift discovered when you realized you were meant to sing?

Laryssa Birdseye: Ok first off, I cannot tell you how happy that makes me. Katy Perry’s early albums are legitimately so good, and I’ve loved her for years. She was actually a big inspiration in the making of ‘Wildfire,’ so I’m happy you picked up on that!

And thank you! I’ve always loved words. My dad is a writer, and I mimicked him early on. I was always starting a novel, writing short stories, plays, and musicals. Songwriting is a gift because you only have to make something 3-5 minutes long. I was never able to finish anything longer than 30 pages, haha. I honestly love writing songs because the difference between something good and something bad is our ability, to be honest, and just say what we mean. Over the years, I think I’ve been able to get good at expressing myself without being too self-indulgent. I still get told I cuss too much in my songs, but sometimes you just really need to say Fuck.

Kendra: Being in Portland makes so much sense because you too are this eclectic mix of goodness, but can we talk a minute about the music scene there and how it’s been impacted by the past year, and what locals (and beyond) can do to help?

Laryssa Birdseye: Oh yeah. The landscape has changed for sure. I think Portland is really interesting because in the last few years there was so much development, so the promise of a real music industry was starting to show, but the last year in the pandemic has decimated that. As with a lot of major metropolitan areas, venues have remained shut, and the future of a thriving industry based on gigging and live shows looks pretty dismal. It’s given me an insight into how I needed to pivot in a Covid 19 world.

I think the best and most amazing way to support musicians is honestly by supporting financially. It’s incredible how people have continued to create content, release albums, and music videos, and run ads when a huge part of our revenue has been decimated. This stuff is expensive. So the next time you are digging an artist, download their album, buy their merch, send them a DM letting them know how much you love their music. Sometimes, on a bad day, it’s the difference between feeling like you should just quit the industry entirely and finding a little motivation to keep on moving forward.

Kendra: Lastly, it’s getting a little easier with the vaccine rollouts, but it’s still kind of hard to have a definite answer when it comes to future plans given the current state of everything, but as far as what you can control when it comes to your career and creativity – what do you have planned in the coming months for yourself?

Laryssa Birdseye: I would say I’m a content queen, and I spent the last year in a sort of creative cocoon. I started an Instagram Live show called the Birdbath, in which my bandmate and I sit in a bathtub, play songs, sing karaoke, answer audience questions, and sometimes take shots of hot sauce (I threw up after that episode).

I’ve been releasing Demo sessions of unreleased songs, which has been so wonderful and freeing, after spending years just focused solely on one album or EP at a time. I also have something on my Instagram called Jingle Tuesday, where I write a 5-second jingle based on the title that someone sends. Also, I’ve started a side business where I write people custom songs. One of my songs was played at a man’s funeral, and it was so incredibly humbling and beautiful to have provided that emotional release for his family and friends.

In a world where touring is so uncertain, both in terms of it being possible and financially realistic, I’ve enjoyed connecting with my audience through platforms like Instagram and TikTok. I do a lot of live streaming shows, and I have a few more unreleased singles and music videos planned for the rest of the year. I consider myself truly grateful to have found so much creativity and inspiration, and I hope to just launch myself forward into a future where we can all dance and party within 6 feet of each other and scream out the lyrics to “Fuccboi” to all the assholes who ghosted us during quarantine.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is definitely invited.

The post Laryssa Birdseye: Press Play on this Wildfire appeared first on ZO Magazine.

Social butterflies often regard people like myself and the mastermind behind bdRm, Jeremy Wilkins, as a little odd. Just because we grew up embracing our imaginations alone in our bedrooms and later found solace in solitude more often than not. It’s not odd, just the norm for people like us. We talked a lot about Jeremy’s time alone, before and during the current state of the world, his affection for pop culture, what’s to be found on his latest release, ‘Are You Alive?’ and so much more in this back and forth between two homebodies on the west coast.

Kendra: When one works in the arena of ambient and soundscapes, words aren’t the necessity. Have you always found yourself expressing yourself in a manner that consists of little to no words? Like were you drawing pictures instead of writing notes as a kid? Things like that?

bdRm: Actually, no, I was quite the opposite. I have always been very into words and writing. I write short stories and in my other band, We Are Parasols, while I’m not the vocalist, I am the primary lyricist. When I was young I wrote poetry and was completely obsessed with The Cure. I originally wanted to start a band to be the singer, but I was not a particularly talented vocalist and happened to have a friend who was. So, I started playing keyboards, studied production, and tried to always collaborate very closely with vocalists.

