With that, we talked about her latest single, “Sunshine,” her poetic ways, and more in this back and forth exchange.

Kendra: Spoken word poetry has such a rich history, especially in Black communities – why do you think that is?

Octavia Mills: In my opinion, spoken word poetry is so important in the black community because it gave us a voice during an era when blacks were ignored and treated as less important.

Kendra: You were a poet before a musician. Was there a next level of confidence you had to find within yourself to turn those poems into songs and perform in a new way?

Octavia Mills: My transition from poetry to rap was very natural because my poetry always had a melodic style to it.

Kendra: It has been over a year since you dropped your debut EP. How do you feel you’ve grown as an artist and writer since then?

Octavia Mills: Yes it has, wow. To be honest I don’t know if I would consider that a debut EP. More like a collection of songs that were complete. Now, as an artist, I know I’ve grown because I am not willing to settle for just having a few songs completed. My next project must be epic to me, meaning there will be no shortcuts and I will severely critique it to make sure it’s exactly what I want. I’ve grown in the area of patience and endurance.

Kendra: This year’s “Sunshine” was needed given the well, everything that has gone on since January. Other than music and poetry, what is something that makes your life shine a little brighter on a bad day?

Octavia Mills: My daughter, Zyeon Nova. She is the most precious being I’ve ever had the please to encounter. She makes every high and lows worth it.

Kendra: You worked with DeShawn Nelson on “Sunshine.” How did you two come together and will there be more collaborations in the future?

Octavia Mills: DeShawn was originally laying his vocals as a sample, and we were going to have a kids choir copy what he did, but his vocals complimented the track so well we decided to leave it the way it is. I am currently working on a project, so there could be more features to come but I can’t say for sure at this time.

Kendra: Right now live music is on the back burner, but before COVID-19 how was the music scene in Virginia? Did you find yourself traveling the east coast to perform?

Octavia Mills: Not so much. By the time I released “Sunshine” COVID was settling in and I was very pregnant. I’m hoping to start traveling very soon though.

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

Octavia Mills: Yes, you are absolutely right about the world right now. I remember ordering Chinese food twice in a month and both times I got a fortune cookie that said, “The plan is not important. It’s the planning that matters.” This has stuck with me ever since. I plan to keep planning. Sometimes, things go as planned, but when they don’t it’s still all good. And the song that gets me through is “Sunshine” of course. It’s a constant reminder that joy is not determined by what we see, but a state of being that comes from within.

The post Octavia Mills: A Vision in the Sun appeared first on ZO Magazine.

Kendra: First off, want to be best friends? I saw your Backstreet Boys cover and…YES! Was it late ’90s pop that got you into music or another era and style?

Frames: Thank you! Yes, we’re best friends now. I’ve never thought about it much but I did grow up on pop and Top 40 because I had a young mom, and coming from another country, Top 40 was our America For Dummies.

Kendra: When it came time to record Cursed, were the songs all fresh out the gate or were there some that were created based on older, random lyrics you’d had written down from the past?

Frames: Cursed is a collection of songs old and new that still resonate with me. “House Show” and “Last Year” were written in 2015, the rest were written in 2017 and 2018.

Kendra: From what I’ve heard, Cursed deals a lot with relationships – both the good and the bad. Were songs like “House Show” and “Hell” based on the same person at all?

Frames: “House Show” is about a local crush I had that I would see at house shows and I was emotionally unavailable at the time but I adored him. He was so cool and I just wanted him to notice me. He sucks now. “Hell” is about my ex. That relationship was actual Hell for so many reasons, lack of loyalty and substance abuse among them.

Kendra: Speaking of “Hell” you sing about being friends at 2am and I think everyone has been there with the simplest text, “U up?” What do you think is a bigger hell on earth experience to live through…sending that text and not getting a response or receiving that text and answering quickly, “YES, come over?”

Frames: Oh man, I think it’s worse to receive it. Personally, if I’m sending that 2 am “u up?” then I know the role I play, I know my intentions. Being on the receiving end sucks because you’re like “Oooh THAT’S what this is” and that realization can be disappointing.

Kendra: With Cursed out at the end of September, where can we expect to see Frames on the road? People out west are hoping it’s in their neck of the woods.

Frames: I will play to actual birds if they could speak and ask me. I would like to play anywhere that anyone is listening. West coast is definitely the goal. I have a lot of friends out there I don’t see enough.

