Quick Hit Artist Interview: Laura Jean Anderson

Laura Jean Anderson at The Echo

Q&A time with the artist. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? I hope to capture the feeling of an old record while staying true to the sound and climate of the times.

Is there a story behind when you knew you wanted to become a musician/singer? I often feel that it isn't a choice for me. Music is everything to me and I have to do it to stay true to myself. Everything that has happened in my life has led to music.

Quick Hit Band Interview: Moons of Mars

Moons of Mars at the Bootleg Theater

Q&A time with the band. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Dark vibe indie pop hahahaha. We have heard so many genre descriptions but I guess it falls under the "indie pop" umbrella.

Is there a specific decision(s) the band has made (good or bad) that it feels other bands/artists can learn from? Keep writing, keep hustling, be open to learning, and celebrate everything (even the small things). Honestly, being a creative, specifically in music can be very discouraging at times. But if you keep the right people around you and work hard, you'll see little glimpses of your rewards from putting in the time. Whether it's getting better at your craft or getting on the radio. Whatever the accomplishment looks like... keep going. Keep working hard and keep dreaming big. You'll get better and the music will speak.

Concert Review: ZiBBZ, Transviolet and Sazzie at The Satellite

ZiBBZ

So the title of this blog is in reverse order to how the bands/artist hit the stage. This was one of those nights that I had circled. Why? I have fond memories of seeing both ZiBBZ and Transviolet from prior years. I saw ZiBBZ back in 2014 when they played at Brokechella (now Broke LA). I saw Transviolet TWICE during their 2016 residency at The Satellite. Since I seldom see bands twice during their residency, I think that has to say something about my impression of them.

Also, I like to make lists of my favorite new bands that I've come across in various years. Both made my lists. ZiBBZ in 2014 and Transviolet in 2016.

Sazzie

Opening up the night was Sazzie. She provided some audience interaction. She spent much of her set either dancing on the edge of the stage or dancing in the audience. While in the audience, she pulled folks near and danced. I swear, there's a little Dr. Seuss in her style.

Transviolet came up next. One thing I remembered about Transviolet's sets was that the lead singer, Sarah, towards the middle or end of the set would jump off the bass drum. I was hoping to capture a photo of that moment. I got caught off guard; however. To start off the set, she immediately got atop the bass drum. I rushed my camera into position, because I knew what was coming next. Then the lights went dark and she jumped. Honestly, even if the lights hadn't gone dark on me I doubt I would have captured the moment as my settings weren't set. Oh well, next time.

What did I miss: Transviolet played mostly new material so New Bohemia, my favorite Transviolet song, didn't make the list.

What did I notice: I took a look at their set list and had a chuckle seeing "Talk" listed a couple times.

Transviolet

ZiBBZ closed out the night. This brother-sister duo opened up the night with a bang and just didn't stop. Well, ok, there was a fun pause. Towards the end of the set, they brought out this toy electric device that had six wires coming out from it. They mentioned on stage the name of the device, but I don't recall what they called it. Anyways, they brought up some volunteers and each was told to hold one of the wires. Then they kicked into their song. Coco (the sister), also holding a wire, would touch the hand of volunteers and different sounds would come out. There were some technical glitches that caused an amusing sibling squabbling, but they resolved it. It was a fun little experiment of science and sound.

Quick Hit Band Interview: Freedom Fry

Freedom Fry at Sunstock Solar Festival

Q&A time with the band. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Our sound is very influenced by all the things we grew up loving. Alternative pop, folk, & obscure one hit wonders of every decade. We love the dry production of the 1970s so that usually finds its way into our songs.

Other than playing in front of a packed crowd, what thrills you about performing live? Getting to see the immediate influence your songs can have on someone in real time is what thrills us most about playing live. Also getting to perform with the people you love.

Do you have a favorite memory or any thoughts about the Sunstock Solar Festival? Our favorite memory of the Sunstock show was when the power went out for about 5 minutes. The audience all huddled in and we did an acoustic rendition of our song Shaky Ground. Everybody in that moment was feeding off each other’s good energy.

Quick Hit Band Interview: The New Pacific

The New Pacific at The Satellite

Q&A time with the band. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? We're sonically a super heavy pop rock band. We love really heavy music and great melodies in pop music. On our phone, you'd just as soon find an Acacia Strain song as you would a Carly Rae Jepsen song. It ends up as an almost Thrice-ish heavy handed rock sound. Hopefully the best of both worlds.

What’s the story behind how your band started? We started jamming 2 years ago and just started out as 4 dudes jamming for fun and it just kind of took off into this bigger thing and we started playing shows and doing a bit of touring. Now we're focused on bringing a message of awareness and action in a world that needs heaping doses of both. Times are crazy right now, we're here to take an aggressive look in the mirror and do something about it.

