Quick Hit Artist Interview: Sam Marine

Sam Marine at Highland Park Bowl

Interview with the artist. Enjoy:

What’s the story behind when you knew you wanted to be a musician? I knew I wanted to be a musician when I was about 9. I had already been fascinated with music on the radio and men and women singing and playing guitar on MTV, VH1, and all the records, tapes, cd’s music docs, and movies about musicians my music obsessed young parents had. My teenage neighbors played me the guitar solo intro to Dinosaur Jr’s song “Out There” when I was 9 or 10......after that I asked for a guitar, thought about guitars, drew guitars on paper (drum kits too) everyday till I had one.

Do you have a message or objective behind your music? If so, what is it? I don’t believe I have a direct or specific message behind my music. If I anything, I’d say I hope my music makes people feel like things can get tough but sooner or later everything is gonna be alright. Also, to look out for people, be generous when you can with your time, money, ideas, etc and treat people kindly.

Own final thoughts. I was born in Gainesville, FL. Yes, I’m a MASSIVE TOM PETTY fan. However, I grew up in Vero Beach, FL. It’s a little beach town in south east Florida. Oddly enough a lot of somewhat famous people come from there. Alison Mosshart of The Kills and Dead Weather is from there. Jake Owen (country singer) is from there. My very own brother plays drums for Phosphorescent (Nashville based band). Marty Fish (tennis player) is from there as well as a handful of other athletes, writers, musicians, visual artists etc. It’s a somewhat natural progression to end up in Gainesville where the music was if you’re from Vero Beach. So I moved back to my birthplace to play rock n roll the second I was old enough. I didn’t even wait to finish high school (I got my GED later). And oddly enough, once you’ve lived in Gainesville a while another natural “next step” for most of the musicians I knew was to move to BROOKLYN!!! So I did just that. I played music around NYC for nearly 9 years before I moved to LA 5 years ago. I love LA and here I’ll stay. Thanks again.

Quick Hit Band Interview: little DNGR

little DNGR at The Hi Hat

Interview with the band (via Lisa). Enjoy:

What's the story behind how your band started? We've been working behind the scenes as a songwriting/production team for other artists and tv/film for about 5 years, but the idea of being in a band together was always in the back of our minds. I have a background as a sound designer, keyboard player/performer with the Smashing Pumpkins and others and Joshua is a badass multi-instrumentalist with this powerful, Jeff Buckley-esque type voice. It's amazing to sing with him. We love writing together and both of us started out as artists so littleDNGR really feels like a natural next step for us.

Where is your favorite spot to write music? And why the spot? Josh and I love to write whenever and wherever we can. On a plane, in the car, at a crowded party. Wherever we find the inspiration, really. And sometimes it hits us when we're actually in our studio. Which is ideal. I guess we don't necessarily have a fav spot to write so much as we are each other's favorite person to write with.

Bootleg Theater: Polartropica with The Colour Coast and Holander

The colorful Polartropica residency continued at the Bootleg Theater. Lights were bright, which is unusual for the Bootleg Theater. Of course, it helped that Polartropica brought floor lights along with reflective panels that were on both sides of the stage. And the fashion of the musicians emphasized the colorful, as well.

The Colour Coast opened the night with their Latin dance music. Their music had their lead singer Marley dancing away. She did so much dancing that she tripped and stumbled at one point. She recovered quickly and replied, "That's the first time I've ever fallen on stage." Well, hey, there's a first for everything. It is always nice to catch this band's dance tunes. The band is always in action, which makes for some fun photography.

The Colour Coast

This was my first time seeing Holander. I was previously invited to catch her set a couple weeks earlier at the Moroccan Lounge, but had other plans that night. One has to love her energy on stage. Her 30 minutes were spend putting on a stage performance worthy of praise. And that pink stretch outfit of hers reflected the stage floor lights, turning her into a bright star.

Holander

Polartropica mixes in Asian sounds with Western pop. And kept the pink fashion going. There was an amusing moment in the set that came in the very first song. Ihui came up on stage with a trumpet. Now she was using it as a prop for the back-up sounds. Well, during the song she put the trumpet down. As the song was coming to an end, she picked it up just a split second too late. She was going to do a prop blast of the trumpet, but the back-up sounds beat her too it. You could tell from her facial expression that she was thinking, "I missed the beat." But hey, onward and upward.