I did eventually spend some time as a singer-songwriter in a band a few years ago, but I didn’t find it as appealing as an adult as my teenage self imagined it would be. Once I reached the point where I finally felt confident and competent as a singer, I lost all interest in doing it. Maybe because I’d spent so many years developing as more of a background player, producer, mixer, all-around technical person, I now feel happiest in that role.

Kendra: With any type of creative career, you have to have that initial motivation to feel like your skills and talent make you a great candidate for it. Do you remember when you had that initial thought, like hey – I could do this? I can make this happen for myself?

bdRm: Honestly, I’ve never had that much confidence. There have been a couple of points where I found myself thinking, “Wow, maybe this is gonna take off!” One being my first live show ever, at age 19, when we had an A&R rep from Atlantic Records talking us up backstage, another being when Chris Vrenna (the original drummer from Nine Inch Nails) was hired to produce my second band, underwater. But I’m not well-known or commercially successful and I still split my time between two different creative careers, music and photo-retouching, to make ends meet.

So, I never really thought I could make it happen as much as I knew I needed to make music, or I’d be miserable. It’s really about just making sound. Whether or not it sells or anyone listens has taken a back seat to the act of creation. Amongst all the artistic things I do producing music is the one that is consistently fulfilling and I know I can never stop. It’s like my therapy…or maybe my addiction. I do question the nature of the relationship.

Kendra: This Spring you’ll drop your new record, ‘Are You Alive?’ How would you compare the headspace you were in while writing and recording to the one you were in back when you were creating 2016’s ‘Identite’?

bdRm: ‘Identité’ was a pretty massive collaboration, it’s a 20-track album with a lot of vocalists and guest musicians. The record was about exploring and understanding identity. I was in therapy at the time and trying to wrap my head around my childhood and recalibrate how those early experiences were influencing me as an adult. I happened to know a lot of people going through similar things so my goal was to channel this incredibly personal experience into something communal and collaborative. I guess you could also say I was trying to get better at “playing with others”, which was something I haven’t always been good at.

Making ‘Are You Alive?’ was a much more isolated process. My only collaborator, aside from the vocalists on the last track, was Alec Yeager, my bandmate from We Are Parasols. But he lives in Atlanta and I live in Portland. So, we weren’t even in the studio together. We’d send ideas back and forth through Dropbox.

The record about being isolated from the agreed-upon concept of reality that our society has thrust upon us. It’s about questioning your place in that reality, or if you even have one. So, the process mirrored the concept. It was a very, very long process for six songs and it was mostly me alone in the studio combining various musical ideas to see how they fit together, like assembling a puzzle. I’d combine a synth line from four years earlier with a piano part from two weeks earlier with a drum loop Alec sent me. It was like collage art or writing a story from scraps of notes you’d left lying around a room for years.

Kendra: Perhaps you knew what was going to happen because there is this eerie feeling, at least with “Why Not Another?” that does sound like it would fare well in “The Walking Dead” or even a post-battle scene in “Westworld.” Are you at all influenced by pop culture and where your music could fit in when it comes to TV and film?

bdRm: I am massively influenced by pop culture – TV, films, books, etc, and particularly science fiction. My first EP as bdRm, ‘Are You Friendly?,’ was all solo piano pieces inspired by the movie ‘eXistenZ’ by David Cronenberg. The title of the new EP, ‘Are You Alive?’ is taken from one of the opening scenes of ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ and the next We Are Parasols’ record will be titled ‘Body Horror’ and is heavily influenced by the cult film genre of the same name.

I used to work at a video store and have always been interested in film, film culture, soundtracks, and sound design. I’ve had songs used in TV shows before and I did the soundtrack for an independent short film years ago. But so far haven’t had the opportunity to do many soundtracks or sound design work. I would love to, of course. I’m available if anyone wants to hire me!

But—ugh!—regarding knowing what was going to happen, I certainly didn’t see this coronavirus coming, but I am a somewhat agoraphobic introvert and I think that’s expressed in most of my music to some degree. It’s not debilitating agoraphobia, but I do tend to view new people as a threat until they prove otherwise. Yeah, that’s something I learned about myself in therapy! So, now we’re all living in this new, hopefully temporary, world where everyone feels a bit like I always feel. It’s awful and I hope the social distancing works and a vaccine is developed and eventually we can get back to a world where my music doesn’t make as much sense.

