It’s Not Us, It’s You

by John Phillips

It’s that time of year again. The heat is coming back around just after everyone gets used to the cool weather.
That’s Sacramento for you: Spring starts a mere month or two after summer ends, while fall is welded together with either summer or winter, take your pick.

The reason I can always tell the seasons are changing is because my Facebook newsfeed starts to fill with people making grand declarations. Now, this is nothing new; during New Year’s, Lent, birthdays, anniversaries, ect., people tend to get a little dramatic on the social networking front. “I’m never drinking again” “I’m going to work out every day for the rest of my life” “I’m going to stop masturbating” “I’m going to quit doing heroin as of today” “I’m going to eat healthier” or even “hey guys! I’m a vegan now!” You know you’ve seen it, and you know you’ve done it. I know I have. Everyone has been immature at least once in their life.

However, around THIS time of year specifically, I have noticed in the ten years or so that I have lived in the Sacramento area, that the sweeping declarations aren’t about bettering their lives by quitting something, or drastically changing their behaviors and habits, but about leaving this godforsaken shithole of a town.

Now, to preface my complaint, and for full disclosure, I am guilty of this too. Well, sort of. There was a time that I needed to get out of here and leave. I came back as well, because of what I discovered when I was away, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Suffice it to say, I’m just as guilty of this behavior as anyone else.

The thing is, Sacramento is a wonderful town. Shocker of the century, right? It really is a great place to live. A great art scene, wonderful eateries, a wide selection of bars, touristy-type spots like the Zoo, Old Sacramento, the American and Sacramento River, and we are within an hour or so of San Francisco and the Pacific Ocean on one side, and Lake Tahoe on the other.

As far as the music scene goes, it comes in waves, but right now, my own bias excluded, it is growing at an exponential rate. With new venues like Ace of Spades, Bows & Arrows, District 30, Midtown Barfly and LowBrau bringing quality deejays and bands, in addition to the tried and true places such as Harlow’s, Old Ironsides, Blue Lamp, Luigi’s FunGarden, The Boardwalk, Marilyn’s, The Townhouse, and Press Club, along with the new upcoming addition of The Assembly, it’s odd to me when I still hear complaints. At this point, it’s your own laziness that is to blame if you can’t find a good show any given week.

But the people that are making these ‘sweeping declarations’ are complaining about isn’t any of that. I don’t even know if they realize what they are complaining about, really, but from what I have watched via social networking and seeing it happen live, the true issue is alcoholism, and a lack of creativity.

First of all, they all drink, and they go out too often. I have never once seen a person do this when they are sober and staying at home. The persons in question tend to be someone that routinely hits the same bar or bars at least once a week, if not multiple times a week. They close the bars they attend; they drink enough to not only get trashed most of the time, but enough to consistently make a fool of themselves, or at least enough to feel embarrassed. Once the bar closes, they head home and drink, head to an after-party (or just after-sad-people-sitting-around-an-apartment-just-trying-to-get-a-few-last-drinks-in-before-morning), and more often than not, do a bunch of coke as well, and predictably at any point during this process, hook up with randoms, who may be strangers or friends. But, hey…we all know that midtown Sacramento is a smaller collective than most cities, so no matter how random you try to be, they’re going to overlap socially eventually. The more often you do that sort of thing, the more likely you are to be sharing fluids with the rest of midtown.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

So, it’s never really a surprise when some random day, they wake up and realize that their life boils down to a bunch of meaningless fucks, shitty hangovers, and boring bars. When a drunk goes looking for a place to hangout, they’re rarely going out for a gallery viewing, to see a great band, to try new, delicious food. No, they head to the darkest place with the strongest drinks and the loudest, most predictable music; and it’s almost always the same 1-3 places.

Eventually, they decide that the best option is not to work on their problems, go to other places in town, or God forbid, go out less often. No, the only option is to move. They need a dramatic change to wake them up. I did the same thing years ago. I left town in order to seek clarity, and to get away from the growing drama that was my life. Well, guess what? It took me about a year to figure out it was me the whole time. You can go anywhere in the world, but your problems will always follow you when the problem is you.