Polartropica

Quick Hit Band Interview: BELLSAINT

BELLSAINT at The Hi Hat

Interview with the artist. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Alternative pop; Nancy Sinatra meets The Black Keys

Do you find greater enjoyment writing a great song or performing a great song? Why the choice? I find greater enjoyment performing a great song. It feels magical to connect with people and tell a story in that way. Writing a great song can be exciting too, but it's mostly hard work. A labor of love, but still labor.

Own final thoughts: before I started taking piano and voice lessons as a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut.

The Satellite: Badtooth, Deaf Dance, Ever So Android, GLAARE

This night was about the lights. Okay, that's just what I focused on for some reason. Badtooth played under red lights. Deaf Dance played under the bright greens and blues that The Satellite stage is known for. Ever So Android brought their own strobe lights, which made photography all about timing of the click. GLAARE attempted to use strobe lights, but they had mechanical issues and so asked for stage lights. As for GLAARE, their guitarist was having problems throughout the set due to the low lights. I could hear her begging for the stage lights, but her band mates couldn't hear her and so didn't inform the light guy to turn on the stage lights earlier in the set. At one point, she was down on her knees trying to figure out what buttons/pedals to push. I was feeling really bad for her.

Badtooth brought some shoegaze sounds. Dressed in black and under the red lights, they set up a gloomy atmosphere. Gloomy, but thrilling.

Badtooth

Deaf Dance had me thinking this one thought throughout the set: we have MacGyver (original) on guitars teaming up with a Goth Vampire playing keys and dancing on stage. I'm not going to lie, I found the dancing on stage weirdly robotic and fascinating.

Deaf Dance

This is my third time catching Ever So Android as a full band. Their punk sounds are fuller now, but that doesn't mean that lead singer Hope isn't still doing her onstage performances. One moment, she's doing a curtsy and the next she's pulling up her dress to flash her undergarments. It's like the ballerina that pops out of the music box going adult.

Ever So Android

Closing out the night was GLAARE. This was my first times seeing the band. Yet, some of the members of the band looked so familiar. Perhaps I've run across them in the scene. Hair flings and dark wave sounds drive this band. As mentioned above, they had to deal with some obstacles, but I'm more than wanting to catch this band again.

GLAARE

Redwood Bar: Vigil of War with Chump, The Great Sadness and The Dead Coats

I caught Vigil of War for the first time last year. I saw them twice in 2018, but the last time was way back in June. That meant over a year had gone by since I last saw the band. About a month ago, I ran into Alicia, lead singer, at The Satellite. She mentioned to me that she was playing the Redwood Bar. I looked up the date on the Redwood Bar's website and immediately entered it into my phone calendar.

This band brought their metal rock to the tiny Redwood Bar stage. I just love Alicia's vocals. At one point, those vocals snarl and at another you get a power vocal that ranks up there with the the best '80s metal bands' power ballads. My experience seeing them on the Sunset Strip is that this band loves to move, which was restricted by the small stage of the Redwood Bar. They did their best with their lead guitarist busting some knees on the wood stage.

The band has replaced one of their guitarists with another, Kiki Wong. I'm not sure when exactly this occurred, but obviously within the last year.

There were a number of photographers in the audience. All of us; however, were the old guard. I wonder when the young guard of photographers will discover this band.

Vigil of War

Opening the night was Chump. I caught perhaps half of their set. Their Instagram indicated that this was going to be their last set ever. If so, they killed it. Their bassist/lead singer sprawled himself across the floor, putting on some Dr Jekyll shifts to Mr Hyde like moves. Or maybe I should say he was going from Banner to The Hulk. What I did find interesting is how he played the bass for part of a song. He grabbed it by the neck and then tossed it in the air a few times, grabbing it by the neck again while making sure he shook those strings. 

Chump

The Great Sadness is a band I've come across a few times. They're a band that seems to play with many of the bands I follow. I've seen them do some art-type shows. Other times, I've seen them go with just some straight up desert psychedelic rock. On this specific night, they went with the desert psychedelic rock. As always, they had some devoted fans in the crowd. And I do believe they won some converts, as well.