Kendra: Speaking of “The Walking Dead,” everyone has that on their mind with the current climate of the world, staying inside to flatten the curve and whatnot. For you, you’re sort of already comfortable working from home as that’s where your studio is. With some not fully grasping how to stay motivated when working from home, do you have any universal advice for staying on task?

bdRm: I’ll try, but to tell you the truth I think I’m just inherently suited for working from home and healthy doses of isolation. Even as a child I absolutely loved playing alone in my room and I don’t think how I work and function now is much different.

Still, I do have a few practical rules I stick to. I get up at the same time every day, shower, and get dressed. I don’t work in pajamas. Most mornings, when the weather is decent in Portland I take a 30-minute walk before starting to work. I have a sit/stand desk which helps the body not feel awful. I will sit for a while then spend a couple of hours standing but doing either for too long is bad.

But I’m not even sure that some amount of lack of focus or productivity is a bad thing right now. Most people working from home aren’t doing essential jobs that will have a direct impact on the crisis so I think we should give ourselves some slack. We’re all so worked up, stressed out, looking at new numbers and new warnings and new rules everyday. Maybe we should all get whatever work we absolutely need to do taken care of and then use this unfortunate situation as a chance to slow down a little. I just don’t believe that the all-consuming economy is more important than the physical, mental, and emotional health of the people. That “economy first” ideology has already contributed to this crisis in so many ways.

Kendra: Usually, this is where I ask people what they have planned in the coming months but with the world in a strange place right now, plans aren’t as concrete as they typically are. You can go ahead and let us know what you have tentatively planned but can you also share a song that never fails to get you through when the world around you feels like a mess?

bdRm: Yeah, all of our plans are up in the air. Alec was supposed to come out to Portland last month so we could shoot a video for “Why Not Another?” and then our main band, We Are Parasols, was going to play a bunch of shows around the Pacific Northwest. At the moment that is all tentatively rescheduled for June/July but I’m not feeling exactly hopeful about that new timeline either. For now, Alec and I, along with our singer, D, have decided to focus all of our creative energy on the next We Are Parasols’ record, ‘Body Horror.’ We had been working on demos for a few months and all of a sudden the subject matter seems eerily relevant.

Most of the music I’ve been listening to lately is pretty unsettling. I’ve been submerging myself in the weight of this moment, so I’ve either been listening to fairly dark music or nothing at all, silence. But the other day The Church came on shuffle and anything Steve Kilbey sings feels calming and reassuring to me even if he’s talking about drugs, murder, or aliens. So, I’d say “Under The Milky Way” is a good, very nostalgic, song that helps me get through. I find something comforting about the ambiguous chorus, “Wish I knew what you were looking for / Might have known what you would find.” Also, the production seems simple but it’s not. I still manage to notice new things about it as I get older and listen in different ways. There are a lot of cool synths and guitar textures going on in the background. Plus, it was in ‘Donnie Darko,’ which is a movie that helps me get through when the world is a mess!

The post bdRm antics and answers appeared first on ZO Magazine.

Kendra: Heading off to school for art, it’s clear you had some sort of idea of what you wanted to do or did you? I know we all often change majors and plans once we’re in the thick of classes. What was the case for you?

Stephanie Buer: I actually had a much different idea of what I wanted to do when I started college. I had an awful art teacher in high school. She told me I was too slow, too much of a perfectionist to ever make a career as an artist, and that I should go to school for art restoration. I was young and gullible and still thought adults inherently knew what they were talking about, so I believed her.

So, I started out in community college, studying art restoration. Luckily I had the most amazing studio practices instructor there, who believed in my abilities as an artist, he was very encouraging and supportive. He taught me how to draw and paint and helped me build up a portfolio so that I could get into a more serious art school. That experience was life-changing.

After two years studying with him, I went to Detroit, and it was while taking a landscape drawing class at CCS, that I fell in love with urban landscapes. I was a Junior at the time and in my fourth year of studies, so it took a while.

Kendra: You finished school in ’06 and then did your first show four years later. Were you working in art up until that point?

Stephanie Buer: That’s kind of a messy story. I was making art during that time but very busy doing other things as well. While in art school, on top of drawing and painting, I was obsessed with stone carving and because I was pretty decent at sculpting I was offered summer internships working at General Motors in Detroit, sculpting cars at their design center. It paid really well.

After I graduated, they offered me a full-time job which also paid really well. I worked there for about five years, paid off my student loans and saved up enough money to quit and work full time as an artist. I was also dancing in a ballet company full time throughout college and my years working at GM, so that’s why I had no time to show. I don’t dance anymore but I used to dance and perform all the time. I like to stay busy. Sometimes too busy.