Besides, if Sacramento was truly the problem, then why not get involved in what goes on in this town instead of just complaining about it. If you lived here long enough to complain about things, and get ‘sick’ of the people and places here, didn’t you have plenty of time to help do something about it?

Then again, if you don’t contribute, you go out drinking all the time, you only go to the same bars week-in and week-out, you don’t go to local shows, you’re drunk all the time, constantly making an ass of yourself, and you think moving is a better idea than working on your own problems, maybe Sacramento is better off without you, because it’s certainly not Sacramento, hun, it’s you.

Upcoming Shows & Blog Update

So for the past couple months, this blog has taken a bit of a backseat to my events. I still plan to get back to doing more interviews and articles for this, but at the moment I am spending time learning the fine art of putting on live events. It’s pretty intense. But not to worry; if you are craving something to read, I just published an article in SubMerge Magazine, on the band By Sunlight (you can check out the article here: http://issuu.com/submergemag/docs/issue117/12), and I am feeling ready to tackle some of those interviews that have been collecting digital dust.

Here are a few of the things I have coming up in the future in Sacramento:

Heist Events Presents: Ivan & Alyosha, Garrett Pierce, Parlours

THEEsatisfaction, Raleigh Moncrief, Lee Bannon & DAIMS&CHIRSUPREME

SEMF Recap, Adam Yauch aka MCA RIP

In these days of constant Twitter thoughts and Facebook RIPs, I felt it was only fitting not only to sit on my reflections of my past weekend at the Sacramento Electronic Music Festival, but to wait on the death of Adama Yauch, who passed away due to complications relating to his throat cancer this weekend.

When I found out, I had been sitting in my car listening to the radio; how I found out was because stations that normally do not broadcast Beastie Boys songs, such as our local top for hip hop and pop stations, were blasting songs such as ‘Brass Monkey’, ‘Paul Revere’ and ‘Fight For Your Right to Party’. Immediately I suspected foul play was afoot. It only took one stop to Facebook to discover the evidence of his death. Send-ups had already been written, RIPs and memes posted. It was hard, really, to miss the passing of the emcee that called himself MCA.

This, of course was Saturday. Friday, the night before, I had attended the first night of the Sacramento Electronic Music Festival. Day one was, in my mind, the highlight of the festivities and a fantastic success.

If you don’t understand the layout of Harlows/the Momo Lounge, there is a main room, a back patio, and Momo’s is upstairs in a sort of classier, less attended area. Most of the main events were attended were in the main room. I arrived to a stellar performance by Doom Bird, was treated to the fine stylings of Paper Pistols featuring a full band, the unfettering beats of Jonwayne put a nice smile on my face just before Dusty Brown melted it off. Though, I spent much less time checking out the upstairs stage (I did, however, catch a nice set by El Indio of World Hood, and checked out some of the sweet art installations upstairs), I did enjoy the smattering of locals hanging out discussing the Sacramento electronic scene while enjoying a Red Bull (sponsors of the event) and vodka.

The next night was a bit more raw. Following the death of MCA, I was treated to the biggest travesty of SEMF. While sitting in the patio, the resident patio deejay proceeded to do a tribute to his death: a NIN song. I couldn’t believe my ears. Not only was I not familiar with the record-spinner sporting white hipster sunglasses and singing behind enough reverb to kill a herd of cattle, but NIN?? What does that have anything to do with the death of one of the most prolific emcees of the past twenty years.

When I first came into contact with the voice of Adam Yauch, I was sixteen years old. When I was in high school in Montana, I used to skip class in the afternoon to smoke weed in my car. My friends and I would go to the cemetery, drive around and listen to cassette tapes while we would get high, and since I had such a small collection of albums, my friend Steve would bring along tapes for us to listen to: The Crow: City of Angels soundtrack, Goodie Mob’s ‘Soul Food’, and Beastie Boys’ ‘License to I’ll’.