Kendra: We’ll end with what people can expect from Frames as we head into 2020. More dates? More new music?

Frames: I’ve been hoarding songs so there is a lot to work with right now. I’ve also been writing a lot. I hope 2020 is the year that 15-year-old me could drool over in terms of putting out music and playing, ya know just being a pop star.

The post Frames: In Focus appeared first on ZO Magazine.

Kendra: You grew up all over the world, but when and more importantly where did you first fall in love with music? And when did that love start to unfold into a career?

Will Fox: I spent most of my childhood in London, I think I must have been about eight when my mom set up extracurricular piano lessons for me and my brother. If she hadn’t created that path I may never have discovered my love for music. So I thank her deeply for that. I remember being curious about the mystery of music at the time, but I never practiced and I really wasn’t progressing. A couple of years later my mom rented a cello, and I started taking lessons with a great teacher.

Although I wasn’t listening to classical music at the time, I definitely connected with the timbre and emotion of the strings. At 12, I got my first guitar because I wanted to play the music I was listening to. This is when I really fell in love with music. I started just playing punk rock and started writing my own 4-chord progressions. In high school I got super into folk music and learned how to fingerpick, got a microphone and started recording instrumental stuff at home, this was in France.

My guitar teacher at school, James Wilson, really supported my creativity and introduced me to genres that I certainly wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise. Although I studied music in college, I don’t think the notion of being a professional songwriter really hit me until I moved out to LA. I think once I started experiencing the ups and downs of adult life I found the need to write lyrics and tell my story in some symbolic way and there’s no looking back now.

Kendra: Before you were in LA you were out in the Shenandoah Valley, correct? Why did you pack up and head west instead of staying in that more chill part of the country?

Will Fox: I was actually living in Boston before I moved out to LA, I had just graduated from college and was working a landscaping job and living in my aunt’s basement in Cambridge. My folks were still working in Rio de Janeiro at the time, and I knew I wasn’t going to move there because we had no idea how long they would be there anyway. My brother had moved to LA the year before, and I always wanted to see California, felt like it was a good excuse to reconnect with him and make the logistics of our family life a little easier.

As for Virginia, my parents retired in the Shenandoah Valley a few years ago, a few miles from where my dad grew up. I never lived there, but always considered it a symbolic home because it was my dad’s dream to retire there after 30 years of traveling through his career. He even bought a plot of land on a hill there in the ‘80s and made it the light at the end of the tunnel to return home to build a house with my mom when he could afford it. Every summer for 25 years, no matter where we were living at the time, we would grab some plastic lawn chairs and a couple of subs and sit up there on the hill, watch the sunset over the mountains and pretend we were living there. The natural tranquility of that countryside is infectious, so my brother and I inevitably fell in love with his dream as well, hence the common assumption that I’m “from” there. It’s always been a complicated question…

Kendra: You’ve mentioned that no matter where you were in life, music has always had the power to make you feel at home. With that, if Which Way was taken apart and constructed as your new home – what would it look like? Apartment in the city, a tiny house on the road, a cottage in the woods, etc?

Will Fox: Great question! Conveniently, my ideal home would be almost identical to my folk’s place in Virginia; secluded in the countryside, surrounded by woods and mountains, rolling green hills, crickets, cows, buzzards circling around, closest town miles and miles away. We have an old barn at my folk’s place. I would definitely turn it into a recording space and fulfill my Neil Young “Harvest” fantasy. There would certainly be some dogs slobbering and roaming around in the grass, clear night skies, and thunderstorms in the summer.

Kendra: Thinking of where you were at when you wrote and recorded Which Way, how do you think the end result compares to your 2018 EP?

Will Fox: It’s funny; the songs on the Cosmic Dusting EP are really just B-sides from Which Way. I was set on having 10 songs on the record, so I was left with a handful of recordings that didn’t make the cut, mainly because they were either recorded differently or weren’t properly mixed yet. The label I’m on thought it would be a great idea to release an EP to build from when launching the full record. It was the perfect way to find a home for those songs as well. I’d say that Which Way has a more consistent voice than the EP, and that the songs belong together for more than just their sound.

Kendra: In “Which Way” you sing, “If I could only understand.” Now, life is full of a million and one mysteries so if you had the power to understand just one – which would it be?