Kendra: Let’s get to your work because WOW. To someone who has zero artistic abilities, your paintings amaze me and are some of the best I’ve come across in recent years. Have you always been drawn to realism in art?

Stephanie Buer: Thank you so much! I have! I couldn’t say why either. I love representational work. I do love a lot of abstract work though, I just intuitively, don’t feel drawn to make it. My heart and soul are happiest in a realm of realism.

Kendra: You’ve noted how you are inspired more by these so-called modern relics, places people have abandoned. You found a lot in Detroit, but have you been able to get the find the same inspo where you are now in a city like Portland?
Stephanie Buer: I do not find it as much in Portland and when I do find inspiration it’s very different. I like it though. I like the challenge of finding things to work with here, it’s much more difficult. The palette is different too, it’s wetter, grayer, rustier, the graffiti quality is pretty poor. It’s gotten much better in the past few years though. Luckily my entire family still lives in Michigan so I go back there often and continue to explore.

Kendra: What is it about these forgotten parts of our everyday life speak to you more so than say, a lively downtown area full of life?

Stephanie Buer: I’m not sure, maybe it’s just intuitive. I do like the practice of finding beauty in places that society tells you, are not beautiful. Or maybe it’s that I generally don’t like people or crowds. I wish there were less people in the world and it was just left alone to do its own thing, without us messing everything up. These places, to me, feel like that. Like we all finally disappeared and the earth, in that particular spot, breathes a big sigh of relief and then is like, okay, where do I begin.

Kendra: On top of painting, you also offer these incredible drawings as well. Do you prefer one style over the other? And do you have plans to add even more mediums to your talented resume?

Stephanie Buer: I honestly prefer drawing, painting is much more difficult but I think I’m getting better. Lately, paintings have been selling much better than drawings though, so I haven’t had the time to draw as much as I’d like. I don’t have plans to add anything at the moment but I’d love to carve stone again someday.

Kendra: What do you have going on as we head out of 2019 and into 2020? Any gallery shows coming up you can share?

Stephanie Buer: I don’t have too much going on at the moment, just lots of group shows all over the place. I had a piece at Moniker in London and will be sending a piece to Australia next month, both new places for my work. I like when the work travels. I’ve been working on grad school applications lately too so that’s pretty exciting but also incredibly scary and intimidating. It’s good to challenge the work from time to time though.

The post The Relics of Stephanie Buer appeared first on ZO Magazine.

“To all the boys I’ve loved, I think of them fondly even long after those relationships have deteriorated. After a friendship ends, for me the memories start to feel tainted.” – Jame Doe

When one hears electronic music, they don’t often think of depth. They think, “Well, that’s going to make me move.” Which, yeah. It’s great for a beat, but what Jame Doe has done is create music that while at times defies the constrictions of genres, does have layers upon layers of emotion. From friendships to growing up, it’s like a coming of age movie put to song, presented by a 26-year-old who is still figuring things out but doing a damn good job. We talked to Jame Doe about not only all of the above but what’s coming up from performances to a well-deserved trip to an alpaca farm.

Kendra: When you first started getting serious about making music, were you in the electropop field or did you mess around with other sounds before you came to what felt right for you and what you wanted to say?

Jame Doe: I still struggle to figure out where I fit. I’m right now in the mentality of “fuck genres” because I think about the six-minute ballad we play last in our set, “Fantasies in Tel Aviv.” It’s only two chords the entire time that we play off this synth pad. Though we recorded the chords on a real piano we play them electronically. Is that song an electropop song? Does that make me only electropop? It’s hard to determine and I’m still figuring out how to reference myself.

When I think about my songs I really think of them all as dramatic ballads that happen to have totally different moods and instrumentation. Even “Garden with No Water” in my head feels like a ballad, but it’s a fun, bedroom pop ballad. Definitely my lightest and most bubbly song.

Kendra: Electronic music has come such a long way in the last decade or so that it’s more likely that a song is interlaced with electronic beats than not. Why do you feel more and more mainstream artists are taking on the genre or elements of?

Jame Doe: I love that people are using these electronic elements in their music, but to me, the quality of the live performance still supersedes it all. An artist should be able to play a set that still feels live even if it is electronic music.

On my end, I don’t play any instruments so this is an issue I grapple with. During a live show, my voice is the only thing I focus on. However, my drummer and synth master Keagan is doing the heavy lifting and it takes a lot of work to make our electronics feel alive during a show. We use live drums and most of our sounds are triggered through a pad.