The album was perfect for the little pot smoker that I was. I remember the bass coming through my shitty little speakers when ‘Paul Revere’ would come on; I hardly knew the lyrics, but would sing along nevertheless. I didn’t buy another Beastie Boys album, however, until Hello Nasty. I remember when MCA and the Boys began to get spiritual, and MCA became a Buddhist. I remember buying the Tibet Freedom Concert album, which featured hip hop and electronic acts such as Cibo Matto and De La Soul. Had I not been exposed to such amazing acts back then, I doubt my love for the discovering of unique and experimental acts might not have endured. This is all without mentioning the Beastie Boys work with The Dust Brothers on Paul’s Boutique, which systematically led not only to the start of true sampling in hip hop and electronic music, but introduced the world not only to the Dust Brothers (thanks guys for ‘MMMbop’ and Beck’s ‘Odelay’, along with the Fight Club soundtrack), but also to the idea of getting sued for copyright infringement due to sampling.

Which brings me back to the NIN cover tribute to MCA. Everything about the Beastie Boys went against everything that Trent Reznor and NIN represents. To me, NIN is the epitome of over-produced crap in the world. The Beastie Boys were the very definition of independent music. Why, even their drummer from back when they were still a punk band, Kate Schellenbach, went on to form another great act, Luscious Jackson, which owed much of their success to their connection to the Boys. I don’t think I have ever heard of Trent Reznor causing the success of another artist. The best work the man ever did was his work on the Lost Highway soundtrack, in my opinion, and I’m certain he did it for the money.

Other than that travesty, SEMF day 2 went on without much to complain about, highlighted by performances by Tha Fruitbat, Girrafage and Mux Mool. Some group called ‘El Ron’ were the most bizarre performance, but either my level of alcohol or my lack of interest caused me to both forget the bands name and most of their performance (though I remember being less than impressed), Mux Mool quickly came on and killed it with his performance.

I would like to say that I attended Day 3, but as I partied to the fullest two days in a row, my body at 31 is not capable of making a full three days it appears. This also happened back at SXSW for myself…it appears day three is my eternal day of drinking rest. As a moment of full disclosure, I will admit that I might have dragged myself out to check out Death Grips had they attended, but I would say that the lineup was killer enough that I should have attended, but I will once again stress my need for rest and just say I was bummed I missed Shlohmo and Raleigh Moncrief.

Next will be to see if I can make it through 6 days of Launch Festival without dying. Hopefully Dr. Dre doesn’t kick the bucket…I don’t know if I want to go into how much ‘The Chronic’ meant to me, and I certainly don’t want to hear any Marilyn Manson tributes to Dre.

SEMF Photos courtesy of Karen Chu

SEMF 2012: Interview w/ Mux Mool

Illustration by Michael Gaughan

Mux Mool aka Brian Lindgren

One of my new favorite beat makers, Mux Mool, sat down with me on the phone this weekend to preview his stop at the upcoming Sacramento Electronic Music Festival this weekend at Harlow’s/Momo Lounge. The second Ghostly International recording artist to take the SEMF stage (last year Tycho made an appearance), Mux Mool will be one of the headliners on Friday, sharing the stages with the likes of Jantsen, Giraffage, and Little Foxes (Jacob Golden), along with local act Bad Looks (Waylonn + DJ Whores) Tha Fruitbat, Boss Magic and more.

So, you’re heading up to the Sacramento Electronic Music Festival…have you ever been to Sacramento?

I know I’ve been through Sacramento, but I don’t think I’ve ever played. I’m not certain, though.

You grew up in Minnesota, is that correct? How old were you when you first moved out to Brooklyn?

Yeah. I think I was 25…no 24, and then I turned 25 shortly after I moved there.

How old are you now?

29.

What was it like moving to New York? I assume that unless you lived in the twin cities, you probably lived in a pretty small town.

