Quick Hit Band Interview: El Mañana

El Mañana at Sunstock Solar Festival

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What is currently influencing your music? Currently, listening to a lot of tropicalia music from the late 60s, mainly Jorge Ben Jor and Caetano Veloso— so that’s been influencing many of the core rhythms in our music as we progress.

Do you have a favorite music-themed movie, tv show or book? I recently loved a documentary on the making of Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. That Brian Wilson came from such a pop background and was able to create something deeply artful and forward-thinking is immensely inspiring. Another fave would be Control, the film about Ian Curtis/Joy Division. I think I tend to resonate most with stories about artists whose music expressed some inner turmoil they couldn’t otherwise make sense of, though I’m aware there’s a danger there of perpetuating unhealthy stereotypes about how creatives should treat their mental health. I try to think of those stories as cautionary examples.

Quick Hit Band Interview: Karmic

Karmic at Sunstock Solar Festival

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

Is there a specific decision the band has made (good or bad) that it feels other bands/artists can learn from? We have really stuck to the idea that there is strength in numbers. We have a really great team around us of fellow musicians, managers, friends, supporters, and it's all about lifting each other up. Any business can get greedy, but this is the antithesis where we are all working together for a greater good.

Quick Hit Band Interview: Valley Hush

Valley Hush at Sunstock Solar Festival

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Our genre falls somewhere around indie pop. Our sound has a lot of subtle layers, and textures are super important to us. It’s very melodic, evocative, and dreamy music. We like to create sounds from samples of our world and to exaggerate the emotion behind the songs.

How would you like your music to impact people who listen to your music or see you play live? The biggest goal is for people to relate to the songs in a personal way. Lyrically, every song is a reflection of our own experiences but written in a way that you could also apply to your own life. The recordings are really polished so it gives people a chance to totally get lost in their headphones and daydream to them. When we play live it’s more about bringing the songs to life with a full band and a more raw energy.

Own final thoughts: It’s our one year anniversary of moving to LA from Detroit! Also, we just released an EP called “If It Matters” which is streaming everywhere.

Sunstock Solar Festival 2018

This year's Sunstock Solar Festival took on the vibe of a prior festival called Bloomfest that used to happen in the Arts District. Sunstock took over Gramercy Place, which is between the major streets of Hollywood and Franklin in Hollywood. The street had a stage on one end and then various food trucks, advocacy tables, vendors and art installations set up along the street corridor. There was even a children's tent. Though Gramercy might be a relatively unknown street in Los Angeles, there were plenty of ways to get to it via public transportation. I personally took the opportunity to jump on the 180 metro line to get to the festival. There was also a very chill environment surrounding the festival. There was no formal entrance. No one was checking bags. Though there were police and security, they mainly stayed at the two entrances and the beer garden. It really had a neighborhood feel to it, which is also what made Bloomfest so fun (even though in both Bloomfest and Sunstock cases, I did not live in the neighborhoods).

Karmic

You also know an event is a success when crowds refuse to allow the final band of the night to stop singing, Karmic. In fact, the crowd pushed Karmic to go 5 minutes pass the 10 p.m. cut-off time by demanding an encore. The crowd just ate up this duo's electronic pop beats.

Top Shelf Brass Band

Trapdoor Social

Top Shelf Brass Band perhaps stole the day with their brass band sounds. They had the crowd dancing and basically going nuts throughout their 30 minute set. Trapdoor Social, led by Sunstock Solar Festival founder Skylar, also got the crowd going with their anthem sounding rock-pop sounds.

Valley Hush

Valley Hush opened the festival with some chill vibes. One individual in the crowd told me that they are for sure the next indie band from Los Angeles to breakout.

Kinney

Kinney had a short set just before Karmic hit the stage. One has to give her the award for being the most supportive musician of the festival. She was out there dancing along to nearly all the bands.

El Mañana

The Epilogues

Other bands playing the festival were El Mañana, The Epilogues and Cayucas. The Epilogues were playing their first set after a couple years apart. Essentially, it was their reunion show. Cayucas brought some tropical sounds. Did I really see 3 synth/keyboards spread across the stage? El Mañana brought some Latin American inspired pop sounds.

Cayucas

Quick Hit Band Interview: Trapdoor Social

Trapdoor Social at Sunstock Solar Festival

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

How would you describe your sound? We like to say indie/alternative rock. Kinda like the baby of Radiohead and Death Cab for Cutie who then goes to school and hangs out with all of Tame Impala, White Lies, Macklemore and Muse's kids, and almost forgets where he came from.

Do you think you have a message or objective with your music? If so, what is it? We try to promote sustainability with our work. We think about the ways people might inadvertently cause suffering on a huge scale and see if we can't talk the world around us out of it. The environment is a big issue for us.

Do you have a favorite memory or any thoughts about the Sunstock Solar Festival? I really appreciate the people I meet at the end of the night who say "everyone I met here today are my kind of people - they care, and want to make a difference - this is my community". That's what we want to build.

Quick Hit Band Interview: The Soft White Sixties

The Soft White Sixties at the Sunstock Solar Festival

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

How would you describe your sound? We wouldn't, that's usually someone else's job.

What’s your favorite gig/set/tour story or memory? The first time we played the Fillmore (SF) opening for the Hives. Real top-notch affair.

Do you have a favorite memory or any thoughts about the Sunstock Solar Festival? Sustainability is a great thing to push and they had a comfortable hammock section. Thanks for having us!

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.

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.