Quick Hit Band Interview: The Americans

The Americans at Chinatown Summer Nights

Q&A time with the band. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? How did the band gel together as a group? We write and play rock music, but we met pouring over pre-war blues and folk, so our songs contain remnants of a lot of that stuff. We regularly use old records from the '20s and '30s as reference points when writing together.

Quick Hit Band Interview: Brian Hill and the Noh Starrs

Brian Hill and the Noh Starrs at the Bootleg Theater

Q&A time with the band. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? I wouldn't.

One couldn't help but notice your fashion sense as well as how the Noh Starrs were dressed. How did you develop the band's fashion style? Everyone wears what they like.

Quick Hit Artist Interview: Cuesta Loeb

Q&A time with the artist. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? A friend of mine once said that my music made him want to run free in a big open field and I liked that. I would say that it is a combination of hard and soft elements that lives somewhere in the world of Dreampop. It's a blend of hard electric guitars, classical elements and ethereal vocals and harmonies.

What's your favorite band song and what makes it the favorite? My new favorite song that we play is a brand new one that's unreleased, called "Annabelle." It's about my parent's Pomeranian, Annie, who is just a light of life. She brings so much joy wherever she goes and maintains that love always through the darkest of moments. And it is just SO much fun to play live. I can't wait to record and release this one.

(Own Q&A.) Do you think you have a message or objective with your music? If so, what is it? I wanna create a dreamy feeling. I love combining soft and hard elements. I love bending the rules and not necessarily sticking to form. I love combining sounds that wouldn't necessarily go together. In terms of themes, many of my songs are reminders of things I want to live by - to be present and live and love freely.

Sunstock Solar Festival 2017

Sunstock Solar Festival. Just to get it out of the way: there were major technical problems with one of the stages and some minor ones on another stage that resulted in four bands not getting to play their sets: YIP YOPS, SWIMM, Fuzzy Crystals and Wild Cub. The festival organizers dealt with it great. I had wanted to see YIP YOPS for a second time as I knew they'd put on an amazing show. I walked over when I began to suspect that something was up and I over-heard one of the organizers talking with them and expressing the festival's regrets. Trapdoor Social, during their set, mentioned the names of the bands that weren't able to play. In fact, if it wasn't for a special appearance, it sounded like Trapdoor Social would have given up their spot to one of the bands. And then the festival itself gave out a drink ticket to everyone as a make up. A great response.

Bloodboy opened the festival, jamming her way through her set with some '60s poetry slam sounds. She commanded the stage, putting on moves that sent her on multiple journeys from one end of the stage to the other. Freedom Fry went up and had to deal with some stage issues. They dealt with it gracefully. The band went to the edge of the stage and played an acoustic song until the situation could be rectified. Wildling had to deal with the same stage issues as with Freedom Fry and made lite of it with some humorous quips, "The sun is out, right?" They ended their set doing two acoustic songs with just the metal barricade separating them from an adoring group of fans. For me, the troubles that resulted for Freedom Fry and Wildling ended up making the early part of the festival more intimate. And brought out some nice quips when one of the bands said something really old-school, "You know we're not Milli Vanilli."

The technical issues got resolved and the festival kicked into high gear. First though, some bands needed to go through sound checks. Run River North was doing their sound check when one of the sound guys said, "You have three minutes left." Someone in the band asked, "Why?" Response, "Some acoustic guitar guy is coming on in three minutes. That's all I know." Ha ha, Chris Whitehall of The Griswolds, who was that guy, obviously overheard that and used it a few times while on stage. "You can find me at AcousticGuitarGuy dot com . . . dot au."

Comment one of the festival by Chris Whitehall: In America, you worship God. In Australia, we worship kangaroos and Vegemite.

Run River North brought the indie folk sounds. Here's what I noticed: the violinist was stuck in this small section of the stage during their whole set until the very end. At the end, she put down the violin and went wild crazy on stage. It was awesome.

Comment two of the festival by Run River North: I'm Steve Aoki and this is my side project.

Trapdoor Social went all out for their set. Prior, I noticed that a high school band had shown up. I was thinking that maybe there was going to be this special moment where they were going to blast out a couple fight songs. I never even thought that for Trapdoor Social's final song that the high school band from South Pasadena would encircle the festival goers and play along with the band. It was awesome.

Best band of the festival award: Yeah, Trapdoor Social killed it with their catchy tunes and, of course, the high school band guest appearance.

Robert DeLong gave us the pulsating electronic sounds. Though my bias was towards Trapdoor Social as being the band of the festival, the festival goers were all behind Robert DeLong. The festival organizers brought out the balloons and a balloon party went on throughout the set. Some of the balloons would end up in the photo pit and various photographers would toss the balloons back into the eager crowd. It was party time at Sunstock Solar Festival.

The Soft White Sixties lead singer knows how to slide across a stage floor like Fred Astaire. With dancing like that, you have to feel inspire.

Comment three of the festival by The Soft White Sixties: What happened to that molecule you were tossing around?