Well, I grew up in smaller towns, and the last six years before I moved to New York I lived in Minneapolis; but it was still, Minneapolis the city would fit in one neighborhood in New York.

Were you doing music when you were living in Minnesota?

Yeah, that’s why I moved to Brooklyn is that I had a few things together and I wanted to go try it out in New York. I knew that if I was going to…it occurs that many Minneapolis bands typically…a lot of people that come out there that end up being popular, end up staying there, and are only popular there, and I didn’t want that. Early on, with only a couple of releases, I should probably go to a more major city.

What sort of stuff were you doing in Minneapolis?

I used to do beat battles, at hip hop clubs…I used to do a lot of those. I produced for a couple of local rappers, but I was never a huge part of it. People thought I made weird beats.
What sort of thing do you get yourself into locally in Brooklyn, or do you prefer to just work in studio and tour?
Brooklyn is an even harder place to be popular than Minnesota; there’s other parts of it, like meeting other musicians, shaking hands and stuff, that’s the reason I wanted to come out to New York. I got a lot of that stuff together, so now, there are not a lot of local plays, so yeah, I just go out and tour and when I’m home working on stuff. I just moved to Ann Arbor for the summer. So I’m away from New York actually.

Are you recording out in Ann Arbor?

I came out here to work with a couple of people – in a couple different studios, actually.

Is that a new experience for you, working with a lot of other people during the recording process? Do you prefer to work alone?

Yeah…I used to write with a friend of mine for a long time, before I started doing solo stuff. That wasn’t the only person I had ever worked with, but we were really good friends, so developing that sort of report with somebody else, the kind of silent communication you have to have, the ideas to get things done, I don’t usually have that sort of dynamic with people, but I’m trying it out with friends here.

Have you been producing beats for other artists, or have you been working on your own material?

Initially, when I began making beats…that was my plan was to produce rappers…I never planned on playing shows. I didn’t think the scene that has come up around, deejay scene to the forefront, I didn’t know that was going to happen, or ever be an option. But, now, ten years later, I am finally getting some work with some decent rappers this year.

Which experience do you prefer now?

I like performing with an emcee a lot more than I like working alone. I mean, I can play the songs…but having an emcee really connects with audiences a lot better. But I would say that working with rappers can be pretty difficult. There are a lot of people that want stuff from me, and you send it out and you don’t to hear from them for six months. Working with someone who is really excited, can definitely be really cool. Because they’re hearing good things in what you’ve made, and you’re hearing good things in what they’ve made, and it kind of feeds off of itself.

What about the current electronic music scene is changing that you prefer and what about the way electronic music is headed do you feel is negative?

Well, it’s tough because right around the time I first started playing shows, learning what was going on with electronic shows across America – because I had basically no idea that was going on, how it is with festivals and all of that – and then I started reading up about that stuff, and not that I have anything against the genre, and obviously I owe a lot to the advent of dub-step for being able to play all of these shows, but it’s just unfortunate going to places and seeing eighteen and nineteen-year-old kids on a lot of drugs, missing the music and really just thrashing. I don’t know, that’s just one part of music for me.

How about along the lines of trends in the actual music…I have noticed a lot more beat production and a lot less of the remix. How about yourself?

Yeah, not a lot of remixes. It’s funny, because I find myself over time continually intrigued by the same thing that I was intrigued by the first time I heard electronic stuff of this kind. So, when I hear somebody making really solid, 90’s hip hop beats with samples of classic gear, and it’s emulated so well, that’s what really intrigues me.

Are you a nostalgic person?

I am nostalgic, but not when it comes to gear. I like my computer, I like not having to carry a bunch of stuff around.

Get your tickets for the Sacramento Electronic Music Festival here

Sacramento Electronic Music Festival – Interview w/ Clay Nutting & Adam Saake

Tomorrow kicks off the 3rd Annual Sacramento Electronic Music Festival. From the very start of the festival, it seemed to be a force to be reckoned with, last year including such headliners as Daedalus, Bonjay, Dusty Brown, Tycho, Sister Crayon, and Pregnant. Highlighting an emerging scene in the Northern California region, Sacramento has been a hotbed as of late for killer electronic music, and the 3rd annual lineup is without question one of the best seen in the area.