There needs to be imperfections, that’s what makes a live show so special. Those moments where the beat gets off for a second, a cracked voice, a missing sound effect…when done with passion, that makes the show. It is also nice to not have a ton of heavy equipment to load in during shows; not going to lie!

Kendra: Let’s talk about your electropop music now. “Garden with No Water” has the ability to hit any and everyone in the feels because who hasn’t felt the heartbreak of a friendship ending. Is the road to recovery faster when a friendship ends or a relationship?

Jame Doe: There have been three cases of friendship’s ending in my life, and they’ve hit me far more intensely than any of the boys I’ve smooched. I’m an only child and I’ve always latched on to my friends and almost expect them to do the same. To me, an intense friendship is the most beautiful type of relationship.

Over the last year, I’ve come to realize that there are things I need to personally avoid in other people. I get so excited by intense people who are opinionated on everything. Nothing bores me like a neutral stance, to me, it reeks of dimness. The three friendships that ended were all with people who were wildly excited by things and either loved them or loathed them. In the end, those types of extremes were what pushed our friendships to the limit.

So there’s this issue, internally that I face that I want to be around people that have the potential to hurt me the most, and so when they do I feel that devastation harder than anything. I kinda know I’m setting myself up for it. But I’ve been lucky, it’s only happened three times. Though I still wake up in the middle of the night having reconciliation nightmares.

Kendra: Other than friendships ceasing to exist, you also pen a lot of songs about the inevitable like getting older, and boys. Both are two of life’s mysteries, however, which do you feel you’ve gotten better at grasping over the years?

Jame Doe: I’ve known my boyfriend for five years now and I have to say I’m good at being in a relationship. If we’re out and about we’re allowed to kiss other people, we’re not possessive of each other. Our love is about admiration, not possession, and we’ve been blessed to make a dynamic that works for us.

However, my 26th birthday came, and I’m mildly freaking the fuck out because I put these imaginary timelines on things that I need to achieve. I think I’ve figured boys out for now, but the growing up thing I’m still lost on.

I just wrote this song called “Nothing Stays the Same” about all the things I’ve been willing to change over the years about myself to make me more marketable. Quite frankly, I’m down to change into something I’m not if it means people will have better access to my music. I just want to love who I shift into, that’s my only stipulation. I’m always down to change and always down to grow.

Kendra: I wanted to talk a bit about OUT/LOUD. You’re the co-coordinator of this music event that focused on the Queer scene in Portland. How’d that come about and is there a set location for the event?

Jame Doe: There’s always room for more queer events. I reached out to a friend who did the booking for Kelly’s Olympian (Portland’s oldest bar) and asked him if they’d be down to host a queer music series. I then met another gay artist (Erik Carlson of DoublePlusGood) and we slowly just figured it out. Our Pride show featured two local drag queens, a DJ, prominent queer acts (Frankie Simone + Layperson were there) and it almost sold out.

I wanted a night that’s specifically dedicated to established queer artists. There are open mics for queer performers around town, but to me, there needed to be a dedicated space for queer musicians outside of pride month. We also host ASL interpreters who are sponsored by local queer businesses (like Botanica Floral Design.)

I’ve never organized something like this and while there are a million moving parts it’s a joy to figure out. I’d never say this in any other situation, but it’s honestly fun to read through a thread 50 emails long when it’s with the Out/Loud folks. The people involved are excited (and respond quickly) and it makes it exciting to work on.

Kendra: Before we say goodbye, let’s play a version of FMK but this is Cover, Duet, Tour With. Out of Elton John, Adele, and Fleetwood Mac which would you simply cover in the comfort of your bedroom, which would you do a duet with in the studio, and which would you want to tour with?

Jame Doe: Those are three of my biggest inspirations. I’m not afraid to say I love the booming vocals of commercial music, and in my eyes, these people are Gods. It’s not to say I don’t wildly admire more niche artists, but with the commercial success, these three have, to know that anyone on earth can know who you are, wow that is inspiring.

Put me on tour with Adele, give me a duet with Fleetwood Mac, and I’m covering “Levon” by Elton John in my bedroom.

Kendra: There are a few shows on the books for July. What’s about August? Anything coming up?

Jame Doe: I’ve got a few shows this month. Playing two nights of a pretty unique version of my set. My drummer is on vacation for a week so I’m doing a piano version of my set that a friend is joining on. I’m taking some time in August to record and work on music, to get out into the world. I’m also taking a weekend off to go up to a family member’s alpaca farm about an hour away from Seattle. I’m extraordinarily excited about that.