The Great Sadness

The Dead Coats was closing out their west coast tour. This is a band from Austin, Texas. This band loved to tell the jokes and actually explain the idea behind each of their song titles. It was actually pretty cool. For example, they have a song called "Coke." They mentioned that every band has to have at least one song about cocaine even if they'd never used cocaine themselves. Yeah, as they mentioned, they were stand-up comedians. I couldn't help, but notice how excited their lead singer came across. There was a sparkle in her eye throughout the set. She was playing one of the smaller venues in Los Angeles, but she looked so thrilled by the fact she was playing the Redwood Bar.

The Dead Coats

Quick Hit Band Interview: The Gooms

The Gooms at The Satellite

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What are some things that are currently influencing your music? Our influences include, but are not limited to: Danny Elfman, No Doubt, our quaint rehearsal space, The Strokes, Bananagrams, Mendocino Farms, and laughter.

What’s your favorite The Gooms' song and what makes it the favorite? We can’t just choose our favorite child, but "Squeep Fleep" is the middle kid of our EP and could definitely use some attention. We love the song because it’s fun to play live. The verses bop, the chorus becomes a live sing along, and the bridge is a powerful and vocally commanding build. The whole song tells an intriguing story through a unique melody and we all remember smiling a lot when it was being written.

Own Q&A: Right now, our dream Q&A is to be asked to play The Troubadour, The Echo, a fun festival like Desert Daze, or SXSW, to which we would answer: yes!

July 2019: Chinatown Summer Nights

It was obvious. The Chinatown Summer Nights' crowd came to catch BIIANCO (Gabby of Smoke Season). I've follow Gabby since 2012. I have to say that BIIANCO is special and unique. There are still significant borrowing from Smoke Season. Her stage presence and synths are still there. During the set, she climbed atop and jumped off both the bass drum (unused for her set) and light truss. She switched off from the synth to electric drum set with ease. And her interpretive dance moves were evident. Those are all taken from Smoke Season. The difference is the sound. The soul sounds of Smoke Season are replaced by full on electronic dance. The sounds pop at just the right moment. The vocals are refined by years of singing. Those vocals soar at just the right moment and stay at those levels for just the right amount of time. I do believe this is her second set ever. The first was at School Night. The news of that set's success must have gotten out, because as the minutes ticked towards her set time, the crowd size grew and grew.

BIIANCO

Though I think BIIANCO stole the night that doesn't mean the line-up for Chinatown Summer Nights was just a BIIANCO night. Weslee is an import from London. The duo is now hanging out in Los Angeles. The RnB groves definitely caught the crowd's attention as the fence at the beer garden was lined with listeners. Okay, so nothing can separate folks from their beer, not even some music groves.

Weslee

Mmmonika was a surprise. They definitely had a fan base show up. A group of female fans bought blown up face photos of the various members of the bands. I think they were too shy to actually wave them around during the set though. The band is led by the breezy vocals of their lead singer, Ryan. With a 6 pm set time, it was some wonderful golden hour music.

What I noticed: the band did a group meeting on stage, run by Ryan. I couldn't hear everything that was discussed, but there were definitely pointers being given out about what they wanted to accomplish for specific songs. And in the end, I believe I heard, "Let's remember to have fun out there."

Mmmonika

I also happened to catch a couple bands that I've seen in the past. Beauty Queen opened up the day. I caught about half the set. Lead singer Katie cheerful personality is infectious.

Beauty Queen

SPELLES is a band I first came across at Echo Park Rising in 2017. I also caught a couple songs in late 2018. The band vocals are deep and rooted in Southern blues. The songs to me that really stood out were "Teach Me How To Pray" and "Down To The River."

SPELLES

I'm up on Buzzbands: Y La Bamba at The Echo

I'm up on Buzzbands.LA. I got to photo Y La Bamba, Rituals of Mine, and Vanessa Zamora. A lot of photos up on the site along with a write-up.

Y La Bamba at The Echo

Quick Hit Band Interview: Gustaf

Gustaf at The Echo (shot for BuzzbandsLA)

Interview with the band (with Lydia). Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Audio drag for ego slobs.

For the band and its future, how would you define success? Handheld sustainable euphoria.