Featuring the likes of Mux Mool, Shlohmo, Raleigh Moncrief (Anticon), Little Foxes (Jacob Golden), Dusty Brown, World Hood, Dibiase, Jonwayne, Dusty Brown, Lorn, Doombird, Bad Looks (Waylonn & DJ Whores project), and Girraffage, national acts alongside local deejays.

Last week, after recovering from a nasty flu, I met up with Adam Saake and Clay Nutting, founders of SEMF at Weatherstone Coffee, to discuss the history of the event, and how things have led up to this point:

Give me a quick history of the Sacramento Electronic Music Festival. How did things get started? Maybe a bit on how quickly things have progressed in the last three years. It is three years, correct?

A: Yes, it’s the third year, yeah. It’s actually been longer than three years, because we didn’t have it in January this year. January would have been the third year, and then we moved it to May, so it’s actually been…

C: This is the third year, though.

How did it get started?

A: It started out as…basically I was doing shows at Sol Collective, on Del Paso Blvd, curating art shows and booking bands, playing music…I was very active in the arts scene, just keeping myself busy, and the gallery burned down. It sort of forced me to take a break and reevaluate what I wanted to do, because all of a sudden, what I was doing with all my time was gone. I needed a new project, so I thought it would be really cool to book a Sacramento electronic music festival, and have it be at multiple venues. I think when I first sat down I just took a piece of paper and I wrote down a couple venues, and I think I wrote down Press Club, Townhouse and maybe a couple of other ones I had some contacts at, and then I wrote down basically every Sacramento electronic artist that I could think of, that I knew of and that I knew was playing, and I knew would be someone I could get in contact with. Once that happened, once I had that down, I had the format for it…I’m pretty sure I talked to Ira [Skinner] early on, and Ira was like ‘yeah, this sounds cool, I can help you with it, and I can do sound for it.’ Then I’m sure he was like ‘you should talk to XYZ’ and after I talked to a couple of other people, you should talk to these people too, and the list sort of widened, and we sort of had enough artists for three days. Then I’m also pretty positive that Ira said that I should speak with Clay. I don’t think…Clay and I knew each other from the scene, Clay and I weren’t really friends…

C: We didn’t really like each other.

A: I hated him, yeah.

C: I can’t exactly remember how it all went down. Basically this is like a common story in my life, I hear about something that is interesting, I find out a little bit more, I just kind of say ‘if you really want to make this shit happen, let me fucking help out’. We met at Tupalo, and we just sort of brainstormed on it. Just like with everything else, I stick my neck in it…we roll up our sleeves and make it happen. Pretty much, if someone has a rad idea with music and art, you know I’ll be like ‘ok, if you run at the same pace as me, I’ll give everything I’ve got, but if this is some half-cooked idea, then it’s not worth my time.’ Adam was like ‘this is happening I’ve got all this going down’ and I just knew right off the bat, that it would be something really rad to be a part of.

Now, when did you start working w/ TAIS. Was that before the first SEMF?

A: Yes.

How about writing for Submerge?

A: Yeah.

Is Launch something you had worked on?

A: I planned the first Launch with Michael [Hargis].

Was that before you first SEMF?

A: That was before.

So that was your first taste in festival planning?

A: Yeah.

C: I would say they are two separate things.

A: I think it was coming from the same place. No matter what I’ve worked on. I’ve worked on multiple projects where I was responsible for being the contact dude to get people involved in the project. Launch is Michael’s thing; that’s always been Michael’s vision – I helped him with it.

So, you sort of did for Michael what Clay did for you? That sort of thing?

A: I sort of had that energy, and that was…helpful to
Michael.

Would you say that it is easier to work with electronic artists, because there are fewer members in the projects, less instruments?