I live for the moments I get to perform, I wouldn’t quite say I live for the recording studio. It’s a place I struggle, but if I want to make it in this field I have to make the recording studio work for me. It’s been a challenge to capture the magic of a live performance in a padded room. I get self-conscious about my voice (which never happens live) and I always feel like I’m missing the mark.

Kendra: Lastly, let the people know what you have going on right now!

Jame Doe: My life dream is to spend every night on a different stage singing. I’m figuring out slowly but surely how to make that my reality, and I need to take a minute to tell myself how proud I am of being Jame Doe. If you like my songs show a friend, show your mom (mom’s love me,) show your dad (I love daddies,) show anyone. Thanks for being a part of my journey.

The post Jame Doe: Pulsating Through the Garden appeared first on ZO Magazine.

Wanting to start their own business to leave the routine of their current daily lives behind, they took their love and appreciation for forests and creative drives and started Woodland Zen. Today Woodland Zen is still selling those wonderful bracelets that started it all but has since added a plethora of fashionable items to choose from. Now get to know more about Dave and Emily’s journey into the woods.

Kendra: You’ve noted that you find a lot of inspiration from places like forests. What is about wooded areas that you feel bring out your creativity?

Dave: A forest is a place of no stress. A place of peace! A natural state of flow which the modern world lacks.

Kendra: Is there one forest in particular that has been the sort of driving force behind Woodland Zen?

Dave: To be honest no! We really like pine forests!

Kendra: Do you ever think Woodland Zen will have a sort of spinoff that is based around the beaches of the world?

Dave: Nope! Although we love tropical regions and travel there often, our brand is centered around the beauty of the forest

Kendra: You’re also passionate about being vegan and cruelty-free with your products. Was that something that had to be incorporated from the start?

Dave: Absolutely! We are against any form of animal suffering. If a sentient animal had to be born just to die in order to use its skin, fur, bone, or anything, it is beyond acceptable. A lifetime of suffering for a moment of fashion is not fashion. It’s cruelty. After learning about animal agriculture and animal exploitation we could never call ourselves spiritual, loving or anything in between if we were paying to have animals’ lives taken in the name of fashion. Or food for that matter. The animals who die for our food and fashion are as smart as our pets.

But from an early age, we are programmed to think that it is OK to kill one but pet another. Over 56 billion animals are killed each year for our food and fashion. Thousands per minute. This is just land animals, not counting marine. Since animal agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation worldwide because it takes more resources (water, land, grain, etc) to create animal products both food and fashion than it does for plant-based alternatives, we had to make the conscious choice of protecting our forests and furry friends!

Kendra: What are your plans for Woodland Zen as we head deeper into 2019?

Dave: We are transitioning to a more clothing based brand rather than jewelry! We plan to run campaigns on planting trees as well per purchase!

The post Setting Up Camp with Woodland Zen appeared first on ZO Magazine.

Maybe one of those new songs will end up on the big screen like Keez’s music has in the past. Yes, he’s been featured in movies but in recent years, he thinks his sound would’ve been a perfect fit for Emily Blunt’s Sicario or any horror film. While he mentioned a thriller and horror, Keez himself is a huge fan of sci-fi and if aliens landed in his backyard and it was up to him to prove human life was worth it he would be up for the challenge, “I would tell them all humans need to judge less, I only care about the character of people and hopefully it’s kind even if it disagrees with what you do. I’d tell them I believe in other people and other worlds and then probably play some music.”

“Motorcycle”

Judging less may be hard since we live for social media and are quick to judge one another based on 140 characters or less on a daily basis. That may not be the case for this musician though. A quick search, you come up pretty short looking for him online. He has a good explanation as to why, “I have been working with my amazing band for about three months, and my approach to media is minimal temporarily due to the fact we haven’t played a live show yet. I have a nice load of merchandise and I’m buying a new RV for the road, as we prepare for the tours. We will take a larger media approach at that time.” Prepping for shows in the new year, Keez had a record release party last week and says he and the band will be heading to California after they take over Oregon and Washington. As for what else is to come, he says, “I am collaborating with Matisyahu for my new CD that’s coming out sometime in July or August.”

Away from the noise of a huge city, Keez creates music that combines a number of styles and comes up with cohesive pieces that have made their way to films, and will soon land him in the studio with Matisyahu. It’s safe to say this artist has a good grasp on what he’s doing out in the beautiful landscape of Oregon.

The post Keez Keeps it Natural in Oregon appeared first on ZO Magazine.