Thanks for catching our set in LA! Such a fun night.

Quick Hit Artist Interview: Jake Wesley Rogers

Jake Wesley Rogers at School Night

Interview with the artist. Enjoy:

What's the story behind when you knew you wanted to be a singer? I grew up in a family that went to a lot of concerts. I have early memories of seeing people like Nellie Furtado and Britney Spears and wanting to be on stage!

What thrills you about performing live? Performing is my favorite part of the whole process. I just love the ability to be able to become one with my songs and hopefully put out some good energy into a room.

Final own thoughts: I have a single that came out February 22nd called “Jacob from the Bible.”

Madame Siam: Holy Wars with Christina Castle, Sam Fischer and Fever Joy

I'm not sure there are a lot of Los Angeles bands out there that can bring out the photographers like Holy Wars. I counted at least 10 photographers hanging out in the tiny space of Madame Siam.

This band will make you scream out your anguish and then turn that pain into, as the say in their own music, rebirth. It is those lyrics and sounds that connected not just with the photographers, but the packed out crowd in Madame Siam.

The moment of the set has to be when lead singer Kat climbed onto the shoulders of one of those photographers, Scott. Scott then took her on a walk through the floor of Madame Siam. I was later told that Scott had a big fear as he was carrying Kat around the floor. No, it wasn't that he was worried he might fall. He had left his camera on the stage and he was worried that someone might swipe it. It was a valid worry as over the years I've learned about many photographers that have had their cameras stolen. Of course, it also looked to me that the walk took a lot of energy out of Scott. He worked up as much sweat as Kat did.

As for me, I learned a few days prior to the night, that they were going to have a synth band member for the night. That person was Emily, who I call the bassist of choice for Los Angeles bands. I swear when I show up to catch a band, I'm never surprised when I see her on bass. So on the back half of the set, I pushed through the crowd, probably upsetting a number of individuals. I found my way to where Emily was playing and took a number of photos as proof that she was on synth. And well, she also played a couple songs on bass, as well.

Holy Wars

Opening the night was Sam Fischer. His backup singer was his wife of 1 month. They had that honeymoon glow. Of course, he couldn't remember how long they'd been married. His wife had to tell him their wedding was a month ago. I'm sure he was trying to figure out how many weeks back it was. His song "This City" is a wonderful combination of guitar play and vocals. Though the song, itself, has a bit of a dark tone as he soars through the lyrics, "The city is going to break my heart."

Sam Fischer

Christina Castle performed one quick set. It timed in at 15 minutes. This is my second time catching her. Both were at Madame Siam. Though I was disappointed with the short set, I was still thrilled to have caught those 15 minutes. She is one of those musicians that can switch genres from song to song and make it flow together. One moment, she's on the keyboard, giving you that perfect singer songwriter tune. Then the next, she's bouncing on stage, doing some rapid fire rapping.

Christina Castle

Fever Joy put on the most visual striking set of the night. Their lead singer, Avery, sported striking aqua dyed hair and a Batman-like black strip across her eyes. It just made her eyes stand out. Of course, that look works perfectly for one of their songs, "R.Y.W.B," where she belts out the lyrics, "behind your eyes." This band is more than willing to spread the wealth when it comes to the various talents of the band. Those vocals are pierce, but the band lets the heavy beats of the guitar and drums drive the music for extended periods with vocal silence.

Fever Joy

The night was a WFNM night. It was also the founder's, Gran Owens, birthday bash.

Club Tee Gee: Aging Actress holds court with MAWD, Anna Ash and Emma Cole

Aging Actress recently ended their three Sunday residency at Clue Tee Gee. The band is a collaboration between Lauren Ruth Ward and Chris Hess (SWIMM). Over those three weeks, they gave some crowd pleasing sets under the golden stage lights of the club. Chris had his mother show up for two shows while his father showed up for the final night. One night, he had to mention that he bought his shirt from Target. Lauren spent time hugging and chatting with her friends that came out to support the band. The music had a low-key style to it -- a duo singer-songwriter type music. Both took the vocal leads during the various songs. They were backed by different musical instruments throughout the nights. Keys one night. A second guitar on another. Saxophone throughout.