C: Any time you get more than three artists on a bill, it’s going to be bananas no matter what.

Do you feel like there are more electronic artists in the area to work with right now?

C: I definitely feel like it’s an emerging genre. I think for a lot of reasons you look at a live music scene, for a while it kind of was in a bit of a wall, though there were a lot of artists breaking ground, emerging in a wider scope; but, I think a lot of it, if I could trace it back – and this is all theory in my head – is that lack of all-ages clubs makes kids, instead of going out and seeing live music, they go to house parties. House parties have deejays. Electronic music is so much easier to create and compose – not in the sense that it’s easier to do, but easier in the sense you don’t have to coordinate eight different band members and break up ten times. And just technology…this technology, when it existed in the past, it was off of a synthesizer, now you can do so many things; you can basically be a producer in your bedroom, and that opened the door. So, we just happened to be in a generation where access to those instruments, to make that music, is just more readily available. I would just say it’s a coincidence we happen to be promoters where this type of music exists, and obviously it helps that Adam loves electronic music, and has a passion for it.

What are your parameters for what qualifies as electronic music?

C: He is more of a stickler for it than [myself], I mean [Adam] has a very specific vision of what this festival is about. I think we’ve had conversations about that where, even like the New Humans for instance, where they are synth-driven, kind of a band, and traditionalists probably wouldn’t look at that and say that’s electronic music, per se, but, I think the interpretation is about producing using electronic instruments.

A: The parameters are…some of the easy parameters are, when you have an artist that makes electronic using synthesizers, and using computers, and using drum programming and using samples, I mean that’s just a no-brainer. Those people are on our radar, they’re people that we love to work with, people that I listen to and like and geek out on…and then when we start to get outside that box a little bit, when you get into groups like Death Grips, Sister Crayon and even like Paper Pistols, groups that sort of have equal parts instrumentation. I’ve fielded this question many times, in the course of three years, and the answer that I always give are that these artists, even though there is a lot of live instrumentation, and they may appear as a band, the spirit of the band, and what they’re channeling and what they’re referencing is electronic music. I mean, I know what Terra [Lopez of Sister Crayon] listens to…Terra listens to Shlohmo. She listens to James Blake and Portishead…she listens to trip-hop and electronic music…I know what she’s referencing.

Get your tickets here

Check out the new Aesop Rock video, ‘Zero Dark Thirty’

Sacramento Electronic Music Festival

On May 3-5th, Sacramento Electronic Music Festival begins…tomorrow, however, begins my own coverage of the festival. Starting with interviews with Clay Nutting and Adam Saake, founders of the festival, continuing on to interviews w/ Mux Mool and onto live interviews at the festival, reviews and photos. Check out some of the headlining acts, and some of those that are not headlining:

HEIST AT SXSW 2012: Julie of Sea of Bees

Back when I started this blog, about two years ago, I wasn’t sure what to do with it, exactly. My original idea was to take what remained of a fashion magazine project I had shelved with the thousands of projects I had failed to follow through wish; I considered using it as an outlet for my fiction and non-fiction essays, or possibly a young adult Sex in the City-esque sex advice column. Yet, no matter what I kept being led back to music. Even though I had an outlet for my music writing in the form of contributions to the Sacramento News & Review, I knew that they would never be able to handle the amount of articles I wished to write.

SXSW 2011…being surrounded by so much talent, I was unable to resist wanting to interview as many attending artists as possible, and since my article was limited to 1000 or so words, I decided to ignore my previous ideas and begin including my leftover interviews from Austin. Sea of Bees, Trash Talk and Mikey B of M for Montreal were my first posts, Sea of Bees being the first official interview. Though I did not meet up with either Trash Talk or Mikey for interviews this year, I wanted to follow up with Julie of Sea of Bees to see (ha) where life had taken her since we last spoke.