Will Fox: Although I didn’t tackle any profound existential questions about the universe on this record haha, I have certainly been pondering human existence and evolution a lot lately as the doom of global warming becomes more and more apparent. It’s strange and startling to actively think about the end of the world. I guess we really aren’t the first generation to confront this though; the fear of nuclear war in the ’60s, for example, was certainly just as terrifying.

But to think that the earth has been around for four billion years, and since industrialization only 200 years ago, we are destroying it, is really grim, man. If I could only understand how humans might find the communion to reverse the damage despite the ticking clock, that’s a mystery I’d like to be able to unfold. I thought music was supposed to live on forever, but it will only do that if humans are around to press play!

Kendra: Let’s talk about “Waiting” and the video. Where’d you shoot it and was working with cows an experience you’ve always wanted to cross off your bucket list?

Will Fox: I shot the “Waiting” video with my friends Greg Dillon and Pete Herron. Greg came up with the concept of shooting it in Virginia on the farm my parents live on, and Pete the videographer brought the idea to life. You can’t really tell in the video but it was so cold! It was thirty degrees, but we were so lucky to have clear skies. We had so much fun staying with my folks and experiencing their hospitality and the beauty of the area. The concept of having cows behind me in the shot was definitely exciting; it ended up working out even better than we had imagined. My dad pulled up the truck just out of the shot so the cows came herding over because they thought they were going to be fed! Certainly, a dream come true to bring my music home in a creative way…

Kendra: You’ve got some SoCal dates coming up. Any more dates we can expect as we head deeper into summer and eventually the fall?

Will Fox: I’m going to be playing a festival called “LikeMinds 4.0” in Hudson Valley on September 20th. It’s organized by my buddy Zach from the label I’m on Twosyllable Records. It’s more of a tech conference/adult campground getaway with some live music than a festival. I’m really looking forward to that show. Will hopefully play a few shows in NYC that week as well.

The post This Way to Will Fox appeared first on ZO Magazine.

Other than being one of the most beloved/hated rides at Disneyland, it truly is a small world when you think about our existence. Not only is Mike Frazier from a place in Virginia perhaps not everyone would recognize on the map, but he’s also from where my in-laws call home as well. With an instant connection, I was more than happy to talk to alt-folk artist about his upcoming release, Where The Valley Kissed The Sky, staying the same, and so much more.

Kendra: I saw you were from Virginia and the title of your upcoming release, Where The Valley Kissed The Sky, and in my heart knew before I even read it that you were talking about the Shenandoah Valley. My fiance’s family lives outside of Harrisonburg. So it’s nice to talk to someone from an area close to my heart. It’s also nice to hear that this record is about an area of the country that doesn’t get much highlighting. When did the wheels start turning that the outskirts of the Valley would be the inspiration around your sophomore album?

Mike Frazier: That’s amazing! So cool you have that connection. The valley is more than home to me. It’s become part of my core being that I never really appreciated or understood until I got older. My family goes way back here and it dawned on me that I don’t have to look so far for inspiration. I started writing these songs with the intent to make a record with the setting of the album in the Shenandoah Valley. It follows these characters who live and die in places like Winchester (where I’m from). It’s also one of the most beautiful places in the world so I think that the contrast between beauty and tragedy is what I really tried to paint.

Kendra: For many, they hear Virginia-based and they might think country but you’ve got this Frank Turner, Americana with a punk edge that’s refreshing and quite surprising. When you first got into music was that the style you had or did it evolve over time?

Mike Frazier: I’ve been playing and listening to punk since I was a kid. It was the cornerstone sound for my formative years in writing music. If you listen to my earlier releases you can hear that heavy. Especially my last record which came out on Anti Flag’s label AF Records. I always say I had two musical awakenings. First, it was punk and then it was Bruce Springsteen. However, the kind of music I play now has been around me my whole life. My earliest musical memories are of CCR and Neil Young. So I guess in a way I just went back to my roots.

http://soundcloud.com/genevarecords/06-stay-the-same

Kendra: Looking back, how does the first song you ever wrote compare and contrast to your latest single, “Stay The Same?”

Mike Frazier: I don’t think “like night and day” would be the right answer because it’s not like I took some crazy turn in the way I write songs. I’ve always leaned heavy into the pop structure of verse/chorus. Also just like the first song I wrote when I was 13 and this tune both were done on an acoustic guitar. I think the biggest change for me over the years has been the lyrical content and attention to the lyrics as well as shaping the sonic landscape. I don’t think I ever imagined my self using 12 string leads in the chorus with screaming organ. But I’m sure glad I turned out that way.