Aging Actress

Aging Actress

On the second residency night, MAWD opened up the night. She mentioned how painful it was for her when she fell ill and couldn't perform. She felt a sense of FOMO during that time. Yet, she reminded us that even though social media makes you feel like you're missing out, those posts are often just showing the best and not highlighting the dark times.

MAWD

On the final residency night, Anna Ash opened up the night. She mentioned how the criteria for romantic relationships change as one ages. Her music has a touch of twang that makes you want to dance. 

Anna Ash

Closing out that final residency night was Emma Cole. Lauren Ruth Ward let all know that Emma is one of her closest friends. As folks were milling around after the Aging Actress set, Emma set things up on stage and then went straight into her music. She didn't even do an introduction such as, "I'm Emma Cole and I'm here to sing some music for you." No, she went right at it. And her vocals soon got folks to shut down their conversations.

Emma Cole

Though this blog post is focused on the final 2 residency nights, I did attend all three nights. Club Tee Gee was packed for all three nights. And there were more than a few who attended all three nights. It was a residency not just for Aging Actress, but for a tight knit group of the Los Angeles music scene to come together.

Quick Hit Artist Interview: Disco Shrine

Disco Shrine at the Echoplex

Interview with the artist. Enjoy:

What is currently inspiring you? I really love Elohim right now. Not only is her music amazing and inspiring, but her whole message and everything she stands for is so positive. It's really refreshing to see some realness being served, especially by a badass female producer who is killing it!

You have a unique perspective on the LA music scene as you're the go to person for many (me included) when it comes to Broke LA. Can you share any interesting thoughts about the Los Angeles music scene? The industry has definitely been changing rapidly. I'll only mention the positive. I think in a lot of ways artists have a lot of power right now to take things into their own hands, which is really liberating. I also think genres are mixing; it's really cool to see people experiment with sounds and to hear those experimental sounds pop off and even play on the radio. Nostalgia is also back in a huge way with emo music and throwback vibes. I'm definitely here for it.

Back in August you had a premiere party for your music video "Up In The Air." Can you share the creative process behind making the video? Yes! I made it with director Andrew Butte. DP was Dakota Adney and the Editor was Minh Bui. The process really started when I reached out to Andrew with my song. Andrew is also a first generation Lebanese American so the message was really relatable to him too. We basically texted each other for a few weeks sending every idea we had and then set a date for me to fly up to SF, where he lives. And it really all just came together beautifully. We basically spent all weekend shooting morning until very late at night. It was so much fun and definitely worth the sleepless nights. Andrew is my go-to for everything. He also did my very first music video for Shy and the latest promo for Everyday.

There are always new bands/musicians starting out in the LA music scene. Do you have any words of wisdom to share? Don't let people discourage you. Not everyone is going to like what you're doing. All that matters is that you love what you're doing. Work hard, then work even harder.

Quick Hit Band Interview Nylon Smile

Nylon Smile at Bootleg Theater

Interview with the band (no known link). Enjoy:

What is currently influencing your music? I used to play in some very loud, noisey bands, and I've been really inspired to incorporate that kind of stuff back into Nylon Smile. Everything new I've been hearing is so pristine and I want to make something messed up sounding. Also just all of Bradford Cox's stuff, I love how outrageous he is. I read an interview where he called himself the closest thing to our David Bowie which is absolutely insane and I love it.

Is there a story behind one of your songs that you’d like to share? I don't write lyrics in a way where I pick a topic and then explore it, I usually write them more stream of conscious and build on phrases that I feel fit the mood of a song. I think “Younger” turned out really lyrically coherent, and for me, captures the very shitty feeling of falling out with someone but being constantly reminded of them.

Quick Hit Band Interview: Sarah Ault and the Super Natural

Sarah Ault and the Super Natural at the Echoplex

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? It’s a blend piano driven pop, with a deep love of 70’s folk and rock, complete with lush harmonies and feel-good grooves

How do you go about combining lyrics and sound? It changes song to song. Sometimes the lyrics and sound just write themselves together in my head, like listening to a radio station. And other times, I sit down with the band to work something out. This band is very different from my last project, in the way that it’s more uplifting and positive. So I find it challenging to keep more positive lyrics without sounding cheesy and contrived.