Enter Sacramento, California musician Julie Baenziger of the band, Sea of Bees: following a series of phone calls and emails, we finally met up at a failed gig of hers where she was listed on the bill, but at the wrong time, so she instead was able to enjoy herself and kick back to a conversation outside of the club. While we sat to chat, bands like Dirty Ghosts, Grave Babies and Mikal Cronin, Burnt Ones, White Fence and The Mallard played in the background.

“This is my second [year],” Baenziger explains, “it’s less chaotic. Last year we did eleven shows, in six days or five days, which is a lot, this year we weren’t going to do any shows, but Patagonia, the clothing company, brought us out here to do a show for them, which was really cool, and our booking agency, Windish, brought us out for hooked us up with three little shows…Riot Act, our publicist, asked to do a nice gig…we have a good family of people that we just like to be together with.”

Julie only likes to surround herself with people she loves, and she gushes about the people that she has been working with in music: “John from the Hanger, even, my producer, my best friend, my manager…you got to have someone who’s on the same page, where it’s like ‘hey, I really love you’; we work really well together, it’s easy for us. It’s not meant to be complicated. If you don’t fit, I don’t think you meant to be in a relationship. It’s meant to be enjoyed, it’s meant to flourish; because music is complicated to begin, why not be with the people that really care the most.”

Since last year, Sea of Bees has recorded a new album, entitled Orangefarben and will debut on Team Love Records. Her new label, started by Bright Eyed frontman Conor Oberst, also features recordings from Tilly & the Wall, David Dondero, and Jenny Lewis. Baenziger is quite fond of her label and how they have been treating her. “It’s pretty cool, you know? The thing is, for me, they’re just amazing, respectable people; we’re not big or small, just doing what we love and trying to do the best we can.”

There is something that Julie finds irresistible about living a small existence. I asked her what exactly she wanted out of life and her music career: “It’s exactly that: why not just have the things that you need? You don’t need to be a rich, rich person…you don’t need to be a poor, poor person, just…I think what you give is what you get.”

“My amazing best friend said she wanted to have less but be more…that’s been my quote [ever] since.”

As far as what she wants specifically, Baenziger has a few needs she must meet: “I want to get a house by the ocean – a big one, not a small one – [somewhere near] San Francisco. And then I want to get a tiny ass little place up near Vermont area – not a countryside house, just out there in the Vermont area – just a little place to chill out and record in a little recording studio, for me and my baby to get away…I don’t know who my baby is yet.”

I don’t think she has anything to worry about…she has already succeeded at being far more than nothing. When I asked her whether or not she feels that the music industry can still support its artists or if the industry has become more about starving artists, she had this to say:

“I grew up in a household [where] I didn’t know music, but I knew I was supposed to do something different; I really wanted to be a musician, but I didn’t know how to play music, and I didn’t want to be there if I couldn’t play music, I don’t want to live if I can’t be happy and play music,” expresses Baenziger, “I want to have a family someday, I want a nice house, I want dogs and kitties, I want to raise a good family in a home, I want to be safe, but I believe it’s still possible these days because I have great friends in the industry, that have great lifestyles, that are amazing people, like Nate [Krenkel] from Team Love – he’s a great person and he has a good family – so I know it’s possible.“

Julie Baenziger is the sort of musician you just love to meet. One with humility and ambition, the kind that keeps their friends closer and likely has few – if no – enemies, the sort of person that you feel only wants so much out of life to find happiness. She even seems blissfully unaware of her own presence, but yet fully aware of your own. She’s not quite a hippie, yet far from a hipster. Julie is a true artist, one that can’t imagine doing anything else, but refuses to allow herself to only be recognized posthumously. If she achieves these modest goals – and one can only imagine she will have little difficulty – then I believe we will benefit from the music we will be allowed to experience while she finds true happiness and discovers all that life has to offer.

“I have this ambition where I have to have it…it’s all or nothing.”

Catch Sea of Bees performing at Bows & Arrows w/ Little Wings and Luigi’s Slice Fungarden 6/8-9 with Sister Crayon. Stream Orangefarben here

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