Ra Ra Riot closed out the night with some pop indie sounds. They had a moment of hilarity when the lead singer, Wes, jumped behind the bassist, Mattieu, stuck his arms between those of his band mate's and gave the audience two thumbs up.

Final thoughts: an unfortunate technical problem to start off the festival, but it ended with a bang. This is the second year of the festival. I wasn't able to go to the first year (which featured a favorite band of mine, Cults) Here's hoping to continued growth for this festival and continued improvements and advances in solar power.

Chinatown Summer Nights: Francisca Valenzuela, The Americans and Zealyn

It was the last Chinatown Summer Nights of 2017. I've always done a hit and run at Chinatown Summer Nights. By that I mean I don't stick around for all the bands. I catch 3 or 4 bands and then leave. I suppose that isn't necessarily a hit and run as catching 3 or 4 bands is sticking around for around 4 hours. Anyways, forget the technicalities, the issue is that I always try to catch the bands that I believe I'll enjoy the most.

This time around, I knew I wanted to catch Zealyn so everything revolved around her. Taking a look at the line-up, I noticed that at 6 p.m. there was someone named Francisca Valenzuela. I took a look and I noticed that she had a large number of both Instagram and Facebook followers. I was like, why is she playing at Chinatown Summer Nights? I took a deeper look and saw that she is from Chile. Well, I used to love this music festival called Culture Collide, which brought musicians into Los Angeles from around the world. So I decided I just had to see her and see what a large number of Chileans loved about this artist. So yeah, I don't speak any Spanish what so ever and all her songs were in Spanish, but mercy me it was inspiring watching her on stage. For 30 minutes, I didn't realize that it was like 105 °F. And for 30 minutes, I did realize that I had a silly grin on my face that lasted well past the end of her set.

The Americans came up next for me. I first saw this band at Villains Tavern a few years back. I just remember that night heading out to this tavern that was on the outer edges of the Art District (or maybe it isn't even in the Art District) and thinking, "This out in the middle of no where tavern is showcasing this really awesome band." It was awesome to catch this band again with their Americana sound. And one of the best things in the music world is seeing a stand-up bass on stage, right?

Zealyn ended the night for me. I've said it before, but this woman has some power vocals. This was my fourth time seeing her. I love her vocals and I love her sound, but what I was keying on was catching a solid photo. I first saw her at Broke LA. I got some decent photos, but I had to take my ISO up to 8000, which isn't ideal. At other venues, I realized that shooting at shutter speed 320 was too slow for some of her moves. Well, at Chinatown Summer Nights I took the shutter speed up to 400 and guess what, still wasn't fast enough. Mercy. Anyways, not only does she have great vocals, but she also has a very friendly personality. She's going on a tour across the US. Folks should catch her tour.

Quick Hit Artist Interview: Shane McKenzie

Shane McKenzie at the Bootleg Theater

Q&A time with the artist. Hope you enjoy:

Thoughts about your Monday night set? Last night was an experiment in self sabotage... forcing people to tolerate their surroundings and not expect something better than what they are already experiencing. "great set"

Quick Hit Band Interview: The Tissues

The Tissues at the Bootleg Theater

Q&A time with the band. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Dark-art-dream-scream

What’s the favorite part of your set? When people dance!

Where can someone find The Tissues music? Bandcamp!

Quick Hit Band Interview: SPELLES

SPELLES at Echo Park Rising

Q&A time with the band. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? I would describe our sound as a little spooky, bluesy, and cinematic with tribal elements in the drums and background vocals.

What’s your favorite gig/set/tour story or memory? My favorite gig thus far was the show we played in July at the Hammer Museum. It was the biggest crowd we've played to and they were so warm and engaging. I also love the museum so it was an honor to play there.

Quick Hit Band Interview: Pair of Arrows

Pair of Arrows at The Satellite

Q&A time with the band. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Our sound is a little bit of dark wave, little bit of new wave but with a lot of modern day bass.

What motivates you to write your music? We all make music because we can’t not. I believe that when one has a persistent passion for something creative, things can go terribly wrong if they don’t pursue it wholeheartedly.

Quick Hit Artist Interview: Chris Price

Chris Price at Chinatown Summer Nights

Q&A time with artist. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Very hard for me to describe my sound, because it really is all the things I love and have internalized thrown in a blender and interpreted the way I see, hear and feel them. My stuff obviously owes a debt to the classic pop sound of the '60s British Invasion bands, the confessional singer-songwriters of the early '70s and the power pop world, but I am also deeply in love with Brazillian music of all kinds, Soul music, English folk and other things that can't be so easily classified. I would pretty much say that my music sounds like me, and the things I love.

Do you find greater enjoyment writing a great song or performing a great song? Why the choice? I think I prefer writing because the fulfillment I get upon completing a new song is really unlike any other feeling in the world. It's euphoria times a thousand.