Kendra: Where The Valley Kissed The Sky covers some pretty serious topics from opioid addiction to death. Were you ever afraid to tackle these realities?

Mike Frazier: I was careful in my approach to this sort of narrative. I tried to touch on these topics with a sense of empathy because when you look at the issues affecting the South it’s easy to focus on the obvious. I tried to dive a little further into the desperation in searching for why things might be the way they are. That makes me feel a little less nervous with writing about these topics, however, it’s never been a breeze.

Kendra: You’ve noted how Harrisonburg is this progressive city. Why would you say that? Is it just compared to what’s around it?

Mike Frazier: When you drive 15 minutes in any direction you see a very different part of the valley. One that’s much more in line with the stereotype of central Virginia. Towns like Harrisonburg are really special hubs in the state. Since it’s a college town it’s brought a lot of new thought and awareness to this part of the state. It’s also a refugee resettlement area. I’m friends with a few organizers from the town and it’s really inspiring to see the work they’ve done. There is a sense of urgency there.

Kendra: Shows in April and a some in May and June out east and in the Midwest. Are you making plans to head west later in the summer?

Mike Frazier: I’d love to make it back out west in the fall!! I’ll be working those dates out real soon.

The post Valley Vibes with Mike Frazier appeared first on ZO Magazine.

Kendra: If an opportunity musical arose that made it so you had to put your education on the back-burner, would you?

Purser: Since I’m so close to the end of my college career, I think I’d be inclined to stick it out here. I have a lot more liberal arts learning to do before I’m officially a well-rounded Individual. But the best part is, as evidenced by FUDG Records and this most recent project, there are so many wonderful musical opportunities here on campus.

Kendra: Whatever the answer you’re still rocking the books and the music. So good for you! Now you’re a junior, a little more mature than a freshman typically is. If you’d released your debut, Scholasticism, back when you were a wee freshman starting out – how different do you think it would have been? Not only sound wise but also lyrically?

Purser: Scholasticism would be wildly different had I attempted to write it earlier. It really would not have happened, partially because most of the songs are based on course texts I’ve loved over the years, and partially because I had writer’s block up until this project. I was an active songwriter in middle school and high school, but my first two years of college were, songwriting-wise, bone dry.

I remember the lyrics I wrote back then were so full of uncertainty. My songs had no idea what they were about or who they were for. You can hear traces of this in the laundry list of questions posed in “Else,” the first song I finished in college and the last gasp of that transitional point in my life. I think I needed to spend those two full years learning my place in the world and the new shape of my mind before I could make this music.

“Else”

Kendra: The title of the record sent my head spinning back in time to the Scholastic Book Fair. Were you one of those kids who got too excited when the book fair rolled around every year? If so, what were you spending your lunch money on?

Purser: I was absolutely a Scholastic Book Fair fan. I remember poring over the Guinness Book of World Records for entire lunch periods.

Kendra: What are your opinions on the current indie rock scene from both the perspective of an artist and a fan?

Purser: I am currently easing into new music after isolating myself to write Scholasticism, so my opinions on the larger scene are still shamefully uninformed. However, while I was working on this project, I listened to Vulfpeck, Jacob Collier, and Dirty Projectors pretty much exclusively. I remember listening to “Cool Your Heart” by Dirty Projectors for the first time and literally skipping across town to the music hall so I could write, I was so inspired. All three of those artists reminded me that the ultimate purpose of technically impressive music is to do justice to the splendor of living in a world of infinite sounds.

Kendra: New album’s out, what else is on the table for the year?

Purser: To round out the school year, I’m taking a play writing class and trying my hand at fiction and dialogue. I’m hoping to write, direct, and score a few short films this year, both for school and for fun. Be on the lookout for a music video!

Kendra: We know you’re about the music, but we want to switch your focus to art for a second. If you had to choose an art piece that best represents your sound, what would it be?

Purser: This is “The Infinite Recognition” by my favorite artist, René Magritte. I think it summons the playful mystery of learning from lofty discussions with similar souls. Even if we are holding this dialogue with our heads in the clouds, at least our perspective is wide. This painting is my college experience.

The post Purser’s True Scholasticism appeared first on ZO Magazine.